Let's be real, here.

Instead of ranting and raving about what happened in Journalism today, I'm just going to say this one...little...tiny...thing.

The administration is not Hitler. Nobody is trying to institute a totalitarian government within the walls of Timpview High School. And the new policies they are putting in place they are doing to try to help the school and prepare us for the real world -- not make us miserable or get a rise out of the student body. So let's all take a moment to be practical and think, you know, starting a revolution against the school is SOOO 8th grade ;)

Love,
Kaela :)

What I Learned From Justin Bieber's Music Video "Mistletoe"

You don't necessarily have to watch this, but if you do, all of my comments will make more sense.

1. The Biebs doesn't mind standing in the middle of the road, holding up traffic. Check out the white car behind him, right?
2. If you are a brunette, and you are sitting at a table all by yourself, The Biebs will come bring you hot chocolate.
3. Blondes are always the bad guy. Girl?
4. At 0:51 they trade drinks. Weird?
5. The Biebs prefers brunettes. (YES!)
6. As the boy is white, he will never pull off the term "shawty"
7. 1:32 check out the blonde's face. And then check out The Biebs' clearly annoyed expression
8. Oh wait, he isn't holding up traffic. He just stopped his car in the middle of traffic and got out to dance. It's okay, I do that too.
9. Obviously, the kid is loaded, because he just bought his lady a dress. For christmas. I want a snuggie for Christmas, not a dress. Just throwing that out there.
10. Question: Why was his lady in her pajamas, obviously waiting for Santa to come bring her presents, and then the Biebs shows up and all of a sudden she just hops into the dress he bought her and runs off with him to a random party on Christmas Eve? Do her parents realize she is running around smooching multi-millionaire teen pop sensations?
11. And finally, if you want to find The Biebs on Christmas, you'll find him under the mistletoe. Smooching a lady whose name is not Kaela Carter.

Merry Christmas to you too, you freaking hobo!! You'll never understand my true love for you!!! Just go break my heart with every dang music video you make. By the way, you're a horrible actor. Just stick to the vocals, bro. Love and hate, Kaela.

Asjhfljkdal;fhdf

Maybe some of you have witnessed this. Maybe, some of you have not.
You and I are having a normal human conversation. Somehow (likely this part is my fault) college is brought up. We start talking about applications, where to go, etc, and I end up freaking out, grabbing my head, and walking away mumbling "college COLLEGE cOLlegE caaaaaaaawwwwwwwwlllllleeeeeeeegggggggeeeeee"

Just in case any of you were wondering, this is the scene taking place in my brain when that usually happens.

And before you freak out, I'm not insinuating that BYU is an ax-murderer. You wanna see a real picture of an ax murderer?

That wasn't very funny. Moving on...

Bottom line, I'm freakin stressed! I have no idea where to go to college. And I'm excited out of my mind, but also terrified too. So naturally, my brain goes into hyperactivetheresakillerintheroomoverdrive and I usually end up walking away, leaving whoever I'm talking to confused and a little bit scared.

Anyways, I'm really excited to kind of get out there on my own and not live with my parents, but room mates, and make new friends, learn new things...yeah.

But on the other hand, what if I can never pick a major?? What if everybody thinks I'm immature and decides to hate me? What if everyone hates me because I can't pick a major? What if I change my major like 7 bazillion times?? What if a guy asks me to marry him??!?!? What if I can't find a job?? What if I run out of money?? What if there is a zombie apocalypse?!

On top of that, the speakers on my computer don't work. So now I can't watch the live Coldplay show that they were going to broadcast, and I can't make a new ringtone for my phone, either. Pretty much, I'm falling back into that discouraged "I can't do anything right" mode, which is not good, but freakin look at BYU's application!!

"List 5 of your greatest accomplishments."

1. Well....once I was number 7 in the world for a day on Doodle Jump. I count that as one of my greatest accomplishments. It's pretty valid, right? If I put that on my application, would that be a hinderance more of a help?
2. Once I competed in a tennis tournament and beat the 4th seed. Technically this doesn't say anything about my tennis skills, but I wasn't expecting that to happen and it was the most intense and rewarding match I've ever played, especially since that season I was just the extra. And then I broke my freakin knee. See "minor setbacks"
3. Once, I fought a shark. Okay, so I didn't fight it, but I thought about fighting it. Okay, so the truth is, the closest I've ever been to fighting a shark was that time I saw a dolphin in Mexico, about 300 yards away.
4. I wrote a controversial article for my school newspaper that got my teacher in minor amounts of trouble and prevented me from getting accepted into Student Government (see minor setbacks)
5. I got maybe 5 or 6 percent of my senior class to start calling our principal "Uncle Toddy." Maybe a little less than that. I don't really know for sure.

Are you guys kind of seeing why I'm freaking out here? I've got nothing. And pretty much all I've eaten in the past week is gummy bears and Chinese/Thai food and I want to go out and buy 10,000 sweaters. And, I've broken out the electric blanket. It's only a matter of time before I go clinically insane, and then I really won't go to college.

It's okay though, I'm just going to live alone for the rest of my life, with a freakin domino farm of dalmatians and golden retrievers and fat stupid beagles and maybe a pomeranian or two and some black labs!! And a domesticated fox if I can pull that off cuz they have freakin bushy tails and the cutest faces ever. And all of my dogs are going to be named something stupid, like zip code or post office.

Eh. I'm just going to stop this while I'm ahead.

I don't have time to write a blog post but I really really want to so I'm going to keep it short by making my entire post the title. Here is a picture of a domino.

I R Smart.

Sometimes, after I get home from a concert with lots of talented people, this is how I feel:

Yep. I feel pretty dumb.

Why Kaela's Life Pretty Much Equals Sydney Carton's

Okay. I'll make this one snappy.



Just imagine that this is me and Mr. Carton. I call him Syd. We're on a first name basis. Anyways, we discovered we have a lot in common. For example, (spoiler alert) we have both had massive internal organ severage.

Let's just say that's Madame DeFarge holding Syd's head and my still beating heart. And that's my head mounted on a stake. Because if I'm gonna die, I might as well go down in style.

There is Syd and his little seamstress. And then for all intensive purposes...

This is Fox Mulder embracing a giant carrot.

And, to make a long story short...

This is me getting my head chopped off by a guillotine.

And that is why Kaela's life pretty much equals Sydney Carton's.

The end.

Pik-chores

So the other day, my cousin Erika took a bunch of pictures of me and we called them my senior pictures. Because...that was the whole purpose of the picture taking...yeah.

It was a pretty crazy experience. Because...I'm not really used to people taking pictures of me. So, in most of the pictures...I think I was sneezing or yawning or looking awkward. We took I think almost 500 or 600 (!!!?!!?!) and then Erika used some serious skill and edited them down to 150. And I was like, okay, I'll just post them all on Facebook. Which I will eventually do. Someday. (We all clear on the whole I hate Facebook deal? Kay...)

So, I'm posting a few of my favorites on my blog. But, part of me is like, "yep, lets just post a bunch of pictures of YOU on YOUR blog because that's just the most HUMBLE thing to do." So, can we just both come to an understanding that I'm not doing this because I'm super conceited? Sweet.

There are some funny stories behind these too. I was going to post a story on each picture, but then that was taking too long. So if there is a story on one of the pictures...enjoy it. I think that's about it.

Enjoy!





 


So there is a story behind this one. Basically, I about died trying to get out of that barn. Because I had to jump over this rusty wire fence, and after that there was mud, and pretty much I knew if I jumped over the fence but landed in the mud, I would slip and be severely impaled. Luckily, that did not happen.



As for this one, you might think the whole "looking like I'm trying to stand up off of the car" was staged,
 but it actually wasn't. That car was about the same temperature as all of the suns in the universe combined.

Awkward moments with doors. There were about a million doors. And so our goal was to take a picture of me posing in the act of opening the door, while simultaneously not looking like a fool. Erika is smart though, so she figured out how to make it work in the end.



.

 

 

All I can say about this one is that it caused me severe pain. Sitting on that block of hay was a lot more pokey and uncomfortable than you would think.



I felt pretty awkward taking this picture. But mostly because the family who owned the house was watching our photoshoot and so I was just like "yeeeahhhh!!! I'm totally driving your bus!!! Not really!!!" and I'm pretty sure their grandkids wanted to play on the bus and yeah. It was kind of awkward.



All of these scrabble letter senior ones I'm probably going to use for my graduation announcement, except obviously I have to pick just one. So input would be great here.



 

If I ever run for president...this will be the picture I send out to everyone.

 

Story time! When we were taking the picture, I totally fell down the well. We had to get the family, and call the fire department, and then fish me out. It was scary and I almost died.
Just kidding. That isn't a real well. Or a real story. Ha. Scared you, didn't I?

 





Just a note about those last 3 pictures. I was staring directly into the sun while we were trying to take those shots, until Erika found a shader which pretty much prevented me from going blind. Seriously, trying to take those pictures at first was a hard task, to put it lightly. But, I am not blind. This is a good thing.



Now that I think of it, maybe I'll send out that one for my graduation announcement.

Soooooooooooooo yeah. I hope you enjoyed those. Eventually, I'll put the rest up on Facebook. Maybe.

And also, all photo credit goes to Erika Peterson. She is fantastic. And if you want her to do your senior pictures...just talk to me. Yep.

Love,

Kaela

Conference Weekend: Partyin, partyin, YEAH!

I am in love. I am totally and completely in love and nothing anyone says will ever make me feel otherwise.

I am totally in love with this dang church I am proud to be a member of. Seriously! Conference this year was SO good!!!

This year I was determined to listen to every single session of conference and take notes too. That in and of itself made the experience noticeably better - just taking notes. I had 3 questions in mind and all of them were answered over and over in many different ways.

And, even questions that I was too afraid to actually ask, but questions I've just had about life - those were answered too.

The first session on Saturday was arguably the best, at least for me. And here is why:

As some of you may know, I was pretty affected by the tabernacle burning down. Everyone was sad, but for me it felt like somebody had died. I don't know why, but for the first week every time somebody mentioned it, I would tear up. And then in the months afterwards even when I drove past it I would get sad. I was even afraid to do the promenade because I would be directly facing the burnt remains of the tabernacle, and I was certain that I would probably burst into tears. Dumb, but that's just how it was.

So... :) ... you can imagine my reaction when President Monson (who is officially my favorite person ever) announced that they were going to rebuild the tabernacle into Provo's second temple.

A temple!! What a blessing!! I have never before cried during conference, but as soon as he announced that I burst into tears. Everyone in my family did. There was nothing more perfect that they could have done with the tabernacle. I...am so excited. And, now I totally know where I want to get married. Like, for sure. I will not get married until that temple (calling it a temple is so exciting! :D) is finished.

So, a note to my future husband: I love you, and I respect your opinion, but we are getting married in the Provo Tabernacle Temple. No matter what. So...deal with it.

If you really think about it, is there any more perfect way for that to have happened? A couple analogies I talked about with my dad were these: First, the tabernacle burns down. In other words, it experiences a temporal death. But then, it is resurrected into a celestial being. Just like what will happen to us, as long as we are faithful.

The other analogy is that, in our own lives, we will experience painful things like getting burned down to the ground. Or, a better way to say that is a "refiners fire." We'll experience trials and hardships that will leave us feeling, perhaps, like an empty shell. But then we can take those experiences and turn into something beautiful and wonderful like a temple.

But really, I seriously can't even begin to describe how excited I am about it. I was floating on cloud 9 for the rest of the session. And Elder Uchtdorf's talk at the end just sealed the deal. I was crying during that one too. I don't even know why. But it just gave me so much reassurance about my life. It's okay if I am not perfect. And it's okay if I'm not as smart as or as pretty as or as talented as everyone else. "You matter to Him."  :D What a great experience it was to listen to that talk.

Unfortunately, I had to go to work right after his talk ended. In fact, I was late to work, but I didn't even care. I was still so happy about everything that I had heard. Except my shift ended at 5:30, and the second session was between 2 and 4. I was determined not to miss it, no matter what.

I endured work, and then at 1:59 my co-worker and I were frantic. Nobody else seemed to care, but both of us were desperate to watch conference. We ran back and pled with our boss to let us watch conference on our computers. She agreed, but only if the other 4 people working with us were okay with it.

So we ran out, and asked if they were okay with us watching it, just in the corner, with the volume turned down so that only we could hear it. Everyone was okay with it...except for one girl. She told us that she hated conference, and would be offended if we tried to watch it. She didn't stop there though. The rest of the time, she proceeded to tell us how stupid mormons are.

After being on a spiritual high, I was determined not to let that get to me. So I just read previous conference talks whenever it got slow, and ignored the deragatory conversations that were going on. But dang it all, I was determined to watch and take notes on EVERY session!! So my co-worker and I knew that as soon as this girl left, we would be able to watch conference. So I kept the live streaming internet broadcast up on my computer, muted, and watched in agony as each speaker shared special messages that I was forbidden from hearing. And I waited for something to happen, or change. For a subtitles button to magically appear. Anything. I wasn't trying to blow things out of proportion, but I was still so affected by the first session, it was killing me to think of what I was missing in the second session.

Eventually, my friend and I convinced the girl to leave early, and then we were able to catch the last hour. Then, thanks to technology, we were able to rewind it and watch most of the first hour. And I even took notes on reciept paper. The second session was really good too. I loved Elder Christofferson's talk. We were right in the middle of it when the phone rang, and we had to pause it. And it was like waking up, almost. The spirit was pretty strong with just the two of us in the office, watching all of the conference talks.

So eventually, when I got home from work and had eaten dinner and all of that good stuff, my dad left for the priesthood session. Which left my mom and I free to do whatever for 2 hours. We decided to go car shopping, just for kicks. Which basically meant go to the Nissan dealership and drool over the cars that I have yet to be able to afford. So, that was pretty fun. I learned that the Nissan LEAF will be available in the spring, but in the meantime I should probably just buy a cute little Versa.

The next day, Sunday, conference wasn't any different than it had been in the past for me. I was still taking notes, but nothing super intense happened like on Saturday. I just crocheted a hat, and ate a bunch of ice cream. Like I usually do. It was still great though, and I was super sad when it ended.

But seriously, this has been probably my best conference experience ever. So many of  my questions were answered and I'm so determined to become a better person now.

And yeah...my favorite part was really the tabernacle/temple news. Seriously, I looked back over my life and I couldn't think of a moment where I was happier. There are a few that have come close, but seriously, I can't get over it. What a blessing.

So...I hope you all had a great conference experience too :)

Love,
Kaela :)