The Journey Within

Exciting holiday break

2010-01-04T17:31:00.003-06:00

I got engaged!!!

Lucas and i have been dating for 4+ years and were friends for 2 years before that. . so it wasn't totally unexpected but was a wonderful suprise!!

Here is the full story that i posted on facebook.

So Lucas broke his ankle (specifically his talus) about 4 weeks ago . 3 weeks before my family's trip to Jackon Hole Wyoming. Unknown to me he had already purchased the engagement ring and had asked my parents for permission the night before breaking his ankle. His original plan was to propose on the mountain at Jackson Hole by making it look like he totally wiped out on the hill so I would come and check that he was ok.

Well plans had changed obviously since he couldn't snowboard on a broken ankle. He decided to come with on the trip anyway and figure out a way to make it work. So he bought a "scenic tour" ticket so that he could take the tram to the top of the mountain . . of course my whole family (minus Andy who is oblivious to everything) is in on the plan.

So the crew meets up with Lucas (with his bundled up leg in a cast) and we make our way to the tram to take a "family picture" afterwhich Lucas decides that he MUST crutch his way over to the snow. Distracting me by pointing to a random sign at the top of the hill he was able to get a small box out of his pocket without me noticing. He kinda falls over as his crutch sinks into the snow and asks me to come closer so i can help him. He then gave me this little pirate chest with my GORGEOUS ring inside to which i replied "whats this . . and Seriously?!!" when i looked down he had tears in his eyes (yes i'm spoiling his big tough man image) and asked me to marry him . . i answered "of course" and there was some hugging and kissing and random yelling from my family (my dad: "let him down easy Kate") who had been watching and taking pictures the whole time.

So yeah, thats the story . .date is undecided at this moment but it will be sometime after my graduation in April 2011.

Some pictures:
The actual proposal

Later that night when my mom went picture crazy

Later that night when my mom went picture crazy

what does a vet student learn?

2008-12-12T19:53:00.002-06:00

Just a little taste of my educational experiance while I'm studying for finals.

What is canine distemper?

In vet jargon:
Canine distemper is a morbillovirus affecting canids, felids, mustelids, procyonids ursids and viverridids. It is pantropic and has a particular affinty for lympoid and epithelial tissues. It is spread by aersol and spread through macrophages. It gains entry into the CNS when leukocytes from perivascular cuffs. Gross lesions are in the cerebellum and cerebellar peduncle. Histologically you'll see inclussion bodys especailly in astrocytes.

In normal (translated) form:
Canine distemper is a virus affecting dogs, cats, weasels, racoons, bears and civits. It is spread through the air and carried on immune cells to the blood vessles near the brain. If you look at an actual brain you will see weird looking sections, and you'll see some junk in the cells when you look at it under a microscope.

There you go! don't you feel smart! :)

um yeah

2008-12-05T22:38:00.002-06:00

I apologize in advance for the pessimistic view of this next post, please keep in mind that it is getting close ot finals and I am preparing to take 5 exams in the next 11 days.

First question: Do I like vet school?
Answer: no, i don't. I like the fact that it is the path to what I want and like to do, and i like learning new things. What makes me not like school is the extreme frustration that goes along with it. The studying for literally days, getting excited to finally do "good" on a test, and then the dissapointment at finding out that you got many questions wrong because of little minute details not the main points that we should be taking away from the course. I wish they would just ask about the basics and make sure that we acutally understand the material, and save the confusing/complicated/hidden detail stuff for clinics and the actual cases that require it. If they would just let us think for a second that we actually learned something, instead of knocking us down each test, I think we would more interested in class and maybe even remember that we like the topics and learning. But instead we are convinced at each testing that we do not know anything, and the stuff we thought was important doesn't matter if you missed that one word/phrase ect.

OK, pity party over

Goodbye little car

2008-10-25T22:05:00.004-05:00

My car is dying It started with a low coolent light last week, and this week I found out that the head gasket needs to be replaced. Since repairing that would cost the same as the car is worth (1500-2000), I don't think dad is planning on fixing it. Especially since the head gasket was replaced just 2 years ago.
I don't know when or how I'm getting another car, with me being 6 hours away from my parents and its harvest time on the farm so no one has time to drive down a car for me in the meantime, or any way to get my car back home (even if dad is planning on repair it himself).

* disclaimer, picture stolen off the internet, actual car is much more beat up and comes complete with a dog hair covered blanket in the back.

Poor little car, I remember getting you and how excited I was to have a bright red car, even if it didn't have any radio. You had wonderful leather seats that were burning hot in summer, icy cold in winter, but stood up to the dog nails in the back seat. We've had some great adventures throughout undergrad and grad school, you've gotten me through some really scary blizzards and thunderstorms. Gracie has taken many a nap on our many a roadtrip, and i've packed you to the max while moving multiple times. I've loved driving you, even though your odometer didn't work, you refused to start after installing your autostart, your gas gauge was way off, and you got me pulled over twice before I figured out that the odometer was off as well. Or my favoritie: when the turning signals decided to stop working randomly causing me to hold the lever at odd angles to get it to blink.

Don't worry little car, I won't forget you, and you'll stay nice and warm in my garage until we figure out what the next step is.

ah school

2008-10-21T21:21:00.002-05:00

um yeah busy

I currently have: Bacteriology, parasitology, pharmacology, pathology, prof skills, clin skills, and Repo. Most aren't bad, but the 1st 3 classes in the list consist of memorizing (i mean learning) about 50-100 new names and then describing the diseases they cause/cure, what species they are in/used in, what can treat those conditions, what not to use, ect. ect.

And the best part--> its only going to get more crazy!! next semester is rumored to be the worst of vet school, i guess we'll see.

I have made time to have some fun:

i've been catching up with old friends, working with dog training group, an officer of Canine club, and jsut in general not freaking out too much over the semester.

Anyway some pictures: all from a night at training group

Piper

2008-09-14T10:57:00.003-05:00

For Mom: here is a pic of erins new dog Piper.

My summer

2008-09-07T18:03:00.005-05:00

So I'm spending the first weekend of this school year, not doing any homework! :) I figure if I can get away with it, to enjoy it before school hits hard again.

So this summer was quite an adventure. I moved in with Lucas in Detroit Lakes and worked at the Hawley vet clinic all summer. It was a great summer! We had every weekend off, so we had plenty of time for fun. I got to go horseback riding this summer again, we went to country fest in walker, went to the hunting cabin with my dad, and worked on getting the Tae Kwon Do gym all spiffed up.

We also got a tortoise, “Kame”, that we adopted from a family that wasn’t taking the greatest care of her.

The clinic I worked at was great also! It’s a fairly new clinic and it was a great learning experience watching and being involved in the decisions that are made in running a clinic. Sarah, the vet was great at getting me involved and teaching me about why/how she made the decisions she did. I learned a lot, and got to have some great hands on experiance! ( i think we had pyos this summer!) I'll probably be going back next summer to work for them again. Here's a picture of the two of them down in New Orleans.

I also went to New Orleans for the annual AVMA (american veterinary medical association) convention in July. I had been there back in 2001 for a band trip, so it was interesting to go back and explore it as more of an adult. Not much had changed because the area we were in hadn’t really been hit by the hurricanes. I loaded up on stuff at the convention. The vendors definitely knew that free stuff is the key to a poor vet student’s heart! That was my big adventure of the summer. I was glad to come back to Minnesota though, Louisiana is a tad too warm for me. :)

I'm back at school, only 22 credits this semesster, so I'm hoping that I can enjoy a fairly laid back semester before the 2 "worst" semesters start. I just keep looking at the end result, because as I do enjoy learning this stuff, the stress that comes with it gets to me at times.

Luckily this year, I not only have Gracie my wonder-mutt, but I also have Tommie, my cat that I’ve had since I was in 4th grade. She’s up there in years, so I figured she deserved a nice retirement from farm life. She’s doing great so far, definitely enjoying being a pampered house cat.
>

back to the books

2008-09-04T21:57:00.005-05:00

Summer's over, but fun was had!

Moved in! I'll post more this weekend. But I'm back in school and can't sit still in class since I'm used to moving and not sitting all day long. I'll adapt I suppose. :S

what have i been up to

2008-04-29T20:57:00.002-05:00

Not a whole lot. Once in a while i get a break from the 2-3 test weeks and can relax a bit. Usually i take gracie for a walk or just watch tv or a movie.

Lately: i went home during an icky snowstorm to visit the fam and to have a job interview in hawley. The interview went really well, newly started clinic that treats small animals and horses. I have the job if we can get the OK from Lucas's landlord for gracie and I to stay there. I'm excited for the summer to start and for me to feel like i have some control over how i spend my time. I think thats the most frustrating part of school is that i don't feel like i have free time, it should all be deticated to studying. At least this summer i'll be earning money again, and when i'm not at work i can do what i want.

Lucas just got a new building for his TKD classes which is pretty exciting! He also got a new job, so things are looking up! This summer could be really fun to work on getting the building all finished and spiffed up. Plus at my job I will have every weekend off, so i can actually visit people!!!!!!

SO yeah, otherwise my life is pretty boring. School then study then sleep, repeat every 24 hours. Tonight I learned some dog massage techniques through a club on campus. TOmorrow is dog training night that I lead, and we'll be working on agility, and Thurs gracie is going to go and get some free vaccines. :)

spring break

2008-03-18T16:57:00.001-05:00

Just pics for now. story when i have some free time (when does that ever happen?)

Ah life

2008-01-29T19:00:00.000-06:00

Whats going on at this moment?

Well I'm kinda stuck between two moods. I'm either really restless and wanting to get away, get out, travel, help someone and actually DO something with my time. I need adventure and haven't had any in a while!
My second mood is that I would love to disappear from the world and spend the rest of the winter under a bunch of blankets watching movies every day.

So instead, i get up and go to school, come home and study, and go to bed. Just enough money to make it through the semester, I can't afford any adventures, and I've spent too much money on tuition to disappear from the world.

School is going ok. I've had two major tests so far, more coming up. Today's special was Neurobiology. For some reason it was really giveing me trouble. The best way I can explain it is: The information is the ABC's and I know the ABC's in order/backwards/out of order, however the test is a spelling test. Its not enough to know the letters if you can't make sense out of the words. Frustrating, but thankfully its over.

Alison and I are hoping that the roof stays up at the house here. Alina is getting a new roof in the spring, but there are a few leaks and the roof keeps cracking above our head. We're a little worried that we'll come home and find a new skylight or something.

Anyway here are some pics from the weekend. Lucas tested for 4th Degree black belt and passed. He can test his own students up to black belt, and gets to host a tournament in June!! He had tremendous support from collegues, friends and family!

Single Most Annoying Thing

2008-01-08T21:40:00.000-06:00

Having classes on paper and online. I could deal if they were only online, or only gave us the notes, but having both and having assignments both ways really messes with your head after a while.

That and it just took me 30 min to print the syllabus for one of my classes.--> Open website, log in, click on class, click on syllabus, loads, open document, sent me back to the website, log in, click on class, click on syllabus, "unable to load", close window, open new window, log in, click on class, click on syllabus, loads, open document, document opens, print.

GRR!

Back again

2008-01-08T21:28:00.000-06:00

So I am back at school. It doesn’t really seem like I ever left, but oh well. I’m taking 26 credits this semester, so I’ll be a little busy. I’m taking Professional Skills II, Organology, Vet Neurobiology, Vet Physiology, Gen Vet Pharmacology, Host Defenses, Virology, Applied Vet Genetics, Basic Pathology, Clinical Skills II, and Behavior Core.

Here are some pics from snowboarding at Lutsen

random pictures

2007-12-02T20:08:00.001-06:00

Random thoughts of the week . .

2007-11-29T19:54:00.000-06:00

Things that make me smile
1) having both dogs jump and bark at the crazy kid in our class but no one else that walks in and out
2)After friday I will go a whole 1 1/2 weeks without a test
3)dog park party on sunday
4)random visits from friends!

Things that don't make me smile
1) scrubbing mold off of horse heads, front legs, rear legs, genital system ect.
2) test tomorrow
3) smell of anatomy lab

School continues

2007-11-11T18:01:00.000-06:00

I got word that people actually check this. In other words: Hi Grandma P! Hi Aunt Mary! :)

Since people actually check it, i'll post some more pics for some excitement. (some are from lab and may be gross jsut fyi)

Here is a quick introduction to my life at the moment:
A Day in the life of a vet student

1) Get up at 6 am, shower, eat, walk Gracie, get in car and drive to school, walk from free on-street parking to campus.

2) 7:45 am Get in building and go to study carrel. Here is a pic of my carrel-mate Adrienne.

3) 8am Sit in room 125 for the next 4-6 hours, eat lunch in the same room because some drug rep is giving you free lunch (vet students are easily bribed by food)

4)2:30 pm Back to study carrel to dress for lab.

5) 2:35 pm Down to anatomy lab for 3-4 hours. Cut apart dead animals and study muscles, nerves, veins and arteries. Bonus point: actual human interaction with lab group members.

L to R: Jessie, Danielle, Andrew and Bridget. Friends and lab group members.

Here is Jessie waving underneath Elsie the cow. She sits near me in class and is one of my lab group members.

6) 5:30 pm Go home and study for 6 hours. 2nd bonus point: study group!! We do study group at my house because i have a killer whiteboard. We all sit in the hall while one person draws or quizes us on the board. Gracie decided to join us last time.

7) 12:00 am Call Boyfriend, go to bed and repeat in 5 hours.

So yup, thats my life at the moment.

school continues

2007-10-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry its been so long. I don't know who actually reads this, but i feel bad when i don't update it. :)

Anyway,life is going good. Not a whole lot happens on a daily basis besides school. Lucas got a little bearded dragon named "ollie". He is pretty cool, but his nickname is "fatty" and he eats a lot of crickets (which surprizingly aren't that cheap)

School is a lot more intense than i had expected. Nothing i can't handle, but it is definately an adjustment after not really taking school seriously for a 1 1/2 years. A normal day is about 5-6 hours of class with a 3 hour lab. Once in a while i end up spending 14+ hours in the same building just because of how classes and study groups fall.

I know pretty much everyone in classes, maybe not by name, but i've probably had a conversation or two (90 people in my class). Made some closer friends but we're all still trying to get a feel of whats going on.

I went home last week. It was weird. Felt like a different world. While i'm down here everything is vet related, classes, pets ect. It felt like i had nothing to report on at home. Definately doesn't feel like home quite yet here, more like i'm on a mission and eventually i'll get to leave. i kinda feel cut off from the real world and my people.

Its not all bad. I do have a good group of friends here, and there is a lot of laughter during the week, just doesn't quite feel like my life.

Here are some pics of Gracie while we were on a walk,little ollie (he is about twice that size now) and also the much anticipated Cow exam picture.

A month later

2007-08-31T21:02:00.001-05:00

So i get lazy and forget to update this.
Basicially i'm in the cities, all settled in, and spent the last 3 days at orientation for class.

here are some pics of my new house.

I found this and thought it was cute!

2007-07-31T10:08:00.000-05:00

THE POSTAL SERVICE NO ONE HEARS ABOUT

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her.

She dictated and I wrote:

Dear God,

Will you please take special care of our dog, Abbey? She died yesterday and is in heaven. We miss her very much. We are happy that you let us have her as our dog even though she got sick.

I hope that you will play with her. She liked to play with balls and swim before she got sick.

I am sending some pictures of her so that when you see her in heaven you will know she is our special dog. But I really do miss her.

Love,

Meredith Claire

We put that in an envelope with two pictures of Abbey, and addressed it to God in Heaven. We put our return address on it.

Then Meredith stuck some stamps on the front (because, as she said, it may take lots of stamps to get a letter all the way to heaven), and that afternoon I let her drop it into the letter box at the post office.

For a few days, she would ask if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch.

Curious, I went to look at it. It had a gold star card on the front and said "To Meredith" in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith took it in and opened it.

Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers, "When a Pet Dies". Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God, in its opened envelope. On the opposite page, one of the pictures of Abbey was taped under the words "For Meredith".

We turned to the back cover, and there was the other picture of Abbey, and this handwritten note on pink paper:

"Dear Meredith,

I know that you will be happy to know that Abbey arrived safely and soundly in Heaven! Having the pictures you sent to me was such a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.

You know, Meredith, she isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me--just like she stays in your heart--young and running and playing. Abbey loved being your dog, you know.

Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets, so I can't keep your beautiful letter. I am sending it to you with the pictures so that you will have this book to keep and remember Abbey.
One of my angels is taking care of this for me. I hope the little book helps.

Thank you for the beautiful letter. Thank your mother for sending it. What a wonderful mother you have! I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I am in heaven, but wherever there is love I am there also.

Love,
God

being a bum . . .

2007-07-25T21:28:00.000-05:00

is not as fun as it sounds. I would probably call in and see if they needed anyone at work if i had brought any of my scrubs with me. It was great doing nothing for a few days, then having some fun with lucas this weekend visiting friends and such. But now there is nothing for me really to do and everything i want to do will cost money that i don't have.

so i'm in a crabby mood right now and thats about it.

From the geo-house to the timber shack

2007-07-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

Only 3 days left in B-town. I'm house sitting north or town at another log cabin. After saturday, I have no clue when I will be where. I'm probably running home 1st to unpack a bit.

Dogs and chickens

2007-06-15T10:18:00.000-05:00

I'm at my housesitting job now. Its a great house with Air-conditioning (also known as Geo-Cool as it is the Geo house) :)

They have 1 rooster and 4 chickens one of which will bite! ALso included are Betsy and Buddy the resident dogs. Buddy is a little unhinged in the head, but they seem to be adjusting to gracie ok.

Also a pic of Lucas Beth and me from Jodi and Kevin's wedding (which was gorgeous!)

n

homeless?

2007-05-30T09:46:00.001-05:00

So all my stuff in in st.paul, the rest in my car and I'm staying with the Holzhueters for now.
I'm the type of person who really doesn't like being in limbo, but hopefully the summer will go off without too many problems.

that being said, the best way to reach me is my cell.

toodles for now, until the next time i get a decent internet connection.

Pretty much the sweetest deal ever

2007-05-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

So i'll be house sitting from June 8th-July 10th and july 10th-July 14th. Pretty much teh sweetest deal ever!
Me: i need a place to stay
People with houses: we need a house sitter, we'll pay you to stay here!
Me: Heck yeah!

So i'll be in b-town for at least the next 2 months. I'll be working pretty much all the time hopefully making a lot of money. Then: complete freedom for 1 month before another 4 years of school.

Congrats to my honey! He'll be graduating this friday and as of June 3rd he will be the head instructor of the Detroit Lakes Tae Kwon Do school. Its a great opportunity for him and he'll be able to do what he loves!

Pictures

2007-05-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

I took these pictures for photo class but I really like them. I kinda want to do some sort of photo project this summer when i'm not working. I'm thinking of taking some pictures during grain harvest. I know we have some pictures from other years, but I think it would be kinda fun to capture a bit of the normal farm going-ons, kinda freezing time type of thing.

Anyway, my housesitting job is looking up. It sounds like they will need someone for most of june and into july, which is exactly what I was looking for. I think I'll really like it there this summer. Its about 15 min out of town, large yard with chickens and dogs, no cable/internet though, so I think I'll be doing a lot of reading this summer. :)

Killing some time

2007-05-02T11:34:00.000-05:00

You Are An ESFJ

The Caregiver

You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first.
A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change.
You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project.
You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people.

You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher.

What's Your Personality Type?

You Are: 60% Dog, 40% Cat

You are a nice blend of cat and dog.
You're playful but not too needy. And you're friendly but careful.
And while you have your moody moments, you're too happy to stay upset for long.

Are You More Cat or Dog?

Thoughts

2007-04-30T19:22:00.000-05:00

In a month I will be "homeless" again. Not quite at home with my parents, no place to call my own in b-town, not quite ready to make the transition down to the cities. For now I'm trying not to think about it too much, and just enjoy the time I have left in B-town.

I have truely felt at home here the last 5 years, I will miss it. There has definately been the ups and downs, but I've never felt like I didn't belong here.

Here are some pics from the last 5 years. :(

Fun stuff from the film fest.

2007-04-30T13:08:00.000-05:00

Here are some great videos to watch. The majority of the guys in the first 2 videos have either lived right next to me, or live in my old house.

These guys do great videos!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q5oQZd_BnQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq4n8BD6meo

Randomness

2007-04-25T21:37:00.000-05:00

Last year at this time, I was starting my continental tour of Europe. I was looking at some of the pictures and decided to post some. Its weird how you could have such "ordinary" days in such unordinary places.

Thoughts

2007-04-18T21:44:00.000-05:00

Charity and I were just discussing how we miss being able to snuggle with blankets in the summer. Many times it just gets too warm to use any blankets, much less being totally immersed with blankets. I came to the realization that being sad about not being cold for 4 months must be the trait of only a true minnesotan.

Also, Bravo to BSU for the Imovie film festival. Andi did a wonderful job with the red carpet theme. I love how it all seemed like one big party on campus (and didn't have to have alcohol!) The movies were great, the anouncer fabulous (yay for billy), and everyone seemed to just have a great time!!! Check it out along with last years winners.

http://www.beaverfilmfest.org/

Pictures

2007-04-15T19:03:00.000-05:00

Como park, Nolan Blair, and my new place

yup

2007-04-15T11:44:00.000-05:00

The Top Ten Reasons To Become a Veterinarian:

10. To gain decorative scars about the hands, arms, and face
9. So I can get paid half as much as an M.D. for twice the work
8. Because you can muzzle vicious animals, but people... it's kind of frowned upon...
7. I thought I was in law school
6. Because formaldehyde makes me feel sexy
5. Because its a zoo out there
4. For the tremendous cultural respect showered upon vets
3. Because I can express anal glands better than I can express my feelings
2. Because I like 8 day weeks
1. I want to hear "Why didn't you become a REAL doctor" for the rest of my life

update just because

2007-04-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

Yeah so not a whole lot has happened this week. Work, school, ect.
Lucas and I went to my parents for easter, had a good time, craziness with family is always good.
This weekend, we're taking off for the cities to check out a house I might move into. This summer could get interesting as my lease here expires end of may, and I don't really want to move to the cities until at least early august, so . . . couch crashing may become my new past time.

Things that are irritating me this week:
*People who expect others to help them, but never say thanks or return the favor.
*The not-quite-spring-still- cold-and-snowing-even-though-its-april weather we're having.
*People who think that no one could ever possibly be as busy as them.
*Stupid people (i think that is pretty much constant).

Things that make me happy this week:
*Lucas . . deals with my grumpy-ness and makes me laugh.
*My puppy, all clean and clean smelling after her bath.
*The birds are back and singing even though it doesn't feel like spring outside.
*I haven't had any major bites/scratches/bruises from work in the past week.

Yup thats it, time to eat the supper my honey brought for me.

Nicole had her baby!

2007-04-03T17:55:00.000-05:00

Nolan Thomas was born 5 pounds 5 oz, 19.25 inches long, 12 inch head. Born April 1st at 11:51 pm, sun night.

He's a little early, but doing really good. Had some breathing problems at first, but is off of all "helpers" and doing great!

She had been in labor since the monday before. Haveing been checked out and told that it was false labor, she continued to go about her buisness. Checking in sunday night, she found out she was already 7 cm along!!

Here are some pictures of the little bugger, Sounds like he'll be going home on saturday.

New roomates?

2007-04-02T18:20:00.000-05:00

House 12 minute drive from campus. 2 girls, both vet students. Ok with dog, and birds. Fairly cheap rent (400) 1/2 acre yard, nice house across the street from a lake hmm. .. . maybe moving won't be as bad as i thought?

SPRINGTIME!!!

2007-03-21T20:50:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite time of year. Many people don't like it because it so soggy, muddy and rainy out. I love it. The misty air, the smell of the ground unthawing, the return of warm sunshine, cool mornings and warm afternoons.

I remember playing in puddles in the back yard, attempting to fish from the standing water in our back yard (there is no fish in puddles by the way), and just going out and getting generally muddy.

Today just made me very happy by being a wonderful first day of spring.

Nicole's Baby Shower

2007-03-18T10:30:00.000-05:00

Myself, Andrea, Nicole and Sherry.

Nicole and Me, friends for . . . . 14 years? its been a while. :D

Nicole with the two soon-to-be Grandmas.

I had a great time yesterday at Nicole's shower. It has been far too long since we were able to hang out for a couple hours. Nathan and Nicole are expecting a Boy (name yet to be chosen) in the middle of May.

Prayers for my cousin and his family

2007-03-13T19:05:00.000-05:00

My cousin Marty has just been diagnosed with gastric cancer. He's only 23 and in the Navy.

Some excerpts from his blog on facebook:

"I have finished the appointment with the oncologists, and there wasn't much good news to be said. I have been diagnosed with Stage 4 gastric cancer. (a rare form called Linitus Plastica or leather bottle stomach) I have been told that I have 9 to 18 months to live. That is the average, and I'm expected to do better than that based on my age, otherwise good health, the most positive attitude ever, and the fact that they are going to throw the largest chemotherapy regiment they can at me. "
" On the bright side, blood tests show that my body knows that it has cancer, and has already been attacking the bad cells. A sort of lucky natural chemotherapy, but it definitely needs assistance. Further surgery has been halted until the Mayo doctors look at me and decide what they want to do. Since this has spread, they might not do surgery at all since it wouldn't be contained to the stomach anymore. Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers and know that I am the toughest guy out there and I will not lose to this. I am going to fight through this after all I have a family and friends, a career, the world to see, and an upcoming engagement to live for!"

It so scary that it came so quickly. :(

Katie

Alright, enough of hiding out . .

2007-03-11T20:52:00.000-05:00

I know who is reading this and not leaving me any comments! The reason i don't update this very often is that i think no one checks it. PLEASE leave me a comment or two sometime. :)

(click on the "comments" then on "post a comment" then simply type your message, and click send. )

FANTABULISTIC NEWS!!!

2007-03-08T18:44:00.001-06:00

I GOT IN!!!!!

Playing the waiting game . .

2007-03-07T19:51:00.000-06:00

Still haven't heard from the U of Mn. Everyday I check the mail, and everyday i try to figure out if I am happy that i didn't find an envelope. If there was a way to know if I got in, without the initial "finding out" i'd like to be able to do that.
We had fun this weekend. We went up to duluth for some snowboarding on all the snow we had watched fall all week. After shoveling ourselves a path to my sisters, we settled in for the night and had a blast the next couple days snowboarding.
here are some pictures.

Lucas doing the sweetest jump of a cliff edge.

I LOVE THIS BOY!!!

ah life

2007-02-28T18:37:00.000-06:00

I will let you know right away that I'm kinda in a bad mood. I'm generally in a bad mood by this point in the week because tues and wed seem to suck out all of my patience.

Anywho, U of Mn played a nasty trick on me this week. Monday I get back from shopping to find an envelope addressed to me from the college. Of course i'm thinking that this is the big news, getting excited and so nervous that i try to get charity to open it for me. Once opened however, it is nothing more than a plug for their Public Health Master degree, which you can earn at the same time as your DVM. :( still waiting for the real admissions letter in the mail.

Also Gracie has now progressed to stealing toys from babies. She now is the proud owner of a stuffed puppy meant for an infant, but could not be given since it is currently covered in dog slobber.

Yay!

2007-02-17T21:46:00.000-06:00

Well i had a fairly exciting week. Not only was I sung to by four people for valentines day, but I also found out I was accepted into Iowa State Veterinary College. Not sure if I will be going quite yet, I want to find out about the other schools, but its nice to have an option!!

Other than that stuff has been going well. A little less busy this week, but still fairly busy with work and school. My sister (and possibly brother) will be coming up this next weekend for some fun.

Here are some pics that I have taken both of last weekend at the TKD tournament and also for my photography class.

2007-01-31T18:54:00.000-06:00

Rules of Minnesota :
1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.
2. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a >Pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.
3. They are cattle & fishing lakes. That's what they smell like to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it.
4. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 combines that are driven only 3 times a year.
5. So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.
6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of ducks are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand You better hope you don't have it up to >your ear at the time.
7 Yeah, we eat walleye & pike and love it. You really want sushi & caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.
8. The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season. It's a Religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.
9. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless >of age.>>>
10. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the pound of ham & turkey.
11. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: Onion, Pepper, and Garlic! Oh, yeah... We don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat... It ain't real lutefisk. And real lutefisk never met a tomato!
12. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet, and served over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.
13. College and High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a hell of a lot more fun towatch.
14. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards --it spooks the fish.
15. Colleges? Try Minnesota Tech, MSU, MU or MSU. They come outta >there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at passing pickups when they come for the holidays.
16. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force,and Marines, than any other state, so "Don't screw with Minnesota ," If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

Gracie's new brother

2007-01-20T14:52:00.000-06:00

This guy is getting adopted by my parents and brother. I belive his new name will be Maximus Decimus Meridious. :)

Don't Panic,Don't Panic,Don't Panic,Don't Panic,

2007-01-18T18:52:00.001-06:00

AHHHHHH! My interveiw is in one week!!!!! Next friday!!!

Alright

2007-01-17T11:24:00.000-06:00

I must admit I forgot to include my sister in the last post. Our trip to duluth was possible because of my wonderful sister! she spent 2 days not only hanging out with her super cool sister, but also with her sisters slightly odd and loud friends. :) I Heart my sis!

Ok, so I haven't posted for a while . . .

2007-01-16T21:28:00.000-06:00

Sorry about that. Life has been going on fairly normally. Gracie is up here. She gets to go to to work with me, and passed the therapy dog certification, and is in agility class as well!

Other than that, some GREAT news. I got an interveiw for Veterinary school sometime in the next month! There are 3 of us at the clinic that got an interveiw, so it could be interesting. :) Hopefully we'll all get in and be classmates!

Work has been great! I've been working as a vet tech more, and am almost always in the back helping now. Money is good, but I can't wait to get into vet school and get going with what I really want to do.

Holidays were good, I got to see my super cute 2nd cousin Jordon. He is just adorable!!! Other than a brief break for christmas, I've been working full time. I did escape this last weekend to Duluth for a TKD tourny with Lucas and Jimbo. We spent all day sunday snowboarding which was great!! I miss montana though, I'm in serious need of some POWDER!!

Thats all folks, I'll post more tomorrow. :)

kt

Yippee!!

2006-10-09T09:08:00.000-05:00

So guess who is offically allowed to come ans tay with us in Bemidji? (hint: she has four legs and a bunch of black fluffy fur!)

GRACIE!! I'm super pumped.

Anyway, not a whole lot going on here. I put in my application for vet school, so cross your fingers for me!

It was homecoming this weekend. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while and have some fun!

kt

Pictures!!!

2006-09-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

Brr

2006-09-19T19:10:00.000-05:00

Well i am cold. Other than that life has been good. I'm training to be a vet tech at work! I had fun today just kinda bouncing around and learning new things.
Anyway, i got my super cool camera last wednesday, and spent a lot of time playing with it this weekend.

Oohh aslo, Gracie is now a 21st century dog. They had a microchpping clinic this last weekend, and she now is microchipped. :) She did really well around all the other dogs and was such a good puppy here at the house. the landlord actually stopped by when she was here, he really didn't care that she was here, but we're still kind of confused about whether or not she is "allowed" here. We need permission in writing, and they haven't given us that.

Well i was going to post some of my pictures, but it is being stupid, so i'll have to do that later.

Yar! (thats because is it National Talk like a Pirate Day!!!)

kt

Yay for birthdays.

2006-09-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

Birthdays are fun!!

What is even better is when you have a suprise party at the end of a challenging birthday day.

I woke up to find my table soaked in water from some plants, my notebook conveniently in the middle of all of it (just a tad soggy). Not a good way to start out the day but I figured, eh, it can only get better. Get to work, chaos insues for the next 3 hours (never quite sure where or what i should be doing, always getting corrected somehow, feeling generally incompetent ect.) Get home, go to class.

I then started the battle with a certain store (who's name will be protected, we'll call them . . . "Bulls-eye") I had bought a camera at Bulls-eye the day before and found out taht it took really crappy pictures in low light conditions, like anything that isn't in full sun/inside. Since I didn't feel like keeping a 200 dollar camera that takes crappy pictures, i decided to return the camera. The wonderful Bulls-eye employee told me that there would be a 30 dollar "restocking fee" on the camera that I had owned for 24 hours. After a lot of discussion, begging, and me getting worked up as much as I can (which takes a lot of effort on my part since i am a fairly easy going person) i finally talked them out of the restocking fee. Especailly based on the fact that I had questioned about the returning policy and was not told/warned about any restocking fee.

So now, i have 250 bucks in my pocket, I want a camera. I find camera I want, no store actually has it in stock. The lovely people at Office Max agree to ship it to my door at no extra charge, I no longer have 250 bucks. :)

ANyway that concludes the irritating part of my day. Commense with the Happy part of the Happy birthday.

I got a super cool stereo from my Lou lou. It plays CDs, acts as an alarm clock, hooks up to my MP3 player (YAY!!) and has a remote. its pretty mucht eh sweetest thing on my desk right now. I also get a wonderful visit from my GG and ER buddies, Jodi and Kevin!!

At this point I'm thinking its a pretty good day. I have a camera coming in teh mail,I have a new notebook to replace the soggy one, I got a visit from some friends, and I have a dinner date with Lucas later on. Lucas comes, we eat, he uses the women's restroom accidentally, we proceed on the way home. I walk in to a pretty dark room and see that my roomies are waiting with cake for me! YAY, then about a billion and a half people continue to pile out of the hallway!! Andi had gone and invited all my buddies to wish me a Happy Birthday!! I was really suprised and super excited to see everyone all at once and know that they had come to celebrate with me! Yay for friends, Yay for Andi for putting the work into all of it!!

Anyway, I don't know who all reads this, but Thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!

kt

school already?

2006-08-28T14:56:00.002-05:00

enough said.

Me is pooped

2006-08-24T20:59:00.000-05:00

What to do what to do? I have two very evenly matched up plans for the weekend.
1) go to the cities and get to go to the minnesota state fair, see lucas and kristi.
Pros: getting to see Lou lou and Kristi, having fun at state fair.
Cons: long rides, won't get to ride or stay with Lucas

2)Stay in bemidji and chill with sister
Pros: chilling with sis i havent seen for almost 2 months, help move charity in, get settled and destressed before school starts again
Cons: No fun fair activity, Already told co-worker that i was leaving for cities and couldn't cover her shift for her.

Hmm Leaning towards #2 but still somewhat undecided.

Also i'm quiting my job at the CRI. Its not fair to them to stretch myself too thin and not give them the hours they need or the lack of energy to put into it.

Other than that I am really pooped! I've been working on my vet application any time i haven't been working. I found out that I probably should be in Vet school right now. I was #20 on Iowa's waiting list and a person who was #100 or more was bumped up at least 80 spots, last she checked she was # 11. WTF happened there? Oh well.

kt

Summers end :(

2006-08-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

Well summer is unfortunately coming to a close. We start classes on monday, the morning air is already getting that fall scent to it, and the leaves on some trees are already turning orange and red. I've been getting stuff ready for classes, and trying to merge 2 jobs with classes.

i had a blast yesterday in moorhead! i got to visit with Libby and Logan which was totally awesome. I miss hanging out with them, and i have to get to working on my camel calls. I got to see how my brother is adjusting to campus life. he seems to be doing ok, and has even got himself on instant messanger which is a pretty big deal since he pretty much swore he would never use the internet.

My car has been broken for the last week. We thought it was fixed but then it started leaking gas everywhere everytime i drove it. It was kinda scary, but my super cool dad came up and fixed it this mornign before work for me. :)

anywho, i'm feeling pretty worn out, wondering how if i should try to work both jobs at the same time and do school. I'm thinking that one of the jobs is going to have to get dropped at some point.

anywho, i'm gonna go, i sleepy!

kt

A weekend and a visit from Amy B!

2006-08-14T20:49:00.000-05:00

Thats right, not only did i get two days off (in a row!) the original Amy B came to visit me in b-town!

I had a blast this weekend. Sleeping in, wandering though itasca park, just simply walking around town. It was really great to catch up with Amy and just take it easy. I love spending time with the people that you can truely be yourself with. No awkward pauses or questions, just simply catching up with a close friend.

I got some new fish today! my little guppy has been the only one in the tank for a while and he is quite happy to see more guppies in the tank ruled by the two big (and one new) angelfish.

anywho, i'm being antisocial tonight and being lazy and lounging on the couch.

kt

work work fun and friends

2006-08-07T22:09:00.000-05:00

So i can't wait to get my next paycheck. Between the two jobs, i will be making almosts 1000 in two weeks! :)

It comes at a cost though. The last two weeks have just flown by since i spend all my time working. The days get to be really long, but its not too bad.

I am super pumped about this weekend. Amy B is going to come up and visit!! I'm coming up with some plans, but it will jsut be nice to catch up with her and show her my second hometown. I love Bemidji soo much, that it will be nice to share it with her. We might go to Itasca too which will be nice. I would love to go swimming, but the lake turned over here, and it has swimmers itch. We have to wait for it to cool down again before it is swimable. (is swimable a word?)

We went to Baileys and Breannas house tonight. It was really fun. Their house looks 100% better than it did last time i was there. It was really fun to just sit back and chill. its nice that they are pretty close to us. I think there will some great times there this next school year. :)

anyway i'm sick of being on the computer. Funny how working all day with a computer makes you not want to spend time on there anymore. :)

kt

what to post . . what to post?

2006-08-02T19:41:00.001-05:00

So everymorning before work, i have been watching Rick Steves Europe. Its kinda sureal watching this odd guy go running around in the same places I have been. Eurospring is starting to seem like one big dream, that may have never really happened. We've all had dreams that seem more real than life, but kinda fuzzy around the edges. I remember the places and what was done at those places, but it all seems like it was one big dream. The damp oxford streets, the bright green grass in hyde park, the warm sunny nap by the eiffel tower, all of it seems almost too perfect, almost imagined through the tv, movie and pictures of those places.

Anywho, i've been keeping busy with work. Both jobs are going well. I sooo wanted to bring home this Border collie named Jasmine on saturday. She was the sweetest thing and spent much of the day with her head on my lap as I typed out charts.

so yeah thats my life at the moment.

kt

I love . . .

2006-07-27T19:23:00.000-05:00

The smell after a thunderstorm
The veiw from a moutain top
British accents
Long days spent with friends
The moist smell of a cool fall night
Those nights that end too fast
Old brick buildings and Old farm houses
Discovering a place that feels like home, far away from home
The night sky with bright stars
The freshness of the first snowfall
Cities completly drenched in history
The color of wheat at harvest
Homemade applesauce
Long conversations with friends
Losing yourself in a city
The smell of the first warm day of spring
The silentness and weightlessness of snowboarding in powder
How soft Gracie's fur is
Finding friends in perfect strangers.
Laughing until you can't remember what you are laughing about
Art that leaves you in awe
Natural science museums
The smell of my parents house after my mom washes the floor
The purr of my Kitty
The crashing of waves
"Minding the Gap"
The smell of horses
Cuddling in blankets on a chilly day
A long day spent at the beach
Family gatherings
Kababs!
Swimming in cool water on a hot day
Fresh strawberries

Just a little list that I will probably add onto from time to time.

Well this could be an interesting week . . .

2006-07-24T21:01:00.000-05:00

I'll be working about 60 hours this week. one job in the morning, another in the afternoon, 6 days a week.

I've been feeling really lazy lately though so hopefully this will get me going again. I've just been feeling kinda blah lately. Like i just keep doing the same thing over and over never really getting ahead. I don't want the summer to ened, though at the same time i want the school year to begin. I mostly just want to know where i am going. I don't like not knowing where i will be a year from now. Will i get into school? What if I dont . . stay in bemidji? move? if i move, where?

Oh well, just my mood at the moment

kt

Here fishy fishy fishy

2006-07-22T09:51:00.000-05:00

First of all Happy Birthday to Lou Lou!! His b-day is tomorrow. He says he will spend it doing homework, but i'm sure we can find something fun to do that won't take too much time away from getting all that done. He is spending today taking a test for a teacher license, and then Master Spencer will become Grand Master Spencer today so he is going to go help out at at that.

Today for me: I'm gonna go find some fishies! My Mom and Dad are coming up and we are determined to actually get fish this year! My gracie lou has been with me the last couple days and that has been fun. She went to work with me and it was so fun to have her there. :)

gotta go, fishies call!

kt

summer heat

2006-07-17T13:23:00.000-05:00

Lucas and i had a great time this weekend. We left friday night when i was done with work and got to Charity's by about 11pm. We goofed around for a while with her puppy and two kitties (i was having fun anyway) and we finally fell asleep, getting up early to get to our campsite. Slim lake was beautiful! Rocky upcrops, Pine trees, clear blue water and 90 degree weather makes for a perfect summer camping trip. I had a blast swimming! The water was just so nice and clear, i probably could have stayed in the water all day long. The campsite was perfect with two places where you could walk into the water on the rocks before totally submerging yourself. There was also these group of chipmunks that ran around everywhere, they were really fun to watch. Also i got to watch this garner snake root around in the leaves and eat a bug or something. I was about 3 feet away from it, so it was just a rush to be that close to it.

We drove back yesterday and the ride just seemed to get longer and longer. WE had some fun on the way though, I had seen this store advertising gelato in Grand Rapids, so of course we stopped on our way home! It was pretty good gelato, but didn't compare to that of rome. I was really hopping that they would have Yogurt and Raspberry flavors so I could combine the two of them like i did in europe. I had peach and it was pretty good. I had to call Laurabeth on the way back and tell her that there was a gelato stand, that sold stracitella even!

I think i am going to run home on tues and wed to check on my kitty and puppy and get a new phone.

Ooo also new news, I got a second job at the center for research and innovation. I'm pumped, they seem like a really fun group of people to work with! They also know about my animal care job, and are willing to work with that. :)

kt

I love summer

2006-07-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

Its been so ridiculously hot lately that i think a lot of people get irriatated and annoyed at this point of summer, but seriuosly I love it. Being unbearably hot is not my thing, but going canoeing with a friend, jumping out and swimming in the cool lake water, the sky completely cloudless and bright blue . . that is summer.
As this summer goes by i realize how lucky I truely am. I love my job, my roomies, my Lucas, and have had the best mix of work and fun so far this summer. They are so nice at work and I am learning so much. I just can't believe my luck at finding them at the right time.

Anywho, Lucas and I are taking off camping this weekend. I'm excited! we are a bit unprepared, but hope to find a place not too packed with other campers. Its gets kinda ridiculous when you go camping to get away from people and find yourself surrounded by more people than before. Anyway we're getting away this weekend and I am excited!

kt

what a week

2006-07-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Wow where do i start?

Wonderful time at the lake. I miss the old summers where i would spend every weekend there just absorbing all that sunshine and lake water. I had some fun goofing with my cousins and aunts in the water as well as trying to get my bro up on wake boarding.
On the 3rd I got to steal my gracie lou and spend the evening with my brother in bemidji. The three of us took off for Duluth and spend the 4th with my sister. It was a great day of walking around downtown canal park area. I got to stuff my brother into a seat on the Zipper and we did a lot of screaming for the next couple of minutes after that. We took the lazy route after that and became very comfortable in Erins new house watching movies and just generally lounging around.
On the 5th I worked again, and took off early on the 6th for Wisconsin and Kristi's wedding.
Lucas's cousins in wisconsin were so much fun. THey have about 600 head of diary cattle, belgin horses, pigs, dogs and cats, so naturally i was in heaven. All the family there was really nice. I felt like it was summer at our farm again, although there was a lot more animals around this time. We helped set up for Megans wedding and spent an interesting night on a slowly deflating air bed, and took off the next day for Hastings to check into our hotel and go to the wedding rehersal.
The rehersal and the wedding with wonderfully. The weather was warm but thankfully the sun waited to come out until after almost all the pictures were taken. The reception was a blast! Both the matron of honor and best man gave great speaches, but the best mans was the greatest! He mixed childhood stories with stories about mitch and kristi and kinda gave his title of best friend over to kristi as she was now his wife. :) It was really funny and sentimental at the same time. The rowdy table at the reception included everyone from b-town, who invented a new drink, "piece of ass" as well as kept the dance floor busy all night. Matt Brown and D to the J also had a recorded rap about Mitch and Kristi ready for them as the dance went on. It was a wonderful night and It was great to be able to celebrate the day with all of them!

Here are some pictures. Mostly Kristi, Mitch, Lucas or I. Also the one of the group of guys was the guys singing "friends in low places".

summer flying by

2006-06-30T10:10:00.000-05:00

What a week! Its been filled with birthdays and working. Both Jenni and Andi had their birthdays this week. We pigged out on chinese food, helped jenni prepare for any hurricanes for when she moves to florida, threw fortune cookies out the car, and had a battle of the sexes on tuesday for Jenni's birthday. Andi had an adventurous time with a treasure hunt, quiznos, shopping spree at the dollar tree, some golfing with the "day shift operator (jenni) then some applebees and bar hopping.

Today: i have the day off and Adrienne is in town!!! Not quite sure what will be going on, but it will be a fun time.
Tommorrow: work and wedding reception.
Sunday/monday: lake home and bemidji. I'm stealing gracie and bringing her back here with me!
Tues: chilling in duluth with my sister!
After that, a day of work, then wisconsin, and then kristi's wedding! YAY!

Ohh and i am officially not at wallymart anymore. 4 morning shifts and 2 night shifts a week is apparently not enough availabiltiy for them. Oh well, on to bigger and better things! I'm applying for another part time job on campus. I already let them know about my availability due to the clinic job (which is great!) and they want me to apply, so i'll be picking that up today.

Some pictures from this last weekend.

Thats all folks!

kt

my wonderful weekend

2006-06-26T20:35:00.000-05:00

I had a great weekend reconnecting with friends. Laurabeth (aka larry brown) and Libby both came to visit this weekend. Laurabeth got here first and we had an adventure making a cake and laughing at random stories. Libby got here about 8, and we settled down with some food and movie watching. in the morning Libby and I played tourists and walked down to paul and babe, ate at a cafe down town, and got to play with some shelter puppies in the afternoon. Smoothie night was a blast and we planned on a picnic for sunday.
Sunday we went to Itasca state park and had a wonderful picnic right near the headwaters, and spent a lot of time walking around and exploring, and even more time just talking.

It was sooooo much fun to catch up and reminise about europe. Its funny how the whole trip seems so sureal by now. We can look though the pictures and remember being there, but it seems like a separate life and time, almost dreamlike. What places would we visit again? What was our favorite food/place/night/day? Who we would bring with us? We talked about the fact that we felt safe walking late at night in almost any city there, but don't feel safe doing the same here even in Bemidji.
I'm excited that Libby might get to go back this spring for a short tour of the British Isles.

Ahh eurospring . . . how i miss you!

kt

Found this on Libby's blog

2006-06-26T09:50:00.000-05:00

Its so true! Although i didn't actually spend much time in dublin, i loved ireland!

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.
You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

I liked this . .

2006-06-21T13:12:00.000-05:00

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to
ever let you down
probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and
it's harder
every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was
broken. You'll
fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one
did. You'll cry
because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you
love. So take too
many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because
every sixty
seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never
begin.

~anonymous

ever notice?

2006-06-20T18:36:00.000-05:00

How you can never really go back in time. I know i thought a lot about that while in europe. I remember specificly the last night in oxford walking with Libby, LB, logan and evan. We were walkinga long making plans on meeting up sometime this summer. It was a wierd feeling knowing that the next time that we would all hang out it would be back in the states. I remember the thought popping into my head: "we might get together, but it won't be the same" and that it was about more than just the location of our outing. The fact that we had all lived in the same place and been close friends for those few weeks, was nothing that could probably be acheived again. We'll meet, we'll talk, but we won't know as much about each other or each others recent events as at that point in time. I don't even know if we will make any new stories or have new adventures with each other that don't revolve around sitting around and talking about europe.

Same with everyone graduating and leaving. We will (hopefully) see each other again. But this time it willbe at different points in our lives, playing different roles in each others lives. No longer just bumming around or stressing out about tests. We'll hav to play catchup of weeks, months and even years of events in each others lives.

This has actually already started. I called Becky on her b-day and we were able to talk for a very short time, and both said that we would call and catch up when we could. This was a week ago, and we stil lhaven't found the time to catch up. She didn't even know that i was dating lucas. Its just weird since she used to be one of the people who knew everything that happened to me the minute it happened.

I guess i'm just missing those moments, i love change, but i hate to see friendships fade. :(

I was just thinking of this. Unfortunately you are all subjected to the random thoughts in my head now. :)

kt

update time

2006-06-20T08:59:00.000-05:00

Well i don't know if anyone is actually reading this at all, but i figured i'd do a little update.

I am working at animal care clinic. I kinda ended up taking a multi-funcion job, mainly receptionist, but also helping clean and assist the techs, so it is perfect for me! i'll never get bored!

I'm still working at walmart at the moment, but we'll see how long that goes. I'm going to try and take the weekends off. (all weekends i either will be working at animal care, or busy with something already planned). I'm not sure how walmart will like that plan, but its either that or quit, and i'm pretty sure they don't want me to quit.

I traveled down with andi and dani this weekend to go to kristi's bachlorette party and bridal shower, which was a blast! It was so great to spend time with kristi again, i miss having her in bemidji! We had a great time bar hopping and selling hawain leis to raise money for the wedding. Dani also brought andi and i to woodbury for shopping, where i found the best store in the world, H&M. i bought a couple of "must haves" and decided that i would definatly have to get back there when we are down for the wedding.

My grandma and my two cousins from kansas are on their way to visit me today. I have to work at 2, but we'll try to have a good time until i have to go to work.

Anyway, thats my summer so far in b-town. Hopefully stuff will all even out with work soon and i can get used to a somewhat normal schedule.

kt

finally

2006-05-23T14:30:00.000-05:00

PICTURES!!!

im back!

2006-05-11T23:36:00.000-05:00

hey all! im back in btown so give me a call. it is going to be a couple of crazy days here at first, but i will be posting more pics of my adventure with some stories later when stuff starts to settle down.

kt

roma, venezia, salzburg, and wein

2006-05-03T10:09:00.000-05:00

that would be rome, venice, salzburg and veinna.

im in vienna at the moment, on a german keyboard (so please excuse the z and y goofups since they are in different places on the keyboard).

rome was amazing!! i had a blast running around and seeing all of these historic monuments. our hotel was literallz just a couple blocks awaz from the colleseum, and forum. we also got a tour of the vatican as well as just walking around and seeing most of the sites. i think rome and lucerne will probablz make it out as mz two favorite cities.

venice was fun, unforunatelz it was cold wet rainz and "miserable" (as sanjeev put it) while we were there. we still had funn running around and going into all of the different shops.

salzburg was nice, kinda reminded me of lucerne. it was nice there because i was able to get awaz from the group for a bit and walk around on mz own. in the other cities, there is simplz too manz people around to feel quite safe walking around bz zourself, but salzburg was small enough to feel safe. i reallz needed some time alond since the trip is starting to get long now.

vienna todaz has been a lot of fun. bri, kate, lb and i have formed a little group for going and having advenutres. its nice. todaz we did some damage at H&M a popular clothing store. however the clothese are at great prices and i was able to buz an outfit for graduation!!!

im about readz to come home now, onlz 3 cities left and 7 dazs of travel and ill be back home. i realiyed that rome was the last big place that i wanted to see landmarks from, now its just getting tiring traveling and dealing with some of the people on thr trip. everzone is starting to get a little crankz from all the travel and such. however i am still haveing a fun time, im just glad that its getting towards the end.

prague, nuremberg, and rudeshiem left, then homeward bound for me :)

thanks for all the emails everzone. ill be back on the 11th, so i hope to run into people before everzone takes off for the summer. give me a call sometime on the 11th or later!

kt

here is the onlz pic that i can get to upload. its me, kate, bri and lb in front of the vatican in rome

paris, switzerland and italy so far . .

2006-04-26T10:46:00.000-05:00

hey guys, i found a somewhat cheap place to go for internet, so yay for that!

paris was amazing. i loved how we could see the effiel tower through our window and the sacre coeur was really pretty lit up at night, you could see the icity as far stretching out forever at night from there.

switzerland was better than paris in my opinion. less smell of urine and more of just gorgeous scenery. it reminded me of bemidji (if you forget the fact that it had about 4 times the population and magnificent mountains all around it). i spent most of monday just sitting on the side of the lake, working on a good sunburn and watching everyone walk around and the swans swim in the lake. the mountains were absoluetly gorgeous. we took a tram up one. great veiws from there, execept that it made me want to go snowboarding pretty badly. i remidied that by stomping around in the snow up there, resulting in a lost shoe and a wet foot.
the first night in swizterland we went to the stadkeller, which is this restaraount that puts on a "traditional" show including lond horns, brooms, wine glasses, harps accordions ect. it was actually really fun to watch and it brought the whole group together for a night of fun.

we got into florence yesterday after stoping to see the leaning tower of pisa. we took the classic pictures, and also a weird one that LB and i have started to take at any so called classic tourist sight. we do a really stupid kungfu pose in front of whatever object it is. they always turn out goofy, but it is fun to do anyway.

we had a tour of florence today. we were able to see michalangelos sculptuire of david which is amazing to see in person-. the sheer perfection of it all the way down to the veins in the neck and hands. it was done without any models or pre-working at all. just amazing to see! then we did a lot of what we always do, walk around until we are one of the following: bored, tired, broke, thirsty, in need of a bathroom. then we came back to the hotel, went out again to a supermarket then came here to happy internet land.

the food here is amazing. we have had some of the greatest meals ever. and itailan gelato is really really yuummy. i think one of the things they pull on eurospring is to make you eat cafeteria food for the first 5 weeks to make sure that you will be easily impressed by anything they feed you after that.

im attempting to upload some of my pictures, however its beeing really stupid and not letting me upload much at a time.

thanks everyone for all the e-mails, sorry i canàt respond individually, but it is nice to know that i am missed and hear whats going on witheveryone. happy birthday to kristi (incase i dont get online for a while) and congrats on finding an apt kevin and jodi! i miss you all!! oh, and get a hold of lucas of andi for an invitation to my little grad party my mom is having on the 12th.

i miss you all and canàt wait to see you after the 10th!!!

kt

2006-04-24T01:46:00.000-05:00

hey guys, im in switerland . paris was cool we could see the eiffeil tower out the window. were going up a mtn today. this keyboard is screwed up so sorry it is so sort.

miss you all

oh boy . . ireland where do i start

2006-04-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

wow ireland is a fun place. so many stories to tell. unfortunaltey the pictures are being stupid and don't want to be posted. sorry, i could only post one, it is of the cliffs of mohr.

we took of on thursday and flew over there, we got into the shannon airport at about 5pm or so. finding the bus station closed we decided to wing it and just aked every single buss that came through how we are supposed to get to doolin. doolin is this tiny little town near the cliffs of mohr, has about 3 pubs in it, so about 300 people or so. as you would expect, not a lot of people try to get to doolin in a day, and we quickly found ourselves stranded at ennis bus station since the bus to doolin had left already and ennis was as close as we could get. we then made a slightly paniced phone call to out B&B. they helped us out and sent Phillip (our angel in disguise) to rescue us from the nasty ennis bus stop. once in doolin, we walked to the nearest pub (o'connors) in hope of catching some pub grub there. unfornutaly we were about 5 minutes too late. we did however meet up with the other bemidji group that was staying in doolin for the night and it was realy nice to see a familiar face.

the next morning we ran into another transportation problem, again saved by phillip who took us to the cliffs of mohr. from there we could take a bus later, and in the mean time check out one of the coolest sights in ireland. we then caught the bus to killarney stopping enroute for 1 hour and expolering a bit of limerick.

once in killarney we discoverd that everything was closed for good friday and we decided to go to the cinemas since it was the only thing open. the next morning we got up to go and went horseback riding. it was amazing. it was my first try at english riding and it was a blast. the senery there is absolutely amazing! huge mountainous tree covered hills poking out of the clouds and green grass and vegetation as far as you can see. we also rode by a couple bays and saw swans swimming and other wildlife like deer (look like a cross between and elk and a deer)

after horseback riding we settled down to eat (takes forever in ireland) 2 hours later we decided to take a nap and then go shopping downtown. then we took another nap (hey we were tired, give us a break) before going to the pubs that night.

pub hopping in killarney is so much fun. (1st of all i must clear up that pubs are not drunken bars like they are in the US, its more of a coffee shop atmosphere, with people drinking alchol instead) anyway, we ran into the Killarney Celtics, the local soccer team that had won the night before but since the pubs were closed, they were parting on sat night. they took us around to the various pubs and showed us a very good time. we learned their song, and drank from their big cup and all, good fun time.

we left that next mornign for waterford with about 3 hours of sleep and ended up checking itno the first B&B we saw, Sals. it was above Sals pub, but it was cheap and it had hot water, we were happy. we then went to the crystal factory and actually had the good luck of running into two other american studnets (studying archecture in rome, in ireland for easter) and we were abel to cut our cost of going to the factory in half. after the factory, some food and then another early bus ride the enxt morning, sent us through dublin and back to home sweet oxford.

anyway i'm taking off from oxford on thursday, won't be checking e-mail that much. but if something does happen, send me an e- mail. i might not be able to respond, but i will read it. good to hear that kristi is ok and on her way back to full form and that everyone had a good easter. thanks again jodi for your updates!!

kt

greetings from ireland

2006-04-15T12:11:00.000-05:00

hey guys, i'm safe and sound enjoying my time here in ireland. so far we have gone to the cliffs of mohr, horseback riding in the killarney national park and expirianced some irish music in the pubs. it has been quite an adventure getting travel plans laid down, but its been fun!

just letting you all know that everything is great!

happy easter!!!

kt

pictures

2006-04-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

just some pictures of this last weeknd

1st two are of warwick castle. it was pretty amazing.
next two are from portsmith. left to right: emily, LB, me, Libby, and jamie. the ship i am standing in front of is the HMS victory.
5th one is of LB and me in th stocks at warwick castle.
6th and last one is the moorhead guys and us at portsmith. left to right: mike, evan, me, logan, and lb.

ahoy mateys

2006-04-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

what adventure filled weekend. saturday we went to portsmith and got to go aboard 3 ships. the mary rose (built in the 1500s) hms victory (built in the 1700s) and the HMS Warrior (built in the 1800s). It was the most fun we've had on a field trip so far. it was a bright sunny day and the ships were just amazing!! I was in a very piratey mood and kept bugging eveyone with my piratey sayings. the victory looks realy similar to the ships on pirates of the caribean, and the warrior reminded me a lot of the titanic.

sunday LB and i went to the london zoo fo the day. we had a lot of fun but it was rainy and cold.

yesterday we went to warwick castle and statford upon avon. the castle was almost as cool as the ships. we were able to run around everywhere and go through the dungeon and the main buildings as well as the castle towers and such.
stratford upon avon is the home of william shakespear. he was born there and educated and moved away to london, returning after he had made some money. we were able to see romeo and juliet which was amazing. i love the energy of the theater! anyway we then drove back to oxford and invaded the moorhead bus so that we could hear dr.chapmans ghost stories. then we all pretty much crashed as there had been 3 days of constant running around.

anywho thats whats up for now.

kt

independent girl!

2006-04-07T11:07:00.000-05:00

I haven't taken any pics lately. so i tracked these down from the moorhead guys.

firstly: an awesome pic by logan of big ben late at night.
Second one is of last saturday in bath when it started to rain (of course i didn't have my umbrella with. Libby, logan and i shared an umbrella while waiting to get into the roman bath museum. (i'm not quite sure why i look like i am high) 3rd and4th pic give you guys a little taste of the "interesting" sort of guys that we are hanging out with.

So i took off for london yesterday by myself. LB was meeting up with some friends and once she was safe with them, i took off on my own adventure. i ended up having a pretty good time. it was kinda liberating to not have to check with anyone as to what we were doing or going. i made it to the national gallery and was able to see the actual painting of whistlejacket by george stubbs. it was kinda surreal to see this painting since it is about 10 ft high. i hve had a print of it since i was a kid, an seeing the actual painting was pretty incrediable. after that i ended up going to leichester square to get theater tickets. i had my heart on the lion king, but ended up going to "danceing in the streets" it was good, and much cheaper than the lion king. plus it was pretty hillarious to see all these british people getting all into motown hits. :) i also went back to the british muesum to see the rest of it that we missed a couple of weeks ago. it wasn't that interesting though, but it was warm and i could sit and eat my lunch there.

after that i just had a 45 minute walk back to the bus station and a major journal, so writing hour or so before returning to oxford. on the way back i was pretty hungry so houssains made me a burger for the walk back to wycliffe. all in all a pretty fun day.

sadly LB is sick today :( hopefully she feels better for tomrrows feild trip!

the trip really starts to take off now. i'm not sure how much i'll be posting, but i will be able to check e-mail at least up until the 19th. after that i'll try when i can, but it wont be regular at all.

tomorrow is a feild trip to portsmith and south ampton. sunday will probably be my last visit to london, monday is another feild trip to stratford-upon-avon. so tuesday will be my next chance at the computer.

everyone have a good weekend!

kt

yay for pictures

2006-04-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

top picture: me in london in hyde park next to the peter pan statue
2nd pic: tower bridge in london
3rd pic: hyde park in london
4th pic: giant sloth skeleton with evan and lb

hey not a lot to update about. did some shopping, and some comparison cookie tasting today. tomorrow a trip to london, not quite sure what we'll be doing yet, but it should be a fun time. this week has been fairly quiet. i've been spending a lot of time reading during the day before classes and such. weather is getting warmer and more enjoyable. its crazy how time is flying by though, with the field trips and easter break i really only have 5 days left to roam in oxford. i'll definatly miss this place when we start the tour. we'll have to separate from our little moorhead/bemidji hybrid group that we have formed. aslo on the tour there won;'t really be a feeling of "home base" at all. moving every couple of days or so. i'll miss our little yellow room with the blue carpet. anyway on to the pictures which i'm sure is all you guys are waiting for.

kt

my weekend

2006-04-04T04:47:00.000-05:00

1st pic: for anyone who has seen ice age, remember these guys at the begaining? i just had to get a picture of it. :) he is in the natural history museum in london.

2nd picture is one for my sister, a piggy in Bath that made me think of her fondness for piggies.
3rd: the entire bsu group in bath. my "moorhead buddy" logan took the pic for me. (dr chapman said "find your moorhead buddy and give them your camera) :) Saturday the group took of for burbury and bath. burbury is a small village in the cotswolds (hilly area of england) it was a cute little village and we spent about an hour there exploring. we then took off for bath. bath is the site of an underground heated aquifer that the romans used after invading in about 40 AD. it kinda turned into the first tourist town of england, wherre all the rich woud travel to come and get healed by the waters "magical properties" Bath was a lot of fun. we had gorgeous sunshine when we got there and we definately enjoyed running around in a busy city for about 4 hours before traveling back to wycliffe.

sunday we took off for london again. this time to visit portabello road, notting hill, hms belfast, natural history museum, and the science museum. a lot of fun, but unfortunely we were very tired by all the walking.

LB and i have 2 trips to london left on our bus pass, we're thinking one day for anohter random adventure and using the other trip to get to the zoo and possiby to see the lion king musical. we'll see how that ends up.

we've been having fun evenings. the moorhead guys have been hooking up the dvd player to the projector so we have big screen showings of movies everynight. its pretty awesome! the last three nights have been lord of the rings, so tonight we'll have to start with someting new.

thats all folks

kt

adventures keep coming

2006-04-03T09:17:00.000-05:00

Hey guys I will be adding more details tomorrow, but for now i decided i'd give you a little update.

i had a blast this weekend going to burford and bath. we had great weather for most of it, a lot of sun while walking around in bath. i tried some italian gelato for the first time there YUM!(we'll see how it compares to actual italian gelato when i get to italy)

London LB, evan and i took off and went to portabello road in notting hill. not quite what i expected but it was still fun. we then went and toured the HMS belfast and went to the nautral history museum and the science museum as well. it was a good day but we tired ourselves out. LB might be coming down with a cold and we both fell asleep during the movie last night.

anyway more details and pictures tomorrow when i get a chance.

love and miss you all

dont' be afraind to post comments!!!

kt

pictures (hopefully)

2006-03-31T09:53:00.000-06:00

ok i hope you guys know that you are being spoiled at the moment. once i get on the continental tour .. . probably no more pictures and very few posts.

the first pic is the t-rex at the london museum of natural history.
2nd: my super cool pic of big ben and the london eye
3rd: Holland and Barrett the health stores, kidna weird seeing my name everywhere
4th: park in london, pretty huh?
5th: me at greenwich feeling pretty cold in the wind and rain

tomorrow we're traveling to Burford and Bath, sunday more london adventures (probably the whipsnape animal park north of london in bedfordshire) next update will be monday or tuesday.

everyone have a great weekend. i miss you all!! love the e-mails and comments!

kt

Getting out in the world

2006-03-31T04:29:00.000-06:00

pictures: 1stnd: evan and i at the tower bridge, 2nd: stonehenge with me and LB. very rainey please excuse my hair.

This week hasn't been the most exciting. Most things in Oxford we have seen and done already so it is just us going back to visit the favorites. We seem to have settled into a routine of getting up, getting breakfast, class, some adventures in teh afternoon, supper, then some activity between 8-10ish.then bed.

We've been hanging out with the moorhead boys more lately (evan, logan and mike). they are just hilarious to hang out with. logan is crazy talented at music, evan and him get together and play the piano for us once in a while. They are really easy going guys always up for jsut a walk around town. Lb and i will miss them when we have to split off from them for the continental tour.

yesterday LB and i took off to explore london for ourselves. We felt comfortable enough to do some expolring without having someone lead us around or a guy to protect us. we separated from a larger group that was going back to the british museum so we could go check out Hyde park and the natural history museum. Hyde park is beautiful! for those of you who have seen "finding neverland" the park scenes were filmed in hyde park. Very greed and lush with a lot of water features with wild ducks, swans and geese swiming around. We talked with this one guy who was feeding te birds bread. he warned us about the dangers of american rap music :) it was kinda funny. In Hyde park we also got to see the statue of peter pan and the albert memorial and some people riding horses around (yes i was drooling over the horses, i can't wait until ireland!). after that we made it to the natural history museum. That place is by far the coolest place we have visited yet!!! they have so many full skeletons of dinosaurs and a couple mechanical replications that move and screech at you when you walk by. LB and i are prettty much in shock over all of it. we almost started freaking out in that stupid high pitched screem girlly jump around thing that girls do. WE could have sat there and watchd the t-rex all day. the thing was so cook that even its eyes would appear to focus on you. it was really realy cool. after some running around in the museum (about an hour and a half) we took off as the museum was closing. our original plan was to go tour parliment since we knew that that was open later. on the way there we walked through st. james park and had a little picnic, watchng the geese, swans, ducks, squirells and pelicans. it was so pretty since the sun was starting to set. WE also stopped to get a picture in a phone booth with big ben in the background. by the time we got to parliment they were closed for some party or meeting so we just decide to walk to vicorias station and putts around until our bus came. we eneded up jumping in a couple book stores and the train station (kinda like a mini mall) to get some raspberry whitechocolate cookies from millies cookies (our new additction). then it was a quick bus ride home to wycliff and a stop at husainnes to eat. it was there LB and i decided that we loved being girls since the cookie guys gave us extra cookies and the hussains guys give us free fries. :)

anyawy thaks for the comments and e-mails guys!!! i love being kept update with waht is going on!

kt

what a weekend

2006-03-28T03:52:00.000-06:00

Quick update: I added pictures finally!!
first one: LB and i at greenwich. we are in the right and left hemispheres at the same time. the second pic: random pic in oxford but it shows the atmosphere. third: a cool looking tree that lb and i climbed on.

back to the original post

Wow this weekend was quite an adventure.

saturday we took off for our first feild trip. we got to take a double decker bus with the moorhead crew so that was fun. first stop was avebury which is about 4000 years old and has a giant dike, ditch and stones all around it. they think that it was built by the same people that built stonehenge but these stones are a little smaller and you could walk up to them and touch them. after that and some traveling (including a some ridiculous jokes by dr.chapman) we reached stonehenge. by that time it was raining pretty heavily and of course i forgot my unbrella on the bus, i got quite wet, but it was still pretty cool to see these masive stones. After stone henge we had a 20 minute bus ride over to salisbury to see the salisbury cathedral. it has been in worship everyday for 700 years. it was amazing. the sheer size of it you can't imagine until you are in there. after that it was just a ride home for some grub at wycliff and then a short shopping trip for LB and I so that we wouldn't have to spend as much money in london the next day.

London was sooooo much fun. we started out as part of a big group (tom, bri, kate, eric, mike, matt, evan, LB, and i) we were all going to go and watch the changing of the gaurds which tom said (and tom is always right) was going to be at the tower of london. unforunatly we got separated from the whole group as we got on different busses to go to london (two main buss companies and we were split between them). so matt, mike, evan, LB and I all ended up in london and continued on without the rest of the crew to the tower. at the tower we find out that they only do the changing of the gaurds at buckingham palace (which is what we thought, but since tom is always right, we had gone along with his plan) At that point, evan LB and i split off from the rest of the group to do our exploring in a smaller group. a big group just gets irritating to deal with becuause you can't move as quickly and everyone has to agree on everything. THe three of us walked around the tower bridge (see pic at top of blog) aand then walked across the thames and across much of central london over to the imperial war museum. the museum was amazing. they had all these things that you could do that would kinda put you in the soldiers shoes (we got to be in the trenches in ww1!) after that we ate our lunches we had made from the night before (mm pita bread and ham) and continued to walk aroud london. We walked by the london eye (a giant ferris wheel that provides great veiws of the city) and went and took pictures around big ben and parliment. we then took the tube over to the british museum where we only covered half of it in about 3 hours. that is how huge that place is. we did get to see a lot of egyptian stuff including mummies and sculptures, and we also saw a lot of the greek and roman sculptires, and a ton of other stuff. we might go back there this thursday to finish off the africa, and american areas in there. after the muesum we were hungry again so we grabbed some subway (pretty cheap option here) and walked around in the Soho area of london for a bit until we reached buckingham palace. we then decided that since it was quite rainy and getting dark, we should probably head back to oxford. we grabbed hossains on the way back to wycliff because they have the greatest food here and we were hungry again (they even gave LB free fries).

yesterday was a lot of recovery for the busy weekend. we sat around a lot, updated our journals and did laundry. we also went to the museum of natural history again, bringing evan and danielle from moorhead to see the t-rex skeleton and stuff. we were really lucky actually taht we got to the museum when we did since there was a huge downpour shortly after we got there. peopple were coming in completly soaked!

anyway, today we're going to go to the ashmolean (art place) and then find something else to amuse our time.

no pics this time. blogger is being stupid and not allowing me to grab them off my snapfish accound (if anyone knows how to fix that, let me know)

thanks for all the e-mails again!

kt

First trip to London

2006-03-24T10:41:00.000-06:00

I'm not even quite sure what i update about last, but yesterday was my first trip to london. LauraBeth, Mike, Matt, Jamie and I all got on the bus and wnet into london seeing some cute little sheep and lambs along the way (and i took a nap). once there we had our first adventure on the london subway system (called the tube). it took us way to long to get to grenwich, but we had a fun time anyway. we went up to the royal observatory and took pictures near the prime meridian and in the park with the cool looking trees. we were also able to find supper at this cute little italian place that really enjoyed having us as customers. it looked like they didn't get a whole lot of buisness, so they were very doting on us and best of all we got huge bowls of pasta for pretty cheap (best thing in the world for college students adapting to the interesitng food here) the food here looks or sounds normal, that is until you eat it. its not all bad, its just a little strange to get used to.
well anyway, since i am waiting here for my pics to upload, yes you guys get pictures this time! i figured i'd write a bit more about london. Being the dork I am i kept noticing all the dogs here. there aren't a lot of them, but people are allowed to bring them pretty much everyplace with them. bookstores, postoffice, the only time i saw a dog without an owner was when a dog was waiting outside the grocery store for the owner who was shopping. it was really cute. a lot of the beggers have their own dogs which is kinda cool to see them always curled up together.
on wednesday (london trip was thursday) we went to the museum of the history of science, which is about as interseting as the title. not much to see there besides a lot of microscopes and other equipment. plus it was filled with french students so i was glad to get out of there. they do however had a blackboard with einsteins writing on it from 1931 which was pretty cool.

other than that, i am loving the weather here, its still a little cold, but today it was so nice and sunny that LB (laurabeth) and i went outside to read before class started. Amy brandt, if you are reading this . . you would LOVE it here, so rainy and misty with always that smell of a fresh rain around.

today LB, mike, matt, and two peoples from moorhead, evan and libby, we all went to christ church. it was pretty cool, and we got some cool pictures of the chapel and the great hall. i got some pictures of the part that harry potter was filmed at so that was cool. after that we headed back down to st.giles st. they had a little market going on. we went back later for further exploring and we tried some cookies, and some turkish delights.

tomorrow, we take a feild trip to avebury, stonehenge and salisbury. i'm pretty excited to get out of oxford again. it should be a fun time. also sunday we're going back to london on sunday to see some of the city in the day time.

yay pictures!!!

there is one of the bridge in heartfordshire college. if you turn to the left right after it there is this relaly skinny allyway that brings you to the turf, (the bar where bill clinton allegidly didn't inhale while smoking a certian alleged substance)

second pic is of grenwich where the prime meridian is, i do have a picture of myself in both the west and east hemispheres at the same time. i'll post it later though once they are already on the internet.

the group in the pub(que pasa bar and grill) pic is left to right, Bri, Jamie, Me, Leah, Kate, Eric, and Kristi.

fun in oxford

2006-03-21T13:27:00.000-06:00

well i've been able to do a lot more exploring of the area. yesterday we attempted to go to the science mueseum but found it closed and decided to do some more shopping. then later a group of us went to Que Pasa pub to find something to eat for supper that would be better than the "steak and mush" pie that was being served at wycliff. although que pasa sounds like it would be mexican, it acutally had safari-ish style and served mostly italian food. (go figure)

today most of the bemidji group went to the science museum. for laurabeth and i . . it was like being kids in a candy shop. so much biology and history to take in. they have several full dinosaur skeletons and tons of other skeltons of other animals. we are definately going to be going back there. the pitt rivers museum was also fun to visit, especially when one of the guides there came and talked to us and told us how tribes shrink peoples heads. it was kinda random, but facinating at the same time. unforunately everything closes here at around 6 so we have to do most of the expoloring during the day.

the group here is getting closer and closer. i beleive tonight is going to be an early night though as many of them are staying inside to watch pride and predijudice for the english class.

i better go though, i gots lots of e-mails to contend with right now and short on internet time.

kt

oxfordian adventures

2006-03-19T06:12:00.000-06:00

hey guys, i made it to another internet place today . . much cheaper than before. Anyway its been a blast so far seeing this city. I adjusted pretty well to the time difference . . especially when i can sleep in until 10am! :)

yesterday we went exploring the city again. LauraBeth and I met up with Jamie, and two guys from moorhead to walk down the the main buisness area (carfax) We picked up some nessecities (boys needed shampoo) then just went browsing. I got a great Monet print which keeps falling off of my wall in the dorms. I also got some post cards but they are going to have to wait a while to get out because the post office won't be open until tomorrow. We ran around taking pictures for a while throuhout the whole thing. I got some great pics of broad street, and brasenose lane. We also went aroudn in the bodilian library [IMG]http://www.ox.ac.uk/i/aboutoxford/divschool.jpg[/IMG] and the Church of Mary the Virgin.. [IMG]http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/in-thefootsteps-bibletrans/Footsteps,%20resized/oxford-st-mary-virgin-(1)-b.jpg[/IMG]

Today we woke up later, decided to be heathens (by not going to church) and greeted the much improved weather conditions outside. Intstead of being overcast, windy and cold, it is now sunny and mid 40s in temperature. Also LauraBeth spotted a pheasent in the garden outside our room this morning. Kinda weird to see those just walking around in a city.

Our room is super cute. we rearranged some of it to make is more homey, and added the two posters on the wall (which keep falling and attacking us) But it feels strangly normal here. OUr room pretty much feels like home, and once we get used to the food everything will be perfect!

ANyway i hope everybody is doing well and is home safe and sound from all their spring break adventures. Send me an e-mail or comment if you can. Miss you all!

kt

i'm here

2006-03-17T11:14:00.000-06:00

\i'm safe and sound in oxford! i'm going on about 5 hours of sleep that i had thursday morning, but i'm not actually all that tired at the moment.

\laurabeth and i got a pretty big room . . other than that it had jsut been run run run since we got here. \we got here late, then had lunch, then had a introductory meeting, then a tour of oxford with chapman. \its really cold here right now so i appoligize for my typing. . . my fingers are really cold and stiff and the moment.

\so much stuff to see and stuff i want to go and see! around every courner there is something completely new and awesome looking, and i keep seeing gifts for friends and family as well.

anyway i'm gonna go, hopefully pics and a longer update will come soon!

kt

Yay for my little brother!!!

2006-03-15T10:14:00.000-06:00

My little brother won his game against Red Lake yesterday. It was such a close game. They were ahead of us 2 minutes from the end, but we came back to rally and win it!!! They play on friday against pelican rapids (undefeated) and if they win that they will go to state.

I leave tommorrow, and so far have been able to pack everything alright. Lots of loose ends to try to tie up though before leaving tomorrow. My mom decided to drive down with my sis and I to drop me off. Its just crazy to think that I am leaving tomorrow, but i'm sure i can get everything together in time.

kt

Sadness

2006-03-11T22:42:00.000-06:00

Well i am at my parents home until i leave. It was tough to leave good ole b-town today though. I realized that although bemidji has been my home now for a while, leaving today reminded me of the first time i left home for college. Knowing that i would be away from home for so long . . . knowing all the adventures that i will go through before i get back. . . missing out on spring, my favorite season . . . :(

on the upside, i got to see my little brother play a great game of basketball! They beat bagley and if they win their next game on tuesday, they will be one step closer to state!!! It was awesome to see in ruling the court!

kt

so yeah

2006-03-05T10:48:00.000-06:00

to let you guys know, I'll be checking this blog when i'm over there, and feel free to leave me comments. I have the settings so that anyone can leave comments. just fyi

kt

holy crap!

2006-03-04T18:12:00.000-06:00

less than 2 weeks!!! that is just insane. There is no way i am going to be ready. I'm still going over stuff in my mind like "i have to remember to take that" what i should be doing is making a pile or list or soemthing because i know i'm gonna forget something.

Here are some pictures of Oxford and Wycliffe Hall where I will be for the majority of the trip. I had to include a picutre of the dinosaur in the mueseum for Rexifer. ;)

This first one is Wycliffe Hall, basically the dorms. We saw pics of the rooms . . . not very impressive, i'm sure it will be way different once i get there.

Here is an arial shot of part of Oxford univsersity.

This one is for you rexifer!!

so yeah, freak out should begain soon. right now i jsut feel unprepared, i'm pretty sure it hasn't hit me that i am going to be with people i really just met, in a country i don't know, for 2 months!! anywho i think i found a ride down to the airport with my super cool sister, but still not wuite sure whats going on.

kt

Easter break plans

2006-03-01T17:29:00.000-06:00

So I had to find a new place to go horseback riding. Acutally this place seems better as they have several different rides, Its also in the western southern part of Ireland, so the weather should be a little warmer. This weekend Leah and I will book our reservations!!!!

Pictures!

Getting excited

2006-02-16T20:31:00.000-06:00

So in a little under a month, i will be in europe! There is so much stuff to think of before i go though. Half of me is extremely excited about all the adventures and expiriances that i will have a chance to have while i am over there. The other half of me is kinda dreading leaving here. For so many of my friends, it will be the last 2 months that they are in bemidji, and here i go leaving.

Leah and I were talking about the workshops. We both agreed that the more we think about leaving, the more we realize that there is no way that anyone can truely prepare themselves for the trip. There will always be stuff you bring that you don't need, stuff you need that you don't bring. Also there is no way to expect what will happen on the trip or how it will change you. I expect to grow quite a bit as a person during the trip. I don't know how a person can go away on their own, with people they barely know, for two whole months . . and not expect some sort of a change to happen.

anyway i started this blog so that everyone could be able to easily catch up with me and contact me if needed. So yeah there you go.