New York

(Empire State of Mind Part 2 - Featuring Alicia Keys)

To listen along while reading this post click HERE)

Ooohh New York

Ooohh New York

Grew up in a town that is famous as the place of movie scenes

Noise was always loud, there are sirens all around and the streets are mean

If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere, that's what they say

Seeing my face in lights or my name on marquees found down on Broadway


Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams

Baby, I'm from New York

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of


There's nothing you can't do


Now you're in New York


These streets will make you feel brand new


Big lights will inspire you


Hear it for New York, New York, New York!



On the avenue, there ain't never a curfew, ladies work so hard


Such a melting pot, on the corner selling rock, preachers pray to God


Hail a gypsy cab, takes me down from Harlem to the Brooklyn Bridge


Some will sleep tonight with a hunger far more than an empty fridge

I'm gonna make it by any means, I got a pocketful of dreams


Baby, I'm from New York


Concrete jungle where dreams are made of


There's nothing you can't do


Now you're in New York


These streets will make you feel brand new


Big lights will inspire you


Hear it for New York, New York, New York!


One hand in the air for the big city,


Street lights, big dreams all looking pretty


No place in the world that can compare


Put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah


In New York!



Concrete jungle where dreams are made of


There's nothing you can't do


Now you're in New York


These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you


Hear it for New York!

Fall: The Best of All

This weekend, Michal and I drove the Alpine Loop to look at the leaves changing color. It was so breathtaking up there, and we got out to hike around. While we did, here are some pictures that we took on Sunday's early evening.

Having a bad day?

Sometimes when I am having a bad day, videos like these will cheer me up. Hopefully they will remedy your bad day like they have cured mine!

Watch the whole thing...



Here is the second part to the first video... I couldn't find it all in one clip, make sure you watch number one first though!



German Prank...



Dancing Dog...

Michal meets his favorite TV star

The other day as I was driving home for my lunch break I saw something that I KNEW would make Michal so happy. I wanted to get him to take me back to work so I could show him my surprise, but he insisted that he was too busy. Alas, my surprise had to wait. The following days my "surprise" for Michal did not return. I thought I missed my opportunity forever... Until 2 days ago, my "surprise" returned. I jumped in the car with Michal, drove down the street and introduced him to...

HANK HILL (from King of the Hill TV series)

Now everyday as we drive down this street Hank is always there to greet us!

(This post was for you Michal)

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend was such a blast! I started out the weekend by going to Swiss Days with my Mom & my Aunt Judy.

I had to catch my mom in the action of spending money!

I even ran into my mission president’s wife: Sister Pugh. Overall, I had a really fun time and these types of events are the ones that I just love. Walking around with a crowd, looking at the different crafty things, thinking about what clever ideas could I come up with to make money at a thing like this. Michal drags his feet when I take him to “boutiques” like this… he is done after 10 minutes, and I could stay for hours.

Anyways, I’m really glad that my Mom invited me last minute.

We continued the weekend by heading up to my parents cabin on Saturday evening. On the way up there we drove over a huge bolt (on the dirt road) and got a flat tire. I was kinda bummed and it put me in a slightly bad mood. Infact, I even forgot to take a picture of my flat tire.

While we were at the cabin, we ate a lot of good food, went ATV riding, played fun games, got a lot of sleep, and went on some awesome hikes. This one was my favorite...

We went in search of these:

But didn’t find very many; just a few.

The whole reason that we ended up going to the cabin was to celebrate my Mom’s Birthday. So my brothers and their “significant others” came up also. My favorite picture of the whole weekend was Michal pretending to be a gangsta by wearing all of Ben’s Detroit “hood” stuff. I laughed so hard, and everytime I see this picture, I still laugh.

When we came home, no tire places were open (because of the Holiday). So my Dad was kind enough to fix it for me.

We had a lot of fun this weekend, and I can’t wait until we get another 3 day weekend.

Green Cauliflower?

This is what I ate on Tuesday night for dinner...

Michal & I went to the grocery store the other day and I asked him to grab some cauliflower for us. When I pulled it out of the fridge last night I seriously thought that he grabbed a piece with mold on it. He said that's how they all looked.

Notice the completely white stems and the ultra green tops!

So I asked around at YW that night, if anyone had ever heard of green cauliflower. I thought that if anyone had, that my neighbors would know about it, since I attend a ward full of farmers. One of the ladies explained that she calls it "broci-flower." It's a mix between Broccoli and Cauliflower.

I learned something new the other day, and it wasn't that bad either.

Summer was great, but bring on Fall...

Michal and I have had an eventful summer. Unfortunately, I haven't done a very good job at keeping up-to-date so this will have to be a long post.

June:

We started June out very active. Michal talked me into doing my first ever 5K.

I have to admit, I was extremely nervous to do this, because I am not a runner. But I had some great co-workers who also convinced me to do this race.

Even though they all smoked me, I was still accomplished my only goal: to finish! I had a HORRIBLE time, but as the summer progressed... I was able to shave about 6 minutes off of my 5K time as I kept running and running.

Michal ran this race with me... Kinda. He ran the 10K which started about 10 minutes after the 5K did. And he passed me! He is quite a fast runner. He runs about a 9 minute mile when he runs the 10K races. Currently Michal is preparing for another marathon in Layton in October. He just loves to run.

July:

Our July was busy with all sorts of parades, festivals, and fiesta days.

I marched in 4 different parades during July: Sandy, Provo, Payson, and Spanish Fork.

and Michal was there cheering me on for all of them. When wearing all wool in 90 degree weather, it can get quite exhausting, but Michal was at the end of every parade with cool water for me!

We also went to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo.

Michal with his hand over his heart ready for the national anthem.

Michal "dressed up" in his cowboy outfit and I think he got more attention than some of the contestants did.

My parents took us to the rodeo because they came down the night before to watch me march in the Parade the next morning. I felt quite loved between my family, and all of my Young Women cheering me on. I had quite the fan club!

August:

Michal took a trip to Alaska the first week of August. He went with my brothers and my dad to Doc Warner's Fishing Camp.

There they fished for a whole week and caught a ton of Halibut and Salmon. Michal had never been fishing before and had a blast. He took lots of pictures and even learned a new word: "nibble."

While he was gone, I decided to clean out the house really well. It was quite uneventful until I came across this little creature:

I consider myself brave to have caught it and let it go outside. It was the largest spider I have ever seen in my whole life... plus, I have never seen a spider with it's egg-sac.

That pretty much sums up our summer. We are excited for fall and the adventures that await us.

If my blog was Facebook...

... right now it would say:

• The drying time of my hair just went from 10 minutes to 90 seconds.

I love shorter hair. I teased Michal that my status update on Facebook was going to say: "Katie's Hair is now shorter than her husbands," because I got a shorter hair cut... that I once again love.

• That I got asked out on a date today by someone OTHER than my husband.

It was awkward. The worst part about it was that I didn't realize he was actually asking me out until someone at work asked my why I wasn't wearing my wedding ring. It's amazing how a tiny mistake turned into an outrageous story! Michal, as usual, made a joke out of it... He said that he should have waited until the World Cup started and then he would let me go out with him. I can't believe him sometimes. I don't get half of his jokes, but I sure got this one.

• That my heart goes out for NISON.

She knows who she is. She is in my prayers.

• That I went weeding with my husband tonight. I got about 20 bug bites. , I used a new Nu Skin product and it's been about 2 hours later and I seriously can't find a single bite on my arms.

We weeded under our billboard tonight so that people would stop dumping their junk in the weeds. Michal was afraid that he would find a dead bird... I was afraid a skunk would come out and spray me. Instead I got 20 bug bites - 10 of these bites were definitely from mosquitos, the others probably from garden spiders or bugs or something. Anyways, It's a miracle. If I didn't have Michal as a witness, I wouldn't believe it myself. I am pretty sure I am going to "stock-up" on this product for any future bug problems I have.

• That I took a Berlin Shower tonight.

A "Berlin Shower" is like jumping into a lake with ice-chunks floating around. It is so cold that you can hardly breathe. You feel like you are going to die. And I named it a "Berlin Shower" because the first time I went to Berlin, the hostel I was staying at DID NOT have anything but freezing cold water. I don't think that I've ever experienced anything like it before. But, any time I take a cold shower, it feels like I'm in a Hot Tub compared to the shower in Berlin. If you ever go on vacation there - make sure that you consult your hotel (or hostel) to make sure that they have at least WARM water there.

Anyways - I took a freezing cold water because I was sneezing so badly and I was itching so badly (from these dang weeds) and a cold shower stopped my itching. It was like my own little "anti-histamine." I never would have thought it worked, but I couldn't stop sneezing. It didn't hit until we had been weeding for about an hour and after about 50-60 sneezes in a row, Michal decided it was time for us to quit. I didn't stop sneezing until I had ice chunks in my hair from my shower. It was Michal's idea - I swear. But I'm grateful for him... because it worked!

• is... Still contemplating whether to go to Youth Conference at 7:00 am tomorrow.

I have to drive over an hour to Heber. And don't know if I'll be any help at all. Feel torn. On one hand - I could really help out. On the other - I could just be standing around doing nothing, feeling like I'm in the way. Not quite sure what I will do.

• is... Grateful for the friendships that I have made recently.

I kept my distance from someone because I heard that they didn't like me. Only to realize, it has been a blast getting to know her. I wish that I would have made an effort to get to know her, and other's lately. Because it has really been a blessing in my life.

• Wonders if she will have much of a husband once the World Cup begins.

I asked Michal if this were rude, or if I should even include this. His response was, "I think it should be okay, because it will be true."

• still can't figure out why Tiramisu is bad for you.

I mean - doesn't all that kind of stuff in it burn off when you cook it? It tastes so good. I'm skeptical that it really has what people say it has in it.

• really, really, really wants to go on a hike tomorrow.

'Nuff said...

- And that's what all my facebook status updates would say -

Sharing the Gospel

Today I took a late lunch. I was surprised I even went out at all. Normally, I'd just be hungry, but go home an hour early. But today I decided to go to the Novell Cafeteria. It's this fabulous place where you have lots of options to choose from for lunch, and it's all relatively inexpensive, especially compared to Nuskin's Cafe prices. The Buffalo Spicy Chicken Salad caught my eye, and it was awful. It was way too spicy for my tender tongue, and it had way too much sauce. Now normally, ordering an awful lunch would have put me in an awful angry hungry mood... but instead... today was different. I sat just close enough to a table nearby to hear half of their conversation. It was all about the gospel. There were little snippets I heard every once in a while so that I got the jist of the whole coversation. They were talking about Christ's Baptism. And why it was important for him to get baptized to show us the way. They were discussing types of baptism, and mercy vs. grace and how it works hand in hand. They were talking about the atonement, and I was able to eavesdrop in on their conversation for about a half hour, until I left. Normally, I would have pulled open my Polish book and tried to learn a few new Polish vocab words, but instead I was way too interested in what they were talking about. I just wanted to walk over and pull up a chair and listen in... but in reality - that would be so awkward and that would definitely show that I lack in social skills.

It made me ponder and reflect back on my mission. It made me remember all about what kinds of answers I used to give while I was on my mission when people would ask me similar questions. Most of all, it made me just itch to share the gospel with someone. I think that most times we are just "comfortable" where we are at, and we don't really REACH out to people like the way the Savior did. We just figure that everyone is happy where they are at, and that we are happy with where we are at, and we just let things sit happy. But, I was thinking about how when we do share the gospel, yes... it puts us outside of our comfort zone, but think of how much more happy we are when we do it. It not only reaffirms our faith, but helps us grow closer to others by knowing that we are serving them and treating them as Christ would. Sharing the Gospel doesn't necessarily need to be going up to random strangers and "bearing your testimony" it doesn't need to be you giving away countless copies of the Book of Mormon. Rather, sharing the gospel is more about the way that we reach out to others and help them come closer to Christ. We share ways in which we have come closer to the Savior and hope that through our love and example, they will come close to the Savior also.

So I'm sure that even though these gentleman had no intention of going to lunch together to talk about Jesus Christ, that they were both edified and enriched by talking about him. It was a chance that they each had to grow... and this is what I want. I want a chance to grow. I want a chance to reach out to others. I want a chance to bear witness of the fulness of the gospel. I want someone to feel the love of the savior through me.

Michal and I are discussing ways in which we can grow and become better people and a better family together... and I know that this fits into our discussion plans. I know that sometimes we have to take a step into the dark in order to see the light and that sometime decisions that you make can be scary. It is scary when you are trying to piece together your life and make choices that you have no idea how they will affect you. But regardless of the outcome, as long as we are growing and learning from the experiences that we make... it will make us better people, and I know that we will be blessed temporally and spritually from our decisions. Mostly because we choose to include the Lord in them. That is what is so great about life. That there are so many choices. Yes - I admit - I'm the worst at making decisions, but when I look at an eternal perspective of things it helps me to realize that I can only become better by each decision I make. Hopefully, as the next few months unravel and as we continue to try to make our family better... I can "blog" about all these fun decisions that have helped us to become better people.

Birthday Celebrations...

The night before we celebrated and went to a Salt Lake REAL (pronounced: Ree-ahl, not "reel") Soccer Game. I think Michal really had fun because we were able to sit so close.

(Michal was in heaven with his "game" food.)

My favorite part was the south section where the hispanics all sat and played the drums and jumped up and down the whole game. They were so engaged in the game that it was entertaining just to watch them.

For Michal's Birthday - he got all sorts of cool gifts - he is the easiest person to shop for because he loves whatever you get him. Even ask my brother Sam if you don't believe me...

Then on May 17th we Celebrated my Great-Grandmothers 100th Birthday. We had a huge celebration for her up in Salt Lake. They showed a video of her life and had fun facts all about the year 1910 when she was born. They also displayed all of her hobbies and cool artifiacts she had collected or made throughout the years.

It was a fun celebration... and now I can say that I know someone who is 100 years old!