Final Grades/Christmas Break

So I did way better in school this semester than I thought. Its pretty awesome! I got a 3.83 GPA! I got A's in Discrete Math, Calculus 3 and English and a B+ in my Stats 5200 class. (I was SOOOO close to an A... almost had a 4.0) But I am still pretty stoked!!

This break has been pretty nice so far! Really boring sometimes but really relaxing. I always kind of go through a little bit of an identity crisis at the end of each semester. I don't know what to do with myself with all my homework and studying done. But hey, I am DEFINATELY not complaining!

I've also gone on a couple of dates with a really cute boy :) All i'm going to say is butterflies. And that I suck at dating. I'm always super insecure about everything. Andee, I'm going to publicly appolgize for bothering you like a 16 year old girl. Ha. But, I wont say anything more until I have more to tell.

Tomorrow I get to talk to Casey!! I'm so excited! I miss him a ton. He's my buddy, and I get so bored at home with him gone. But he gets home in like 7 months! Yay :)

The Mall

Let's go to the mall, everybody!

So, yesterday I went to the mall with Andee to get a tie for my brother for his Christmas present (boring, I know, but what else do missionaries need?) and guess what?!

A lady from the mall customer services came up to us and gave us both free $20 gift certificates and told us thanks for shopping at the mall during the Hollidays!

Awesome!!

And the best part is my gift certificate is to Forever 21, which is like my favorite store. So great.

Rockin' It

Guess who totally rocked Multivariable Calculus this semester?!

ME!!!

I got an A and I am super stoked!!

This was a pretty good semester - So far I know I also got 107% on my Discrete Math final project, so I think I'll get an A in that class too. Pretty Awesome!!!

More to come, as soon as I find out my other final grades!!!

Fun with Friends

So, I don't know if you guys know this, but I really like you. You're all pretty awesome. I really enjoy my friends. I miss them when I cant be around them.

This last week I was able to see a lot of my friends because of the long break for Thanksgiving. It was nice. I got to see my "Sizzler friends" Stephanie, Lindsay and Francescia. We went to lunch and talked for like 2 hours, and then we went to the mall. We are each others best and worst shopping partners... We all LOVE to shop and spend money, so we enjoy going with each other, but we also convince each other to buy everything so we always spend too much when we're with each other. But I love those guys :)

I also went to lunch with my friends Andee and Kati. It was nice to catch up. And Andee is PREGNANT! So thats really exciting :)

I also went to dinner and a movie with Andee and her husband Tyson. I wasn't cool enough to have a date haha. Tyson was kind enough to point that out. However, Andee has now taken it as her responsibilty to get me dating..... haha its good, I guess, because I really need to start getting out of my shy bubble and dating, but I like to complain about it. But I think this will help. Haha thanks Andee, for watching out for my eternal well-being.

Last night was our Sunday night "Game Night."  However, it just ended up being me, Chelsey, Megan, Kyle and Jake ad instead of playing games we just talked about a ton of random things, from really really weird to very deep topics. Haha it was great. I like to just talk with my friends.

Oh, we made a new texting rule. Spread it like wildfire because we really want it to stick- we were all talking about how much we hate texting, and that when you do text, the tone that you mean to convey never comes across the right weay, expecially when you are sarcastic.  Since I am the QUEEN of sarcasm, I really struggle with this problem. So, we decided that when you say something sarcastic through text, that you suround it with the ~ symbol, kind of like using quotes. Example: ~I LOVE to text.~

So, this sentence could have been interpreted literally (heaven forbid) and people would have assumed that I really DO love to text, when actually its quite the opposite. Now, with the introduction of the new ~ symbol, we'll never have that problem again!

I thought I should share this, just in case I use it in a text and you're kind of confused....

Well, Thank you my friends, for being my friends. You're all

AWESOME!!! 

Halloween!

So this is VERY overdue. Oh well. That's the story of my blog.

This year for Halloween Chelsey and I decided that we didn't want to waste time at the stinky, sweaty Howl dance up on campus, and that a party would be more fun.

And IT WAS!

We had some pretty sweet decorations and we made a ton of food, and we had punch with dry ice for an awesome effect.

We played a lot of "Minute to Win It" games. Haha I suck at most of them. Bouncing pencils on their erasers into a jar is impossible. At least when I try.

After the games a massive dance party broke out. It started inside, but then our friend Tyler pulled his car around to our back patio so we could hook the iPod into his nice set-up. It started to get pretty legit from here on out. The music was loud, we were loud.... and we ended up getting shut down by our managers before the cops were called on us. Haha. I was pretty proud of our party. We even had word of mouth- people were showing up that we had no idea who they were. Pretty sweet party, eh?

Costumes were a MUST! Here are some of the awesome pics:

Chelsey was "Storm" from X-Men

Brittany was someone from Farscape (?)

Jake and Kyle were the wonderful duo of Buzz and Woody

I was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz

Haha we had 2 people come as Katniss from the Hunger Games! Megan as the "Arena" Katniss and Ben as "The Girl on Fire" Katniss.

There were a lot of other great costumes, but I'm too lazy to wait for them to load haha. But we had a BLAST!!

My New Calling

So... My new calling in Church is a Family Home Evening "Mom."

I am now a "mother" to 28 wonderful "children." Ha.

Me and my "Husband" are in charge of FHE every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month.  Today is the third time we are in charge of it.  I can't get ahold of my so-called husband, so I have no idea what we'll be doing in two and a half hours. I've already run out of ideas. Pathetic, eh?  I have no clue how I'll keep that many people entertained twice a month for the rest of the school year...

....So....

That's where you come in.

(Hopefully..)

Can you please give me ANY ideas for a fun FHE?

It can be anything, as long as its cheap. We dont have a budget from the ward, so its all out of our pockets.  But if you remember a certain FHE that you liked, PLEASE let me know! I'm pretty desprate here. 

Thanks guys!!!

My Scholarship Story

So, I thought that I should FINALLY post about this, since it's kind of

HUGE!!!

I've been putting it off because this is a long story, but its definitely worth telling, even if it's a month late.

So, after Spring semester in 2009, my 2 year academic scholarship from USU was up. I was going to start applying, but i was going to China and and had forever to start applying.....

Of course, me being the procrastinator that I am, never applied for a new one. When I got back from China, I was kinda like, oh crap.

That's when my mom and I started looking everywhere for new scholarships.  We figured there had to be a scholarship for people with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and we spent hours upon hours looking up different scholarships online.

One Sunday I had just come back from spending Spring Break in Moab. I was really sick of driving, so I didn't want to drive all the way back to Logan that day too, so I stayed at my parents house and was going to drive back up in the morning.  When I woke up it was snowing (of course) so my mom and I thought we'd look at scholarships while we were waiting for the road to clear. Out of no where, we found a scholarship for EXACTLY what we had been looking for.  A pharmaceutical company called UCB was giving away 30 $10,000 scholarships to people with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  When my mom and I saw this we couldn't believe it. It was perfect. Then we noticed something. Something really bad. We had missed the deadline. The scholarship applications were supposed to be turned in the previous Friday. We had barely missed it.

My mom didn't want to give up, so she decided to call the number on the site and see if there was any way we could still send in the application. The lady on the phone had really good news- they had decided to extend the applications for one more week!

We both had to scramble to start getting everything ready. I had to write a 2 page essay on how I have tried to reach past the boundaries of my Rheumatoid Arthritis, and live my life to the fullest. I also had to have two letters of recommendation, a Doctor's note with my diagnosis, a picture of myself and the application filled out.

So, my week was crazy. I was able to get a letter from my Aerobics teacher, and also from my favorite Professor at school, my Differential Equations & Linear Algebra teacher Professor Bornholdt. He wrote an AMAZING letter. I really don't thing you could get a better one than the one he wrote for me. I also finished my essay, and it turned out perfect due to my technical writing major friend Brittany, who edited and arranged everything so it was at its best.

My only problem was that my mom had all of my medical records, and she was in South Jordan, and I was in Logan.  So my mom drove up to Logan to bring my my Doctor's note and to finish putting everything together. Before she came up I realized that my mom had written on the back of the scholarship application. Of course I didn't want to turn that one in, so I got back online to print out a new one. I looked all over the entire site, and there was no longer a link to print the application. I called my mom, panicking, and she said she would call again and see if there was some way to print off a new one.

Here is where the story starts to get good. My mom calls, and a lady answers. My mom explains our situation, and asks if there is anyway to get a new application. The lady says that it isn't a problem at all, that she can email it to us. So, while she is emailing it, my mom strikes up a conversation with her. For those of you who know my mom, you know that she does this with everyone. Normally, it really bugs me. But this time, I was very thankful. It turns out that the lady on the phone was quite the talker, and she and my mom had a lengthy half hour conversation about our family, and her family. This lady (who is from South Carolina) couldn't believe that my mom had 5 kids, and that one had RA and one was autistic. All she had was a 3 year old daughter, who was more than enough work. By the end of all this talking, the lady asked if she could get my name. My mom said sure, and told her and spelled out my name for her. The lady then goes on to say that her name is Amy, and that she is actually the President of the company, and that she rates the applications from best to worst so that the panel who chooses doesn't have to go through the 100's of applicants. She said she probably shouldn't answer the phones, because she tends to become biased towards those she had talked to and rate them higher. (This is sounding better by the minute) She then says that she will keep an eye out for my application!

So, my mom comes up and we're both very excited about the phone call. We get all of my application stuff together and send it in the mail. And then we wait. And wait. And wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

After three months of waiting, June FINALLY get excited, because if I didn't win, I REALLY didn't want to have my hopes high. I mean, what if my letter just got lost in the mail, and June 30th comes and I hadn't received a letter or a call??

(Which, by the way, is something that would totally happen to me.)

On the morning of June 30th, I couldn't even think straight I was so nervous. I knew the phone call would becoming from Georgia, and that they were 2 hours ahead of us. So I figured I should be getting the call by 3:00 that day if i was going to get one. Nine o'clock rolls by, ten o'clock, eleven, twelve, one, one thirty, two.... By this point I was an emotional wreck, I'm not going to lie. I wanted this scholarship SO BAD. If I didn't get it, I wasn't going to be able to go back to school in the fall because neither me or my parents would be able to afford the tuition. I was SO nervous. I couldn't understand why I hadn't had a phone call or a letter, and I was so afraid that my worst fears were coming true, and that my letter really was lost in the mail. On top of that, I had to be in to work at 3:30, and I wasn't looking forward to selling shoes while my whole world was balancing on a stupid phone call.

By two thirty I couldn't handle it anymore. I had to know, because if I didn't get the scholarship I some how had to get over it and cope before I went to work. So I had my mom call the number again. Of course, Amy picks up. My mom goes on to say that her daughter had applied and that she hadn't received a letter or a phone call, and that we were curious to know the outcome. Amy asks what the applicant's name was, and my mom says "its Keara Brady."

(Insert cute southern accent here)

Amy: "Oh! Mrs. Brady! I was so hoping you would call!"
Mom:: "Hi Amy. I was hoping we would get to talk again too! Is there any way we can find out about Keara? She's just dying here waiting to find out."
Amy: "Oh shoot. Shoot, shoot."
Mom: "What??"
Amy: "Oh shoot. I'm not supposed to say. Oh shoot!"
Mom: "You can't tell us?"
Amy: "Oh shoot. Oh, well, don't tell Keara, but, SHE WON! I was so hoping she would! But don't tell Keara! I told the committee that I really liked her, and I was really pulling for her to win, and when I found out she did I was just so happy! But, don't tell Keara!"
Mom: "She is sitting right in front of me!
Amy: "She's there??"
Mom: "Yes, she's sitting right across from me, reading everything that goes across my face."
Amy: "Oh shoot! Well... okay, well... oh shoot! Just tell her, and give her a big hug for me!"
Mom: (to me) "Keara, you won!!"

Right here I burst into tears, I was so happy and emotional from all the stress.

So, I WON!!!!!

Amy went on to tell us that when I do receive the phone call, that I had to act really surprised, because the man that calls is the one who gives the actual money away, and calling and telling the people that they had won was his favorite part, and hearing how excited they were.

So, at 3:20 when I FINALLY received the call, I played my part, Maybe too well, because the guy said that if I was driving, I should pull over, haha. He also told me about the awards banquet that they are having during the first weekend of November in Atlanta, Georgia, and that they will fly me and one person out, all expenses paid.

So, me and of course my mom will be going. And we will get to meet Amy. :)

This scholarship really was SUCH a blessing. When I applied for it back in March, I didn't even realize HOW badly I would need this scholarship. I mean, yeah $10,000 sounded really nice then, but I didn't realize how much my life would change  months that would cause me have no way of paying for my schooling. I am SO THANKFUL. This was a testimony builder for me that the Lord really does look out for us, and has a plan for us. He watches out for us before we even know we need to be watched out for. I know He has a plan for me, and He will help me succeed on the path that He has laid out for me.

And trust me, there is NO WAY I'm wasting this amazing blessing.

Silly Parker

So, Parker is my 8 year old brother. He is autistic, and can be very funny.

Here is one of the most recent conversations that had me giggling:

Parker: "Keara, what school do you go to?"

Me: "Utah State University."

Parker: "Do you go to Eagle Gate College?"

Me: "Nope, I go to Utah State."

Parker: "Do you go to Stevens Henager College?"

Me: "Nope."

Parker: "Well, why?!? Thats the best school!"

Me: "How come?"

Parker: "Because, when you start you get a laptop, and when you graduate its yours!"*(*Insert "Keara, you're an idiot" tone)

He totally repeated the commercial word for word. It was just so random and unexpected. I love it when he does such funny stuff. He's a pretty cool kid.

Gleek!

So, my dear friend Stephanie told me I had to watch Glee. I've heard a lot about it, but I've never gotten around to watching it. Well, it turns out they have started replaying the old series every Thursday night, and I happened to watch the very first one, and.....

I am a "Gleek."

I LOVE it. Last Thursday's episode was so funny. Sue Sylvester (If you dont watch the series, Sue is the woman in the picture) makes my laugh SO HARD. The whole show does. The script is just fantastic, and the characters are hillarious. And every week I get chills from the music. I love getting that feeling! I just cannot get enough, and I wish I didn't have to wait for it every Thursday.

If you want to start watching it, do! Go to and they have the first 5 episodes already up, and they post an episode every week after it airs on TV!

Payless

So. All I wanted this summer was to find a job that I could just go to, do all of my work, do that work well, put my hours in, and leave. While trying to find a job, my dad told me that when he was younger, he realized this: that it doesnt matter what you do for work, you just have to think about it this way- that you are trading one package for another. So that was my theory for this summer. It didn't matter where I worked. I just want to work so I can trade it for the better package- moving back to school this fall. All seemed great when I was hired at payless. I mean, it SHOES for crying out loud. My most favorite things in the world. So I thought, "Hmmmm. This is a nice a package." Well, I didnt realize that I would be working with ALL GIRLS. Most of the time I would like to believe that I like most people, and I'm not too critical and I am pretty excepting of people. So, at work, I'm nice to everyone. I dont really care if what they are talking about isn't my most favorite topic of conversation. After all, I'm just here so I can return to Logan. And when I first started there, it was nice. But. Then I realized all of the girls are huge gossipers. And they all say that I can't go and tell 'so-and-so' anything, because she will tell everyone what I said, and that she causes "so much drama." And, lo and behold, that same girl is the one telling everyone everything. Its really annoying. And on top of all that, there are all these previous grudges everyone already has with everyone else. So, most of the time at work, I have to listen to the other girl tell me all of the horrible things she hates about all the other girls that work there, and the next night I listen to it all over again from a different girl. This is hard, because I dont want their gossip to change my opinion of the other girls, I want the girls to all have the chance to show me who they are, and not just go by what other people have told me. I'm trying really hard not to remember anything ANYONE tells me, and remained unbiased. And the whole time I have to keep telling myself "USU. USU. USU." And, I dont want to get caught up in ANY of it, because all I want to do is put in my hours and earn my money. So, while I'm listening to all these other girls complain about everyone and everything, I try and be cordial and nice. I thought that this would be fine, but now they all think I am their friend, and JUST their friend. And its SO ANNOYING. UGH. I seriously feel like its middle school all over agian. I guess some of the girls are still in high school, but still... why can't they just come and do their work? That's all anybody is asking of them. And part of Eclipse keeps popping into my head, where Bella tells Edward that she is Switzerland. One day I may just explode and tell all the girls that I am Switzerland, too. That I'm not choosing any sides, and that I am everyones friend, no matter if they dont like each other. One day... So, the majority of my duties at work seem to be peer counseling. I'm trying to slowly retrain all of these girls' thinking habbits into nicer ones. Hopefully it works. And meanwhile, if I have a glazed over look, its because I'm having to remind myself how awesome it will feel when I get to move back to Utah State. Five more weeks, five more weeks......

Finally!

I FINALLY found a JOB! I got hired at Payless today. Very exciting. Since I love shoes SO MUCH, I'll LOVE going to work everyday! Haha I'm excited to sell shoes. Even if it is only a minimum wage job. Good news though, there is a Payless in Logan, so hopefully I can transfer when I move back to school. Some of you may be thinking, "Keara working in a shoe store = BAD IDEA" and I dont really blame you. They told me that once a month I get 50% of a pair of shoes, and the rest of the time I get 30% off. So, it is going to be VERY tempting. BUT. I have to pay for my housing and schooling next year, so I have A LOT to save up for. I'll just have to keep that in mind. But, you might have to remind me... :D

Memorial Day Campout

This weekend I went CAMPING!

I love to camp, as does my entire family. Its the best ever. My mom's side of the family are camping enthusiasts, and they have camping down to a perfection. We go around 5 times a summer with them, and it never gets old.

I have a few cousins around my age, and we play cards ALL DAY. Seriously, if you want to play a good game of scum, come hang out with me and my cousins.

We also have amazing dutch oven cooking the whole time. My dad is an amazing dutch oven cooker. Its the best! I probably gain 5 pounds every time we camp, the food is so good.

My uncles also know how to make quite the campfire. If its not too hot to stand around, we laugh for hours at each other, all in good fun of course.

We also go fishing, four wheeling, horseback riding, cliff jumping and my anut Kerri supplies fun crafts. I just love summer (and hate winter) because I get to go camping. Its wonderful!!

And, I think, a family that camps together, stays together!

(Above, my cousins Alex and Tanner cliff jumping, and below, me trying and not succeeding in jumping off. It took my a few times before i got the guts to jump off..)

What Happened??

W O W

I haven't blogged in a long time.... what happened? I mean, I've never been that good at updating my blog, but I was doing pretty well, in China at least. I'm thinking it's probably because my life was very busy, but at the same time insanely boring. (and still kind of is… haha) So...

To update you on my life:

· Spring semester is finally over! I got okay grades. I was proud of them for the most part. An A in Nutrition, and B's in my Linear Regerssion & Time Series and Linear Algebra & Differential Equations classes.

· I am now moved home to South Jordan for the summer. So far so good, but a little dull. Call me! I'd love to do something.

· I am currently job hunting. (If you know of anywhere hiring, let me know!)

· I have started painting, and I really like it. I hope to make it a hobby that sticks. I'll post pictures when I finish my Great Wall painting!

· I hope to finish guitar lessons with my mom.

· I'll be going camping a ton, and I get to go this weekend!

· I have a lot of weddings! Yay, Marriage! Five of my cousins have been or are getting married in the near future, so that's very exciting! I also have several friends planning their weddings, and two of them are my amazing friends, Lindsay (from my China group) and my old time friend Andee (who just got engaged last week!). Summers are great for weddings!

· I know a lot of you won't believe this is coming out of my mouth (well, keyboard), but I am starting to run. My friend Lindsay (from above) and her twin ran a half marathon in March, and my roomies and I went and supported them in their crazy run. I don't know why, but ever since then I have wanted to enter some kind of race. I don't think I'll ever make it to a half marathon level, but I'm going to give running a try. I figure a lot of people love it, so it can't be too bad….. I'm starting off really easy though, and I am just going to do a 5K. We'll see if I even make it that far!

· I'm also reading a lot. I've already read 4 books since I've moved home, and I would love some new ones to read. If you have any good recommendations, please tell me about them! Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully I'll be more on top of my blogging this summer!

My cast for "The Host"

I've been hearing a lot about how "The Host" is becoming a movie soon, and IMDB just wont let me see anything more than the movie being "In development." So frustrating.

I just read the book this week (LOVE IT!) and i thought I would post who my choice of actors/actresses are for the different roles. So, here they are!

Jared:

Jensen Ackles (mmmm)

Melanie Stryder: (I picked two.. I can't choose between them, they'd both fit the part)

Ashley Greene & Missy Peregrym

Ian O'Shea:

Jesse Metcalfe (also mmmmm)

Uncle Jeb:

Brian Doyle-Murray

(The Janitor in "17 Again")

Doc:

William Mapother

Kyle O'Shea:

Henry Cavill (yum)

Wanda: (I also picked two for her.)

Jayne Wisener & Amanda Seyfried I couldn't find someone I like for Jamie... there aren't that many cute, tan, black-haired, pre teen actors out there haha... but I'm sure the real casting people will find a good Jamie.

Anyways, I love this book and I am really excited for the movie. I hope it turns out better than Stephenie Meyer's other movies. If you haven't read the book yet, DO!