Thanksgiving and other happenings

A lot of my Thanksgiving break was spent in this closet. My 2 year old niece Emma discovered it after we had taken all of the christmas decorations out of it and she never wanted to leave it. She insisted that I go in there with her and after awhile of her talking about how cool and fun this closet was, we 'hid' from Grandma who came and found us, then was told by Emma, "Come in Grandma." This was followed by more hiding and soon she wanted everyone to come in the closet, but as you can see the three of us just barely fit so we got out for everyone else to have a turn in Emma's closet. Let's hope she's forgotten about the closet by christmas because it is full of boxes again.

Now that Thanksgiving is long gone, this post is way overdue. We took pictures of everyone who was at dinner, but none of them were on my camera so I can't post them. My brother Sam surprised us and drove up from Arizona for the break. It was fun to see him and have him there. Our house was complete and utter chaos! There were 14 of us there on Thanksgiving day and we got a pretty good picture of what our house will be like over Christmas when there will be 21! It was good chaos though. I love spending time with family and it's even better when we add Aunt Bonnie and the Thurber family.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious! Everything was gluten-free since almost all of us Bryners (and Bonnie) have Celiac and everyone enjoyed it. My cousins Casey and Alice and their three girls made the pies (gluten free) and they were so good. I am not really a pie person, but they had a chocolate something or other that I loved. It was like Heaven!

After some down time( a.k.a attempted naps (which were hard because we had four little girls running around the house)) We gathered around the TV and played some Wii. Meile and Gracie Thurber love taking pictures so I let them go camera crazy while we played. Here are just a few of their many pictures.







It was hard to go back to school after the break, but luckily there were only two weeks left. They were a crazy two weeks finishing projects and last assignments, then doing finals, but they are over now and I am so relieved! It's nice to have a break, even if I still have to go to work. The plus side about work though is that after the 18, christmas break starts at the elementary school which means I get time off for a couple of weeks! Right now with the mornings off(since I don't work until 2:30), I have actually been able to read books for fun. I haven't been able to do that since the semester started. It is so nice! I have also gotten caught up on some cleaning(my room needed some major organizing after having things thrown around for a semester) which wasn't very fun, but things look so nice and organized now.

On another note, I can't believe that in TEN days Tom will be coming home from his mission! We are so excited! I get giddy just thinking about it. Since I left on my mission before he left on his, it has been about 2 1/2 years since I have seen him! Can you blame me for being so excited? It will be so fun to have him back and that's all I'm going to say. Toodles...

Mission Reunion

So it took me a long time to put this post about the mission reunion up, but I am finally doing it so hooray for me! It was really fun to see everyone who came. It was weird being able to hug the "Elders" and also calling people by their first names, but I got over that after awhile and just enjoyed myself.

We had the reunion at one of the old AP's houses in Alpine. Goodness gracious was that house amazing! It was seriously a mansion. I wanted to stay there forever! We really wanted to go exploring and see all of it, but we were afraid some creepy butler was going to pop out of a dark corner and tell us not to be snoopy so we didn't.

Quite a few of the missionaries who came are either married or engaged now so we got to meet their spouses or fiances and hear all their stories of how they met. Most of them were married within 6 months from returning home. It's crazy! The rest of us who aren't as blessed yet swapped our dating stories and just talked about school and everything else that's going on in our lives.

It will be awhile before I can see any of them again as they are mostly all at BYU, but it will be fun to see them again. I just wish it were possible to do a reunion with ALL the missionaries, including the crazy Latins. They were some of my favorites! I guess that will have to wait till the next life...

P.S. I forgot to take my camera so I only have a couple pics that someone posted on Facebook.

This is everyone who came. Sorry it's not bigger

Me, my old companion Sister Turpin, Tenery Martineau (the Pres. daughter), and "Elder" Riplinger, one of my favorite DL's

Halloween!!!!

Above: Me and my next victim....
Below: My sweet costume!

This year, I was not planning on dressing up for Halloween. Since I work at an elementary school, the kids were all begging me to. I ended up dressing up as a cowgirl vampire. I donned a purple unicorn(much cuter than a horse), fangs, cowboy hat, and blood in a skeleton mug(jello) and went to work excited to find out what the kids all thought of my costume.

The kids all loved the costume, but there was one little girl who kept saying, "Miss Katie, you look funny...." When I explained to her it was a costume, she said, "I know, but you still look funny." Most thought I looked creepy. Sadly the blood I had dripping down my chin dried up and fell off, so that was a bummer, but I still looked the part....

We had a little Halloween party at out apartment on Friday night. We ate eyeballs, played games, and watched a "scary" movie called "The Invisible". I say scary because it was more suspenseful than anything, but it was good. It was a very fun party. I still had on my costume from work(I was the only one with a costume) and everyone was pretty creeped out by it. It was fun to see all their reactions to it.

Today I am going to a little mission reunion dinner thing in Alpine which I am excited about. It will be fun to see some of the people I served with. I am hoping to take a lot of pictures, so I will try to post some of them on here.

I know I have been a horrible blogger and I am hoping to get better, so just bear with me and please keep checking for any updates; I don't want to be blogging in vain. And now that it is November I have decided that a nice Thanksgiving background is appropriate so I hope you like it.

Camping and other fun adventures!

Here are some pictures of a camping excursion we made last weekend up Logan Canyon.







Playing Cards. It was pretty cold!

Listening to some guitar

At the Homecoming Game



There were boys there (everyone always asks me that) and it was a lot of fun. It was quite cold, but we had a nice big fire and a lot of blankets to keep us warm in the tent while we slept. We camped on a Friday night and the next day we went to Bear Lake and hung out at the beach for a few while eating La Beaus shakes and fries. A couple of the more brave(or not so smart) people actually got in the water and swam, but I only just waded in it for a little while. The water was freezing cold, but it was nice just sitting on the beach. After Bear Lake we came home and showered then made the trek up the hill to watch the Aggies homecoming football game. We surprisingly won(probably because we played SUU) and I think the game would have been a lot more fun had we not been super tired from staying up late camping and then being at the beach in the sun all day.

On a different note, the weather is changing here in Logan and I am not liking it! One day it got so cold you could see your breath and it was actually snowing on campus! My body keeps telling me that I should get out of this cold place and go somewhere warm until the cold has left Cache Valley, but unfortunately it's impossible for me to just skip out on school and work to go. Luckily though, that only lasted a couple of days and it started to warm up again by the afternoons. Now that it has been raining again, I wonder if our warm days are over... I hope not!

Halloween Time

Ok, so I was a little bored tonight after a long day of work and studying so I went and found all these really cute halloween backgrounds for my blog and I just had to put one up even though it is still September. I hope you enjoy it and I hope to do an actual post sometime this week, but I can't promise you anything.

The Happenings in my Life...

Well, it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything so I decided to write a little something today and post some pics. My life has been busy. Between school, homework, working two jobs, and trying to have a social life, I am always super tired and think often about posting something, but then it just never happens. Hopefully that will change.

Ok, here's what has been going on in my life. I started a second job at Ellis Elementary where I work as a parent liaison(working with the ESL students and their parents). I am now a sweeper(a.k.a janitor). It is not the most glamorous job, but it helps pay the bills so I am ok with it. I am cleaning bathrooms which is oh so fun. You never know what you are going to find when you walk in one of them so every day is an adventure.

One thing I have regretted about this school year is not taking more pictures. I always tell myself that I am going to take my camera with me to document anything that we(meaning me, my roommates, and any of our friends) do, but then I forget to take it or I take it and just come back with no pictures. I want to get better so I have the pictures and so you can see some of the things I am doing in my college career to have fun.

I will post a few of the pictures that I have actually taken. There are some of us at my roommate Emily's first home volleyball game and there are some that we took at a park one day. I hope you enjoy them and apologize if you have already seen them on facebook. :)


At the Volleyball Game


Our Awesome Sign!!! We beat BYU!!!

Me and my best friend Whitney
At Adams Park
Glam Shot!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Today is my mom's birthday and I just wanted to let her know how much I love her. She is truly the best mom in the world and I don't know what I would do without her! Since it is Labor Day, we are having a big full day celebration. We hope to make her feel loved and like it is "her" day(because it is.) I love you lots Mom and hope you have a wonderful Birthday!!!

First week of school was a success!

Well, the first week of school is finally over and I am ready for a nice weekend! I am adjusting well to school and my new apartment. I have some really cool roommates(I will post pictures of us when we take some) who keep me from going super crazy as I get back into juggling school and work.

We had some people come over on Thursday night to the apartment to hang out and one of the guys brought Rock Band. That was my first time ever playing it! I LOVE that game! It is probably my new favorite. We had a lot of fun playing it and plan to make that a regular thing to take a break from studying.

People have been bugging me about posting pics of the apartment. I haven't been able to take any pictures for a couple of reasons. One, I wasn't totally unpacked until today and two, the rack and shelf in our closet fell off with the weight of two peoples clothes(a sign that it is not a big enough closet for two college girls) so our floor was covered with clothing. They finally came and fixed it so today I took some pictures for you. Enjoy.

Our bedroom

My side of the bedroom I share with my best friend Whitney

Our cute little bathroom

Our kitchen(which we love, but it's smaller than the kitchens in the other apartments)

Our living room(they remodeled these apartments and put in new everything, but
we still got a ghetto couch)

First day of school

Today was the first day back at school! I haven't been to school in two years so I was feeling a little bit like a freshman again. It ended up being a pretty good day. I did however forget where the Engineering building is(I know you would be disappointed in me Casey) and got to my class 5 minutes late because of it. I felt more than a little foolish for forgetting that... Let's hope the rest of the semester ends up going just as well as today!

My First Blog Post!!!

Hey everyone. This is my first ever blog! People have been bugging me about getting one set up and I thought, "I have nothing interesting to say", but the more I thought about it, the idea became more appealing so I did it! I probably won't be the best at updating it but I will try to make it entertaining. So, welcome to my blog, sit back and enjoy hearing about my crazy life!