Truck.

Last Saturday I was waiting for Ben to come to my house so we could hang out (a.k.a. do his homework) and he was taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R, so I decided to head over to the adorably quaint Lake Lily Park (like .2 seconds walk away from my house)......

As I sat on my bench (yes, I have now commandeered a bench and declared it to be my own) a nice, older man walked up to me and asked if I was a bible reading kind of girl. I told him, "yes I am, as well as a Book of Mormon reading girl." I guess this intrigued him because we then embarked on an hour long spiritual journey together. He was a Jehovah's Witness and I a Mormon. We never argued or got frustrated with each other, instead we just bore our testimonies to each other about simple truths that we each knew to be true (most of them similar, a few differing). Once our discussion ended, we realized we never shared our names with each other. Truck and I shook hands and thanked each other for letting us share our beliefs.

A few thoughts:

1. I am so grateful for what Adam and Eve did for me. By partaking of the forbidden fruit, I can now walk this earth and have an eternal family. Without their sacrifice, I could never have had that.

2. I am so grateful for the direct translation of the Book of Mormon. It provides the must needed insight to the things we learn in the Bible and because I know that it is a direct translation, I know I can take it as pure gospel truth, straight from the Lord's mouth.

3. Truck and I both know that we are sent here with a commission to share the truth and love of our Savior's gospel with those we come into contact with. I have been scared of this lately, but I am grateful for his example of fearlessly doing it.

The. End.

My Wish Came True

My dad grew up in the space generation. When he was 9 years old, he witnessed the first man walking on the moon. Growing up, I remember him getting so excited for every space shuttle's launch. He would get us kids so excited to watch them launch and I cannot remember missing one since then. Living in Central Florida, so close to the coast, it is amazing at how you can watch them go up and get to be apart of the live excitement. I think it is due to my dad's enthusiasm, but I have always had a soft spot for the space program. My favorite part of all the shuttle launches were the sonic booms that can be heard as the space ship is welcomed home. As a little kid, those booms would wake me up and I would smile. It was home safe. When I was younger, I remember sometimes praying for the safe return of the shuttle and its astronauts; some other times, I would pray to hear the sonic booms.

This last and final shuttle launch of the Atlantis was kind of emotional for me. I don't really know why; after all, I am not apart of the space generation. I was at school when it was going to be launched. I knew what time I needed to go outside. Right as I was leaving the library on campus, I checked my email and on my yahoo homepage it said something about the shuttle being delayed. I should have kept reading because it was only delayed by less than a minute. I, however, thought I had plenty of time. As I drove to Ben's work, I kept checking my review mirror so I could see it. Apparently I missed it, but Ben's co-worker informed me that it was impossible to see anyway because of the cloud cover. I was a bit devastated. This was the first one I missed and it was the last one. Last night, as I said my prayers, I included the astronauts and then said a special prayer asking for the blessing of hearing those amazing sonic booms.

At 5:50 something this morning, I woke up with a smile on my face to those fateful booms. It is a great feeling. This morning, as soon as I got to work, I watched its landing. I hope you watch it too, as this is an amazing moment in American history. The words shared between Commander Chris Ferguson and NASA control are inspiring and completely patriotic.

God Bless America!

A Wonderful Weekend

This last weekend was fantastic. I'm not entirely sure why, but it was. On Thursday night (early Friday morning), Ben and I went to go see the last Harry Potter installment. It was fantastic and oddly, I felt really sad by the end of it because it would be over. Sometimes I feel really weird admitting to how much I love Harry Potter, but that love comes from the fact that I am apart of the Harry Potter Generation. Harry and I were always the same age and I was apart of all the hooplah from the start. It was actually a little bothersome seeing all of these tweens running around at midnight acting all frantic and completely childish about the whole Harry Potter thing. I guess it shouldn't, but for some reason I wanted to yell at all of those wanna-bes talking through my movie, that they were frauds and that they probably haven't even read any of the books, but have only seen the movies. Its stupid and wrong of me, but hey, you sometimes can't help what you feel.... especially at 2:30 a.m. Plus, I had the epiphany that I am too old for the midnight showing. After seeing all of the Harry Potter ones that were available for the coveted midnight showing, I think I am done with that part of my life.... maybe... we'll have to see how I feel when the last two installments of the Twilight saga get released.

Friday, I got Ben to play hookie with me all day. It was wonderful having him around for a full day of whatever. Both of us are so consumed with our jobs and school that I feel like we really don't get to spend any relaxing time with each other. We went to the park to have my old co-worker Jen snap some pictures of us for her new photography business. She is amazing and you can get her info. here. It was hot and slightly uncomfortable but fun, all at the same time. Here are a few of my favorites. You can see the rest here.

I don't remember what we even did that night. I think we just worked on homework and watched a movie or something, but regardless, it was so great to spend that time with Ben. I was even able to rope him into going to the Valencia library with me most of Saturday to work on homework. Basically, Ben is great and I know how much of a sacrifice it was for him to just forget his responsibilities to spend the much needed time I needed with him. That's my King Benjamin, always sacrificing what he wants for what I want. How could you not love a guy like that?

A Few Random Thoughts

A few random thoughts that have been on my mind:

1. P90X isn't so bad once you have trained your body to think that you are not, in fact, ripping every muscle in your body to shreds, when, in fact, you really are.

2. Why is everyone so obsessed with this Casey Anthony trial? I mean, I get it. What happened to that little, beautiful baby girl was horrible. HORRIBLE! But people who were under the impression that the trial would provide answer on what actually happened to little Caylee were plain stupid. It wasn't about finding out what happened to her; it was about whether or not the State had proof enough to send Casey away for life or send her to meet her maker. They didn't. It's sad, but end. of. story. buttttt just for humor's sake:

Can we all move on now? Like to more happier things :)

3. Sailing through the beautiful blue waters of this earth are ever present on my mind. In honor of that here are a few quotes:

4. I cannot wait until fall. It's crazy to think that my beloved month of October is only 3 months away! Dare I do this:

5. The earphones I wear at work, while transcribing Keith's dictations, really hurt my ears and give me the most horrid headaches.

6. My life is wonderful. I am so happy at this point in time. Even though my car is acting up (AGAIN!) and I have never been more busy in my life, my life is good. He is a big reason why:

7. Katie getting married to Sam in November and Alyssa marrying Ian in December makes me smile:

(I love how stoked they look. This is right after he proposed.... speaking of... Katie, let's stop playing phone tag so I can get the details!!!!)

(They're doing an "Up!" themed wedding. Too cute right? Also, Josie took their engagement pictures. I stole this off of facebook.)

*SPOILER ALERT*

Anyone who knows me knows that I love spoilers. Ben is really bothered by this... I think. I want to know whats going to happen in any movie, books, television show, etc. that I watch/read (P.S. I already looked up who the Bachelorette is going to get engaged to. I had to know. If you do too, click here). Anyhoo, that was not where I was going with this post. Lately I have a dilemma and that dilemma is I cannot sleep. I can't for the life of me figure it out (well except for last night, I think I figured it out then). The last few nights I have been wide awake way past the point of tired. My bed isn't comfortable nor is my body. At first I chalked it up to P90X. Ben and I have started the torturous adventure of literally kicking out bodies into shape. My body has hurt so bad, that its almost impossible to get my seemingly broken body into bed. Last night I realized that besides the P90X there was something else factoring into my insomnia.

+ =

I have always read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I love them. The four girls reminded me of a group of friends that I had growing up and in high school. Granted, we were never as close as the girls in the book, but the characters were so much like each of us that it was kind of eerie. Well (and this is where the SPOILER ALERT comes in) this book takes place ten years after the last book and the girls are almost thirty. Almost immediately the tone of the book is a little bit darker and more grown up than the last four (naturally). Also, almost immediately there is a lack of Tibby. Basically, she kills herself and this is right at the beginning. Great. But the whole book revolves around Bee, Carmen and Lena coming to terms with that and trying to figure out who the heck they are without Tibby. This book is so sad, but it is great at the same time. I am captivated by it, but I can't help but feel these girls sadness as I read through it. It is almost real and its really effecting me. This is why I love spoilers. If I had spoiled this for myself like I do everything else, I wouldn't have been surprised by the killing off of Tibby and would have been able to read through it emotionlessly. That is why I spoil things. I knew that Dobby would die in Harry Potter before I read those fateful words. I knew that Henry and Ugly Betty would break up before I could watch their magic unfold and then be disappointed by the breakup. Oh, and I totally called that Ashley, the bachelorette, would get engaged to JP. Now that was a pleasant not-so-surprise.

Okay, long story short, I have read this book every night before I try to go to bed. Each night I find myself really distraught and nervous with a looming feeling overhead. It is because I have read this book and feel stressed out for the girls and then I keep that stress within myself for some odd reason. This is why spoilers are a necessity in my life.

A Week In My Life

Every week I make a to do list that helps me keep track of my week. I realized, after making this list who knows how many times, that its almost identical every week. This made me feel claustrophobic. Its like I'm one of those sheep everyone talks about when referencing people who don't deviate from their "schedule." I'll be the first to admit that I hate change, but I think it might be mandatory to throw a little change into this. So here it is, a week in the life of Kaylee....

Monday: Work, go to class, do homework for Tuesday night's class. (*Watch the Bachelorette at Amanda W.'s house... sometimes)

Tuesday: Work, go to class, do homework for Wednesday night's class.

Wednesday: Work, go to class, do homework for Thursday night's class.

Thursday: Work, go to class, volleyball at the church (although I haven't been going lately because I'm exhausted).

Friday: sleep in, head to the library to work on homework, date night with Ben.

Saturday: something productive, laundry, something with Ben.

Sunday: church, possible visiting teaching, make dinner and finish any homework left undone.

Then at the bottom of the list I keep track of the assignments I need to to and the notes I need to take for each class:

Assignments: Wills, Trusts & Estate Administration, Legal Research 1, English Comp. 2 (This is the 3rd time I've taken it because both FSU and Valencia refuse to recognize that I have passed it twice!), Legal Technology.

Notes: Wills, Trusts & Estate Administration, Legal Research 1, English Comp. 2, Legal Technology.

This Saturday's something productive is that Ben is helping me plant a small garden. Also, since this weekend is Father's day, I'll be busy doing father stuff, so that's exciting too. Pretty much that lousy piece of paper with my weekly life on it depresses me. I think I'll start to find random things to put on it to entertain myself like, "walk backwards for 100 steps," or "sing in the shower," you know, little things to make my rather mundane life a tad bit more interesting. I need a spark of liveliness added to this schedule.... or two....

I'm Going To Paris!!!!!!

...hopefully. Oh Happy Day is giving the give away of a life time. No joke! Skip on over to the blog and have a happy day and maybe dream up a little Paris for yourself. For myself, I can already see the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa smiling at me and the super cute striped shirt and beret I will be wearing. Yes. I can picture it already. Oh what a happy day it is!