In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I submit this week's blog.

I literally could write a gratitude list that does not end, so, I hope all my friends and family know how thankful I am for their presence in my life.  I am just listing a few, but this list is not all inclusive:>  (In other words, don't be offended if you're not listed, you are, I just ran out of space.)

I am thankful for:

• Brittany, for making popcorn for us when we watch TV, and then asking me to "help" her make it.
• Tyler, for going to see Harry Potter with me, even though it was obvious he was embarassed to be with his mom at the movie theater.
• Kayla, for living her life with clarity, joy and purpose, and for coming home on Thanksgiving and spending so much time with her family.
• Tom, for helping me move my mom into a new apartment on the day after Thanksgiving, and never complaining even once.
• my Mom, for giving me lots of stories to tell, and for teaching me forgiveness and how to laugh at the hard things in life.
• my Dad, for being one of the few people who I can really talk to, and for making sure to spend as much time as he can with the kids when we're together, teaching them card games, poker, and really being there with the kids.
• Jane, for making my dad so happy.
• Denny, for making me laugh every time I talk to him, and for not getting mad at me when I forget his birthday.
• Julie, for making me laugh every time I talk to her, and for having the best sister talks in the world.
• Barb, for whatever she did to raise her son to be such a great husband and father, and for being one of the best people in my life.
• Audra, for making my brother so happy, and bringing Ebben into this world.
• Todd, for making my sister so happy, and for bringing 3 more boys into our family.
• my work, for allowing me to do what I love, and to support my family while doing it.
• my students, for bringing me true joy in my work, and for inspiring me to work as hard as they do for their success.
• my church, for making me feel like I'm part of a greater family.
• my God, for grace. 

My cup overfloweth...

The Annual Giving of Thanks

I told Mom last week that I knew I was growing up because all I want is to be home for the holidays. Thanksgiving day we drove up to Wakefield to see the whole family and overeat, just like every year before. Sunday night before I came back to MN, we decorated the Christmas tree as a family while drinking hot chocolate, just like every year before. Thank God for traditions. Whether it be hanging ornaments on a lit tree or hearing Gramma Barb sing about the "big, fat turkey on Grandfather's farm" after overindulging in pumpkin pie and Grands, traditions keep your family's idiosynchracies alive and thriving even in the midst of change. (Enter college!) So, this is my preface to talking about the first holiday where I had to "come home," and how incredibly great it was. Enter blog:

First, don't travel by bus near the holidays. Every seat will be taken, you will have to sit on a broken seat by someone who will, of course, fall asleep and thus, will spill over onto your side during the trip that will take 90 minutes longer than expected. Though, seeing Dad waiting in the frigid cold outside at the bus stop the second we arrived made me instantly forget how crowded and uncomfortable I had felt for the past 5 hours, I was simply so happy to be home.

Thanksgiving Day, in addition to being filled with pinwheels, potatoes, turkey, a cranberry mold (yes Mom, the cranberry mold is worthy enough to be in the blog. It was delicious and looked cool), and me sharing my college stories (this means the stories of the famous Foam Party) with the aunts and cousins, it also left me thinking about everything I had to be thankful for. First, the opportunities I am offered every day attending college in a city, and the experiences I've had and will have that will create lasting memories. I know many people would love to be where I am, and really don't want to take being here for granted. And of course, even more importantly, I am so extremely thankful for the people in my life who I love. These past few months being on my own have really made me realize how truly blessed I am to have a life filled with people who love me, support me, inspire me, make me laugh (or cry in a good way), listen to my issues, offer advice, step in when needed, and have personalities and quirks that I can't imagine not being present in my life: Mom & Dad (you know how important you are to me, a blog can't even begin to describe it), Ty (still as smart-aleky as ever, but I know that your cry for help on the definition of the word "thoroughfare" was really code for "I love you Sis!"), Britty (even though my old wardrobe has found a new home in your closet and I kick your butt at ping-pong, we rock as being sisters, right? GloZell would agree), my beautiful best friends from home who I've missed to my heart's core (I love how nothing has changed, we still sit around, eat, do nothing, watch Titanic and laugh about EVERYTHING, even our dad's names), the incredible boyfriend (we just rock mi hombre, people are jealous of how fantastic we go together...and not to mention how fine we look together, too), and of course, a fabulous new addition to this list, my terrific new friends here at the U (we do things like a boss, brought back Britney, invented socioproductivity, well...just see the last 3 months of Facebook statuses.) Honestly, SO much to be thankful for.

Alright, snap back to reality. Literally, coming back from a 6-day break for like, 14 days of class, studying, and finals is just...mer. BUT, an exciting aspect to my return was moving in a new roomate! Hey Marina :) The first day we met, way back in September on the first day of Freshman Seminar, we realized we were scary similar. Like, if we were to make a Venn-Diagram of "Kayla and Marina," it would be an almond, only the middle part. We both are coffee-afficionados (holla!), weirdly in love with our professor's mind, from Wisco, are blonde, die-hard for the green&gold, are in honors yet ironically terrible procrastinators...the list goes on. So, we told Frontier Hall what was up, that we were meant to live together, and proceeded to totally deck the halls of our newly-reorganized room. We went all out-- Christmas lights, a mini tree, candy canes, paper snowflakes, Christmas smells (no! we do NOT have an illegal candle that is holiday scented!), and even a Poinsettia! (It's practice for the fish we want to get.)

Let me wrap up this all-over-the-place blog with a little wisdom from this professor that we both really enjoy...let's call him Pat. He is my favorite professor here so far, and his class feels the most "college-esque." He really makes me think and I always walk away from class feeling really inquisitive and scholarly. So, instead of class yesterday, we had individual meetings with him to discuss our final papers. I'm writing mine on why only 35% of students who go to four-year universities actually get their degree in four years. We got to talking about why our society set the 4-year standard of graduation in the first place and he said this, "You know, if you think about it, college is the only time in your life where society actually wants you to think and figure stuff out for yourself. You have your whole life to work, to follow society's rules, but here they are actually approving of you being in a setting where you have the ability to challenge anything you want!" Take from it what you will, but this statement really spoke to me for some reason, and kinda fits in my previous theme of giving thanks...for the right here and right now.

The Family Meeting

Well, Kayla, you just missed out on another fine "family meeting."  You can imagine how excited Tyler and Brittany were when I called the meeting.  Immediately Brittany looked confused and asked what she did wrong.  Tyler sat back with his arms folded over his chest and I could see his wheels spinning trying to come up with something to say to mock me for calling a "family meeting."  All he could come up with was, "Could I be Bobby Brady?  He was my favorite."  Not funny.

Anyhow, the purpose of today's meeting was to institute (once again) "quiet time."  This was met with moans and groans so loud you would have thought I was pulling out their teeth one by one.  For those readers who aren't familiar with quiet time, this is a one-hour period each night where there are no cell phones, no computers, and no TV.  It's supposed to be a one-hour time frame when the kids can focus on their homework and not get interrupted.  Tyler acted like he never heard of it, so I explained that there will be no electronics. So, he said, "Well, if there's no electronics, then we have to shut off all of the lights, too.  The lights run off electricity." 

I think after having the week he had, he better just accept quiet time and zip it!  I had a phone call from his band teacher saying that he has not gone to his trumpet lessons and we had an e-mail from his German teacher saying he's not "working up to potential."  When I asked him why he's not going to his trumpet lessons, he said, "It's because I can't play the trumpet."  He joined band thinking it would be an easy A.  Then when we asked him what's going on in German class, he said, "The teacher just doesn't like Manfred."  (His German name is Manfred.)

So, we are beginning the process of an attitute adjustment here in Minocqua.  Even with me.  I was not looking forward to the day when you graduated, but now, I am really looking forward to the next graduation from LUHS in 2014!  If we make it!

Lost in the city...yes, again.

You know how they say do something every day that scares you? Well, I'm taking that to heart every time I embark back to my middle school after the traumatic trip home this Monday. Allow me to explain:

Volunteering went fabulous, as always, but it happened to be the first time I did it after the daylight savings time change, meaning it gets darker way earlier. Now, I had thought I had figured out the bus system, but that was in the daylight of 5:30 pm when the sun was still out. This week however, the sun had disappeared by the time I started to embark back to campus from the school. So, all happy and whatnot with a few more Thank-You cards in my purse, I got off at the stop I had always been getting off at to get back to my dorm. Well, I thought it was my stop. As soon as the bus pulled away, a few expletives ran through my mind, and perhaps came out of my mouth along with my breath that I could vividly see because of the frigid Minneapolis temperature. I realized that I had absolutely no idea where I was, that because of the stupid darkness I mistook my bus stop for a totally different stop that I was not supposed to be near. Being the smart girl that I am, I started to walk. Why Kayla, why?! Why would I start to walk?! I think I thought that maybe I would eventually hit a landmark I knew. After a few steps I figured out, why would I know any landmarks?! I'M NOT FROM HERE! I instantly started to panic and called my friend from across the hall. The worst was when she asked me where I was and I told her, in a shaking voice in-between tears, the intersection I was at and her response was "Ohhhhhh noo Kayla." Want to know where this small-town-girl-thrust-into-the-metro was in relation to campus? Take a look. Point B is my dorm, my destination. Point A is where my frantic self was crying.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Minneapolis&1s=MN&1a=E+Hennepin+Ave+%26+12th+Ave+SE&1z=55414&1y=US&1l=44.99144&1g=-93.23458&1v=INTERSECTION&2c=Minneapolis&2s=MN&2a=701+Fulton+St+SE&2z=55455-0358&2y=US&2l=44.97027&2g=-93.228614&2v=ADDRESS

YEAH, I KNOW! Now that you can see where I was, hopefully now you can feel my pain and fright. It was 6:00. Dark. Cold. I was hungry and in a bad part of the city, so I am told. I don't even feel ashamed that I cried. I was totally entitled to bawl and call my dad from a random bench sobbing about how much I am not cut out for the city. I literally was just gonna give up. The thought actually crossed my mind, "I can't do it. I'm done. I'm just gonna sit here and cry." And then some sort of sense kicked in and I realized I wasn't in a video game and had to get back, obviously! After multiple confusing phone conversations with the girl I basically owe my life to trying to explain to me what buses to take and where to get on and off, 75 minutes and $7.25 later, I was back, and completely a wreck. I ate my baked potato in a blur and was completely a mess of emotions.

So all's well that ends well, I guess. I survived, barely didn't get mugged, and my friend even made me a beautiful yellow-construction paper map/direction sheet of how to and, more importantly, from the school. I'll be testing out that, along with my emotional endurance and night intelligence each time I volunteer from now on until May. I really can't let a terrible experience like that ruin something so great, so I'm not going to let it. Plus, Mom and Dad made me put campus security in my phone and made it clear that the next time I get off at the wrong spot, don't pretend to know where I'm going.

New college lesson: I suck at sense of direction. And still suck at the bus.

I know we've been talking about movies this week.  I told you to watch the movie, "Milk" and you did and liked it.  So, I have to tell you to watch another movie, probably my favorite movie ever; "Mask!"

You really have to see it!  Julie and I watched it so many times when we were teens, we communicated to each other by reciting lines in the movie.  We would say to each other, "You're so stupid!  Rube Walker!  You threw away Rube Walker, Ben!"  Or, "You!  You're going to take care of things from now on!"  I know it doesn't make much sense, but there weren't a lot of channels back in the 80's and the cable stations would show this movie over and over. 

The other thing we did from seeing this movie was recite Rocky Dennis' (the main character in the story) poem over and over, substituting in things from our day to day life.  His actual poem was this:

These things are good: ice cream and cake, a ride on a Harley, seeing monkeys in the trees, the rain on my tongue, and the sun shining on my face. These things are a drag: dust in my hair, holes in my shoes, no money in my pocket, and the sun shining on my face.

But we would say things like, "These things are good:  eating Pringles from a can, sitting on the couch, and the sun shining on my face.  These things are a drag:  holes in my pocket, Denny sitting on the couch, and the sun shining on my face."

I laugh when I think about the 3 of us (me, Denny and Julie) growing up together.  Watching you, Tyler and Brittany growing up there's a lot of similiarities.  Especially the inane inside jokes or petty fights between the three of you.  Remember when you kids would humiliate each other by simply calling someon an "oat?"  I would have to break up big fights between you guys and when I'd ask what started it, one of you would cry and say, "She called me an OAT!"  It doesn't make sense to anybody but you three. 

OK, that's what I'm thinking about now and that's my blog for this week:>

$ick on this routine week

Being sick in college sucks. There's nobody here to wait on me hand-and-foot, run to Moto and get me lots of medicine, or run me up some diet Sprite with a straw. Instead, I endured classes the beginning of the week, and lucked out majorly today with having my class cancelled (thank you karma!) So, I walked my sickly little self over to the pharmacy today and bought some meds, and the next thing I know my darling friend from across the hall was waking me up at 5:30 pm to go to dinner. Turns out it wasn't worth it. It was "Spam-alot" dinner at the dining hall. Why? Please, does anybody enjoy the meat from a can? So we went and got some fun ice cream treats to watch the CMAs with instead. (I'm pulling for T.Swift and my main man Kenny.)

Anyway, not much new has happened over the past week, so being sick without Mom and Dad to take care of me has been my most recent "new experience" in college. Well BEFORE I got this nasty cold, I've discovered like, 3 new places to do homework on campus! (Who knew there was a library like 30 yards from my dorm?! And REALLY comfy chairs next to where the... Korean Dance Club... practices?! ) And it has been so extremely beautiful outside that me and my friends have taken quite a few walks by the Mississippi river. We've learned to love and take advantage of the free movies at the theater, this past week they played the incredibly cute "Despicable Me." (Unfortunately, we sat by the most descpicabally stinky person in the human world. It wasn't even funny. I had to breathe into my box of Milk Duds.)

Speaking of humans in this world, I'm sure you all know that one of my favorites is Ke$ha. In case you were wondering, I'll be seeing her gorgeous self at the House of Blues in Chicago in February. Yep, have I crossed into groupie territory? Just as well, I don't thinkg it's possible to be any more obsessed. It's called the "Get $leazy" tour. I'm so excited. You can't imagine the immensity...we'll be tearin' it apart. :)

OH. This week I've also learned to always check and re-check and double check that my headphones are actually plugged into my laptop BEFORE jamming to "Oops I Did it Again" in the library. At least it wasn't "My Humps" or something REALLY embarrassing...

Cliche Good Feelings

So, I just walked in (in my boots, mind you) from a gorgeous November day with a purse full of red and yellow construction paper cards decorated with markers, crayons, and cloth leaves. No, I didn't just get back from Trinity Preschool, circa 1996, I just got back from running mock interviews for the Spanish-speaking students at the middle school I've been volunteering at. All the kids at the school are participating in an event called "Biztown," which teaches them about finances and the professional world of careers and such, and today was the day they interviewed for the positions they want. Some wanted to be radio DJs, telling me about their experience in "mixing beats," and others wanted to be designers, CEOs, and IRS agents. They told me they want to give speeches like Barack Obama, their idol is their mom, they want a career where they can boss other people around, and that the hardest part about the job would be getting the job. Some kids were in it for the money and prestige, those were my "mayor" candidates and others wanted a job that was easy and allowed them to directly connect with their customers, like owning a gift store. It was so much fun, and I realized that everytime I work with these kids and translate and help them and learn from them, the more I love it and the more I can't wait to continue doing it in the future. Call me lame, but the letters like this from the kids inspire me:

"Dear Kayla,
Hi this is Rose. Thank you for interviewing me today, I really appreciate your time. You really make a difference.
Your Friend,
Rose"

or

"Dear Kayla,
Hi my name is Jasmine and I want to thank you for your time and helping me understand. I don't know if you are gonna give me the job of designer but thank you anyway. I also thank you for saying that I make a great designer.
From,
Jasmine

PS) Look at the cover see I really can design!"

or

"Dear Kayla,
Thank you for coming to NEMS today and volunteering your time. You are quite incredible. You really care about the youth. I believe my next interview will be much better because of you. Thank you,
Alondra"

Templates or not, these cards make me happy. So cliche, but maybe I really did make a difference.

Well what can I say? I'm quite incredible :)