Breaking Down

So, it's near the end of the semester. We just had Thanksgiving, we just got to push through the last few weeks of school and finals, and we will be freeeeee for a few weeks.

Well, this is usually the time that stress gets to me. 

And, oh, did it get to me.

So, some back story: This semester, I took an interior design class, purely for fun. It was not to fill any sort of requirements for anything, it honestly just sounded like a fun class. Since it was just for fun, and didn't count toward anything, I kind of put it on the back burner a bit. I still did my assignments, but I wasn't putting quite as much effort into them as my other classes. I mean, no big deal, I was still doing pretty well in the class, so it was ok. But in October, our 2nd midterm was coming up, and it would be in the testing center for a few days. After reviewing my schedule, I found that taking it on the last day of the test was going to be my best option. I had a work training meeting that night, but they usually only last an hour or two, so I knew I would have time to take it that night. When I got to my work meeting, I found out that what I thought was going to be a short, hour long meeting was supposed to be a 4-hour meeting, meaning I would completely miss the test. Well, for my job, if I don't get the right training, I can't work. So I knew I couldn't just blow the meeting off. So right there, in the middle of the meeting, I emailed my interior design professor, explaining the situation, and asking if there was any way possible for me to come in and take the test first thing in the morning, or if that wouldn't be possible, if there was anything I could do to make up some of the points I would miss from not taking the test. I never hear back from him, so two days later, I went up to him after class to ask him if he got my email. He said he did, but that he just didn't want to deal with it, so he didn't reply. (Which I immediately thought was very unprofessional. Even if there was nothing I could do, at least tell me that.) He told me there was nothing I could do to make up for the test. Well, with completely missing an exam, I knew that I would probably fail the class. After about a week, I decided the best thing for me to do was withdraw from the class. Since I had never had to do that before, I asked someone who works in my advisement center what to do. I was told that I needed to meet with my academic adviser before I could withdraw. So I went to make an appointment, and I was told that the withdraw deadline was November 19th. So I mad an appointment for the 17th with my adviser (that was the soonest time her schedule was open at a time that mine was too). When I went in, I explained my situation, and my adviser told me that I didn't need to make an appointment with her, I could have just withdrawn on my own. Then she opened up my schedule so she could withdraw me, and the button to withdraw wasn't there. She was confused since she thought the deadline was on the 19th. So she pulled out her university schedule, and looked up the deadline. It turns out, the deadline was actually on the 10th, and I had missed it, but my adviser told me I could petition to withdraw. So I filled out the petition, and wrote why I had missed the deadline (because a BYU employee had given me incorrect information), and I had to get a signature from my professor. I went to the office and turned in my petition, and I was told it might be a few days before they could get to mine and that I would be emailed with their decision.

Fast forward a few weeks to last Wednesday. I woke up late, was rushed to finish an in-class assignment (that ended up not being printed after I sent it to the printer), I had a dance test that I didn't feel prepared for, and I was sooo stressed out thinking of all of the things that I had to get done (including making a portfolio and applying to the creative track of the advertising program). I realized that I had not heard from the petition office, so I decided to go in, just to see if my petition had been looked at yet. 
And that is when I broke.
I received the news that my petition had been denied. 
I managed to say "Oh, ok. Thanks." to the girl and turn around before bursting into tears.
This could not be happening to me.
After all that I went through, I would not be able to withdraw from my class, even though me missing the deadline was not my fault, but the fault of an employee of BYU.
I was done. I couldn't handle it. I called my father on the phone and begged him to just let me quit and drive home that night. I didn't want to deal with getting an F in a class (especially since my grades from all my other semesters had been nothing special. Not horrible, but not fantastic). I didn't want to deal with all of my assignments and papers and finals and tests. I just wanted to call it quits and go home. My dad told me I couldn't do that. I cried and talked to him until I had to go to class, and I somehow composed myself for my last two classes of the day. My friend gave me a ride home, and I went straight to a work party, then I went to WalMart, to pick up a flash drive for my creative track application. I came home, and did some work, and then decided to go to bed. I got all ready and I decided to read my favorite scripture before praying. And oh, did I pray. I can only think of a couple of other times when I prayed so hard. I kneeled at the side of my bed, just pouring out my heart to the Lord. I told Him that I couldn't do it. I could not possibly handle this news with all of my stress on my own. No, I needed help. It's like the part of the poem, Footprints in the Sand, there was only going to be one set of footprints in the sand at this point, they weren't going to be mine. They couldn't be mine. I could not do it. I asked God to help me get through the next few days, to take away my stress, and to make everything ok. I knew He wasn't going to miraculously change the petition reviewers' minds, but I knew He could comfort me, and help me find a some other solution. I went to bed that night feeling completely peaceful.
The next morning, I decided to read my scriptures in the morning, which I don't normally do (I'm a night time scripture reader), and then I went to the temple. After the temple, I went immediately to working on my portfolio. There was so much I had to do, since I hadn't even started to put it together, but I was somehow able to almost finish it before I had to leave to go to work. After work, I ate dinner and then met up with one of the girls in one of my group projects to work on our ads so I could get as much of them as possible for my portfolio. I thought she was applying too, so she would need some finished ads too, but she had decided not to apply. She stayed and worked on the project with me for 4 hours just to help me out, not for her benefit at all. When I got home, I put the improved ads in my portfolio and worked on it a little bit more before going to bed.
On Friday, I had to go on a tour thing for one of my classes. After, I went to campus to work on an assignment for one of my classes. Then I went to class and my class was able to get lots of work done on our class project. After class, I met with the professor of the class I tried to withdraw from to discuss my options. My options are 1) take the F. Or 2) get an incomplete, and start the class where I left off next semester (but I wouldn't be registered for the class, so online assignments would be super difficult for me because I couldn't access them online. Also I'd have to do all of that class's work on top of my full schedule of other classes.) I couldn't believe that my professor, who had been pretty unprofessional, was now willing to work with me so I wouldn't get a failing grade. After meeting with him, I went to finish my application. All I had to do was write a letter explaining why I should get in. The idea came into my head to re-write the lyrics to a song as my "letter", and then, after picking a song, the words just came to me. Honestly, I really only had to think hard about one little part, the rest just wrote itself. I know it's kind of silly, but I know that I was receiving inspiration from God.
Even though last week was really hard for me, it really strengthened my testimony. I know that God hears and answers my prayers. He does not want me to fail or be unhappy. I know that when I put God first in my life, I can be blessed in ways I never thought I could be. I also know that God really cares about me and my interests and likes and wants and hopes and desires. He knows about my stresses and disappointments and helplessness. I know that Jesus Christ went through exactly what I felt last week, plus more. Plus so much more. And he chose to do it, he chose to take on all of the sins, pains, and sorrows of every single person who has ever or will ever live on the earth. I can't imagine how that must of felt, how much strength it took. I was ready to give up completely after just one day of disappointment and stress. I am forever, eternally grateful for my loving Father in Heaven and for Jesus Christ.

I've Been Dreaming of a True Love's Kiss...

...and the prince I'm hoping comes with this! That's what brings ever-after-ings so happy! (*woodland creatures* SO HAPPY!)

So, I'm sure you all know about my little princess party business I'm trying to get going. (Shameless Plug) Well, I'm trying to find other princesses/characters to add besides just Anna. Ya, know, to give options. People like options. Well, as far as costumes go, in Utah, I had my Bo Peep dress. So I put that as an option, but lets be real, who wants Little Bo Peep to come to their party? Especially when they could have a Princess. But whatever. Option, yeah? (Also, I'm not blonde, so there's that.)

Well, I was thinking of other Princesses I could pull off. (That have easy costumes, too.) And I thought, hmmm, red-headed princesses... Ariel... Giselle... Oh! GISELLE! (We shall be married in the morning!) Well, while I love all of her dresses (especially her wedding dress) I remembered that she wore a pink dress while she's a cartoon. It was pretty and simple. And I had a pink dress in a similar-ish shape from my junior year winter formal (that I originally got at Forever 21. For like, $20. Bangnin' deal,right?). My brain immediately saw the alterations, and it looked perfect! Can you see it?

You might be thinking "Kai has officially lost it... How is a shiny, peach dress with a flower going to look like her dress at all?" And I'm thinking "Oh just you wait!"

First I took off the flower. I have a love/hate relationship with a seam ripper. If I have to seam rip something I just sewed because I sewed it horribly, I hate it. But I liked this part, because seam ripping wasn't undoing something, it was actually needed to create my vision.

Poof! Flower gone!
Now about those straps. The straps were added by my amazing mother so that the strapless dress would stay up at Winter Formal my junior year of high school. (I wore a shrug with it. Modest is hottest, yo.) They actually looked really good with the dress and helped it stay up really well, but were not very Giselle-y. So they were seam ripped also.

So now I have a pretty simple peachy-pink dress. With a yard of white tulle, a spool of the 2014 Color of the Year (Radiant Orchid) ribbon (its a bright purpley-pink color, I just wanted to sound fancy and such), and about 12" of light pink fluffy/flowery trim my junior year winter formal dress turns into a Giselle dress!

See the flowery headband and the fluffy sleeve-things, and the pink ribbon? I mean, come one! I just want to prance around singing about true love's kiss and such. (I am wearing a shirt that matches the ribbon underneath. Modesty, yeah?)

Yes, Giselle is not a popular princess (and technically is not a princess at all. Otherwise she would be my favorite princess. But she's not either of those things). But I think she's pretty cool. And who knows, maybe some awesome little girl just loves Enchanted! 

But I doubt it....

If you have any suggestions for other princesses I could pull off, let me know in those comments down there! (My ultimate goal is Rapunzel, but that would require a wig. If my little business actually gets some business, maybe I could do that, but it's a lot of work if it's not going anywhere.)

Ok. Peace out!

It's baaaaaaack....YouTube Tuesday!

Hello friends!! I'm blogging so much lately! (Well, so much for me.)
I'm really wanting to bring this little blog back into the fashion blogging side of things, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. :/ BUT that doesn't mean it won't be absolutely thrilling!

Well, here is the YouTube video for today!

Catch anyone familiar in this video?? ;)

This girl just went around campus asking people if she could film them for a video! Of course, I said HECK YEAH! And, did anyone notice that not only am I in the video twice, I'm also the only Frozen character? I mean, she probably could have had an entire video of all the Frozen characters on campus and she only chose me! :) (Also, there were three Rapunzels. THREE! HA!) 

It's a super fun video! I loved seeing all the costumes on Halloween, and now I can relive that anytime I want! YAY!

And here's another shameless plug for my new Princess Party website! I am so excited to see if anything happens with it! I'm also thinking of adding a couple of characters... (One costume I already have, one I can make by altering a dress I already have.) Neither are super well known characters, but both are characters I love! I'm also going to be updating the website. Adding pages and what not. So definitely check it out! 

Also, for friends in Arizona, I'm thinking of doing a little princess party to get some pictures for my blog, Thanksgiving weekend! I would love for your daughters or sisters or nieces or cousins to come and for you to give me feed back (and possibly write a short review for my blog?)! I might also do a Disneyland style meet and greet with Anna at a park that weekend also, to give me practice staying in character, and also to get other pictures for my website. (I love how I'm calling the lame little blog I have set up a website. Haha!) Just keep that in mind if your kids love Frozen!

Thanks for reading! (Oh and if you haven't already, click that little button on the side that says "Follow"! I would love more followers on my blog!)

Halloween Dinner!

So, as I am sitting in McDonald's (oddly, where I like to go to do my homework. All the diet Dr Pepper I can drink, and none of the distractions of friends. But sometimes the internet itself proves to be a distraction, but that would be the case wherever I would go to do my homework,) I decided I wasn't quite ready to start doing my homework. (Don't worry, I'll do it, Mom. I have at least two assignments I have to do by Monday and I'm not leaving until I do them.) So I decided to tell you about the Halloween dinner I made for my apartment complex's dinner group. (Seriously, the most genius idea ever. Once every three weeks, I make a big meal for 12 people. But all the other days, I get fed! It's excellent!) My day was on October 30, the day before Halloween. And my original plan was to make chicken Tikka Masala (one of my very favorite foods), but I couldn't pass on the opportunity to make a Halloween themed dinner! Here was the menu:

-Mummy Heads
-Cocktail Wormies
-Pumpkinlings with Goblion Gook
-Bloody Shirleys

Sounds positively horrifying, yes? ;) Here are the recipes for each thing.

Mummy Heads:
Ingredients:
-English Muffins
-Pizza sauce (or pasta sauce)
-String Cheese
-Olives

Directions:
1) Lay out English muffin halves on a baking sheet and preheat oven to 350
2) Cover each half with a generous amount of sauce
3) Tear the string cheese into strips an lay across the English muffins
4) Cut olives in half and put on top of the cheese for eyes
5)Back for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
6) Eat the mummy heads!

Cocktail Wormies:
Ingredients: (If you have a cocktail weenie sauce that you like, use that.)
-1 Bottle of honey BBQ sauce
-1/2 cup (heaping) grape jelly
-1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
-3 Tbsp Frank's Red Hot sauce (or more to taste)
-hot dogs

Directions:
1) Mix all ingredients (Minus hot dogs) together in a crock pot
2) Slice the hot dogs lengthwise into "worms"
3) Stir the hot dog "worms" into the sauce and turn on the crock pot to low
4) Cook on low for at least 4 hours.

Pumpkinlings with Goblin Gook:
Ingredients:
-Baby Carrots
-Bell Pepper (You're favorite color, with a stem)
-Olives (Leftover from pizzas)
-Sour cream
-Ranch Mix
-(Optional) green food coloring

Directions:
1)Arrange carrots on a plate
2) Put the stem of the pepper on top of the carrots and arrange pepper slices around the edge of plate
3) Arrange olives into a face on the carrots
4) Mix sour cream and ranch mix together (you can add food coloring to dye it green.

Bloody Shirleys
Ingredients:
-Sprite
-Grenadine syrup
-Ice

Directions:
In a clear cup, pour in approximately a tablespoon of grenadine syrup. Add ice and fill up the cup with sprite.















That was my delicious Halloween meal! Super easy and fun! I hope that this inspires you to make your own Halloween meal next Halloween!


(Oh, and here is a shameless plug for my Princess Parties! Please share it with anyone who might be interested in having a Princess come to their kid's party or other event!)

This is Halloween!

Hello loverly readers of my blog! Long time no see, yeah? I am a busy girl. Mostly, I am a lazy girl. BUT I have been working so hard on a project that I got to debut in its entirety this week! I was working so hard on my Halloween costume! I worked so hard on it to make it the best that I possibly could, because I have bigger ideas than just Halloween for this costume! Here are some pics of the process of making it, along with some pictures of it completed! Halloween on BYU campus is so much fun! It is seriously like walking around Disneyland (except with some non-Disney characters thrown in)! I had so much fun taking pictures with so many other wonderful costumes! I know there will be a lot of pictures, but please look through them! It is so worth it to see everyone! :)

I'm sure you know what it is at this point... But here's the final look!

Princess Anna!

And here are pictures from campus!

Oh, I just love Halloween!! It is so much fun to dress up! I went to McDonald's in my costume (because I might have a slight addiction to Spicy Chicken Sandwiches and Diet Dr. Pepper...) and all of the kids there got so excited! And their parents took pictures and it was pretty much awesome. :)

To learn about my big idea for my costume Click Here!