Christmas decorating 2011

Big News

I'm Engaged!!!
On Friday, November 25th, 2011 Daniel proposed to me in Manitou Springs, CO at approx 2pm. We found ourselves in a back neighborhood in Manitou and after a short walk found ourselves in a open grassy area on a nice hill. This is where Daniel popped the question! In classic Katie fashion my response was: "Are you serious?" (I must have asked at least three times before even looking at the ring.)

We're so happy! 

Pretty ring!

The pretty view from the spot he proposed

Then after he proposed we toured the Miramont Castle just at the base of the hill. It is a residential castle that is now a museum. It has been decorated for Christmas. It was so beautiful!

Later that night Daniel and I got all dressed up and went to dinner at the Briarhurst Manor in Manitou. Here we had a fantastic 4 course dinner!

This was such a perfect, romantic day-one I will never forget!!

Being Artsy in Fall :)

I have been particularly captured by the fall colors this year. Fall is not my favorite season, but I really think the changing of the leaves is beautiful! Today I took a break from studying and took a walk around the apartment complex. Here are my favorite fall sights!

A week of cooking!

This week I tried a couple new cooking adventures! I have not spent much time in the kitchen but I really enjoy making new foods. This week I made:
mini quiches for our bible study (many steps, but relatively easy)

and lasagna for family dinner night with Daniel's parents (this one looks messy but tasted great! I made it in too small of a pan and it over flowed)

Thoughts:

For my "music and beliefs" class we have been learning about Islam and the banning of music in some Islamic practices. I wrote this for a response to several reading which talked about the view of music in Islam:

This week in my personal study of the Bible I read 1 Chorinthians chapter 7. Here Paul is advising that while being married is good in Gods’ eyes, it is better to be unmarried. He states in verse 32 and 33, “An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs-how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world-how he can please his wife-and his interests are divided.” The best I can understand it is that Paul’s reason for discouraging marriage is to keep distraction away from mans connection and dedication to God.

            Scott Marcus and Seyyed Hossein Nasr argue a similar point with music in Islam. According to Nasr, music is most forbidden when it “separates the listener from religion and is an obstacle to the remembrance of God”(230). Scott Marcus reiterates this by saying “For some, the issue is not one of condemning music per se, but rather of maintaining a separation between the sacred and the secular”(94).

            It has been hard, in my study of Paul’s advice, to understand how marriage, a concept I have always dreamed of, could be anything but ideal. It wasn’t until I read about the Islam view of music that the pieces started coming together. How could music be considered unacceptable? I can accept the argument that it is better to eliminate distraction from your religion in order to gain the most from your practice. Music can become a religious experience in and of itself and I know from experience that it can consume your whole existence (much like a marriage where the family could take away from the spiritual time with God). Growing up with music as such a huge aspect of my life,  it practically was my religion. Later I struggled,  having to put religion back into it’s proper place. I agree that it is better to keep a balanced view of God as first priority or importance. If music, or similarly marriage, are tools used to enhance your spiritual life, then it is not haram and will be seen as good in the eyes of God.

Just some thoughts from today:

Today has been an emotional roller coaster! I learned some things today, though, that I want to get in writing before I forget. The biggest thing I learned today is that I want to live in a wide lens. Some people live life looking through a small, narrow looking glass. They might look through the money lens, or the music lens, or the family lens, or the church lens. The problem with this is that when you look through a narrow scope, your focus is also narrowed to that primary interest. If those around you happen to look at life through a different lens, tension and misunderstandings arise. I would love to be the kind of person who has a balanced life, one that accommodates all areas of life. A focus, or goal, is important in giving ones life direction, but I don't want to get to a place where I am stuck looking at life from one small goal or perspective. One of the aspects of today that really showed me this is the realization that my lens is currently not music. I don't, for whatever reason, view music as the most important aspect of life, from which everything else must come. Nor do I view money as the primary focus. Today I am happiest around my friends and family, living life without too much worry or anxiety. Today I want to get a job that will pay enough for me to live independently and I want to spend my time doing what I enjoy, whatever that may be.

New Shoes

I tend to not be too much of a shoe fanatic, but today my new black concert shoes came in the mail and I am so excited! They are black suede Clarks heels that I ordered on Zappos. I had store credit so I only had to pay $10 for them. I'm so excited to wear them out!! I think I might wear them on my first day of school!

"Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal "

This week I am happy to report that I have rediscovered my motivation to lose weight. I have been doing weight watchers for almost a year now (which is the longest I've ever stuck to any diet), but recently I have found myself in a slump; not really tracking or counting points. I was trusting that I knew ABOUT how many points I was eating. As you can imagine, that didn't work out too great.

So yesterday, I decided it was time to be more committed to the program and actually lose some weight! I dug out my old books and my pointplus calculator and set out to make a new plan! I printed out two recipes from WW.com and I planned a couple of snacks for the week. Then, after church, Daniel and I went to Walmart and bought everything I would need to make my meals and for my snacks.

After stocking up on food and a new set of tupperware, I went home and immediately started cooking.

By the end of the day I had enough food prepared and calculated for 5 lunches, 5 dinners, and 15 snacks, and leftovers for next week! Bring on the weigh in on saturday! :)

Lake view strikes

As I was looking out at the green lake, it occurred to me that this lake painted a stark picture of what I wanted. When you look straight down into the water, the water is so murky and full of “junk”. No one would want to swim in water that looks that gross. But when you look out into the middle of the lake the water looks crystal clear and wonderful. All I want is to fly out into that perfectly clear water and swim in the beautiful perfect water in the middle of the lake.

Then reality struck me. Seeing as I cannot fly, my only real option is to swim through the muck in order to get to the good water. Though I cannot see it, however, the water in the middle of the lake is just as murky and gross as the water where I stand now. It is because of my far away view that makes it look so much better. In fact, even if I swam through the gunk to the middle of the lake, I would find myself still surrounded in murky water. Even though my life now seems murky and a mess, I have to swim through it to get to where I’m going. I cannot fly over the next few important steps. I must realize that the fairy tale that seemingly awaits me far out in the clear water is not as clear and wonderful as I think, for all of life is filled with our junk. There will be no point in my life where I will finally be through with the junk and be able to swim in crystal clear water.

I want to keep swimming. I want to enjoy my muck, now!

 

A Day in the Life

1. John creamed me at Farkle (score: 14, 400 to 11, 050 -we had surpassed 10,000 before it was too late)
2. Then we moved onto playing Wii Mario kart (which is the only game I can successfully play) and he beat me at that too!
3. Dad and John and I took a trip to Firehouse Subs to visit the AWESOME pop machine made by Ferrari.
4. I did a little reading on how to decorate small kitchens--for future reference ;)
5. Dad and I read through old photo albums including many naked butt pictures (I'm not sure why parents always think that's so cute)
6. To escape the heat and to relax we watched an afternoon movie: The Italian Job.
7. Mom and I watched Chopped.
8. Lastly I changed my blog design! These are my new favorite color combinations!

“Don’t be afraid; just believe.” Mark 5:36

The past few weeks God has been taking me through a journey of trust. I have, in the past, struggled alot with fear. I worry about everything. Safety is the biggest. I also worry about the future, the current status of relationships, and what other people are thinking. I want to plan out my life so that I know what will happen next and I won't be taken by surprise. But I bet you can guess what happens! 
God always throws me for a loop by not giving me what I plan and surprising me anyways. 
Matthew 6 :25-34 has always been in the back of my head, where God tells us not to worry. But recently He pointed out specifically Matthew 6:27 "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" I have been trying to remember that God is in 100% control of my life and the life of those around me, especially when it comes to matters of life and death. 
Also, along these lines, I am starting to learn about the concept of asking and receiving from God. In my study of the book of Mark, I have read about so many of Jesus' miracles. All Jesus wanted was glory to God and for the people to see and believe. He wanted the people to lay down their lives and whole-heartedly trust in God. God also promises that through faith He will give us what we ask. In Mark it says "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." In praying on this and thinking about this, I realized that God has already given me what I have asked for (it just may look different that I had planned). In some ways, it is more important that I trust that God has already answered my prayer and my desire rather than questioning Him because I don't see it or feel it in the way I had expected. 
This is looking to be a long journey of learning to trust God but I am dedicated to give my life fully to Him and to trust Him in all things!

Friends

I have always been the kind of person who has "best friends". I tend to latch onto one person in a given circumstance and they quickly become my everything. I find myself, wrapped up in one friend, with no need for any others. In the past, this mentality has come back to bite me. I become so attached to this one person that I suffocate them and they eventually move on to find less needy friends. For those of you whom I have shared this with before know that this has caused me much heartbreak. I love so intensely and so deeply that it is devastating when God rips them out of my life.
This summer I have come to the realization that, other than my boyfriend, I don't really have a best friend. Yes, I think that Daniel has become my best friend, the one that I tell everything to and share my life with. However, we have a made it a point to make time for our other friends, in order to maintain a healthy balance. It has been in making time for other friends this summer that I have realized that my deepest and closest friends are my few friends from way back in high school. It is the friends who I have known the longest who know me the best, are dedicated to me, and who I have the healthiest friendships with. I am so greatful to have wonderful girls who care so much for me and who love me and accept me for who I am.
I am realizing that it is not always the people you do everything with who are your best friends, but rather those who you have gradually gotten to know and have lived life with.

Krazy Keys!

So it has been a long time since I have blogged. I am writing as fast as I can to explain all the events of the last 6 weeks. However, I have to write about yesterday and todays events because they are so crazy!

So last night I was walking to the door from my car when I dropped my keys. I drop my keys all the time but this time they fell right in the crack between the sidewalk and the wall of the garage. It was totally a fluke situation. They landed in just the right spot to fall in the tiny crack and get stuck. Dad and I tried for abut 20 minutes last night to wiggle the keys free. We ended up going to bed, frustrated.

This morning I woke up to the sound of a jack hammer. Dad was determined to get the keys out! By the end our step/sidewalk looked like this:

and SUCCESS!!!

My dad is my hero! Thanks Dad!

My day in gerunds

*I give partial credit for this idea to my friend Charlotte.
8 am- waking
8:15 am- drinking (coffee)
9 am- writing
10 am- discussing
11 am- learning
12 pm- practicing
1 pm- eating
1:30 pm- moving
3 pm- stressing
3:30 pm- hugging
4 pm- chilling
5 pm- researching
5:30 pm- reading
6 pm- driving
6:30 pm- printing
7pm- rehearsing
9: 15 pm- crying
9: 50 pm- laughing
10:15 pm- showering
11 (ish)- sleeping

May 21, 2011 Judgement Day?

So today has been speculated to be Judgement Day or the end of the world by Harold Camping and followers. Whether or not this is going to happen today or not I thought such a huge day deserved some thoughts from me.

Would I be totally horrible if I said that I hope today isn't Judgement Day? Don't get me wrong, I love my savior, Jesus Christ, and I hope to someday be in heaven by His side, but I'm not ready. There is unfinished business in my life that I want to finish in the name of God. For instance, I really feel called to serve suburban house wives who feel enslaved by a desire for perfection and the belief that salvation is deeds-based. I currently don't live in a suburb and I attend a church in the middle of the city. I also don't feel spiritually ready to move to the suburb and start my "mission". However, this doesn't diminish the fact that God has given me this desire. God has also given me the desire to be a teacher. I am in the middle of a violin performance degree, but He is moving my heart and mind in that direction. Also, He has begun to move my feet. He is placing opportunities in my life to help move me towards that goal. He has placed an amazing program possibility in my lap. He has also made it possible for me and Daniel to go to Durango this summer to councel kids. Why would He be moving so strong in my life if He was going to end it all?

It is normal to have these feelings? Does it mean I have not given my life to God if I am not ready to let go of my life for Him if that is His will?

Needless to say I hope Harold Camping is wrong!

Tonight I was sick of sitting at home (after an afternoon of Hulu and napping) so I decided I needed to get out of the house a little. I walked the 3 or so blocks to the nearest Starbucks.

I enjoyed a venti iced chai and read some poetry for my class. Then I wrote some poetry, inspired by some of the people sitting in the room. It was a great addition to my evening!

Activity week 2

1. Hike with Daniel
2. Walk around the lake at Crown Hill Open Space (without having to stop midway this time)
3. Played tennis with Daniel at City Park
4. 2 hr. dalcroze class
5. 4 mile bike ride with Daniel!

I feel great this week! I have noticed a change in how I am seeing myself and physical activity. I have found a new appreciation for physical activity. It makes me feel great and it's fun! I am enjoying each different activity I try and I'm starting to feel like my body can do it.

Yesterday Daniel and I went on a long bike ride. It was emotionally really hard for me and I think it was a turning point for my "getting fit" journey. I hadn't gone bike riding since probably 8th grade. I was TERRIFIED. It was more than being unsure that my body would make it. It was that I was terrified to be on the bike, afraid that I would fall and get hurt- or that I would be run over. It was fast, far off the ground, trying to balance. I didn't know to stop, start, and I was sure I looked rediculous. On top of that, my friend Dan was hit by a car while he was on a bike and will never be the same. But....I did it! :)

new commitment

This week I made a new commitment to my heath and fitness. Daniel and I are starting to prepare to go to camp in June and we both felt it was time to start getting in shape. We need to be able to run around with all the kids. I decided to make a commitment to Daniel, to what I would do to get back in shape. My commitment included:
1. I will be active 3 times during the weekdays and 1 time over the weekends. This could be together or separate.
and
2. I will really try to eat healthy the equivalent of 6 days a week (allowing myself to not try 3 meals out of the week if I want).

This week's activities included:
1.A hike on Sunday at Green Mountain with Daniel
2. One time around the lake at crown hill
3. Two times around washington park lake
4. 30 minutes on the bike at the gym

:)

also this week: OPERA REHEARSALS BEGIN!

New Hair

Today I tried something new with my hair.

                               This is what my hair usually looks like= straight

This is what it looks like when I curl it like before=very barrel curled

                     Today I tried a new technique where you
wrap the hair around the curling iron without
clamping it

It turned out like this! 

Yay!

Brother John

Today was my brother John's 9th birthday!

Anyone who knows me a little knows that my little brother John is possibly the most important person in my life. We are 12 years apart, a bonus baby as my mom calls him. It has always been a joy to be in his life. Sometimes I feel like more of a mom, but as he is getting older we are starting to develop a really sweet brother/sister relationship.
Here are some special things that I love about my brother:

I love cuddling together and reading

we have a great time coloring together

He is very smart, works very hard in school 

He is learning to play the cello, which is something
new we can share!

He is so creative and loves to have fun!

 












 I am so grateful that I stayed in Denver so that I could be close to him! There is nothing quite like being siblings and I am so blessed to have such an amazing brother in my life!

I love you buddy!

future freak out

My future has been on my mind a lot recently. In particular, my career. It is my highest goal, currently, to become financially independent of my parents. I see the burden that it is causing them to pay for my schooling and housing. I wish nothing more than to be able to alleviate that stress and take care of myself. The problem is that I'm working as hard as I can teaching violin lessons and only making enough to cover food, gas, and a few other basic needs. As a full time student, I don't have any more time to get another job to help with this.
For the past 9 months, I have been living under the hope that I will finish my degree in music and follow it with a masters in education, from which I will teach. I had not decided whether I want to teach music or classroom.
While talking to a friend of mine a few days ago, it was mentioned that this hope might be resting on shaky ground. It is possible that with a bachelors degree in music (even with a masters in primary education) there would be no way to teach in an elementary classroom. His thought was that I would have to go back and get ANOTHER bachelors in education.
After hearing this I began to freak out a little. What if all of this is going to still get me no where? What if all of this time and effort is only going to lead to me starting ALL OVER in order to do what I feel called to do? How much longer am I going to have to be going to school without time to get a job and take care of myself?
I really hate this! I see so many people around me who are able to make it on their own, supporting themselves. Why is it that I am still stuck burdening my parents with my own debt? Why is it that I want to free them, yet I am stuck?

My next step is to try and get some information as to what will be expected of me if teaching is my goal.

Any prayer or wisdom would be greatly appreciated as I am very frustrated and discouraged!

my first (little baby) grid

1. I began my day with my friend Michelle at a coffee shop in 5-points downtown denver.
2. Then, I went to Daniel's house where I could do laundry for free and take advantage of his cable. I watched by first episode of House.
3. This afternoon I went to Mom's middle school and played for her classes. I had a great time talking to the kids and answering the millions of questions!
4. I took a trip to walmart to get groceries and to get embroidery thread (more to come)
5. Then I made meatloaf and potatoes for Daniel and his roommate Keaton.
6. I ended my night with some great time with my wonderful boyfriend!

It has been a great day!!!!

**as a note, I began making a friendship knot bracelet today! It is a really great craft to keep my hands busy!

Savers experience

Today I went to Savers with Daniel's mom, Martha. I have been to thrift stores before, and believe me, I am fully up on how they all work, but I haven't been to Savers before. We had a great time!

Martha bought some shirts for her husband, a shirt for her and a table cloth. My purchases included:

Two shirts for Daniel

a green shirt for St. Patrick's Day