Welcome, Summer...

Hello there, friends-

It's been a while....the end of the semester was super busy and I never got around to updating. but. good news....I'm officially on summer break so I'll be back to blogging in no time.

Update for you!

•Portfolio Review (round 1)- So I was honestly scared out of my MIND about reviews. I had heard that they were intense and that they tended to give harsh reviews. I worked hard to get all of my work from the past 3 years together, organized and mounted in the midst of school craziness. I turned it in and waited a few days to hear back. (torture!) Well I got my review back on Tuesday and it had some critiques on it giving me a few things to work on then on the back it said "On course to acceptance". I have NEVER been so excited about 4 little words. Never. The feedback from the professors was good and they all told me I was on my way to being accepted into the program. Needless to say, that took my stress level down at least 20 notches. This summer I'm going to work on the things they told me to work on and keep my fingers crossed to officially being accepted in the fall.

In other news, I'm sure most of you know about the Nashville flood that happened on May 2nd. I still can't believe it. I love Nashville and it broke my heart to see it underwater. Another heartbreaking situation is the lack of care we are seeing from outside of Tennessee. I'm only getting on my soap box for a minute on this but it really bothers me. NO ONE has paid attention to this disaster in Nashville. I just don't get it. *steps off soap box*

My Kairos pastor, Mike Glenn, said on his twitter today this phrase and I think it sums up Nashville perfectly.

"Bad times do not make or break, only reveal. The flood hasn’t broken Nashville, just revealed the city’s great heart."

I believe that's all for tonight...I just thought I'd let you guys know I'm still alive :) I'll try to get some of my projects uploaded on here in the near future so ya'll can see the stuff I rant about constantly ;)

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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Happy Easter!

Hello my lovely friends!

Happy Easter! :)
I hope you take time today to reflect upon the meaning of Easter beyond the bunnies and candy. We serve a risen Savior and today is a special day to celebrate just that.

My church has a Saturday night and Sunday morning service so we went tonight. It was...amazing :) Such a wonderful time of celebrating together. I love my church.

Josh Turner was there also :) Let me just tell you...his voice is amazing. and his testimony is as well. He's a country singer that keeps Christ number one in his work. There's something to be said for that.

Updates:
1. Portfolio Reviews are April 27th....I'm nervous as anything even though they don't eliminate anyone until the fall reviews. None the less, be praying. Lord knows I could use it.

2. I register for classes this week....crossing my fingers that I get into the classes I need. Once i have my schedule set, I'll let yall know what classes I'll have next semester. I'm pretty excited :)

3.I made a 104 on my art history midterm. This is such exciting news. A friend and I studied out bootys off for this things! YES!

With all that said, It's going to be a busy next few weeks. I'd appreciate any prayers you'd like to send my way :)

Sorry to cut it short. I promise you a bigger update soon.

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

Ps. I added music :) Only 3 songs for now...but favorites. Enjoy!

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Things you never want to hear at the doctor:

I have found the number one thing you never want to hear at the doctor...are you ready?

1. "Oh, that looks horrid! It looks like some turned on a blow torch in your ear!"

Yep...that is exactly what I heard at the doctor this afternoon. Followed by a long explanation of how I have a sinus infection and a severe ear infection. Truthfully, I could've told you that! Especially after I didn't fall asleep until after 6 this morning from sharp pain in my ear. Oh dear...sometimes I wonder why I go to the doctor...Oh, that's right....for the ability they have to prescribe those little miracles in a bottle!

Well I've been since about 80 % of my spring break...classes start back tomorrow morning and I feel like I've been hit by a truck. This is not the way I planned on starting off the second half of the semester. Spring break did me more harm than good unfortunately.

This second half of the semester is going to be so busy. I apologize in advance because I know I won't be able to write as much but I'll try to squeeze in as many posts as possible.

Here's what on the agenda for the rest of the semester:

• Portfolio Reviews- This is our preliminary review before the official review at the end of the year. It will tell us where we stand and what we need to work on. I'll be spending a lot of time preparing for this.

• Midterms and papers- Self explanatory, I do believe.
  

• Projects, projects, projects- This is when things start getting busy...eep.
  

That's all for tonight....

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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Spring break and questions for YOU!

Hello there, friends!

I'm sorry it's been so long! School is keeping me so busy this semester. Finally, I'm on spring break so I thought I'd give you a nice little organized update update on everything.

School:

• Typography- this is my "focus" class of the semester. It's essential that I get an A (or at least high B) in this class for my major. We have portfolio reviews at the end of this next fall semester that tell us whether we can continue in this major or not. Therefor, I spend most of my time focusing on this class. It's an interesting class and I'm really liking is so far so it makes things a little easier to focus on. Still a challenging class but at least I enjoy it.
  

• Drawing 2- This is probably my most challenging class of the semester. In drawing 1, it seemed like everyone in the class was in the same general skill level...it wasn't so intimidating. But in this class, there are some absolutely amazing skill levels and I'm definitely not one of those. Never the less, I'm just trying my hardest and my goal is to come out of the class with a B.
  

• Art History- this is a required class for my major and I usually dread the general education class but I'm not minding this one as much....maybe because it's art history instead of just general history. I love looking at art from different time periods :) This week I'm also going to the Frist museum and the Parthenon in Nashville for extra credit.
  

• Black and White Photography- I love this class! I absolutely love developing my own film and prints in the darkrooms. It's so addicting. The only down side is how time consuming it is. Taking the pictures can take anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on the assignment and then developing and printing takes at least 5 hours. So usually I have to devote Sundays to this which is most unfortunate.
  

That's my semester thus far. :) Busy but going good. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of some of my projects on here and/or facebook soon.

As far as weight loss goes, I'm still in a weird spot. I've lsot around 7 pounds total since the beginning of January. This isn't bad but it's still frustrating that I've already hit a plateau. I'm determined to overcome it this time though... I'm continuing to work out at least 3 times a week and now adding some strength training in.

My goal for March is to just get past this plateau. I don't care if I just get 1 pounds past it, it's a start. :)

I'm starting to realize that although that "jump start" in January was nice, it's not going to be that easy to get it off. I'm going ot have to work hard for this and I'm ready.

Alrighty...that's the updates for this week :)

Now two questions for YOU!

1. Where is a cheap vacation place for me and some girl friends to go this summer? We really want to get away this summer and just have a few days of fun that's also affordable. Anyone have any ideas?

2. I'm thinking I need to get my hair cut....any ideas? I'm not going any shorter than my shoulders. I needs something other than just the same simple hair I have now. :) drastic layers? sweepy bags? ideas anyone?

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Overreactions and Goal setting :)

Hello, again!

Good news.
Apparently, I've become way too obsessed with the scale. I weigh at least once a day lately. Not good. Mainly because weight fluctuates throughout the day. My "official" weigh in day where I actually log my weigh on Sparkpeople.com has always been Friday morning. I got on this morning and had lost the 2.5 pounds I was complaining about in my last post. I've decided....I'm going to try to weigh only once (maybe twice) a week now. It just stressed me out and makes me frustrated. No more!

Also, as busy as this weekend is going to be, I'm going to try to plan out a few quick meals for this upcoming week. I tend to eat unhealthy when I'm in a rush...so to avoid that, I'm going to start planning ahead. Anyone have any good healthy quick fix meals?

I'm giving up red meat for a while. I decided to do it for Lent but it may be longer...? not sure. I've just realized that it's so much healthier to eat poultry (no added horomones, please! :) and you can easily substitute ground turkey instead of ground beef. We'll see how it goes!


Okay so here's the run down of goals for this week:

1. Weigh in only on weigh in day (maybe one other day if it's driving me nuts)

2. Pay more attention to the food I put into my body, regardless of how busy I am.

3. Plan a few "quick fix" meals.

4. Drink at least 5 glasses of water a day. (I'm working my way up to 8...I'm not naturally a big drinker.)

5. Work out my 4 days.

There we go! I think those are reasonable for this week. :) I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments. <3 you guys.

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

ps. Thought I'd share my favorite song as of lately. I went to see Wicked in September with my mother and best friend. It was amazing. I'd pay hundreds to see it again, no exaggeration. Anyhoo...this song "Defying Gravity" has been a favorite lately. Call my stupid but it's really encouraged me. Sometimes...alright...a lot of times, I put it in my CD player in the car on the way to work out. haha. I'm seriously in love with this song.

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Honesty.

If I'm going to do this I have to be honest with myself and you. So here we go...no fancy wording, no beating around the bush. Here is where I am, right now.

Here it is:

1. I'm scared. scared to death of failing.

2. I just stepped on the scale and I'm up 2.5 lbs from earlier this week.

3. I'm horrible at eating healthy. I don't know how...and don't know where to start.

4. I've never lost more than 15 pounds from a weight loss program or diet. I always hit a wall and give up.

5. My weight is my biggest insecurity. I can remember more times than I can count time I've been made fun of. I remember exactly where I was standing, who said it and the words that were said.


There it is. The ugly truth.

I want to give up.
but I can't.

I can't live this way anymore...I have no choice but to keep going.

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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News and a Cruise

Hello there!

Sorry it's been almost two weeks since I updated. Thing have been a little busy and every time I'd have time to blog, i'd be exhausted and ready for bed or needed to get going on some school stuff.
I do, however, have two very exciting things to share with you to make up for my lack of blogging lately.

Big News #1:
I'm going to be an aunt again! Matt and Chass are expecting their first baby on August 25th. I'm so extremely excited to be an aunt again and I'm so glad I can finally share the news with yall! They told me in early December but was sworn to secrecy for a little while. Anyhoo- I can't wait! I'm hoping it's a girl (then I'd have one of each! Nephew and Niece!) but I'd be just as happy with another nephew.

Big News #2:
(In story form)
Okay...so the other day I was in Art history and got a text from my brother, Matt. It read "Hey Katieboo. Chass and I just wanted to let you know that we noticed the results from you going to the gym last night and we're so proud of you". I thought, "aww. how sweet" and replied a quick thank you as to not get caught by the professor.
A minute later, I got another text that said "We have a proposition for you..." Upon asking what it was and then my phone being stupid and mixing up a bunch of text messages, I finally received a text back that read..."Write down your starting weight, put it in an envelope and put it in a safe, once you've lost 100 pounds prove it to one of us and...." *insert drumroll here* "....we'll pay for you to go on a cruise!" AHH! I then proceeded to try my very best not to freak out in the middle of class. I was shocked. It meant so much to me. Needless, to say I accepted their proposition and how have a pounds count down until a cruise up in my room.

*phew* That's all my big news for now! :)

Here's a quick update on weight loss and working out:

I hit that road block I always hit about a month in last week. I had maintained and then gained a pound. I let it get me down for about two days then realized THIS is why I never lose the weight. because I let weeks like this completely get the best of me. So I pushed past it...got back on schedule this week and feel great.

So, unfortunately, there is no weight loss to report this week. Next week, hopefully!
but I have been on schedule for working out this week (with the exception of Superbowl Sunday). I worked out Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I may even get in a quick workout tonight.

That's all for today, friends.

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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