New Blog

the link to my sister missionary blog

Karl G. Maser

Ah, I was just thinking how I should explain what my picture is up at the top. I did a photo-shoot with my RA/friend Lauren Merkley and we decided that rolling around on the grass would be cute. It totally was. The coolest part about our shoot in front of the Maser building is that essentially I am named after Karl G. Maser! My grandpa's dad was a friend of Mr. Maser and named my great uncle after him, Karl A. Seely. My mother, my grandpa's second daughter, was named after her uncle Karl, hence Karla (Karl A smooshed together is Karla, get it?). When I was born my mom was going to name me Arielle but The Little Mermaid was supposed to come out in a few years and she didn't want to name me after a fish so, like her name and like her mother's name she put a K in front of Arielle and that is how I became KariElle; after a long list of Ks with the beginning being Brother Karl G. Maser. Cool, huh?

The 'e' is capitalized in the middle of my name because my mom liked Elle magazine and it means girl in French.

Last Post

Matt is going to the Czech Republic for his mission and leaves in 4 days!

Edison flew up to Utah to drive back with me to Arizona! What a good sister.

I'm gonna miss the Colony boys a ton! They were a huge part of my Sophomore year and these are a few of them. Cousin Scott is in the orange, Boise nation of course.

Well, this is my last post. I'm going to have a mission blog after today to document what kind of mission stuff I'm doing and my thoughts and all that. Plus I have a new email and every time I post here I have to go through the whole ordeal where I log out just to log back in. It's unexpectedly frustrating.

Man, what do I write about on the last post of my most favorite blog? I have two others, did you know? One with my BYUSA presidency and another for my BYUSA journal reflections on leadership. I like blogging and wish I kept it up more but the whole logging in process takes .45 seconds too long and has deterred me from posting haha. Pathetic but true.

I'm outside in the beautiful Arizona weather, 78 degrees at 11 in the morning, listening to my Cat Stevens Pandora station. It's so chill and wonderful and relaxing and peaceful. The only thing that would make this even better is if I had ran already this morning so that I could justify taking a lazy morning nap.

I think that I'll wrap this up by mentioning that after all this time blogging:

1) BYU is the best decision about college I've ever made.

2) BYUSA is the second best decision about college I've ever made.

3) Living on my own is a way better than living at home (I love that I get to be with my family though).

4) I'm going on a mission.

5) I'm proud of myself for not letting my boy-crazyness get the better of me. I've yet to seriously like a boy who likes me back and haven't wasted my time or done stupid stuff as a result.

6) It's important to not worry about what I can't control and simply trust God.

7) I really love music because it's fun and wish I could play the piano. So I'm teaching myself.

8) It's important that I learn from my mistakes and not judge others as if they've been where I've been.

9) Exercising and eating healthy really are important and crucial aspects of a productive, positive day and I'm trying be better at living that way.

10) I am confident in who I am and love my life so thanks for participating!

11) I still can't spell after 20 years... thanks goes out to SpellCheck too, ha

PS, I'll post the link to my new blog when I create it. =D

oooh but I have to document the funniest day Matt and I had on Monday hahha. I picked him up around 10 that morning and the first thing he said was, "so, is it just gonna be one of those days today?" and I said, "a super great one? yeah, it is!" and we laughed but had no idea that it really was going to be one of those days...

Yogurtland was our first stop and it was closed so we went to Sports Authority to play around. We each putted 3 holes and 2/3 of mine stopped right at the edge!! How does that happen? He made 2/3 of his of course. Later we played some ball in the backyard and skated around a bit. He wanted me to do a trick but I kept saying how I didn't want to because I hate falling in front of people. I was in the middle of turning on the skateboard as I said this and of course I fell RIGHT ON MY FACE. oooh it was so funny. I am still in awe of how that happened... now I have a black eye haha. Maybe the funniest part about that, other than that I had a soccer shaped ice pack on my face, was his face at seeing me on the ground. haha he was just in shock and didnt really know what to do hahaha he's a good guy and sat in the shade with me. 30 minutes later we're picking up stuff to go inside and I told him that the only thing that makes me feel better about when dumb stuff happens is that the rest of the time I'm right on key. Of course the ball I threw over to the patio just as I said that hits a rock on the ground and flies right back towards me!! hahaha oh gosh it was just one of those days, ya know? hahahaa Monday will be funny for the rest of our lives...

Una

I had the weirdest dream last night. I was praying and praying for these two little children, siblings, maybe twins, to be healed. They were very poor and lived in an underground sewer and were incredibly sick. I wanted them to be better, I hoped that my faith was strong enough to cure them but I woke up before I could find out. Their names were in some way tattooed/imprinted on their little feet and one of the babies was Una. How on earth could I know this name? I just thought my mind had messed up on naming this kid.

False.

I'm in my English class and we are reading East of Eden where one of the character's names is Una. How could I possibly know that?? I havn't read to that part yet! How is it possible that I dreamed about that name without knowing it before hand and then stumble across it in a book written 60 years ago. Craazzyyy!!!

What does this mean?

Lookin Good In My Jeans

I am getting thiner but the scale refuses to acknowledge that! haha Today I weighed in at 190.6 but a few weeks ago I finally was 188. My work out scheduled has gotten screwed up but I'm feeling tons better than I used to. Larlee is really good at encouraging and supporting me in my weight loss journey. She helps me avoid chocolate and congratulates me on eating healthy foods. She's just great! She just said that my jeans look good and I made some comment on how we have the same ones haha. She said, "Kari, its not the jeans, it's you in them!" That made me feel really good. =D

new friends

so these are my new friends! jordan, heather and grace. theyre all in my ward and jordan and grace are new this semester. we went long boarding yesterday and it was so great! i fell pretty bad and scratched myself up, of course, but it was all good. grace, heather and i had a rainy day photo-shoot last week too! these are wonderful people and i cant wait to get to know them better and hang out more! plus jordan is way attractive and sings extremely well and i love that too. =D

Elder Perrys top 4 things to Establishing Christianity

1) Pray

2) Daily Scripture Study

3) Temple Worthiness

4) Daily Acts of Service

I can do tons better on all four of these things. I plan on going with my ward to the Temple this Saturday. On Wednesdays people from my ward go to a Spanish ward to help the kids with their homework and I'm going to start going to that as well. Praying and studying my scriptures are things I need to work on on my own though.

Jimmer Mania

well, last night was a HUGE disappointment. we lost our first basketball game in a long time with more than 10 points between us the entire game... it was sad. ='(

whats more sad though is that we lost one of our favorite players. brandon davies had a little temptation which resulted in his suspension from the team and possibly the school. this boy named chris has a wonderful blog post about staying positive and not making the situation worse for him and i encourage you all to read it.

No School!!!

Last night was the best sleep I've had in FOOREEVVEERRRR and its due to the fact that I was emotionally exhausted and physically pooped out. I taught our Sunday School lesson and the spirit was so strong then Emily, Larlee and I had been laughing all day, it was just insane how good of a day it was. Honestly though, the weekend was fantastic! We have so many inside jokes now - "Weenis!!" being one of them. hahaha we are such a good apartment! We get along so well! yayy! Thanks to PIT we've have been making new friends in the ward too! I posted some of the images we took but there are at least 50 more that prove how much fun the three of us had together... hahahahaa our videos are HILARIOUS too and I hope you enjoy them!

new week #2

This week was incredibly busy!!!! Tests, papers, honor week, sleeping, more papers, cleaning checks, basically your typical college life all smooshed into one 7 day period! I wish this hadn't been such a wild week though because I was supposed to drop 3 lbs! Not gain one. Stink!! I need to sleep better (6am-1030pm) and make sure to eat healthy ALWAYS, despite the time or the easiest food choice.

On to other news of the week: I had my first bishop interview for my mission on Wednesday! That's pretty exciting! I can turn my papers in on May 16! Matt goes into the MTC two weeks earlier (May 4) and he's said that I can sing for his farewell. He wants "How Great Thou Art". I'm excited to sing for him and see him off. He will be a fantastic missionary! We were talking about how excited we both are for our missions and how we both get to go to the temple. THE TEMPLE!!! It's fantastic!!

This is the temple in Hawaii where he gets to go to every week. He's so lucky!

This is the Provo Temple that I get to go to! It's not as exotic looking as Matt's but I love it.

We are so blessed to get to do this. Serve missions. I just want school to be over now so that I can have more time to prep and find out where I'm going! Spain is what I'm hoping for but who knows. I'll be happy no matter where I go.

Well, there is so much more that I could blog about but I have a 12 page paper waiting to be written. ='( In an hour I'm singing with my bishop and a beautiful boy in my ward for our stake talent show auditions!! Then it's back home for my paper and hopefully I'll be able to finish soon and then go watch Jimmer and his boys play basketball and whoop the Utes.

leadership

if you ever want to see how i view my position as a leader check out my other blog:

KariElle Leads Now, Not Tomorrow!

Literary Genius

I just had a brief epiphany. The common stereotype for smart people is that they wear glasses. Well, when I wear glasses it's usually because I'm so dog on tired that it hurts to wear my contacts. Does that mean that smart people wear glasses because they're so tired from reading huge anthologies and writing papers until wee hours of the night? I think it does.

Lets Get Our Swimsuits On!

Sunday is supposed to be a high of 42*!! That's great weather this weekend! Woo-hoo! Today was difficult. Cold to the bone difficult. A high of 22* and a low of 1*. Yes. ONE DEGREE FERANHCEIGHT! That's totally freezing. Toottaalllyyy freezing. Sunday will be better though and Emily and I have decided to bust out our suits and hit the pool. Everyone is welcome to join.

First Month

I weighed in at 193 this morning! That's really great since I havn't been at this weight for quite some time [except last week when I lost 4 lbs after not loosing any the previous week]. For the past two years I havn't been keeping track of my weight but now that I am it scares me to think of how much I could have gained! Now that I'm monitoring myself and being better about working out and all that it's fun to eat healthy and go to the gym.

Today I'm working on two projects: 1) my lesson for tomorrow's sunday school and 2) my conference paper for my 295 english class on George Herbert. Both of these things need to be done today or I pretty much fail. Above all else, I hate failing.

Knowing that this month I lost a total of 6.6 lbs. will keep me motivated to getting my work done because only after I finish can I go to the gym. It's still embarrassing that I'm so heavy, but it's something I'm working on. Next month I WILL LOOSE 8 LBS if not more and by February 26 will weigh 184 lbs. I know I can do this. I have to. I will. 184 lbs baby! How pathetic that I still have so much to loose... I have to though or I'll have to pay my mom another $30 bucks because she lost 8 lbs this month and I didn't! grr

gym gym gym gym. cardio cardio cardio cardio. muscle muscle muscle muscle. 184 184 184 184.

Man of my Dreams

What do I do when the perfect guy for me is not the man of my dreams? Even after I've dreamed about him (only once and it was so unexpected that the dream really doesn't matter)? He's wonderful though, don't misunderstand. He's practically perfect in every way: fan of running, works at the MTC, plays basketball really well, likes my singing, loves his family and is one of the kindest men I've ever known. I love hugging him and he lets me hug him whenever I feel like it - I like that too. So why doesn't it feel right to like him? Why do I feel myself holding back? He's not my ideal man but he's FANTASTIC and I tell him all the time.

Home Libraries

I don't know how long I could keep up a perfectly white room like this but it looks so peaceful and calm! I'm sure if I had a library like this one I would look forward to being productive just for a reason to sit in here.

I love how cozy this room is. It's not too bright but just happy enough to inspire some quality service projects.

I'd use this room to have company over to talk about our favorite books and how we can help the children do better school (I don't have kids, but by the time I'm able afford a library like this one I'm sure I'll have some running around). =D

I'll pick this set up for my country cottage in Ireland when I move there.

I think I love this room most of all. The ladder reminds me of Bell in her favorite book store. It's colorful and modern but quiet and jazzy. It looks like a place kids would build forts in; a place where I'd go to relax, listen to my music and get my reading done. After building my own fort of course.

Idaho

A fairly large caravan of college students are driving up to Boise this afternoon to 1) be with Chad for his mission farewell talk and 2) get away for the weekend. In addition to packing for my 3 day weekend (friday night, saturday day and sunday day) which starts at 3:15, we have a cleaning check at 3:00. My job is to clean the bathroom and I'd really rather not clean the bathroom. It's by far my least favorite chore. My clothes need to be hung and the other set need to go into the dryer, I need to take a nap, get showered and ready for the day, and lastly, probably most important to the safety of myself in this apartment, I need to clean that bathroom!

1) drink water

2) move my laundry over

3) clean half of the bathroom

4) hang up my clothes

5) pick laundry up

6) clean other half of bathroom

7) pack bag

8) shower and get ready

9) nap, maybe, and leave for IDAHO!!

luf mug

i really do have the best roommates.

they bought me this mug from anthropologie and surprised me on sunday!

i had no idea.

just goes to show that the people you spend your time with know you.

i love them so much!

im grateful to have them in my life and to be part of theirs.

what would i do without them?

the Challenge

Last week I lost 2.4 lbs! hooray for me! This week's goal is to lose 2 lbs again, more if possible, and to go to bed by 10:30. I'm doing well at not eating past 9:00 pm. I just got home from my second spin class which was just as tough, if not more sweaty, as the first time and I can not wait for Wednesday when I get to do it again! On my list of things to do tomorrow is laundry. I can't work out as much as I am without clean sports bras and shorts... t-shirts I definitely have enough of though.

I went to the grocery store this afternoon and bought a ton of yogurt, some greens, turkey, whole grain granola bars and some apples. I don't even like apples. Oh, and at the gym they gave me 4 single serving boxes of multi-grain cheerios! If you

don't like them I'm not quite sure what's wrong with you. They are divine. It's like General Mills has created this super-human breakfast food that can be eaten at any time of the day and it satisfies your belly. Breakfast, of course, a late lunch if you are in a hurry, or a deliciously sweet desert! Can you tell I love these cheerios? They really do bring cheer to my life.

What a coincidence that the gym I love also gives me the food I love! That's a quality work out place if I've ever been to one.

Cycling!!

OK!! cycling is my new favorite thing!! i just got home from my first class ever and it was great! i stink more than usual, have sweat seeping through my entire shirt, can barely sit/stand/walk and feel wonderful! its nice to have a new exercise that keeps me guessing. when we first started though, i thought, "ok, how hard can cycling really be?" boy, was i wrong! it was tough! i have an entirely new appreciation for Lance Armstrong and his ability to win multiple tour de france races. what an amazing accomplishment! you go lance! my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my shoulders hurt, my back hurts, my abs hurt, my booty hurts... its going to be a restful night thats for sure! thank goodness my mom got me that mattress pad thing that i wanted so badly! now i just need to shower so my body can stop smelling like a man.

I LOVE CYCLING!!

home

im leaving in exactly 47 minutes to go back to my other home in provo. i still need to pack and im starving. i was going to get ready and put my face on and all that but i cant. i miss matt. i have no one to impress anymore. at least ill see him again in 4 months. and ill be thin. thats good. i love my family and wish i could be with them longer but its good for me to go back to school and be productive. i had a dream last night that i was trying to become Executive VP for BYUSA.... it was horrible! i knew i didnt want to do it because i was going on a mission. it was like i was trying to do everything when in reality i couldnt do it all; nor did i want to. it was weird.

im going on a mission.

im also going to be late if i dont pack up all my stuff!

p-town, here i come! =D

Chocolate

Happy first day of the year! My New Year's Resolution this time around is to not eat chocolate. Completely crazy, I know. I'm also doing a weight loss challenge with my mother. Every Saturday I will weigh myself and the goal is to loose about 2 lbs a week. At the end of each month we will compare our weight loss and whoever wins gets a reward paid by the other person! Today is the first day and my starting weight is 200 lbs (gross, I know). By the month of April I will have lost 37 lbs-ish and be at 163 lbs and, hopefully, totally toned. It's a lofty and attainable goal. Impossible is nothing!

my last bite of the good stuff for 365 days!