Learning

There is no denying that I have the BEST major ever. Seriously, the accounting students are super spoiled. And I love it. I’m getting to have so many great experiences because of it. Case in point, last Saturday PwC treated us and a guest to a ski day at Sundance, so I brought little Heather up to teach her how to ski! She freaking rocked it. That girl is a natural. It must be something about that Panhandle blood (she’s from Spokane). We were born to play in the snow or something.

Obvs a natural.

Besides skiing, they served us lunch and we had time to network with some of the professionals. I made a beeline right to the San Jose table so I could chat with one of the recruiters. The more I learn about San Jose and the market there, the more excited I get about going there. It’s the tech capital of the US, if not the world, and the companies there are always growing and changing, making for some exciting and challenging work. PwC also brought in Comedy Sportz to perform for us. Basically, it’s our local version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Is that show even on still? I can remember staying up late to watch episodes of that and almost peeing my pants. I think Comedy Sportz did them justice.

So I learned three things that day: 1) I really really really really really wish I had time to be a ski instructor. I LOVE teaching people how to ski. I love seeing how excited they get when they catch on and how eager they are to learn more; 2) I’m really liking what I see at PwC. I didn’t know that much about them before, but from what I’m learning about the people that work for them and their culture, I’m definitely interested in exploring my options with them; 3) I’m still an Idaho girl, through and through. I will always swear by Idaho skiing, especially the Schweitzer variety. I mean, I guess Sundance isn’t the best place to judge the Utah skiing scene. I should probably expand those horizons. But for now, I’m all Idaho.

In other exciting news, Candice and I took Heather ring shopping yesterday! Yes, that does mean that we acted like giddy school girls. And yes, that also means that Candice and I were trying on rings. I found a lovely Neil Lane one. Now I just need to find someone to buy it for me. Anyway, Heather is approaching the day when a very lucky man will ask for her hand in marriage. And she deserves it more than anyone I know. They actually met on a blind date (I’m glad to see those working out for someone) about a month and a half ago. I know, you’re probably thinking WHOA! Isn’t that moving a little fast? Aren’t they rushing into it? And usually I would agree and be questioning the future of that relationship. But in this case, I don’t at all. They are both very sensible people. They are both at the point in life where they know what they’re looking for, and they communicate all of that to each other. I don’t know how I know, but I just know that they will make each other very happy. So I’ll be looking forward to some wedding bells this summer, and that means pictures!!!! It’s been too long since I’ve had a good photo shoot.

Well, second round of midterms start tomorrow. I can’t believe it’s already March. And that means summer is right around the corner! I can’t wait for sunshine and swimming and hiking and camping and road tripping. It’s going to be quite wonderful.

Male Models

I figured it’s about time for some updates, especially after the holiday weekend. Ok, so maybe that was a week ago, but I still think I’m pretty on top of things. I mean, last week was just brutal. Every day was packed full. I guess that’s my own fault since I signed up for a bunch of training classes and committed to several activities. So no, I was not doing only school stuff the entire week. I know you guys think I’m pretty nerdy already (I probably talk about accounting way too much on here, but the core kinda consumes your life), but I do still know how to have fun. Promise.

I’m sure you’re dying to know what this post is all about. I’m guessing that you’re expecting to see some male models and you are spot on. I spent my holiday Monday up at Park City with some wonderful guys. Seriously, some of THE nicest guys I know. They’re all roommates and super tight, practically brothers. They were looking for a photographer to do some “family” photos, and when they heard I’m into that sort of thing, they enlisted my help. And who could say no to such handsome men? Ok, the waiting is over. Say hello to these fine gentlemen. Disclaimer: there is a little skin! ;) 

Now don’t tell me you didn’t start cracking up! Besides being the nicest, they’re also some of the funniest. If you’d like to see the rest of their shoot, click here (yes, there are a few more speedo pictures).

Well, it’s that time of the semester. Midterm week is next week, so if I drop off the face of the planet don’t be alarmed. Oh, I also thought I’d report on my mileage. As of today, I’ve run 46 miles this semester. I’m almost a third of the way there!  Starting back up was tough, but I’m getting back in the groove and I can feel myself improving. It’s awesome. If you’re at all interested in picking up running, set a medium-term mileage goal. You’ll be amazed at what you can do.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard

Remember a couple posts back when I said I would post pictures from my most recent photography excursion? Well, maybe you don’t, but I certainly do. Sometimes I think I remember too much. Anyway, promised post is here. Feel free to “Oooo” and “Aaahh.” They are quite lovely. Thanks, David and Jessica, for letting me be a part of your special day.

Want to see more of this beautiful couple? You can see their full album here: Flickr. I’m also still in the process of editing some of their reception photos, so keep checking back.

Now, I’m not finished yet! There are still some other things I want to say. A new semester is here, which means new opportunities for mischief. And it promises to be busier than ever, which is good, because it keeps me from thinking about how much I want to leave already. I am less than thrilled to still be in Provo. Don’t get me wrong, I like BYU, and I’m super grateful for the AMAZING education I’m getting. But I won’t be sad when it comes time to leave. I promise that is the extent of my complaining.

On a happier note, I am officially half way finished with my college education. How’s that for optimism? And that’s one of my New Years’ resolutions: be more optimistic. Others include finally getting that model body, buying my entire Pinterest wardrobe, and zorbing (if you don’t know what that is, click here). Ok, more realistically, my goal this semester is to run 150 miles by the end of it. That works out to about ten miles a week. Totally doable. I bet I’ll even finish early. And now that I’ve told the world, I have to follow through. I trust you to keep me motivated.

A HaakLalChip Christmas Production

Welcome to Christmas with the Haakenson-Lallatin-Chipman brood. And you can’t forget about the Bests, Strahans, Cooks, Brintons, and Getzs. We have quite the party every year. There are always new faces to be seen, and all the chaos you could want. You really couldn’t ask for a better time.

Let me just say that I love, love, love Christmas - the atmosphere, the smells, the decorations, the anticipation. All of it. It’s such an exciting, beautiful time of year (not to mention a nice break from school). And this year I got to be HOME! We have such fun traditions that I love being a part of. Although, the drive home was a beast. Not as bad as the drive back to Utah, and certainly not as bad as the drive home for Thanksgiving last year (18 freaking hours!!!). I will not sit in a car for more than an hour at a time for the next three months, at least.

Aside from actually getting there, being there was lovely. I saw my best girlfriends and some other good friends from high school. We played a little Just Dance 3 (we’re a hilarious bunch btw), went “classy” classic roller skating, and went down to the resort like the good old days. My first day back I sunk my teeth into a delicious Huddy burger. I’ve had a lot of good burgers, but none compare to the perfection of a Hudson’s Hamburger. Of course we had cousinpalooza up at the Schweitzer condo and hit the slopes early enough the next day to get first tracks. Dang, I need to brush up on my skiing. I used to be skiing at least once a week. Now it’s like once a year. Unacceptable.

Now for the real reason you are here. How does my crazy family celebrate the most wonderful time of the year? It all begins Christmas Eve. Everyone gathers at either the Lallatins or the Haakensons for Christmas feast number one.  We open gifts from the different families, and we usually have a visit from some character who is acting as Santa’s Helper. Last year it was the Grinch. This year it was the Cat in the Hat (or Kat in the Hat).

Merry Christmas!!

Kat in the Hat and the grandkids.

Christmas morning rolls around and at my house we wake up to stockings filled with chocolate and little presents, gifts from Santa, and gifts from each other. After tearing into those, we have strawberry waffles for breakfast. They’re the best when you spread sour cream all over them and then top them with yummy strawberries. And you can’t forget about the Satsuma oranges on the side. When Christmas falls on a Sunday we go to church for Sacrament meeting, and then head to Sunbar for the rest of Christmas Day. This year, we switched it up and went to serve Christmas dinner at a nearby restaurant for the less fortunate. It was so fun, and I’m not just saying that. I really enjoyed serving and chatting with the people there. They were so friendly and so grateful. It made me realize how incredibly blessed I am. I don’t have to worry about some of the simplest things, like where my next meal is coming from.

We did go to Sunbar (the grandparents’ house) afterward for Christmas feast number two and for round two of stockings. Santa also stops at their house for all the grandkids. We play games and ice skate and eat until we can’t eat no mo. In the past we’ve had some pretty intense games of Cranium. When my Aunt Sneena and I are on a team, we are unstoppable (in any game, not just Cranium). Seriously, we’ve never lost. You’ve been warned.

And now you have officially survived a Christmas with us! Congratulations! There is no better way to celebrate the Savior’s birth than with such amazing people, in my humble opinion, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Although, I could really use some sunshine right about now. Can it be summer already????

Survivor

I did it. I made it. I completed exactly half (1/2) of the infamous accounting junior core. Sorry, no speech. What will I do next? Complete the other half of course. Not a super exciting prospect, but it’s looking to be a more exciting/interesting semester. The first half of the core consisted of accounting information systems (basically, my least favorite class ever – although Professor Burton was awesome), financial accounting one (yay!), and auditing (what I’ll start my career in). The second half consists of tax (could be interesting), financial accounting two (double yay!), and managerial accounting (tough but fun). I realize I am not a normal person, since I just used ‘accounting’ and ‘fun’ in the same sentence (or afterthought), but the world needs people like me. Clearly, I have a personality (I am NOT the 99% - haha), or you wouldn’t be reading my blog because it would be really boring. Or maybe it is? In that case someone should probably tell me. Thanks in advance for being gentle.

Juusssssst kidding! I know you guys love me so much!! And just for that I’m going to talk about accounting for a couple more sentences. I want to relate the ordeal that finals week is. We have a partially comprehensive final in each subject – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 7:00-FREAKING-AM. Campus scheduling hates us. So I was stuck there all week. Usually I take all my finals within the first two days and then get the heck out of there. Instead, I had to stress the whole week about tests. And we don’t even know our grades yet. We won’t know for like another week. I know, my life is sooo hard.

I was looking back over my blog and realized that my last post was over a month ago. You’ve probably been dying to know what kind of trouble I’ve been getting myself into. Or not. Either way, I don’t have some great excuse for why I’ve been negligent.

Ok, if you’ve kept up on my blog you’ll know that sometimes I like to go off on tangents. This is one of those times. Maybe you’ve noticed, but I tend to use some bigger words on here than I do when I’m actually speaking. This is because I like to think in big words. Seriously, sometimes my mind is like a Jane Austen novel. But when I talk, I use smaller words, because who really wants to sound like they’ve come straight from Pride and Prejudice? This little complex of mine tends to lead to my spoken sentences being all jumbled up and the sporadic changing of topics. If you’ve ever noticed this, now you know why! My brain is thinking too quickly and in big words, so I’m frantically trying to translate into smaller words, and by the time I’ve done this my brain is already on to the next topic. For example, my brain is thinking “I am disinclined to acquiesce your request” and my mouth is trying to say “No.” Please tell me I’m not the only one that does this!!!

Now back to what I was talking about before. Yes, I’ve just been negligent. Or lazy. Or both. I mean, nothing grand has happened or anything, but I could have afforded my readers the courtesy of a little update to let them know I hadn’t forgotten them. I say that like I’m a big deal with thousands of readers, hahaha. To the dedicated few, I thank you. To sum up what I’ve been doing for the past month: school, more school, Heather’s (my roommate) birthday (the big 2-4!!), even more school, Thanksgiving, and hot chocolate parties. If you haven’t been to one of our hot chocolate parties, and you live in Provo, COME! This was all Heather’s idea, but I’ve definitely jumped on board and dare to call myself a co-host. She had this tradition before her mission with a bunch of Spokane buddies, and they called it ‘Cocoa Chat’. Well, it’s technically still called that, and she makes all these hilarious signs for it. Anyway, it’s now open to the public and we’ll start back up after the break. It’s at 9:30 every Sunday and BYOM (bring your own mug). Get in touch with me for directions.

So the only other thing I’ve been doing is finally getting around to editing my Spain photos. Since I work for the on-campus computer labs, I got to download the entire Adobe Creative Suite 5 – FOR FREE!! Basically, the greatest perk ever. So now I can do some pretty sweet stuff with my pictures. I’ll post a link to the Flickr album they’ll be in eventually.

One last thing before I go. This past weekend I had the privilege of seeing one of my best friends of 13+ years, Miss Jessica Jeske, be married in the Bountiful, Utah temple to a very lucky man, Mr. David Howard. Congratulations to them both, again. I’m so happy for them, and so glad to see how happy David makes her. They are a beautiful couple. And, you guessed it, I was there to take some great pictures. Coming soon!!

Thanks for sticking all the way to the end! Someday I’ll learn that if I regularly blog, I won’t have to spend so much time writing such long posts. Well, until that day…

P.S. (I know you're thinking will this ever end??) I can't believe I'm just mentioning this now. I'M HOME!!! Yes, I'm j-chillin' in beautiful Coeur d'Alene for the holidays. And I'm in heaven. I love this. Don't worry, I'll let you in on all our crazy family traditions later. But that's a post for another day. Ciao! 

13.1

If you had told me a year ago that within the next year I would run a half marathon, I definitely would have laughed at you. I could barely run a mile! I must give credit to Miss Carrie Cook (aka Carrie Cool) for being my inspiration. She ran her first half back in the spring, and it was then that I decided a half marathon was on my bucket list. Now I figured it would be a couple years before I got around to it. But lo and behold, I was talked into the Halloween Half – just five months away. I started training right after I got back from Europe. I printed a nice little training schedule, with short runs or cross training four times a week, long runs on the weekends, and two rest days. I’m proud to say that for the most part, I followed it pretty closely. I have to thank Susie for whipping me back into shape after two months of delicious Spanish food, and for suggesting that real running shoes might help my knee problems. They did.

Training became slightly more difficult once I got back to school, but I kept to my schedule as best I could and ended up running 13 miles at one point (but not 13.1. I was saving that for race day). I’ve found that once I get past four miles, I can just go. I don’t know what it is about the first four, but they’re tough. My four milers were always the hardest.

Race day – October 29 (Happy Birthday Uncle Ken!) – came bright and early. I was up at 6:00, ready to go. My momma (so glad she could be there!) dropped me up at the starting line, where they had a huge tent for all 3000ish racers. We were way up above Sundance, and it was FREEZING. I think it was 26 degrees when the race started. Luckily, all the body heat kept everyone warm. The race started at 9:00, but we had two heats, so I started around 9:20. In the meantime there was a costume contest – this is the Halloween Half after all. I wasn’t too extravagant. I just wore all my clothes inside out and backwards. My shorts looked pretty funny though. They have the built in undies, so it looked like I was wearing a diaper when I put them on inside out. I got a good laugh out of it.

Like I said, I was off at 9:20 down the canyon. By mile nine, my feet and knees were starting to ache, but I just kept going. There was nothing else to do but keep putting one foot in front of the other. As cheesy as that sounds, that really was my thought process. My initial goal was to finish under 2:45:00, since that’s how fast I ran that 13 miles I mentioned earlier. I finished in 2:23:01. Yeah, baby! What a great feeling. I smoked it.

You can bet I loaded up on the protein afterward, yet I was still more sore than I’ve ever been. Come Monday, I could barely walk down the stairs (and of course I live on the third floor). I was hobbling around like an eighty-year-old. But I kinda like that super sore feeling. It makes me feel like I made it through something super tough, which I guess I did. I’d like to give a shout out to all my friends and family who encouraged me through this process, especially my parents who were both there to see me finish. I really couldn’t have done it without you.

Is a full marathon in my future? I can’t quite say yet. I’m not sure I’m physically capable of doing that. But a year ago I thought I couldn’t possibly run a half either, so I guess you never know. I’ll probably keep doing halves every now and then. It’s brutal, but the feeling of accomplishment afterward is so worth it.

I also practically ran 13.1 miles mentally this week. I had four, count ‘em four, midterms. But like last time, I had no class the entire week. It was great. I finished up Thursday morning and enjoyed my nice, long weekend. No more midterms this semester! I can’t believe it’s almost over. Seriously, where the heck have the past two months gone? Is it weird that I’m feeling sad about leaving this semester behind? Yes, yes it is. I’ve just been having so much fun though. I’m crossing my fingers that the next one is just as good, or even better.