Goodbye Summer, Hello School...

Summer 2012 definitely treated me well this year. It almost made it hard to leave Pendleton. My summer consisted a lot of staying out late with friends, parties, and random crap we decided to do. I went night swimming for the first time, I went to the PBR on Fourth of July, hit up my cousin's softball tournament, had a fabulous Ford Family Conference, and road tripped to Corvallis. I spent a lot of good times with some great people and they will be times I will definitely never forget.

Ford Family Conference with Becca!

 



Fourth of July with Cammeron!



Shari's date with Tyson!

Dance Party with Maggie Z!

Grandma, Kas, and I at Kas's softball tournament!

Working at Crystal Peaks with the Ford Family!

Great night with my best girls!

Going away Party!

Hilarious nights at my Bestie's!



Corvallis with my Grandpa!

On Sunday my last day of Summer, I drove up to Portland to see my dad. Saturday night we celebrated his birthday and then Sunday morning we loaded up and headed to my second home, the mountains! I had such a good time with him and getting out of the city for a day. We took the Grizz and the Polaris up around Stevenson, WA. We rode up to a landslide and hiked a little ways into it. We just hit up trail after trail, then we stopped and I got to shoot his 40 caliber Glock, which was a ton of fun! We rode around into a rock quarry full of shale rock. Then on the top section there is a beautiful scenic view of the Columbia and the Bonneville Dam. It's absolutely breathtaking! One of my favorite places by far. The peacefulness and simplicity is what I love about the mountains. It's hard to find a place that isn't peaceful or beautiful up there. We spent most of the day up there and got back around 7:30. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end summer.

Not going to lie, I kinda felt like a badass! ;)

Yesterday was my first day of class. I really love LBCC. It's so much better than BMCC and I feel like I'm on an actual college campus. There are a ton of people and they are mostly my age(Hallelujah)! My professors are all super cool and informal. It gets me really excited to get the ball rolling on this year and hopefully get more involved. I must say the only thing I do miss about BMCC is the Ag people(mostly the guys ;)). But in time I will meet people, just being in a social setting for the time being is enough for me haha!
Well until we meet again, bloggers...Unfortunately it is time for math for me!

Round Up 2012

WOW! That is all I can even say for Round Up 2012. Between Jake Owen, PBR, Rodeo, and all the late nights, the lack of sleep was well worth it!
I rolled into town late Friday night, then got up early Saturday morning and headed down to my old store. As I pulled up I see that they had the truck set up for the float, then I got asked to do the parade with them(um hell yes!). Which also got my asked into working all week at the store(Boooo, but I needed the money).

Then Saturday night I went to the concert with Shelby, Zack, Ashley, Jacob, Patrick, and Justin. Finally got to see Jake Owen<3 It was such a good concert! I would go again and again if I could! After wards we went out to Shelby's and just hung out. Sunday I spent the day in Boardman with my grandparents at the RV Park that they camp host for. It was fun catching up and reliving memories from when I was younger staying down there with them.

Monday I worked all day with Shelby(which is always a fun time). Then Chey and I got together and went and yelled at people on Main. Then we hit up Shari's with Tyson and we got a table right next to the PBR bull riders! ;) I ended up playing DD for a few of my coworkers and stayed out till about 5am.

 Tuesday I opened the store with Shelby again, then scored a ticket to PBR from Allison! So fun and such great rides!! Then I went up to Chey's and hung out with everyone for a while up there.

Wednesday after I got off work, I got ready and Chey and I hit up the Rodeo. It was her first Rodeo and it was a good one! Then we went and walked main street looking at the booths. I found a coffee table down there that I wanted SO bad, but I didn't get paid until the next day, but it was gone the next day :(. Wednesday night we all hung out at Chey's again. I got to catch up with some people that I graduated with which was great!

Thursday, Caden and I hit up the Rodeo. Cain Smith a kid that we both went to school with rode in the Bull Riding section! It was awesome to see someone represent Pendleton that young. That night I went out to Shelby's and hung out with her, Zack, Katelynn, Brooke, and Dukota. Dukota and I grew up together and it was great catching up with him. It's so funny how much we change between elementary school and now! So much fun though! Friday I worked and then went and walked down main with Shelby and Zack. Then we went to Casa Fiesta with Katelynn, Zack's mom and little sister. We had to wait 2 hours for our food! It was insane! Then I went up to Chey's again. Saturday I got up and got a ticket to go to the Rodeo. After wards I walked Main and bought some super cute decorations for my apartment. I headed out to Pilot Rock to hang out with Zack and Shelby, Dukota and Brooke, then Chris and Justin came out. We just sat around and bs'ed. It was by far the best night. Sunday morning my mom and I went out to breakfast to our favorite, Roosters! Yummm! It was then that I hit the road and returned home to Albany. It was definitely a successful Round Up and I can't wait to go back home again! Let 'Er Buck! :) 361 more days until the next one! ;)

On another note my cousin Jeneal and her husband, Justin welcomed their new baby boy into the world!! Yay! Congrats to them!<3

Jace Anthony 7.2lbs, 19 in. Sept. 15, 2012

Bucket List...

YOLO, we've all heard it. It's the acronym that is sweeping our generation. You only live once. It's true, we are given one life to live and that's it. No dress rehearsal, no redo's...The camera is always rolling. From the time you come out of that womb to taking your last breath, it's show time. A lot of times you will hear people ask, "If you had just one day to live what would you do with it?". How about this..."You only have one life to live...What are you going to do with it?". It's the same concept really. I often think long and hard about my life, what I want to do with it, where I want to go, how I got to where I am, who I've encountered among my 19 years, who has taught me the most important lessons in my life. Two of my biggest pet peeves have to do with people and life. The first one being people who view life negatively day after day. To me we should be grateful everyday we get to open our eyes and have another shot at improving ourselves and enjoying the surroundings around us. I'm not going to lie and tell you that I am a happy person 24/7 because I'm not. I've had bad days, I've had bad weeks. I've had times where I never thought that anything would ever get any better, but the reality of it is that it does get better, but moping around about it won't find you that better solution. My second pet peeve is people that tell me about their hopes and dreams for their life, but then do nothing about it. The people that expect that their dreams will be handed to them or the ones who spend so much time looking at the past that the time runs out and by the time they get a foot out of the past, they have let majority of their life slip away. They develop roots in where ever they are, whether that be getting married or having kids. They are strapped and develop more hate and resentment in their hearts for now not only their past, but also their future. Those are your drug addicts, your alcoholics, your domestic violence offenders and victims. The ones who get high to take them away from reality. There is a reason it's called getting high, it's because it lifts you higher than your reality lows, but only for a short time. The ones who drink away their sorrows and fears because the buzz numbs the pain. The ones who take their anger, hate and resentment out on the ones who stay with them because they don't know any other way. The ones who put up with being hit and abused because they think they don't deserve any better. All those people were the ones who had dreams, but took too long to make something of them, or developed roots early on before they were ready. Those are the ones who were told they can't and they believed it. My heart aches for both types of people and in my future and my career I can only hope that I can give some of these people their wings back, to let them fly and make a better life for themselves.
Which brings me to what people refer to as a bucket list. A bucket list being a list of things you want to do before you die. I sat down today and thought long and hard about it. In all honesty as I grow I'm going to find more things that I want to do and I probably won't have enough time for them all, but the show is still on, the camera is still rolling which means I need to keep taking my opportunities and running with them.
But what I want you to know, for those of you reading this, is that you can do anything you set your mind to. Like I have always said, "Your background and circumstances may affect who you are, but you are responsible for who you become". Life doesn't wait for anything or anybody. Now is your time. Find what makes your heart happy and take it and run with it. Don't let anyone or anything hold you back and no excuses. You deserve everything in life you dream of. Nobody should be shorted of that.
With that I have one last question for you bloggers...You have one life to live. What are you going to do with it?

Karlee's Bucket List

 

1.) Travel to another country

2.) Make a difference

3.) Change someone's life for the better

4.) Be a mother

5.) Take my mom to an Ellen Degeneres show

6.) Live in the country

7.) Own chickens and goats

8.) Be healthy(Down 10lbs so far!)

9.) Marry and stay married to my best friend

10.) Give back to the Ford Family Foundation

11.) Stop being so afraid and start living instead

12.) Ride a horse on the beach

13.) Graduate College

14.) Go to Disneyland

15.) Be an inspiration

Historical Albany

So today was my first day off work in almost a week and I decided to go to the city center of Albany and explore. What gave me the idea of doing this was last night I got extremely stir crazy in this apartment, so I decided to just get in the car and drive. Now normally in good ol' Eastern Oregon that would mean hitting the back roads, but unfortunately I don't have that luxury here. So I drove with all my windows down on this beautiful night and found my self at the city center. I began driving down residential areas and admiring what I could see of the houses in the dark. So I decided that today I would admire them in the daylight.

On my way I passed the beautiful clock tower at the transit center. What I really love about this was that the road around it glittered. I watched people hug each other goodbye and admired the beautiful flowers around the tower.

Which brings me to my next thing I love about Albany, these people have green thumbs! Everywhere I went there were flowers in bloom. My favorite part though? They have hanging pots on every block that are the biggest, full, and most magnificent ones I have ever seen! They are every where and they make me want to just take one so I can hang it outside my apartment to look at everyday ;)
I chose a place to park and walked down each street from there. I walked down the streets admiring the buildings and window shopping. I came across one shop and something about it intrigued me enough to go in and look.

It ended up being Albany's Antique Mall. Now when I hear the word antique I immediately think old and boring, but this store was absolutely fascinating and HUGE. It was two floors and full of stuff. There was no way they couldn't have what you were looking for. If I wasn't on such a tight budget my apartment would be fully decorated after leaving that place. The top floor had a vintage boutique with old wedding dresses, hats, coat, shoes, everything. There was so many beautiful silver dish sets as well. In one of their displays they had these old baby dolls that reminded me of the one my grandma still keeps in her closet from when she was a little girl.

They also had many hanging pictures and a lot of them were of people. It made me wonder what the story was behind the person in the picture and why the family would get rid of something like that?
The next shop that I found was called 'Not Too Shabby' which was another shop that had more of a vintage feel to it. Another place that if I had the money, my apartment would be decorated. Super cute stuff and the pricing was not bad at all! Very reasonable and such cute stuff.

Albany is the 11th largest city in Oregon, but the thing about Albany is that you don't really get a city feel, especially once you pull off into residential areas. They have large old homes that are absolutely stunning. One thing I kept noticing was that a lot of the homes had names on them, such as "Cathey House, Dawson House...etc, etc." They also had years on them. So as I returned home I got online and did some research. I didn't get a definite explanation for this, but what I did gather is that I think these houses with these labels were homes built by significant people of the community when it was still being founded. The houses are still in wonderful condition and some over 100 years old. One of my favorites being the Cathey House, also referred to as "The White House" for apparent reasons. This house was built in 1906. Absolutely stunning!

 

Overall it was a good day. Maybe when my grandparents come down and visit my grandpa would be interested enough to do some tours with me. We like that kind of stuff. So now it is time to clean my apartment and then maybe I will go for a walk. That is the beauty of living so close to the school I get to walk a lot! :) Saves me a lot of gas money! On another positive note I am down to 5 days till Jake Owen and Round-Up! Yay!

Have a good night bloggers! :)

 

 

 

Beautiful home in the residentials of Albany

Artwork downtown Albany

Old Clock downtown Albany

Linn County Court House



The paths life take you on...

For those of you who have followed my blog, you may have gotten on here and noticed that I cleaned it up a bit and by that I mean all my posts are gone. I've been doing a lot of let's call it reorganization in my life and finding out who I am and after going through and reading my old posts, there are just some memories and some people that I would like to put behind me for the time being.
I have been officially been in Albany for one month now and I have to say that I absolutely love it. This move has been the best thing for me by far and has gotten me really motivated and excited for what is to come ahead whatever path that may be. I was talking to my grandma on the phone the other night stressing about how I was going to make rent and stressing about my financial aid money and I said to her, "Can you imagine if I had gone to Pacific University?". Intially, that was my plan...Forest Grove, Pacific University, being a Boxer! But it all fell through, but now I look back and realize it all happened for a reason and I am grateful to be where I am. Now I'm a RoadRunner...haha interesting yeah I know, but soon to be a Beaver...Finally<3

 

It's time for me to get deep on you bloggers...these past two months have been full of life lessons. I kept thinking, "How many more God are you going to throw at me? How much longer are you going to test my strength?" I had friendships tested, my home life tested, and my emotional strength made even stronger. Things have changed and there is no denying that. Some for the good for all, some for the good for me and bad for others, some for the bad of us both. I'm beginning to find myself as a person now that I don't have anyone's problems to hide behind, now that I don't have anymore situations to try and fix other than my own. Life on my end, focusing soully on me, is good. Basically to some it up:
1. Trust is like a mirror. Once it's broken, there will always be a crack. You are the only person you can trust.

2. As much as you want to, you can never fix someone. I have tried and tried to help, to mend, but that is in their hands now and I have let them go.

3. Lastly, where ever you go, go with all your heart.

 

On a lighter note, I am down to six days till I return home to good ol' Pendleton to see Jake Owen and kick off Round-Up! Let 'Er Buck baby! I am beyond excited! It's going to be a good time, with good people, and good music! Can't wait to see Shelb and the rest of the Pendleton crew! Especially my momma and my bro! :)