It's The End of the World As We Know It

Well, we have officially reached the end.  For all those of you who have been worried that now that Kajsa is married you would never hear from us again in the blog world- don't worry, you will!  Just not here.  We have both created ourselves new blogs (separately now) and so you'll have double the fun hearing about our lives from now on.  My (Melanie) blog is now at melaniefry.blogspot.com, and Kajsa's (and her new addition of husband, Mckay) blog will be at mckayandkajsa.blogspot.com

So never fear, we are still going to be around, just not at this blog.  After a little while (hopefully to give you all time to read this last post and change over to our new blogs) we will delete Cousins at College, so make sure you get our new addresses!  And thanks for reading :)  

Things I've Learned in College- Fall '09 Edition

The semester has finally finished (ok, so it finished awhile ago... hey, don't judge, I was busy!)  and I've decided to do a post again where I write down all the new things I've learned at college.  So here is my "Fall '09 Semester Learnings List"  :)  

1.  You'd think the city bus (being on a scheduled time and all) would come on time... it doesn't.  

2.  The library is where it's at during finals week.  However, the library is not where it's at when it comes to studying during finals week... 

3.  You meet some extremely interesting people when standing in line for basketball games.  You also get really close ;)  

4.  When scheduling meetings with advisors, or any other thing besides your already scheduled classes, it's always helpful to remember the correct time that those things are at.  That way you aren't waiting around for an hour or two before they start... you also aren't missing them...

5.  No matter how much you try, your physics lab teacher will never understand your question the first time...  or the second... possibly even the third...

6.  There are some really interesting things you can do with a microwave.  Probably not good things for the microwave though.

7.  4:30 class times are the worst.  Especially when you get graded on attendance.  

8.  However, you can discover ways of using that class time for your advantage... for example, you're on campus anyway why not go talk to that cute boy you know is in the library right then? :)  

9.  Despite any good intentions you may have, homework will never get done when you get ganged up on by three of your friends to go do something fun.  (But let's face it, you wanted to go to the game anyway)

10.  It's always good to have a back-up plan.  Rainy, windy, freezing game?  No problem, we can watch it on the cable :)  

11.  Talking to someone on Facebook chat who's sitting right next to you is really entertaining.  Doing it in the library while studying- even better.  Doing it in the library while studying and sitting across from someone who has no clue what's going on or why you're laughing-priceless :)  

12.  Do not read or do funny things in the library, people don't like it when you laugh really loud. 

13.  I apparently have really big pupils.  

14.  It's amazing how many people you can get to show up somewhere if you mention the word "dessert".

15.  You can get some really interesting quotes from talks in a single's ward.  Example:  "Satan's slippery slope is slipprier (yes I know that's not a real word) with butter."  or "She was totally diggin' his chilli." 

16.  I apparently have very nice smelling hair.  

17.  When it comes to dating there's either a drought or the quote "when it rains it pours" comes into play.  The same is also true with engagements... it's either none at all, or all at once. 

18.  When you're in the major Elementary Education the people in your classes just follow you around from one class to the next.  It's amazing how close you get by the end of the semester. 

19.  It's really fun to argue with people during class discussions.  They get really flustered :)  

and finally....

20.  You can always make it through a semester with a little help from family, friends and delicious food. 

If You Chance to Meet A Frown, Do Not Let It Stay, Quickly Turn it Upside Down And Smile That Frown Away :)

It's amazing how Utah weather can go from snowy, wet, windy yuck to sunny, bright, blue-skied pretty in one day.  It's also amazing how one girl can go from extremely bored, stressed and fed-up to busy (somewhat), excited and happy in one week.  Due to time (writing) restrictions we'll gloss over the part where I was the extremely bored, stressed and fed-up child by just saying I was a little stressed out and wasn't having a good time at school or work, and we'll move on to the busy, excited, happy girl that I am now :)  This past week has been awesome.  I've been hanging out with some awesome people, doing some fun things and it has completely cured my stressed-outed...ness...  Anyway, here is the break down:

Sunday- Had a desert night with friends for the first time in probably a few months.  Spent a good chunk of the night talking to my friend Stuart (who then proceeded to change the greeting message on my phone to "I love Stuart!  Marry me!") and having fun arguing with him about which of us would win at a Guitar Hero battle (totally me (; )  

Tuesday- Hung out with Brittany, Collin and Jason.  We played the game 5 Crowns and stayed up waay too late

Wednesday- Spent an hour after class in the library distracting Stuart from his homework (not like he wasn't distracting himself before.  Here's what I see open on the computer when I come in: Facebook, Youtube, email, more Youtube....)  More arguing about Guitar Hero :)

Thursday- Went with my friend Emily to the USU Guitar Club's Cake tribute concert so that we could support the "Manhouse".  (for those of you who haven't heard, the "Manhouse" is an apartment of boys in my ward that I'm friends with.   For instance, Stuart lives in the Manhouse, along with Moose, Boy, Jason, James and Tyler)  Had an awesome time talking to Boy and Jason instead of listening to the actual concert (oops (; ) and then helped Stuart clean up his drumset and take it back to their apartment

Friday- Went to the last Aggie home football game (don't even ask how we did :P ) with Brittany, Emily, Collin, and the Manhouse boys.  Decided to skip out of watching the terrible losing end by leaving with Emily and Boy at the end of the 3rd quarter to go to Angies to have food and to interrogate Boy on the girls in his life.  

Saturday- Hung out with my friend Emily, doing random exciting things :) 

Sunday- Made brownies with Emily and then randomly went over to the Manhouse for some entertainment.  Ended up listening to everyone's first kiss stories, which some of those boys' were pretty funny :)  

Monday (today)- Got jolted awake from a nap by my phone ringing.  Didn't recognize the number but figured I'd answer it anyway.  Turned out to be my friend Jenn's younger brother Sam who got back from his mission... 2 days ago?  3, 4?  Less than a week ago.  Anyway, he asked me on a date, which was rather hilarious because #1- I was barely coherent having been just woken up from a nap, and #2- We've never even met.  But hey, it's a date :)  

Anyway, that is my exciting life lately.  This week I'm way excited for Thanksgiving on Thursday when I get to go home!  (well... sort of (: ) I can't wait to see the whole family, and hopefully when I come back up I will have a little package of things coming with me (preferably the Wii and Beatle's Rockband that Bradley will definitely let me borrow (; )  Maybe then me and Stuart can finally put to rest that I am much better at Guitar Hero (although in this case it will be Rockband) than he is ;)  Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and an awesome break!    

They Did The Monster Mash

Hey everybody- Happy Halloween! I finally got some exciting news to write about so I'm back on the blog :)  Let's start the party! 

On Friday the IMA (institute men's association) had a volleyball tournament which me and my friends entered.  There were 6 of us on the team- me, Brittany, Jen, Ben, Collin, and Adam- and we did amazing if I do say so myself.  We won our first game, but sadly got knocked out in the second round.  But hey, that was a lot farther then my team got last year though ;)  Anyway, here are our pictures from the night taken courtesy of of my team's official "photographer" (thank you Emily!)  

The team (from left to right): Adam, Jen, Ben, Collin, Brit, and Me :) 

Setting up the rotation for the first game

Going for the ball (don't we all look so good? (; )

It was a way fun evening and I loved playing with everybody.  Along with the fun of the volleyball tournament we had a combined FHE Halloween party this last Monday.  It was at "the Man House" which is an apartment full of boys in our ward.  These are also the same boys who we played the "Genevieve" cat trick on.  Sooo, (obviously), this was the perfect time to play a second "Genevieve" prank on them.  While a couple of us distracted them with our awesome costumes, our friend Emily snuck into their bathroom and taped Genevieve to their shower head.  The girls strike again!  It was a great party, and I wish I could get our video of it on here, but sadly it doesn't work so you'll just have to imagine (or you can see it on my Facebook profile) :)  

Anyway, once again, have a Happy Halloween!

She said YES!

Hey everyone this is Kajsa and it is true I am engaged! I still can't believe it, I would have never guessed last Christmas that it would be my last one with just my family. Yet it was and I am SOO excited for the next step in my life. McKay is so amazing and it is crazy how much more I have fallen in love with him even in just the past 3 weeks since we got engaged. I am so grateful for the lessons and trials that I have gone through to get to this point. (They were well worth it) Well anyways lets move on to the exciting stuff like the proposal! Now everyone my proposal was perfect in every way, McKay worked hard at it and honestly nothing went wrong (except that the camera was on the wrong setting so the pictures are alittle blurry :P) So here is how it all went. It was Thursday September 24th and we had planned the night before that we would go to dinner at a friend of McKay's house after I got off work. So honestly up until Thursday evening it was the worst day that I had had since coming to school. To say the least I was not in a good mood, and I was about to cancel going to the dinner, but something just kept telling me to go, and boy am I happy that I did. :) So back to that night, we were driving to the dinner and he changed and said that the dinner was actually on some private property of his friend's and there was a pavilion there that we were going to have it at. So we drove there and parked. No one was around and at this point I was starting to question stuff, but he said that it was down a path and around the corner, so we started walking....and when we rounded a corner there in the distance was a trail of rose petals and at the end was a candle lit dinner for just the two of us! It was gorgeous! The table was set at an amazing look out point with the sunset in the back ground along with that we could see all of campus and Cache Valley. Seriously the pictures don't do it justice. The table was decorated and there were tiki torches all around us. So after we sat down I pretty much knew what was going on and I could barely sit still! So we ate dinner of all of my favorite foods and finished off with Oreo pie which is also becoming one of my favorite things. During dinner his roommates served us and they were all dressed up in their suits and they were very good at staying hidden so that we could enjoy everything in private :) So after dinner McKay walked away to go tell his roommates that they could leave. And while he was over his brother who was holding a bouquet of red roses that the ring was attached to. So McKay walked around the corner and I knew right as he did that this was the moment! He came back to the table, gave me the roses along with a poem that he had written me which I read and when I looked up he was down on one knee holding the ring. He asked me and I said yes of course! And the rest is history! Haha In the end we sat there at the look out point for a little bit longer as the sunset then we walked back to the car. His roommates were so good and cleaned everything up for us so we didn't have to do anything. Oh and by the way the ring is so pretty and has everything that I wanted. McKay helped design it all on his own so I had no idea what it would look like. Actually the entire proposal night was a complete surprise to me because he had told me that it probably wouldn't be until the next week! Which I would have died if it really was that long! So here are some of the pictures from that night and some of the ring up close.

This is a view of the table from the mountains behind it (sorry it is so small)

Now three weeks later we are just moving along with all the planning, which my mom is amazing at and she has made it pretty easy for me. The weekends are crazy as we try and cram in as much as we possibly can, but I am just trying to relax and just enjoy the process as much as possible. Luckly a lot of things are done so now it is mostly just the little details. Oh and here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks!

But The Cat Came Back The Very Next Day

Have you ever felt incredibly busy, but when you thought back on it really had nothing to show for it? That is how I am feeling right now. It's been forever since I last wrote, but when I tried to think of things that had happened I came up pretty much empty. But hey, this post is going to be dwarfed by pretty much anything Kajsa puts up so I really should just not even try to come up with something cool ;) (for those of you WAY behind in the times you'll just have to wait for her post to see what I mean there)

Anyway, life has been going fine for me. I'm still working, still going strong with school, and still hanging on to my singlehood (for those of you who are like my dad and are trying to marry me off-kidding Dad :)- don't worry, I have been dating. I even went on a date just this past Friday. The only problem here is that I haven't liked any of the boys enough to try for a second date.) I'm trying to work out how I'm going to hang out with 3 different people, at 3 different times, plus my family, all in a period of less then 24 hours this weekend and am trying to figure out where in there to get some visiting teaching done. Whew, crazy! Along with that I'm starting my P.E. practicums next week which means that I will officially be a student teacher! (even more crazy!) and I also will be finishing up everything that will go in my application for the Elementary Education program so that it can be turned in by the beginning of January. Phew! So pretty much I guess you could say that life has been crazy and busy :)
Oh, I did just think of a funny story that I can tell you guys about! This past Sunday my friend Emily invited me and some other people over for spaghetti dinner. The total came out to about 12 people, 5 girls and 7 guys. Anyway, the guys all live in the same house and they were telling us hilarious stories about things that happened to them over there. The funniest one was about a stray cat that wandered in, was fed tuna (sounds familiar...), named Genevieve, and pretty much adopted for a few hours until one roommate came home and kicked it out. The story gets better-the next day when one of them was in the bathroom he heard this thud and turned to discover that Genevieve had jumped up and attached herself onto the screen of the window in the bathroom and was mewing to come back in. The same thing happened again the next day, and the next, pretty much freaking each roommate out every time they came into the bathroom. So after they tell us this story we girls decide to play a little joke on them. Yesterday night we go to Walmart and buy a stuffed kitten, duct tape and a collar. We then proceeded to their house in the dark, stick the collar on the cat with a little tag that says "Genevieve", and then duct tape the whole thing to their window so that it looks like it's attached to the screen. I can just imagine their faces when they walk in and see that cat stuck to the window :) Anyway, we're hoping they'll figure out it was us and find some way to prank us back with the cat because the next thing we want to do is get it inside their house without them knowing :)
Well, that's really about all that's been happening in my life, but hey, as long as I'm enjoying it right? :)

It's Coming

Hey everyone this is Kajsa, just checking in real fast. I just wanted to get you excited for my next post (sorry it is taking so long)! I will have complete details on the actual proposal plus some pictures of the actual night and some that we have taken since then. Life is crazy right now and I am just trying to adjust to everything, but I will be back, no worries. (like you would anyway) Well that is all for now, hope everyone is having a great fall day!