Life Saver

Cool Pirate towel from World Market

Because Nick was a hero and saved two lives by giving blood, we were unable to do any strenuous activity Friday night. So swing dancing and ice skating were no longer options for our Friday night  festivities. We decided to take it easy by driving around town and going to a couple of our favorite places.  We went to Cold Stone and enjoyed cheesecake ice cream with Heath bars, Nick's most recent favorite candy bar. After looking at the ice cream cakes and being amused by the tip jar, we left. We decided to go to the Christian book store to see if they had the book we wanted to read together in February. No Luck. We left and randomly decided to go to World Market, one of my favorite places. We had been there before to buy root beer kegs but never just to look around. We spent over an hour at World Market, a pretty solid amount of time. We looked at scarves, lamp shades, candy, water bottles,  greeting cards, and posters. We both looked through a stack of posters and picked our favorites. Then we switched, looked through the other persons pile and had to guess which one they picked as their favorite. Nick got mine half right and I got his TOTALLY wrong. We went back to my house and spent the rest of our time watching 30 Rock, a wonderful television program. It wasn't swing dancing and it wasn't ice skating, but it was still an excellent night with an excellent life saver.

Maybe not the best bakers?

We CLEARLY need help.  Stupid Brownies.

Nick and I were invited to have dinner with two of our favorite people ever, Jessie and Jonathan. I am a lot like Jessie and Nick is a lot like Jonathan so it was bound to be a perfect night. Earlier this week, Nick and I were reading in our schools newspaper and found a recipe for eggshell brownies. Sounded difficult, but considering the fact that Nick and I bake often, we thought it would be an easy task. Wrong. While trying to blow the egg out of its shell, the entire egg shattered in Nick's mouth. Gross. We also had a spoon slip and fling batter all over me. We had managed to get brownie batter everywhere, all over the counters, on the floor, and even inside cabinets. Trying to pipe the perfect amount of batter into the shells was nearly impossible and I was frustrated easily. Thankfully, Nick is extremely patient and piped the rest. We took our weird dessert to the Grider's house because if anyone was willing to try our eggshell brownies, it was them. They were so pumped to try our dessert that was most definitely NOT picture perfect. They were good sports and ate the brownies even with the risk of finding pieces of shell in the brownie. After eating our messed up brownies we were planning on playing lots of games. Nick and I were obviously going to win. We ended up only playing one game and then spent the rest of the night talking. It was perfect. I got to talk with three of my favorite people ever for hours. It got late and Nick and I had to rush out the door but the night was absolutely perfect even though our brownies were not.

so excited (:

MORE than twelve.

More than twelve things to do in 2012:

1.  Bake a cheesecake

2. Sew something

3. Memorize James 1

4. Read 12 books with Nick

5. Hike with Squirt 

( She has lived in Montana her whole life 

and has never gone hiking!) 

6. Plan a game night

7. Get a job

8. Shoot something

9. Play Broomball

10. Grow something

11. Go to breakfast with Emily once a month

12. Buy red TOMS

13. Go to Oklahoma

14. Perform with Nick

Blessed.

Finals are next week and I am about to lose it. I have no motivation what so ever. I want to be done with school. FOREVER. I do not learn well in a classroom. Not at all. Teachers aggravate me and I don't know why I want to be one. My psych final is tomorrow and earlier today I was stressin cause I didn't feel prepared. Luckily for me, I have been blessed with Nick. Right before he left for folf club, he talked to me for a long time. He helped me change the way I look at school and my attitude about it. I still want to be done with it but somehow Nick always knows what to say to me. He talked to me about suffering and it was what I needed to hear. After folf club he came back to school to help me understand stuff a little better. Did you catch that? HE CAME BACK TO SCHOOL TO HELP ME! I was still having my own pity party and had a very little desire to learn this stuff. He was more patient than any teacher I have ever had. When most people would have given up on me, he didn't. He made sure I stayed focused and repeated things over and over and over again for me. He wasn't upset when I would say " i dunno.." to every question. I don't know why he wants to help me cause I am not an easy one to teach, but I am so thankful he does.

Thank you Nick, for your incredible amount of patience and for not giving up on me.

All over the Place.

My goal for the year is to blog more. I asked the little sibs what I should blog about. They said " write about...

- How much you love us

- Our game of loaded questions

-How many balls are on this chain

- Going to Hawaii

-Football

- How Jealous you are that you didnt get 

to see all that awesome wild life today

 - About how David loves Trent.

-How I am counting all these balls

I really love my siblings a lot. Our game of loaded questions involved lots of repetitive answers like Soy Sauce. ( Holler Back Danae) Emily has a long chain and she needs me to write about how many of them there are. I am going to Hawaii in June with my friend, Mikayla ! Ahh! Insaneee. I do not really like football. I wish I did but I do not. I do love Tim Tebow though. Today, Andrew Emily and Deborah went to Yellowstone and they went swimming with otters. I am super Jealous. That is a true fact. I have no idea who Trent is so sorry about that one. Emily is still counting the balls. She reminded me to write about her counting the balls. She is at six hundred and something. 

This post is all over the place. 

Just a small glimpse into my life at home.

Crazy & Wonderful.

TwentyTwelve.

Last year was the first year I successfully completed my new years resolution. I went the whole year without soda. At 12:00am Sunday morning, I was DOWNING the root beer. I was challenged to do another one that I would be able to complete. The idea of going a year without chocolate ended right after I ate brownies at 1 in the morning.  2011 was a great year, it truly was. I went overseas, passed geometry, spent another summer with wild children, made lots of new friends, and started dating Nick. Incredible year? Absolutely.  I am excited for the new year and for my new resolution, blog more often. ( resolution idea credit : Nick Braaksma). I have already had the privilege of sitting in a circle with some of my favorite people while talking, eating, and listening to beautiful guitar music. Looks like its going to be a good year. 

Here's to the New Year. 

Happy Twenty Twelve, folks.

navidad.

Seventeen people were packed inside the Keena household for Christmas this past year. Doug and Danae came first. They brought their perfect baby, Henry. He truly is perfect. He has huge blue eyes and silky smooth skin. Later, Bethany came. She is so sweet. Next, was the G-rents, and the Clarks. Bailey walked in the house talking about her hood. I was in shock, that baby girl was TALKING. phew. And Caden was  huge. Devan, just like Henry,  was perfect. I got to spend a lot of quality time with that boy.  There were many wonderful things i loved about my break. Here are a few of them...

1) Big sister hugs (the hugs were big, not the sisters)

2) "Therapy" from Brother Doug

3) Coffee shops and book stores with sisters

4) Nerf wars

5) Kisses from Granny & Gramps

6) Giggling toddlers who love chips

7) Game nights with the whole fam

8) Building Gingerbread trees

9) Sushi night (new tradish)

10) Being all together

Being all together was absolutely perfect. I miss being all together. Cause when we're all together, everything is right. I know that sounds strange but that's the only way to describe it. Right. Like it is always supposed to be like that. Luckily, we all have texting, facebook, and skype. I miss being all together. My family is wonderful. Every single one them. I simply can not wait till I see all of them again.