L-Squared

 (SUPER long post...sorry!)
or Rissa Roo, Ralissa, Riss.... Larissa. 

Larissa Lynn Smith; by sheer happen stance was in a singing class for the first time in her life in Altoona, PA (What up PA?!) so she could go on a choir trip to NYC. When she transferred to Cedar High in March of 2004, our dear and beloved Mr. Verl Prestwitch, interpreted that to, "Larissa LOVES singing and would want nothing more than to be a part of our all girls choir, Lyricals." She was excited. So she joined us in the land of Mr. G. She sang alto, so we were different parts, but I invited her to come and eat lunch with us; I did not quite know what her name was at this point. Every time someone would ask her her name she would not even open her mouth wide enough that we could hear. We heard Marissa, Karissa, Clarissa...all the while, she did have a cursive L on her jacket...maybe it was for her middle name? Turns out it wasn't (well I guess it could have been since her middle name is Lynn...), it was actually for her first. And I still have no idea how I came to know her name was Larissa.

From this point, I do not really remember how we came to be the best friends that we are. Maybe because she missed my birthday party to play Twister with the sister missionaries? Or maybe it is because she did not know any better and became, in her words 'my shadow', for her first few months here.Or because we both are 100% amused by the most ridiculous things and feel the need to have our jokes go on 45 minutes longer than normal people do, and 40 minutes longer than they should...but we are ALWAYS still laughing at ourselves at the end? Or maybe it is because she knows how much I hate my ears being nuzzled and she always threatens me with such actions? Or because together we have had some of the most life changing experiences available to us and are forever different people because of them? Whatever the reason, we continue to be best friends.

Riss and I have done pretty much EVERYTHING together since we met. From San Diego and Nashville to NYC and Ghana. From football games, slumber parties on my tramp to her letting me drive the metro when I was 15 and had never even been behind the wheel of a car before! From Del Taco at midnight to working front reg and sandwiches at Wendy's. The amount of memories we have together is a little overwhelming, in the best possible way! Carrie and...that is all that needs to be in that sentence. Denny's, the Bug, biting my nose and extreme water fights.(Lisa drowning you with my sprayer...) From DUN to flirting with trees; SPARKLING CIDER and DDR (Brick...House). Service with a Smile and FCCLA has never been rocked so hard! "We go together..." and "Oh those suuummer nights" are indescribable! She makes me laugh like very few people can and I love her for that. I have learned a lot about myself and about serving others since Larissa moved to Cedar and I am beyond grateful for the lessons she taught me I could not have learned anywhere else.
Here are a just a LARGE smidgen of the bajillion photos we have together, please feel free to laugh. I realize now I have seen better days! :)

Larissa got married a couple weeks ago (I was going to post before it happened...but clearly that did not work out like I wanted!) and now it is going to be different. Not in a bad way, but Garren already told me that I could not sleep in bed with Larissa when I spent the night, and already that is a change I am going to have to adjust to! ;) He is now her #1, which going from her calling me 10 times a day to me not hearing from her in a week is going to be an adjustment, and as sad as I am about that, I am beyond thrilled for her and Garren. I love seeing them so happy with each other! I am so glad that they could be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. What a blessing it is to be both of their friends.

Once upon a time when I was a junior in high school I became obsessed with writing poetry...some of them were like THIS in ridiculousness, and others were better, deeper, and just way more enlightening to read. But one of these that was not so much like that, was a poem I wrote in Junior English...if you ask Mara and Larissa about it, they will tell you it was a hate poem, but I swear it wasn't! It was more about me being jealous of them and they interpreted it wrong! :) But either way, I am ready to redeem myself and this one is REALLY not a hate poem and maybe a little cheesy? But that is what I do. Enjoy! 

With you, it's all about

voiceless communication-

always knowing exactly what to say,

but never actually having to say it.

When no one seems to be listening,

you hear.

When I hurt but don't show it,

you know.

When I turn away to hide my tears,

you see.

You know everything there is to know about me.

You know what worries me,

and what keeps me up at night.

I never have to tell, you can just sense it.

---

Within my book of memories,

Are special thoughts of you.

And all the many nice things

You often say and do -

As I turn the pages,

And recall each single thought,

I realize the happiness

That knowing you has brought.

There are memories of the times we've shared,

water fights and Carrie.

Driving around in the Honda,

only sometimes was it a bit scary.

There are memories of all those notes,

we would write back and forth, (the ones in spanish were the best! :)

When we would just get together,

And talk of this or that.

And when I recall these memories

As I go along life's way,

I find they grow more precious still

With every passing day.

It took us little time and effort

The bonding as strong as glue.

I now promise never to untie

The strings I have tied with you

We are never left on the outside,

Lovingly we entered each others domain.

Smiling. laughing and forever teasing

But forever friends we then became.

Love you Riss!!! 

Don't you hate it when...

you have like 5 blog posts started and you do not want to finish any of them because it is just too overwhelming? Yeah, me too. So instead, I am just going to blog about some really great pictures I came across today.

I do not know if you guys picked up on it or not, but I am a little bit obsessed with my family...and by that I mean, a lot bit. One time last year we went up to Mutual Dell to go sledding, have some amazing food, and just bask in the company that we provide each other with. Well, it just started out as a little snowman that was going to double as my boyfriend and fiance so we could take some engagements (since I can't get one I just figured I would make one out of snow? I assure you, this is completely normal) Well, one thing led to another and all of a sudden.. apparently my family is a LOT more worried about me finding someone to marry then they let on...and we had a full fledged masterpiece on our hands!

Here are the beginnings... I did have a few requirements, he did have to be taller than me...and although I wanted him to be brown, when Bricky poured his hot chocolate on him to make him that way, his elbow disappeared. So I decided I could settle for white. 

Looking on as my masterpiece of a boyfriend is created...

Fixing a few of his 'blemishes'. :)

Three hours later...

Meet my boyfriend... Franky!

(Pretty sure he had a different name the day we created him..but I do not remember it. 

We clearly did not last!)

Before I knew it, things with him were progressing QUITE nicely! ;)

I obviously said yes, and engagements were taken!

He is just so funny...

The masterminds behind the whole thing...their artistic ability does not cease to amaze me! They are humans of many talents, that is for sure! I am pretty sure that if the aunts had not been calling us in for dinner, we would have had a nice ride to go along with my fiance! They ran with this thing.

And, here is my grandpa. I just wanted to add this in because he is so stinkin cute! The head patriarch of the Haynie family! What a guy!

Welcome back to College...

Dern! The month of March came and went without any posting! Now it is not even going to show up on my sidebar...I hope that does not confuse anyone with their months!

Well, it happened again. I went out and tried my very hardest to not mess up children's thinking and ruin their lives forever...and I think I did a pretty good job!

For those of you who don't know, I was assigned to teach the sixth grade at Rosamond Elementary in Riverton. If any of you talked to me anytime, in the entire semester basically; you would know how intimidated and nervous I was to teach sixth grade. "How can I teach them? They are already smarter than me?" "Have you read over their curriculum? Pretty sure I have not even heard about it since I was in sixth grade." Those and a plethora of other discouraging statements could be found coming out of my mouth.

Turns out, sixth grade is the BEST thing ever. I could finally use sarcasm in my humor (turns out 2nd graders don't respond well to it... and I am not that funny without it. Shocker right?) and have my entire class laughing in a matter of seconds.

I have this issue/gift, that I am very quick to love and it comes very easily, with most everyone. I automatically love people. Blessing and a curse? You better believe it. I get instantly attached to people, especially my students and love them with everything I have, for the time I am with them...and then our time comes to an end. It was obviously the very worst for me when I so rudely got ripped away from all of my beautiful Ghanaian children; but it is not just then. It happened with my second graders, and again with my sixth graders. It is amazing to me how quickly I come to care, love and want to protect all of these children. I would give them everything I have to make sure that they have the life that they should and deserve. As teachers we are faced with so many different jobs, and most often it is hard to fulfill all of them, even though you want to so badly. Case worker, therapist, psychologist, referee (this one is sometimes a little dangerous!) are just a few of the many roles you are expected to succeed at. Is it hard? Yes. But so worth it when you see those children you love excited to be at school. Excited about learning. Those kids that trust you enough to tell you about everything about themselves and know you love them enough that they can come to you when something hard has happened in their lives.

It truly was such an amazing experience; and so far I only have talked about my students. My cooperating teacher this practicum experience was amazing! She has so many incredible qualities that I could only dream of developing when I am a teacher.  She pushed me as a teacher, but not so far as to make me uncomfortable in the classroom. She allowed me to teach lessons of my choice and let me be myself in the classroom. We became instant friends and I learned so much from her. I am SO grateful that I had the teacher I did. If you are wondering where to send your students for sixth grade...and you don't mind the commute to Riverton... Mrs. Cowan's sixth grade class. She is the best! :)

On my last day, my kids and teacher threw me a little going away party. From day one they have all known about my obsession for BYU Sports and because it was basketball season...this was always our main topic of conversation. Somehow all of my background knowledge connections in lessons revolved around Jimmer, his vertical (when talking about measurement of course!) and many other BYU b-ball connections. My students loved it...and I obviously did as well! Because of this, this is what my going away cake looked like! They are adorable and I love them. I always feel a little sad that you can not see pictures of how adorable my students are, but it is all about privacy these days, and I really do not want an angry parent suing me! Just know they were cute.

Driving to and from Riverton everyday gives you a lot of time to talk and get to know the people you are driving with real well. I have been given the greatest opportunity the last 1.5 years to come in contact with some of the best girls I have ever met! We all became insta-friends and when a class is canceled or it is a long weekend, you can frequently hear us talking about how long it has been since we have seen each other...you could say we are all a little attached. AnnaMarie and Shelley were in my carpool and I just adore them. We had the best conversations and laughs and it was perfect to be able to talk to someone everyday who was going through very similar things to what you were. My roommates can only handle so much teacher talk.

Aren't we cute?!

Basically, I have been given the greatest opportunity by being able to be in the classroom teaching these amazing kids. I gave them a going away gift of a BYU Football shirt and CU lanyard, oh the perks of being president, with extra gear. :) They loved it...well most of them. One Ute fan told me that he would never be caught dead wearing a BYU shirt...except for me, because that is how much he liked me. haha I was flattered! We took a group photo and it made my life!

I love sixth grade, and am really sad it is over. College is way lame and not near as exciting as elementary school...but I think I have talked about that before! ;)

Just Because...

 ...I wanted you all to see how cute we are! :) Absolutely adore my sisters...and Star!

All the Single Haynie's, All the Single Haynie's...

5 of the 7 Haynie girls. 

Tara, Saryn, Kendra, Becca and Bri (Bree)

You are not going to believe this!

Once upon a time I was really bored at work. I had a lot of other things I could have/should have been doing..but I was rebelling just a little. So obviously, I instead decided to google my name. Well once there, it is really quite fun. You go through seeing what "Kendra Haynie"s are really you and such. It is a good time, I suggest you try it if you have not already; which I am pretty sure everyone has at least once! So I was just going through and seeing that a lot of them were about me speaking at high school graduation, sterling scholar winner, FCCLA scores, quoted in the Daily Universe etc. I even found out that I have a profile on athletic.net! So great...although not my PR's from my senior season....Annnnyyyyway, sorry I am really bad at going off on tangents. So I just was googling myself and the image below, is what I saw.

If you can not actually read it, you will see that it says Cavenders.com Contest Winners. For those of you who do not know, Cavenders is a western wear store and where I got my most favorite footwear item I have...my Ariat boots! I absolutely adore them and was able to justify buying them last January when I got my tax return! They are expensive little buggers.

Cute photo right?!

So I saw that, was a little confused as it did say Contest Winners:Kendra Haynie. The following conversation went down in my mind; "Wait, I am Kendra Haynie and I am from Provo, UT. Pretty sure there is not another one and pretty sure I was never a winner. What in the world?!" So I clicked on the link, and it brought up this:

 

Right there, Gift Card Giveaway Kendra Haynie from Provo, UT. Well, at this point I was super baffled. So I decided to write them a little message about how I am pretty sure this was me but I never had heard anything about it, but I would like to know more.

Fifteen minutes later, I get a call from a man who had the thickest southern accent I have ever heard, and obviously immediately fall in love with him...his voice. He proceeds to tell me that I am in fact a winner...of a 

$150.00 Gift Card

to Cavenders!!!!!!!! 

Apparently if you are on their mailing list (which I was because I had bought something from them) you were entered into their drawing and an email had been sent to me but because it was from a different sender it went straight to my junk mail. "Mam, if you could just please confirm this mailing address I have fer you here, I will personally make sure your gift card gets sent out first thing tomorra mornin." ...and can we get married? Thanks.

Yes Please. Holy smokes right?! What are the chances of this actually happening. Crazy! So now, I can guilt free by myself another pair of boots...or maybe a salmon pair of wranglers and sequin shirt, Rodeo Princess Style?! The possibilities are endless!!!

Moral of the story: Frequently Google yourself. You will never know what you won! :) 

Valentine's Day

Yep, it came this year. Kind of weird that I choose to blog about the holiday Valentine's Day when I am pretty sure I did not even post about Thanksgiving or anything else, but oh well. I have some pictures and felt like I should share them. :)

It was just a pretty typical day. The Sunday before the Elders Quorum came into the end of Relief Society and sang. "I am a Child of God" to us and then handed out roses. haha It was dripping with akwardness. I loved it, for that very reason! Fun fact, there were five, I repeat FIVE, of the seven Haynie sisters in the 61st ward on Sunday. It was awesome. Janae and Shandi, we really missed you!

We then had FHE on Monday night and decided to Heart Attack the Bishop. (I did not even post about this, but Bishop Owens got released two weeks ago. I already miss him, but am super excited for Bishop Porter, Bro Hughes, and Bro Rollins. They are going to love being in the 61st ward!) Anyway, we went and heart attacked the bishops house who lives in Orem. There were five of us that went and just as we were sneaking up to his door, who pulls into the driveway? Obviously Bishop Porter and his wife! haha We probably looked super sketchy, Mike had his hood on and we were all trying to hide our plates of cookies and hearts. It was awesome. We got it done and it was such a fun activity! I just love my FHE group! ;)

We also got a PACKAGE in the mail that day. From our oh so wonderful nieces and nephews! They are just the most tender things ever. **Background: My mom always sends us a Valentine's Day package. This year she has been on HCG and did really not want the temptation of all the good stuff she makes while on maintenance for her diet. So she told us no package this year. We were a little bit sad...maybe we thought about disowning her for a second, but we are all good now. So instead my darling sister Janae and her kids made and sent us one.

  

I was clearly SO excited!

We got some dipped pretzels, some 'hot lips' (because we have super hot lips!) dipped in chocolate and a super cute card signed by the nieces and nephews/ Allie wrote all of their names! It was so fun! We are loved and I appreciate it.

When we got home later that night, Taryn and Matt were on their Valentine's date at our apartment. Star and I did not really know if we should leave, or just hang out with them on their date... So we chose the obvious choice and chose to hang out with them, while on their date. Matt even let us eat some of the Strawberry Shortcake he brought for him and Taryn. It was a romantic evening with the four of us (slash five, Bri came over later). haha

Creative little date planner.

Can't even handle the anticipation of what the judges have to say... Matt is praying he is the winner maybe?

They were making Valentines for each other and obviously with Matt playing, it became a contest. We were assigned to be the judges. 

No big, I am just documenting their relationship for them...because they don't. 

 

Aren't they tender? We like them. Saryn was also on a hot Valentine's date with Devin...which is why she is missing from the photos. Apparently Dev did not love the idea of a date at Wellington 4? Weird. But we also love them! :)

Happy Valentine's Day 2011...until next year! 

Obsessed

How many things were going through your mind when you read this post title?! Admit it, you are probably thinking that I am going to talk about sports, family or brown boys right?

Well, those are all incorrect... {don't get me wrong...I am actually obsessed with ALL those things}But actually, this is to talk about how I am obsessed with decorating my apartment. It is an expensive little habit I have gotten myself into. My roommates can attest that any time I get the Michaels coupons of the week, I insist on going, promise to only be there for my discounted item, and come out with way more than I had planned on! I do always get really good deals though...yes, that is me justifying my spending. Not to mention, my craft drawers (which I am really going to be needing a craft ROOM here any day) always benefit in the best ways from these excursions! I am an Elementary school teacher, I need a lot of craft supplies. :)

I just can not think of anything greater than coming home from the longest day at school/work/life to a decorated door and/or apartment. It cheers my soul better than anything!

Come the second week of January, you had better believe that I was putting up Valentine's Day decorations. Most people give me a hard time and tell me, "It is not even February yet!" But, if I were to wait until February, I would only have a mere two weeks to enjoy all of my fantastically cute decorations! That is just not enough. I become very attached to all of my decorations and they are given the highest of priority in my storage areas.

I may or may not give some of them names...

**Skelly and Scarecrow. Some of my favorites! :)

Christmas Spirit!

Yes, that heart does light up. I love it. Thanks Cal! :)

Just a little craft I made up....Cute right? ;) haha

What is going to be happening within the next week? You could probably stop by anywhere around W4 and see a whole lot of GREEN!!