an exception to the rule.

my family is really bad with needles. and by bad, i mean BAAD. blood, needles all that jazz. we just dont do well with it.

i didnt think this pertained to me though. i have never really had a problem with any of that.

i thought i was the exception to the rule

i guess that has changed.

i was asked to give blood at the institute on tuesday. i thought sure... lots of people's blood helped my dad, i should really give back.

so in i pranced like it was no thing! heck i have given blood before its no big deal.

turns out it is a big deal. for me.

i give blood no problem.

i am told to raise my arm so that the blood can clot?

now theres a problem.

the next thing i know i am feeling really weird, quite dizzy and feeling like ive never felt before.

i feel myself sinking- like levels in my mind- and i know i have passed out but im not really sure what is happening.

again, the next thing i hear is "KYRSTEN!" i open my eyes and there are 6 people standing above me. i have ice in both of my hands, wet rags on my head and on my chest, and my back is SOAKING in sweat!

some lady then says your chest is going to be really sore later today… i had to rub it to try and wake you up.

she wasn’t kidding. it still hurts.

45 seconds down.

oh man. im feeling so weird still. a little nauseous now.

crap. there are at least 50 people in the gym looking at me now.

yes im really feeling nauseated. please hand me a big green garbage bag!

and it starts. its not quiet either. i dont do quiet puke!

hurling, shaking, cold sweats.

why did i decide to give blood?

after about 20 minutes in the blood chair i decided it was time to move upstairs.

theres a nice little couch in a dark corner of the institute and that was where i was going to rest until sam was done with class.

still feeling nauseous so i decide to take another green bag with me.

sam picks me up. still feeling bad.

we start driving. doesnt help.

more vomitting.

i cant move. i stay in bed all day. seriously all day.

looks like my grand idea to make a few extra dollars a month wont be happening. my guess is giving plasma will be just as deadly!

be nice to me. i gave blood on tuesday… J

happiness and success.

3 years. holy smokes.

i am really trying to figure out where the time has gone.

life is so wonderful with you sam.

i love you more than anything.

thanks for putting up with the crazy person you call your wife!

our wedding day.

(i just had to put this one in there)

engagements.

bridals.

do you know the story of our wedding night?

well let me just tell you about it...

the wedding went perfectly. wonderful people and a beautiful spirit.

the luncheon went on without a hitch.

the reception. it started and continued wonderfully.

then the time came to leave.

the reception was supposed to end at 9 pm. of course it went much later.

by the time we finally managed to get out the door it was 10:30. we still had to drive to salt lake city that night.

sam went to fetch the car. we had hid the car in an alley quite a few blocks away from the church hoping that my 'sweet' cousins wouldnt put their mischievous minds to use. no such luck. throughout the night we were asked over and over again where the car was and if we would give up our keys. yeah right.

trust me. if you have cousins like mine you wouldnt give up the keys either (love you guys for reals)

with all of that being said, my dear husband comes back with a car PACKED FULL of those foam elephant peanuts, rice, plastic wrap and all sorts of other things on the outside of the car.

turns out that because they couldnt get into our car, they called a locksmith. yes they paid $75 to break into our car.

and because they spent the money, they were going to make sure they got us good. and yes they got us really good.

sam was really happy about it (enter sarcasm)

Well we decide to go to my parents and just throw everything that was in the car into their garage and they would clean it up. so we did.

but we were hungry, so we decided we should stop at subway.

the worker saw that we were in our wedding garb, so decided to be a sweetie and give us the BIGGEST cup of lemonade i think i have ever seen.

so sweet.

as we are driving away sam notices something is missing.

whats that?

oh yes his wedding ring is missing.

awesome.

we decide its probably in our car somewhere, so with that we decide to stop in mccamon where sams parents were to look for it.

we look and look and look.

and while looking my big ole' booty hits that HUGE cup of lemonade.

splash... it is EVERYWHERE.

awesome.

while sam is looking for his ring, im cleaning up lemonade, and in the process of it all the rice is expanding everywhere.

it was sick.

well no luck finding the ring so we called my mom and told her to look around the garage and everything.

turns out my grandpa was getting ready to take all the garbage bags full of crap to the dumpster but sweet little shag decided she wanted all of it to put in some cute boys room.

thank you shag.

after a few days we found out that the ring was at the bottom of one of those garbage bags.

lucky.

anyways... back to the wedding night.

we cant find the ring and still need to get to salt lake so we decide to just keep going.

right off the on- ramp. boom. we hit a skunk.

now we have a lost ring, wet- rice expanding and a car that smells like POOP!

awesome.

at this point there is nothing we can do but laugh because we are both so annoyed.

a few hours later we get to our hotel.

well. this is where is gets even funner.

nobody is at the front desk that late, so they have little safes with your name and key inside.

we look at each safe. not a single one has our name on it.

awesome.

sam comes back to the car to get his cell phone.

in the midst of all the shoveling around and such his cell phone goes missing.

after about a half hour we finally find it.

call the hotel.

no answer.

call again.

finally a security guard comes down.

we figure everything out.

its almost 2 am.

we finally get into our hotel room and realize we have to be at the airport by 4:30 to leave on our honeymoon.

SWEET.

at the time we were both a little frustrated to say the least. now i laugh my toosh off thinking about what a crazy night it was.

my wedding night is a hilarious memory!

happy anniversary sweetie. i love you

x0x0

these are a few of my favorite things...

{When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel so bad}

i guess if you cant tell by my last -oh i dont know- 10 posts, ive been feeling a little down lately.

i know i shouldnt complain, but sometimes you just arent feeling like you want to skip up and down the streets while shouting for joy.

instead you feel like laying in bed. all day.

life really is good. sometimes crappy things happen, but i know its important to look for the good in things.

im realizing that more now than ever. sure, i have a good reason to mope around feeling sorry for myself, but i cant tell you how many times before my dad died how much he stressed to us as a family how important it is for us not to have a pity party.

so really, ive been trying not to.

thus, although vain, i figured it wouldnt hurt today to look around our little 'suite' to find a few of my current favorite things.

make things lighter.

and make me sing like i am in the sound of music all day long.

this song really sticks in your head doesnt it?

in no particular order some of the stuff that rocks my socks right now.

i love these storage boxes. they will look darling in my living room... someday. i have a killer green couch. its actually almost my favorite item we own.

my uncle lance built these beautiful frames for my cousin andreas wedding. lucky me, my birthday was right after so i got one for a birthday gift. i love it. the piece of art going in it is just a beautiful and fits perfectly!

we went to park city a few weekends ago for one last hoorah with jacer. they had lots of awesome stuff at the farmers market. this was one of my purchases. its painted on papyrus.

this is the absolute, most special thing to me. this necklace is of my dads thumb print. i love it. i wear it everyday. next to my wedding ring its the most priceless thing i own.

my dear friend katie had this necklace made for me. it is so lovely. for those of you who werent at my dads funeral, 'because nice matters' has been our family theme for the past few years. the theme of my dads funeral was pretty much based on this phrase. it is very special to me and i am so blessed to have such amazing friends.

i absolutely love milk glass. i dont know what it is, but i have been having a frenzy with it the past few months. anything i see that is milk glass i want. so awhile back i bought me this pair of candle sticks at pocatellos wildhare flea market frenzy!

man o man do i love these shoes. sam bought me them for my birthday. dont worry i wear them with everything... including dresses. its pretty bad. ok really bad and unacceptable. but i love them.

i have had this for a long time. its something we didnt actually have in storage, so its hanging in our bedroom. The Family Proclamation is such a beautiful explanation of truly how important the family unit is.

a dishwasher. oh i love this beauty. it is so nice to not hand wash every dish used.

and a panini maker. yes i think we use it at least 5 times a week for lunch.

muy bueno!

ps. im trying to loose a substantial amount of weight.

sam and i have a bet with my cousin and her husband.

THEY ARE GOING DOWN!

but...please help me. ive learned self control isnt my strongest suit!

i havent had a mountain dew- or any soda for that matter in 3 weeks... thats good right?

x0x0

tiger woods spoke at general conference.

i really want to blog tonight.

but i have nothing profound to say.

no fun pictures to post.

nothing exciting going on.

our anniversary is coming up. thats exciting. its been a full 3 years on the 22nd.

what a wonderful day.

i married superman. did you know. his real name is clark kent... couldnt you tell by his glasses?

spanish is hard. who knew?

finding a job might be harder... ok finding the motivation to find a job is the hardest.

i wish i had all the money in the world so that i could go to ohio and south korea any day i wanted. there are 3 little punks im missing a lot right now.

ok a butt load of little punks im missing. stells, gabe, vicca, jasper, scottie, taranch, ryan, katy, cardo, jenny, nicholas, decker, abigail. too many people living too far away.

i wish we could have an extra large inverted culdesac so that all of our backyards were a big center park type thing.

i feel bored. why?

i want to do more. but for some reason im finding a hard time figuring out what i want to do.

maybe because i need to find a job.

im worried about moving to salt lake.

im worried about doing something so scary.

im worried about leaving my mom and taigen.

its been so wondeful to live here.

privacy is rare. but im not sad about it. i love it.

i love that our door has windows all the way down it, so we have a carnival cruise towel hung over our door for a little more privacy.

ok i dont really love that.

we have a snowman blanket covering our window.

i guess we are excited for christmas?

no? im not sure im excited for christmas. it will be too different.

im trying to loose weight.

ugh.

i hate it. but i need too.

sam is amazing.

ive never seen somone with so much self control. how does he do it.

life is weird.

life is good.

i saw a picture of my dad last night and i cried. i cried a lot. i do everyday.

its hard.

but its life.

and its good.

i need to do homework.

i need to go to sleep.

ah.

everything i own is in a storage unit or in the garage.

it was really annoying digging through the storage unit today to find the 3 things i needed.

i only found 2.

i want to make curry for dinner tomorrow night.

ok i have wanted to for the past 3 nights but havent.

motivation where are you?

at least i cooked the chicken tonight. i got that far.

this is a weirdy post.

i wish i was more organized.

i need a coach or something.

a life coach really.

help me with cleaning, studying, organizing, working out, eating healthy.. i could go on and on.

i will quit boring you though.

there are too many things, yet nothing running through my mind.

its a strange feeling really.

does that happen to you ever?

its a bit like a dream.

i had a dream the other night that tiger woods spoke at general conference.

it was sooo wacky.

i think he did good though.. im not quite sure.

i think i dreamt about him because my psychology teacher talks about him so much.

my schedule this semester is good. lots of general and component classes.

philosophy {ive been avoiding it}

social psychology {interesting}

rhetoric of churchill and hitler {very interesting}

spanish {ugh. but i want to learn so bad}

photo communication {think ill drop it}... to late... how about a withdrawal

kayak touring {its over. we went to jackson lake for a weekend. it was really fun}

just thought i would bore you some more .

peace.

x0x0

hansens love Jesus.

jace has been gone for a week and a half now. our house seems a little quieter than usual. but i am so proud of him. i am so happy that he is doing something that he has looked forward to his whole life. he is an amazing missionary already. i know it.

on our way to the mtc we decided to stop off at my dads grave and have a little breakfast picnic. we had all things scottie. chocolate donuts and pink milk

(have i mentioned i dont really like pink milk? come on scottie!)

the cemetery has yet to put sod over his grave and we havent picked out a headstone yet for the fella, but it is still beautiful. he is right next to the flag pole and by a big, huge tree. im sure he would love it there.

of course we had to share with him. :) he did love it.

after a brisk morning picnic we moved along on our journey to the mtc. jace was so funny (or obnoxious) im not sure which. he was so excited to get there. he kept asking sam if he would drive faster and once in provo- with 2 hours to go- he asked if we would just take him then! we wouldnt allow it!

so instead we did what all missionary families taking their missionaries to the mtc do. we took pictures by the temple.

so excited.

jas and me. i love him. we are a little too much alike sometimes.

my cousin landon introduced us to a greeting. we call it the traditional family greeting now. it is used quite often when saying hello or goodbye.

wish we had everyone in the family with us.

we are so proud of you elder hansen.

here he is in all of his glory. elder jace hansen. remember when i said we are too much alike sometimes?... i take it back. :)

these are our spanish ctr rings. in spanish it is hlj... so we interpret it as hansens love Jesus. my dad was buried with one on his right pinky too.

the curbside drop off. its like taking someone to the airport. it happens so fast!

the tie jace is wearing is called the special occasion tie. every boy in our family has one- cousins, uncles, grandpas. they are worn at anything important or special to someone.

my dad was also buried with one of these in his casket.

no tears were shed this day. we are all too excited for him to fulfill something so important. he has a great work to do and i know he will work his hardest to be successful.

our family is so blessed. i can honestly say that although things are a lot different in our lives, we continue to see the Lords hand in all that we do. i have found so much comfort and peace in knowing that my Savior understands me and knows me personally. this life is not the end. and now jace has the opportunity to go teach the people of bolivia from first hand experience about the plan of salvation. families will be together forever. and i am so thankful for a testimony of that truth.

we will miss you while your gone elder hansen but we will see you soon.

we will miss you while your gone dad but we will see you soon.

x0x0

pearl me.

last summer while we were in cancun, me my mom taryn and taigen were going in and out of little shops finding all sorts of mexican trinkets to take home. while we were browsing we came across a beautiful but really pricey jewelry store. funny how much we are all alike, because instantly we all walked to the pearl rings. it was something we didnt know about each other, but we all wanted a pearl ring... real bad. too bad all of the ones there were far too expensive. since that day we have talked about how fun it would be to get matching pearl rings to wear. well last week we found some sweet ones. and today we got them. and i love them. they are beautiful. we each got one, dont worry jaces 'wife' got one too. hopefully she fits a size 7.

love.

kylee

my friend kylee is getting married on saturday. she didnt have a photographer to take any bridal pictures, so somehow, someway this person (me) was thrown into the position.

i am by no means a photographer. i enjoy taking pictures but have never taken any 'professional' type photos for people for a special event. if anything i am a landscape and object amateur, hobby photographer. and not even a photographer at that- i cant even call myself a photographer.

but anyhow i guess a good model makes for good pictures-even if your not sure what your doing. i think that she ended up getting some great photos and in all honestly some is better than none!

it was really fun regardless! and she is beautiful!

x0x0