A tribute to my sister.

Dear Pretty,
Happy Birthday! I cannot believe that you are so old, but am the luckiest person alive to have you as my sister. You are such an example of strength and preserverence, my life is happier because you are in it.

When I was younger I asked Santa to bring me a sister every year for Christmas, and the winter of 2002 he finally followed through. You were definitely worth the wait! I was a little older than you are now, and was ecstatic. I want you to know that our whole family has loved you since the moment we met you. We are so blessed to have you in our family. You have made our lives so much better. I want you to know that two of the happiest moments of my life happened the day you officially became Kaitlynne Nicole Kilburn, and the day you were sealed to Momma and Daddy in the temple. I love you more than words can express. I truly believe that you were always meant to be a Kilburn, and that Heavenly Father always knew that we belonged together. You make me a better person. Your spirit and charm light up the room, and your wit and sass always keep me laughing. At 10 years old, you have already overcome more than I have in my entire life. I love you so much Katie, and I am so grateful that we are sisters forever. I hope you know how special you are.

I love you so much and am so sorry that I can't be there today to celebrate your 10th birthday with you. I hope that you have so much fun playing in Fairbanks with Momma, Daddy, and Matthew. I hope that this year turns out to be a great one. Remember to always try your best, and remember that you are always loved no matter what. I can't wait until I get to see you this summer!! I'm so excited for you to open the present I sent you, I just know that you are going to love it!

Happy happy happy birthday Katie!!
I love you!

Love, Mandy

Endless Love

I have been chastised for my lack of blogging lately.... My bad.
Life is going wonderfully, school is insane but awesome, I love my life.

One thing that I had not been looking forward to happens next Wednesday. March 21... yup that is my birffday. Don't get me wrong, I love parties, I just dislike having all that attention on me. Call me odd, but it just makes me feel like a selfish brat. I realize this is a huge double standard since I love to celebrate everyone else's birthdays. Get over it.
Turns out, as fate would have it, I was able to meet the love of my life. I've decided is my birthday gift to myself. Being 21 is going to be awesome with this sweet ride! Not only is having a truck awesome, but hanging out with my brother, customizing our trucks is awesome as well. (Ryan has a '94 F150, so our trucks are dang similar. It is so exciting!)

I have fallen in love. I'm committed.
Here's how it happened-
           Step 1: Save money.
           Step 2: Wait until Ryan (the all-knowing, deal-spotting, guru) comes to Idaho.
           Step 3: Stalk Craigslist continuously and drive all over East Idaho looking at glorious Fords.
           Step 4: Meet some awesome grandparents who don't know what is wrong with their seemingly awesome truck.
           Step 5: Bargain them down to half the asking price.
           Step 6: Buy that glorious Ford.
           Step 7: Spend a couple evenings in the shop with Ryan.
           Step 8: Have a perfect running truck for an absolute steal of a price.
           Step 9: All your wildest dreams come true.
           Step 10: Deck the crap out of that beauty.

I am now on step 10.
Long story short, I saved an insane amount of money. When I bought the truck, the tranny was in safe mode and their appeared to be a slight issue with the starter. We bought it for dang cheap, expecting to have to rebuild/replace the transmission. I am the luckiest, most blessed person on the planet, all of the time, so naturally all that turned out to be wrong was a big blown maxi fuse. I now have a glorious 1995 F150 with only 130,000 miles, and loads of potential. Incredible. Seriously, who gets that lucky?! This means that my truck budget is not even close to being maxed out, which means I'm going to have the sickest truck ever.

My plans:
- Take out the plastic bedliner and Monstaline the bed and rocker panels, grill, and light casing either black or charcoal
- Build the custom bumper for the front and rhinoline it and the rear bumper.
- Build the light rack and rhinoline it as well.
- Tint the windows to about 20%.
- Lift it a few inches and big bog tires tires (285s or 33s).
- Line the middle portion of the hood.
- Install a new stereo
- Have the best summer ever!

Basically it is going to be legit.... all white with black/charcoal accents.














I realize that very few females care about this. Call me a white-trash red-neck if you want, but I am so excited. It is funny to me to see who cares about trucks and who definitely does not. All I gotta say, is that come summertime when we are taking my lovely truck to play in the sunshine, you will probably start appreciating it more. Life is better with a truck.