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.

...because of the brave.

I'm proud to be an American,

 where at least I know I'm free.

And I won't forget the men who died, 

who gave that right to me.

I'm so thankful for those who 

have served, 

are serving, 

or will serve.

Land of the free,

because of the brave.

God Bless the USA!

Thank you.

Grandpa Gossett                   Grandpa Jim

Grandpa Van                                                        Ryan Kilburn

And so it goes.

Some happies of today...

Football opener today!!! Can't believe Satan prevailed against the Saints...lame. No more wins please, Cheeseheads!

I decided to make a Vikings blanket the other day. It's pretty bomb. I'm so ready to kick Packer trash this season. 

Funny story: I have been skipping the bread and only taking the water during the sacrament because, of course, I'm allergic. I was waiting for the Branch President to return from his travels to ask what he would prefer I do. My parents met him....and found out all of the sacrament bread is gluten-free because there is another little girl in the ward allergic as well. I was skipping it for nothing. Happy! No special 'weird' sacrament for me!

Had a job interview this morning...should know within a week. Dolla dolla bill ya'll.

On my mind:
I love my life. Alaska is beautiful, wonderful, and friendly. I am so glad I decided to stay, it was definitely the right decision. I still really want to go on a mission so we will see what happens. I got 4 months to make money before I head back to BYUI.

Congrats to Ry for scoring a a job today! Atta boy! He is the best big brother, I love him! I am grateful for all he does for me, and am thankful our chats. He never holds anything back and oftentimes I really need to hear what he has to say. I have the best family ever. I have the best friends ever. I am the luckiest / most blessed person I know! 

<3 Living the Dream,

-MK

REMEMBER: Never quit trying. You're gunna make it after all.

Roadtrips & Changes

Hello friends!

Sorry about my lack of posts lately. This massive fatty should hopefully catch you up... 

 Last I blogged I was heading home to Minneapolis in the morning. I did that. I loved that. 

As per planned I only spent a short amount of time in MN. My days consisted of helping my family prepare to move, with the occasional sneak-away to see my lovelies. I can definitely say that Minnesota has a special place in my heart. I love it. 

I can't wait to return. ASAP!

 Due to some unexpected truck issues, we ended up heading out later than planned. We bid farewell to our cities August 7th, and opened a new chapter in our book of life. 

 I love road-trips. To me they are one of those little treasures wherein one can really, honestly, truly experience life and peace. 

The world is a wonderful place. 

Change is something I really like so this trip was fairly easy for me to enjoy. I am a very blessed girl. Other members of my lovely fam would like to kick 'change' in the face. Despite our ups and downs we made it alive. 

A success in my book.

Our route included going over to North Dakota then cutting up to Canada to drive the Alaskan Highway 1.

 Surprisingly enough the borders weren't too bad to cross. After reading horror stories online where people had to unload their trucks and pay officers $180 an hour to search all their belongings, we were all a bit worried about this endeavor. But, it was a breeze. Pull up to the window, give the man paperwork/passports, go inside to register guns, welcome to Canada / Alaska.

 BREAKING NEWS: Canada is magnificent!

Not only is the scenery spectacular, but the mass amounts of Ford trucks as well. I imagine Heaven could potentially be like this. : ) 

The 55 hours of driving we anticipated from Google.Maps was quite an underestimate.

Things that can slow one down when cruising: 

1. Two large moving trucks with trailers driving 45-60 mph.

2. Said trucks and trailers needing 6 tires replaced by the end of our little trip.

3. Huge storms day after day.

Breaks in the rain provided opportune moments of beauty. Don't dismay, we got plenty of time to take mass amounts of pictures.

(You were worried. I could tell.)

 Can I just say, I think the above picture of Katie is one of my very favorites.

Also, can I just say that I love my family.

Answer: Yes! 

It's my blog. I can say whatever I want. 

Word.

We drove, drove, and drove, and when we were tired of that and our bums were completely numb, guess what we did?....Kept on driving. haha

We made it to Delta Junction, Alaska, late Saturday afternoon, got the keys to our new party pad, and had mass amounts of happy Mormons to help unload the trucks.

For those of you who are counting that means 7 days of driving.

 This whole Alaskan experience is great....different but great.

There are a total of zero stoplights in our town, something completely foreign to us. Delta consists of a missile base, an automotive supply stores, a couple shelves worth of an overpriced grocery store, a library, coffee, and a couple gas stations that charge $4 a gallon....that's about it. 

We are only 2 hours from North Pole and Fairbanks though, so we get to sneak away to stoplights occasionally.

Great things about Alaska...

-Light. When we got here we had daylight until midnight, now we lose it about 10:30, still awesome.

-Trucks. Everywhere. Bomb.

-Scenery. Gorgeous. always.

-Wildlife. Birds, Caribou, Bison, and plenty of Moose (above pic).

 While I really like it here, I have decided to take a leap of faith and move back to Rexburg with my brother to get a big-kid job and be with friends.

My flight leaves next Friday, Sept 2nd, and I will be arriving back in Idaho on Saturday afternoon.

That's the plan for now. I'll let you know. 

: )

Here's to the longest post ever! Hurraaah!

(and sorry)

My final requests for now:

1. Come visit Alaska, the land where we have all of these wildflowers in our yard.

2. Love living that lovely life of yours.

<3 Living the Dream,

-MK

Remember: It's far easier to add chapters to our story than to subtract them.

Bye Bye Burg

In the morning I hit the road for marvelous Minnesota.

It is a bittersweet feeling because I love Idaho, am ready to soak up some Minnesota, and will soon be moving to Alaska. I am so fortunate and blessed, life is so wonderful!

Throwing Alaska into the mix has made this move rather abnormal for me. For the first time I am unable to take all of my belongings with me. By the grace of God I was able to pack everything I 'need' for potentially the next five months into two suitcases. Quit being impressed, I have omitted the fact that these suitcases are massive...still, it is an achievement for me. I have a clothing/shoe illness but am not ready to take the step past admitting it. :-) 

I am seriously the luckiest person alive. I know I say that a lot, but it's really so true. Everything has worked out. I am so grateful for the people that have helped make things happen. I have a hard time asking for help, but had to bite the humble bullet and do it this time. Massive shout out to my awesome brother and his wife who will be moving here in a little over a month. They are going to pull my stuff out of storage and keep it and my car at their new house for me until my return. Also, my lovely friend Lisa is housing my car for me, my homegirl Jenny is giving me a ride home, my bestie/roommate April has ensured I don't pull my hairs out, and the BYU-I bulletin board helped me find a ride for the luggage and passenger that were supposed to be riding in my car with me. Yup, I definitely qualify as blessed.

While I am excited for the adventures that await, I am going to miss all of my Rexburg lovelies.

A friend asked me how I can enjoy moving so often since I don't have one real place to call home. This gem immediately popped into my head. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros explain home as simply 'wherever I'm with you.' I am grateful for my wonderful, goofy, loving, crazy family. We stick together and make it work. Home is where we are. I love it! Check it out...

<3 Living the dream,

-MK