new years resolutions in almost april

HELLOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

new years resolution # 725: be better at blogging

i decided i was going to be better at blogging. i also decided that i was going to make that term "better" be the term of choice because, it was the most ambiguous word i could think of. which means, new years resolution # 725 is realized!!! way to go kerri :)

but really though, i think it is time i got off of my laziness and actually update the world as to what is happenin'.

i gotta give a shout out to my sisters, cause they are really good at this whole blogging thing. since i am horrible on this end of the spectrum i just looked through all of their posts and stuff so that i would know how to not make a fool of myself when i write. now that i am much more informed as to the proper blogging technique, here it goes i guess...

life is...........................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ that good!

for those of you who may not know what that means, let me just put it this way, ever since i changed my major to recreational management there is a lot less of this.... &&^%#@@#$^%*)()&($%%$##@^*&)_ &W#!$%#@$%^&(_+_(&%#@*(*&*%%^$#%$*^&(&^%$#@!@#$%$#@!!@#$%^))*(*&^%!#!#@$%^%^*&(*()(_)_)&^^%$$%$@#! going on and a lot more of this ................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... make sense?

BYU-Idaho is the bomb, i live in an awesome apartment with very awesome people. my schedule is great this semester, it is finally getting warm, i saw the first group of tulips trying to bloom this morning, i am healthy, i get to see mi familia next weekend (especially karli), there is no shortage of possibilities for an awesome adventure up here, friends are great, and finals will be over in two-ish weeks.

well, off to bed. there is so much more i need to fill you all in on, all in good time. i am expecting that i will get a little better at this blogging thing. man i am happy there is no requirement for a high literary standard here.

i try and keep this in mind everyday.

Kerri's life in a Nut Shell . . . by Karli

So, this actually isn't Kerri blogging, this is Karli.
  Kerri . . . . .

                  It's Time!!!

So, here are pictures of what Kerri has been up to, since I am her personal photographer.Good ole Dominican Republic She went to Dominican for 4 months staight! She worked down there and lived in the wheel house of the Deep Blue Marine boat, making food, and blowing up her air matress every night and putting it away every morning. She had quite a time, so I heard. It was while I was in Ukraine, so we had little contact. 

Here's her working. She would dig for artifacts, move them around, and a lot of other stuff. I didn't make it sound very exciting, but, it is quite hard work at times! But, she does it very well, and she loves doing that sorta stuff. When she is home . . .  she got some sweet wheels!! Her, Cohwen and my Dad rebuilt this car after it had got totalled by a person that they bought it off of. It is a pretty sweet ride, and very reliable and solid. And, It's HOT!!

during the Summer semester, she took a class that took her to Moab for a couple of weeks, and they basically lived in the desert and camped here and there for 5 weeks for 12 credits, and learned some sweet survival skills, and did some pretty wicked awesome stuff. I hear about her stories every time she gets with one of the kids from that class. Which, is pretty fun at times. One of the girls from this class is actually living with us in our basement until January

she even learned how to cut hair in the dark with head lamps and medical scissors. This was for her birthday. I guess her teacher and one of the students went around to everyones gear, and sneakily picked stuff out of each one there bags, then wrapped it up and gave it to her. So, it was fun for everyone! Sadly . . . she had to give all of her presents back, but, you never knew what item she was going to get! Pretty good idea I thought, when they were in the middle of a camping excursion. she got to go with one of our best friends Stephanie DeVisser, she has been our friend since junior high! And her room mate for a couple semesters at college, and they've basically done everything together for the past 5 years! She is now going to New Mexico to school on a soccer Scholarship, we miss mer terribly, but know that she is accomplishing great things! You Rock Steph!! Thanks for keeping Kerri in line! :) And feeding her free spirit to explore crazy heights! so the, we both got home fro our excursions of school, and not even 2 days after school got out, I chopped my hair! And Kerri came along for 'moral support', pretty sure she just wanted a good excuse to cut hers, or an experiment to see if it even looked good first, cuz we are twins after all . . . . good news! It looks Great!! She even went shorter last week. 

then we headed to Australia!!! Lots of fun!and we did some experimenting! She would wave at people as they passed, and some were very confused, but all of the old men would chuckle. She took me to Moab to her country after we got back from Australia! Man . . . she crazy! It was a lot of fun.

basically, Kerri is pretty much awesome! She just got a job with a place called Aspiro that take troubled youth ages 12-18 out in the wilderness and teach them how to survive and deal with stress in a healthy way. She is pretty stoked about it. She has been selling quilts, playing her violin down town, and getting ready to turn her papers in in November. She goes back up to school in January. And that is Kerri's life in a nutshell, and a brief look at what she has been up to. So, there you go! 

now i am awesome

the truth is my weekend ruled! i am sorry for all of you (mom and dad) who had a horrible thanksgiving and i feel for you, i really do, but i got to see tommie holden AND i went surfing! thanksgiving was full of thanks, you know for the turkey, family, being alive, friends, people who are willing to take in homeless teenagers for a couple nights, beach cruiser bikes, and above all SURFING!!! i am not a real person yet, mainly because i haven't actually ridden a legit wave yet (give it time) but i am one step closer to real person-ness.
thursday morning tommie holden came and picked me up so we could go have some turkey with him and his girlfriends family, of which they were hilarious. i don't know of many other nicer people than chris's (tommies girlfriend) parents, so welcoming and happy. the dad restores old wooden boats, he took us to the shop that used to be his (before he retired) and the boats that were there were soooooooo nice!!! mostly tommie and i just walked around starry eyed asking questions like; "what is this one?", "how did you get this one?", "audrey hepburn rode in this one?", "how old is this one?", "what?! from 1914?", "completely original?". my favorite part of that whole experience was when we asked about the prices and he started throwing numbers around like hot cakes... "oh this one, yah this one was about 100,000", "oh and that one... i would give it a rough estimate of... ahh about 300,000", "that one, oh that one was only about 70,000." just like it was nothin. you know, house payment or a boat? naturally a boat and let's pay for it in change from my piggie bank that i just had lying around. we felt like little kids in a candy store, but a REALLY nice candy store. he definitely knows his way around those boats though, they were also worth every penny. if the pictures work you will see what i am talking about.
i stayed at chris and tommies that night in denea's (chris's daughter) room, the bed was soooo comfortable and her room was incredible, so many colors and pictures. i didn't get to meet her but i bet she is one awesome person. i woke up early that morning (tommie beat me though, he was up way before i was) we made a dang good breakfast cause you aint nothin with out a good breakfast, checked the forecast (or i guess you could say the surf cast :)), loaded up the boards, the beach cruisers, the lunch, the frisbee, and the ukulele. i felt hard core on that hour long ride to new smyrna beach. we got there and parked in the town, pulled out the bikes and hopped on. oh and you had to hold the board with one hand and steer with the other, for a person who has not ridden a bike for a couple years it was not that easy of a task at first (they say you never forget how to ride a bike but i think i might be the exception cause i was SSSHHHAAKKEYYYY). i broke tommies number one rule; "always look cool" cause i did not look that cool at first. luckily i got the hang of it and we were off. we rode for about a mile, parked, slammed down a sandwich, waxed the boards, put on the wetsuits and just went for it. it was a very terrifying experience at first cause i really had no idea what to expect, luckily it got better. tommie caught his perfect wave and was just as happy as could be by that time, i was drowning while he was doing his thing so i didn't get to see it.
i took a good old beating for a while and then we went in, played some frisbee, ate some food, and went back out. by this time the surf had died down a little so luckily it was more in my element and i felt a lot more comfortable. i really need to learn a couple basic skills though, you know like diving under a wave, paddling, standing up, you know just the basics. i played around in the waves there and stood up (for about 1.1 seconds but still)!
once that party ended we hopped out of the wetsuits, ditched the boards and went for a bike ride. we went as far as we could then we had to cut through a marsh to get back to our boards (that we lovingly left stranded in a complete strangers care). at any rate is was about the best time i have had in a long time. good old tommie, what an amazing man he is. i am so thankful for him.
he let me borrow his beach cruiser for the next two weeks so that is even better cause now i am mobile! careful everyone, crazy girl on a bike!!! wahooo. everyone is jealous cause now i can go anywhere faster! i have also vowed i will pick up mountain biking when i get home. i will also get better at riding a bike, i don't want to run into a parked car again, that was embarrassing (i didn't mention it before but ya, that is no longer a thing i am wondering what it would feel like. the car was right in front of an overcrowded bar so all the people who saw me were drunk, trust me, the whole bar saw me!)

when you are a surfer...

when you are a surfer then you can be awesome too! the picture that i put up about myself is pretty sweet huh?, me and my new friends are pretty hot!! if these pictures were really me that would be even more awesome too. there are a couple little boys who go surf every day after school but they are way intense. they have the wetsuits and everything, i don't have a wetsuit and the only thing we have in our apartment is a boogie board and some blow up toy. although i really want to see if it is possible to surf on a boogie board. the weather has been much too cold to be able to just bail into the ocean like i would have hoped to have done millions of times by now. just for future refference and for anyone who may be interested in going to this school, you should go when the weather is warm.
my room mates are awesome, there are pictures on the post before this, francine (i call her fran) is my room mate, she speaks spanish and she is just way awesome. such a great girl, she comes from miami and her favorite food is the rice that i make for her! she doesn't know it yet but i think i have adopted the ukrains modo, grease is good for the bones. i tried to make rice one day, you know the not instant kind. cause you know i lived on a boat and ate rice almost every day so i thought hey, making it will be a piece of cake too. not so much, i noticed that the dominicans used vegetable oil then they would pour the rice in when it was hot. the problem was i used way too much oil and the rice was pretty darn greasy.
bianca, she is a black woman trapped in a mexicans body. she is so sassy and fun. i don't think i have ever met a person who has more spunk and a more contagious laugh in my life. she livens things up all over the place.
ashley is a mystery room mate, she is way cool but i have no idea who she is. i see her every once in a while but i don't really get the chance to talk to her much. all the other girls in the school are great but there will be more about them on a different day. goodbye for now!

flight school

let it be known, flight attending is awesome so far. although i must say there has been no flight attending going on, probably not until next year or so, but so far we have been going over how to run the computer system. it is way cool and i am loving it, we started building itineraries today and i love it. there are 21 people in the school and the first day of classes they split us right down the middle and sent us to different classes. our class has 11 people, it is small and so awesome. i am the only member (which really surprises me, i thought there would be more) and my life has been completely different than every single person here. i can't help but be very thankful that i was raised the way i was, the gospel is so true. it is very cool to be here where i get to grow my testimony like crazy, i have to always be on top of my game and make sure that i am living as good as i can cause there are a couple people who watch my every move like crazy. they also let me know the things i can and can't do all the time, they are so good at keeping me on my toes. i am so grateful for the spiritual workout they give me everyday.
the girls in the class are very nice and they just love life, so do i so it is all good. there is one boy in my class, his name is lewis and his hobby is runway walking in high heels. let's just say he has taught me a lot about walking in heels, it is also cool cause he gives me fashion advice sometimes. i also found that looking like you could be a high fashion model is not a compliment, so if anyone ever tells you you could be a high fashion model do not think of it as a compliment! anyway, lewis is awesome and straight up gay. he fits right in other than he dresses better than all the girls combined, and dang that boy can cook!
this school is very good and the studying is a nice workout for the brain. we have already had two quizzes with another on the way tomorrow and a test on monday. i am loving the challenge and i can't wait to see what tomorrow holds. i miss mountains but that is ok cause now i have an ocean in my backyard. i haven't gotten to the surfing yet but it is just a matter of time, actually i must admit, i have not even jumped in yet. think of me as a lame-o if you want but just know the weather is colder than utah right now.

Daytona Beach!!!

so i am finally here, wow, i must say that getting here was a little strange. the second i stepped out of the house i realized that the only things i was actually supposed to bring with me (document wise) were left in crazy places around my house that were hidden to everyone. after calling my parents and letting them know of my dilemma they searched and searched but to no avail. they just looked hopelessly, who knew they were dealing with a very forgetful person. (really i knew where they were the whole time i just wanted them to search. man, they are the best parents, they didn't give up once. dad finally found them though, it was sort of sad when he did cause then the game was over. who would have known they were in the last place he looked? bless him). the flights and the connections went really well, there was not a hitch in any of the travel (that i knew about) but i don't know if you have ever traveled on flights that you have no idea where you are supposed to be going, or traveling with absolutely no knowledge of any plan. it felt a little like i was wandering around and around and around with a goal in mind but no knowledge of the journey. i imagine it is sort of like this life... hmm... 

anyway, the plane landed in orlando (city code of mco if anyone wants to know) and i had no idea what i was supposed to do next. i did what any normal person would have done, i made myself as noticeable as possible by (first getting my bags) changing into every single piece of airline academy anything i could find and walking up and down the pick up area hoping i would stick out enough. good thing it worked cause a man found me after about an hour and he loaded my stuff in a glorified van/bus thing. his name was tom and he was a very nice man, he also drove me about an hour away, dropped me off at a closed hotel (dad, you would be happy, the hotel is a supporter of harley davidson, they have a big sign on the side, it helped me feel at home as weird as that may sound), tossed me my bags and drove away, but don't be fooled he was very nice.
"well, what now?" i thought to myself; then i thought, "hey i think i will call my mom and ask her if there is a number i can call. so i did just that, she gave me this random number that i have no idea where she got it from. i called it and a mystery lady answered, i told her my situation and she gave me directions to the elevator (which i am sure, karli, you would appreciate cause it reminded me of the ukraine. you know, dark, creepy, creacky, with the pop out at you buttons and the fun little ride at the end.) and told me to go up  to the third floor and knock on door number 301 and wait for more directions. i started to wonder what i was getting myself into, something like the matrix, were they going to tell me something that would change my entire outlook on life, you know, ask me if i wanted the blue or the red. anyway, i followed her instructions and knocked on the door. a girl answered, i would guess around 17 and she just sort of tossed me a key with a number on it and told me to skit. 

by the number on the back of the envelope i guessed room 201 was gonna be my new home, so i just went "home". i opened the door and there was no one, i tell you i felt like a lost dog or i guess a lost person. after i started to put my stuff away my room mates eventually came home. they ended up being very nice, to my gratitude. 

wow! a real live blog!!

hello and welcome to my blog. you are so lucky to be on my blog today because today is one of the best days ever!
"what makes this the best day ever?" you may be asking yourself, for this question there is an easy answer so worry no more; i love you, that is the answer. there is not much more to say than that, other than to tell you about... me, i guess. hopefully that is the reason you decided to visit my blog in the first place.
so here it goes, my name is kerri blum (as you probably allready know) and i am home for the next whole week. you probably understand that this is something that doesn't happen very often and i am so happy to be able to just hang out for a couple days.
i am leaving on the sixteenth of november to finish up some residency training for flight attending and i am happy to say that a two year process is finally almost over. hopefully when i complete that i will be lucky enough to get a job with an airline, then i can be your happy face in the sky. although i was thinking about it and realized that all an airplane is, is a glorified tin can with wings... but i am so happy to call it my home for a while, even though when it is put that way it sounds like it should never be able to work. at any rate hopefully an airplane will be my home soon.
and the best part is i will be home for christmas, seeing as how i have missed all the other holidays that everyone loves this time of year; halloween, thanksgiving, you know, all the ones loaded with tons of candy, even more food and even more fun. maybe it was a blessing in disguise that i missed them, especially because me and the gym are on no speaking terms right now.
that is all that is going on in my life at this point, for those of you who were interested there it is, take it for what it is worth. there is a lot more where that came from in time but for now just know i love you and have a great day!!