Gates' Girls

Just had the realization that starting on June 18, 2011, I will never live with any girlfriend of mine again.

So this goes out to all my girls:


I love:
Quote walls filled with hundreds of sayings that provided hours of entertainment and inside jokes
Dance parties that no doubt annoyed everyone in our building trying to sleep and/or get homework done
Birthday Lunches
Emotional talks leaving everyone feeling better
Waking up to girls blow drying hair, doing makeup, taking showers, talking about new boys, dates, drama, and so many other fun things
Going to bed talking about sadness, happiness, stress, of fun with my one and only roommate, Brooke.
Reading "the Healing Codes" with Heather, "Sherlock Holmes" with Caitlin, "Hunger Games" with Brooke
Watching "Glee" with Johanna and Brooke
Getting advice from Amanda and laughing at new words, songs, etc that she came up with.

I always have a best friend nearby, and I know that that won't always be the case.

I have enjoyed watching roommates grow, mature, and become better people, always inspiring me to do the same.

I hope that we will always be able to stay friends, and though I know we won't always live close, I hope they know we can always call to say hello, ask for my mom's poppyseed chicken recipe, or have someone listen

So thankful for so many amazing girls

Nickie

Always thought "man" was a weird word, used only for people at least 20 years older than me, namely my father.
It was something I could never use with my peers.

Until, of course, I met this man, namely

Nick Allred

So lucky to have him in my life.

He is a man with a strong mind, a loving personality, and everything I need to be happy for eternity.

Man do I love him.

-Katie O. (soon to be Katie A.)

Jane Austen Ball

February means time for BYU women's preference dances. I invited Nick to go with me by printing out an invitation on beautiful shiny red paper and sealed it with wax. I ding-dong ditched it at his door and ran for my life. He responded the next day by dropping a big ball or yarn with a note attached which said: "The Answer You Seek Lies Inside." So I spent the next 10 minutes unwrapping the yarn ball to find a big "YES!" inside the yarn. It was really cute and it was fun to be able to do that again like in high school. We attended with my roommates from last year Caitlin and Johanna and their apartment.

They had it at a huge place right by Utah Lake that is some sort of golf course house. There were about 200 couples that attended, and we had a dinner of barbecue chicken, salad, rolls, potatoes, and cheesecake! Then we went upstairs and had learned to dance in the Jane Austen/Regency Era. I taught Nick to Foxtrot and Waltz because I knew how from my dance 180 class last semester. We also learned one of the dances that they showed on Pride and Prejudice during the first party they go to. We also danced the Cumberland Square and the Virginia Reel. Nick and I tried to dress to the time period, so I wore a dress I found at DI that was empire waist and wore pearls and a ribbon around my waist just like the time period (which I looked up on the internet. Nick tucked his pants into brown boots so they looked like knickers and he popped his collar and did a cravat knot around his neck. We were the only ones in our group that dressed to the period, but some people at the dance went all out and it was really neat. We had such an amazing time and it was neat to be able to dance real dances instead of just the freestyle dances we usually go to. At the end of the night we also got to go on a real live carriage ride. It was fun, but it sure smelled nasty!

Sunshine, Smoothies, and Snow (and a tid bit of School)

Yesterday my group of friends planned a big bonfire that we were going to have in Provo Canyon because of the nice weather we had had all week. But it snowed hard all day long, so Johanna had the great idea to have a summer party at her apartment. We cranked the heat up, wore our summer clothes, made smoothies, and played a game of Poor-Man's Cranium, with all of our words centered around the theme of "Summer." It almost gave me a weird feeling to be thinking all about summer but to know that it was snowing outside. Nick and I made a strawberry banana smoothie that everyone loved and others made all types of new smoothies that we enjoyed. Here are some pictures of Nick and I with my new hair color and of the party.

Now about school, I picked my major! It's going to be Public Health: Health Promotion Track. I've talked to two academic advisors this week and they helped me decide what to do. I want to work in a health clinic eventually and work with people who are trying to manage their weight. I'm going to declare my major this week and I'm so excited about it. One of the reasons I love this major: NO Chemistry! Yaya! The major seems very straightforward and I know it is something I will love to do.

Brooke's Visit to BYU!

This weekend my best friend and long-time roommate finally decided to show her face again after a long-awaited absence from the BYU social scene! We had an awesome weekend that didn't last long enough. I went with Brooke's older brother Taylor and one of my roommates Lauren to go pick Brooke up at the airport and it snowed and rained the entire time. By the time we got back to BYU from the Salt Lake Airport there was three inches of snow on the ground. I made Brooke and 9 other fellow friends my Mom's poppyseed chicken casserole and I was super proud of myself. We spent the rest of the night having tons of fun with probably around 30 people coming over to visit Brooke. On Friday we had some big plans. On Friday I spent 6 hours in the hospital as Nick got surgery on his finger to reattach his tendons in his left index finger. The surgery took 1 and a half hours and was really intense. He was under general anesthesia and looked so tired when he woke up. He kept forgetting where he was and how he got into the car and anything that had to do with the surgery because he was on the drug Versed and he didn't really "wake up" until a couple of hours after the surgery. It was so funny but at the same time I was really scared by it too. Luckily the nurses said it was normal and I calmed down a bit. Even though it was just his finger he has a wrap all the way up to his elbow and he has no use of his left hand for now. He will be in therapy for his hand for 8 weeks! I feel so bad for the kid.

So after that long ordeal, it was Amanda's 20th Birthday Party! I borrowed a dress from my roommate from last year Caitlin and it was so cute. The party was at Steven Covey's pool house and it was huge. Amanda had over 150 friends that attended and it was seriously like a mini-prom. The party was themed a masquerade and we had such a blast taking pictures with our masks and seeing everyone together dancing.
On Saturday we had a girls day and saw the movie Leap Year. It was a really cute movie in my opinion, but I'm not exactly a movie critic. On Saturday night we were able to go to Brookes Grandparent's cabin with a group of about 20 people up in Springville Canyon. The cabin was homemade by her family and it is a really neat place to be. Nick was able to come because he was high on Vicoprofen :). We played Outburst and watched the movie Forever Strong. I had never seen the movie and it was really good.
Sunday Brooke spent the day with her family and we stayed at home most of the day. Monday Brooke made really good Thai Chicken for us and we had a Girls' Night Sleepover!!! It was so fun and we stayed up late talking about all sorts of things. She left this morning and it's been sad without her. Although I did get to go have my hair redone so that cheered me up a bit. Anyways it was so good to have Brooke here and I can't wait 'til next year so I can spend every day with Brooke!

Yes on Prop 8!

Yesterday I went and volunteered in Orem with 3 other girls from California in my ward and made calls regarding people's positions on prop 8. These were merely poll calls but if people were unsure we were allowed to tell them a few basic pointers on the subject. I totally screwed up some calls and one lady even yelled at me, but in the end I changed one lady's view on it so it was worth it right? Most elderly people did not want to disclose the information of how they were going to vote on it, and we just marked "refused" afterwards. I also called a few people who had been deceased for over two years, that was kindof awkward. But anyways, it defintely helped me be able to talk to people I don't know and was a really fulfilling experience. Amanda took pictures of me, she went too.

Rubik's Cube

I learned how to do the Rubik's cube haha. I can do it in about 2 or 3 minutes. The ward talent show is in a few weeks and all the girls are gonna try to learn it and we're gonna make a trip to walmart and each buy one and have a race with all of us for our talents. And of course, I want to do my mom song for the ward talent show.