sunday thoughts #5

yesterday me and my family were walking back to our apartment after a long day of touristing, when I suddenly felt a hole in my chest, like how a mother feels when she realizes she's missing one of her children, but then I remembered I didn't have any children.....BUT MY CAMERA WAS GONE!!! hahaha ok I'm being dramatic, but I was freeeeaked out, that camera is literally my life! i yelled something frantic like "my baby!!," then turned on my heels and ran through downtown boston, dodging cars and people and hot dog stands. (note to self: if you ever want to sprint a 1/2 mile with obstacles again, urban outfitter platforms are NOT the shoes to do it in.)
once I reached h&m I ran straight to the corner where I had tried stuff on (the fitting room line was really long, you've done it too, k) and it wasn't there... in that moment my heart sunk so deep I thought it was going to turn into a black hole.

this was a huge city and it'd been almost 30 minutes. anyone could have it.

 I feel like diving into one of those round clothing racks that we all used to hide in while our moms shopped, but I decided to make the responsible decision and check lost and found before i pouted, even though the chances of them having it were very slim, we were in the heart of boston, after all.
but as I walked up to the nearest employee with the most stressed out face my little 17 year old face has ever known, I didn't even finish my sentence before the employee said in a heavy bostonian accent "wee gaht it" and handed me the most beautiful hunk of plastic and metal and glass my eyes have ever beheld.
MORAL OF THIS SAGA:
God is good, tender mercies are real.
he loves us so much.
throughout this entire experience i was just praying my little heart out. whether i had a fancy camera or not does not affect God at all, yet he knew that it was something that is ridiculously important to me. this was a good reality check for me. he takes you low before he takes you higher. even if that cycle only lasts about 10 VERY stressful minutes.

also I am a noob, and i need to get my life together.. but we already knew that.
happy sunday!

(read #4 pls haha)
sunday thoughts #4
sunday thoughts #3
sunday thoughts #2
sunday thoughts #1

too much

do you remember the first time you were called annoying?

how your breath stopped short in your chest

the way the light drained from your eyes, though you knew your cheeks were ablaze

the way your throat tightened as you tried to form an argument that got lost on your tongue?

your eyes never left the floor that day.

you were 13.

you’re 20 now, and i still see the light fade from your eyes when you talk about your interests for “too long,”

apologies littering every other sentence,

words trailing off a cliff you haven’t jumped from in 7 years.

i could listen to you forever, though i know speaking for more than 3 uninterrupted minutes makes you anxious.

all i want you to know is that you deserve to be heard

for 3 minutes

for 10 minutes

for 2 hours 

forever.

there will be people who cannot handle your grace, your beauty, your wisdom, your heart;

mostly because they can’t handle their own. but you will never be

and have never been

“too much.”

-tyler ford "too much"

this poem hit me like a ton of bricks and so I wanted to share it with you because I wanted you to be hit by bricks too, in the nicest way, of course.  

but real talk, I love every word of this poem. we all go through stages in our lives when we let our passions burn out a little because of what other people have to say about them, or about us in general. an anxious nagging creeps in from the parts of us that were wounded, and reminds us of our inadequacy. don't listen to that voice. don't let past wounds affect your future. just because one boy broke your heart, don't shut the rest of them out. just because one person told you that you have an ugly voice, don't let that stop you from singing. 
and just because one person told you you were annoying, don't you dare lose your voice. 

"all I want you to know, is that you deserve to be heard."

go read that again,

kjp

jake owen

once me and jake were at the temple early in the morning and a cute old temple lady came up to jake, gestured towards me, and asked him "so is this your girlfriend or your sister?"

jake looked at me, then back at the temple worker and confidently said "a mix."

welp, jake. i'm not sure how that works.

incest is best they say! HAHA just kidding. 

but that experience basically describes me and jakes 5 months together.. we teased each other like siblings, yet he treated me like a queen.

for example yesterday when i went over to his house to say our last goodbyes, before we even started talking, he pulled out a carton of ben and jerry's and said "you're gonna need this"

HAHA he knows me toooo welllll.

i mean, don't get me wrong, he had his noob moments...

like when he was tryna be smooth and push me off the side of the boat but i caught myself and fell off the back where the ladder is and cut my back..

or when we were going wiggle carting and mine broke so i got on the back of his and he crashed us into a bush..

or when he would brought me back a bunch of macadamian chocolates from hawaii because he forgot i hate nuts HAHA

HAHA i could go on and on buuut here's the thing, i have places to be and i need this makeup on mah face to stay in tact!! -- if ya know what i'm saying ladiez!

goodbyes are the literal worst, especially when they're for a good reason, ya know? because then you have no one to be mad at! haha. ya feel? just me? alright.
gosh, he's gonna be the best missionary ever.

good luck out there, jake, don't join the russian mafia or anything.

God speed, see you in 2.

scofield!!

oh scofield.

what a place.

scofield is a lake about 30 minutes outside the town of Price, where both of my parents grew up. 

My grandma has a little cabin there and we have visited almost every summer for as long as i can remember. 

but this summer, HAHA, this summer... the boat wasn't working so we had to get creative.

we canoed and

made mud pits and

buried anna alive and

built super legit sandcastles and

sat on the tube and let the sun toast us and

played 10,863 rounds of a card game called dutch blitz and

tried to make friends with people with boats so they could pull us around and

(don't be toooo surprised) we even did some photoshoots!!! can't stop. won't stop.

this trip was also full of a lot of things that we alllllmost did.

we almost night swam;) (but it was way too cold)

we almost went to a barn dance (but there were no cute cowboys to swing dance us so it kinda defeated the point)

we also almost participated in the "pleasant valley days pageant"

... alright i feel like i  need to explain this one... 

soooo this lady brought around a flyer advertising this pageant for later that night. we joked about how we were going to do it all day because scofield is in the middle of no where and 50% of the population is old men who were just there to fish, so we'd probably be the only competitors!!  

you had to have a dress and a 2 minute talent. keep in mind, this was all a joke to us. 

however,  about 15 minutes before registration started we found ourselves in a rather spontaneous mood and before we knew it we were on our way to the pageant, laughing our heads off about what we were about to do. we thought of our "2 minute talents" on the way there and i'm proud to say i had every intention of rapping "bust a move" as mine.

unfortunately for us, however, we could not find the registration booth. we saw last years royalty walking around and we asked them were we should register but they just gave us stammering excuses. clearly, they just didn't want us to steal their crowns. we were suuuuch a threat with our fancy sun dresses and unbeatable talents. it's fine. i'm fine.

anyway, so there's that. 

as usual, here are some pictures of this beautiful experience. 

i am v unphotogenic compared to my lovely family. its alright though, because i prefer to be behind the camera instead of in front of it anyway. 

thanks for stopping by.

let's hang out or somethin.

kj

GUESS WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN!?

(hint: not slim shady)

ELDER POWELL IS BACK, BACK AGAIN!!

tampico, mexico gave me my brother back and i couldn't be happier!!
the first day he was home he came out of his room wearing cargo shorts, asics and a mexican jersey... aka your typical returned missionary outfit. he has a little bit of a mexican accent, he says stuff in spanish sometimes and if it was up to him he would listen to billy joel and run all day, but i love him all the same because HE'S HOME.
now, if anyone want to help me convince him that he can't keep buzzing his hair even though it's a lot easier to do, it would be much appreciated.

xo
kp