Black Friday

Well, this year Black Friday lived up to it's name! This really isn't a good picture because Carter took it on his phone, it was rainy and misty as you can see. I was on my way to work and got into a big crash, no fun. :( But the good news is that I'm alive (thanks to my seat belt)! Hooray! The paramedic actually said that it literally did save my life. So I have a totally new perspective on life and I love you all so so so much! Carter has been so sweet and has taken such good care of me. I hope you all have a wonderful day!!

-Katie

Update

I am so sorry everyone, we still don't have internet and that's my excuse for not writing more, but we've been so busy lately, I doubt I would have anyway.So, quick update... Carter is finishing up the semester and will get his Associates!!! WAHOO! He's doing FANTASTIC in school. Here's a cool story: Carter is in a college success class (mostly for freshmen but Carter needed a class at that time for the credits), they were discussing how different people learn. Carter said that what he does is thinks about what the professor is saying and analyzes it to see if it makes sense, if he understands it, he remembers it. So, his teacher said that some of his colleagues are doing a study on this subject and what they have found is that people who learn that way (the way Carter does) are the geniuses. So, long story short, Carter is genius (which I have known since high school because Carter never studied and always got better scores, which is really annoying. But now there's scientific proof). Anyway, hooray for Carter and school! He's also still working at Boss Engineering (which is where we are right now) and they still love him. Thank goodness that they still have work and new contracts coming in. They work with government and commercial companies for the most part, thank goodness.
As for me, I'm working is Husband and Wife and I am loving it. It's in American Fork, which is a bit of a drive, but soon (I don't know how soon, but I'm hoping ASAP) I will be managing a new store in Orem! Yippee! Much closer and better pay.
We're loving our little basement under Alesa and Jake. They just had their sweet baby Nora two weeks ago and we're having a ball being able to see her just about every day! She was such a cute little skeleton for Halloween! :)
This month (November) is our family temple month! Wahoo! I'm so excited. Every day this month, someone in our family will be in the temple. I've been trying to go every two weeks, and so far I've done it. It is so wonderful to be able to leave the world behind and feel total peace for a little bit, most times I don't want to leave.
I've been thinking about Thanksgiving that's coming up and how much we have to be thankful for. Lately I have thought a lot about the knowledge that the gospel brings into our lives. With the challenges we face and how crazy the world is getting, the Gospel is what keeps me hopeful. Everything is under control and if we are faithful we have no need to fear. So, this month I invite everyone to think about things that we are truly grateful for, things that can't be taken away from us.
We love you all.
C&K

Temple in Rome, Italy

Hello everyone!
I'm so sorry I haven't posted forever, we don't have the internet at our apartment yet. But I am writing to comment on the announcement that a temple will be built in Rome, Italy. I can't even begin to express my feelings. A few things went through my head when the announcement was made and I am just too excited not to share them. First, I thought of my families and friends there. The gospel isn't prominent there, most people haven't ever heard of the church, not even rumors or anything about polygamy. I am hoping that my friends will be able to visit the temple grounds and feel the spirit that is there. I want so much for them to feel the love the Savior has for them.
Second, I thought of my wonderful branch and all the members in Italy. The closest temple is in Bern, Switzerland. It's only about 5 hours from Milan, but for them, that's a very long way (distance is perceived differently there, my host grandma Rinna has never been to Rome because it's too far, it's about 4 hours away). What amazed me when we got to Bern were the members. It was like we were all part of a family. The Church owns a hostel about 20 yards away from the temple that everyone stays in. We walked into the kitchen and everyone came to hug us and welcome us. They all knew each other. They came from all over Italy, from Sicily to Naples to Venice. They all glowed and the spirit was so strong around them. I never thought that the term "brothers and sisters in the church" could be so literal, they love each other and love the Lord. The love they have for the temple is overwhelming and I can't being to imagine their joy to have a temple close by.
The third thing I thought about was ROME. Rome, Italy, the center of the Catholic church, the Vatican. Rome has been a huge contributor to world religion for centuries. It was the center of Paganism until the reformation to Christianity by Constantine the Great, and now the Vatican state is within it. Finally, the truth will be established there. How big a difference it will be from the grandiose halls of the Vatican to be on the temple grounds and feel the quiet peace and love the gospel brings.
I'm sure this isn't of great importance to most of you, I just needed to share my feelings and gratitude I have for the gospel and how excited I am for the truth to be declared with more power to a people that I love very dearly.

Thank Yous

From the company blog:
There are so many people to thank when I think about what it has taken to get me to where I am. This may seem a little overboard since I'm just setting up a company, not accepting an award or publishing a book. But this is a big step for me and I would be very ungrateful if I didn't take just a minute to give recognition to some of the people who have helped me through the years.
First, I am so grateful to my parents for giving me the opportunities to grow and stretch my creativity. They never discouraged me in any dream I've had. Dad is the one that said "Katie, why don't you go into interior design? You critique people's houses already". And I could never ask for a better mom, she has always been there for me no matter what. I could write all day about how wonderful she is. Any creativity I have, I got from her.
My wonderful husband Carter. There are so many things I could say to his credit. He knows who I can be and what I can accomplish, and his encouragement has changed my life.
I am blessed with the most wonderful family. All of my brothers and sisters and in-laws. I look up to every one of them and will never be able to thank them enough for everything they have done and continue to do for me.
I have had wonderful teachers and influences through the years. Mary Reeder, Lonnie Grater, Edoardo D'Angelli, Giuseppe & Guiseppina Fassina, Paolo Pizzinelli, Serafina Fassina, Lucia Muscardin, Cristina Baccella, Monica Riedel, and Marla Snow, just to name a few. My experience with each one of these people has had a huge impact in my life and has changed me for the better.
Finally, I would like to thank Chase Palmer for everything he has done to help me get this business set up. He has helped me with the ideas for the logo, the setup of the company, and has spent hours oh yahoo messenger with me, taking time from his work answering questions and being excited with me.

GRAZIE MILLE.

Update

Hello everyone! It has been ages since I've posted anything, so sorry! Life has been busy. Since I wrote last we have moved, Carter has gone fishing in Alaska, I have set up (almost all the way) my design company, and we have THREE tomatoes on our tomato plant! YES! So, from the top, we MOVED! I never thought it would be such a tiring thing! We didn't even have to pack up all of our stuff, it was already in boxes and we just moved and unpacked and it was still so tiring. But, the good news is that we're all moved in! (photos on this post will be coming probably on Friday because we don't have internet at our new place yet) We are loving our new place and invite everyone to come over! I just found out that Catherine McAllister Shapiro is in our new ward! WOW. I am so excited because since kindergarten I've always looked up to her, she was always happy and full of energy, and she went on a foreign exchange to Belgium and from that time on I had a goal to go on one, and then I did! So anyway, I am so happy that I'll get to rub shoulders with her.
Ok, next, Carter went fishing in Alaska with all the boys in his family. I haven't heard all the stories from the trip, but from what I do know, it was lots of fun and definitely an experience. They each brought home 44 pounds of fish, so if anyone has some good halibut recipes let me know! From the pictures, Alaska looks absolutely gorgeous.
I am setting up my company! the name, Sera Lucia, is being registered with the state as we speak and I got my EIN. YAY! I'm going to go over some things with my boss to set it all up just right (it is so handy working for a lawyer). AND I started a company blog www.seralucia.blogspot.com . I am so excited to get the show on the road! Thank you everyone for your business name suggestions! I know I'm going to use all of the runner-up names for other purposes within the company. I think I'll explain the name I chose, since I wanted the name to be something that has meaning to me, not just a pretty name. the name Sera Lucia comes from my two Italian moms, Serafina and Lucia. I didn't really pay attention to design and architecture before I went to Italy, but over there, design is so important to them, it's such a huge part of their culture, and I really came to love their style. Anyway, I thought it was fitting for the company to be named something Italian, and Sera Lucia just sounds good.
Last but CERTAINLY not least, we have 3 TOMATOES!! I am so excited. I have been taking care of my little plants with no results. but finally yesterday I was looking and there they were! Three beautiful little green roma tomatoes. Carter is not as excited, but I was just giddy.
I'll be uploading pictures soon.
We love you all!

Tagged

Tedi tagged me!

JOYS:
1. Carter
2. Family
3. Creativity

FEARS:
1. Something happening to Carter
2. Something happening to any of my family
3. The world my kids will have to grow up in

GOALS:
1. FINISH SCHOOL
2. Have a family
3. Have a successful business

CURRENT OBSESSIONS:
1. Country time strawberry lemonade
2. Thai and Korean food
3. Blogging

RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS:
1. I've never seen It's a Wonderful Life
2. I have come into contact with the Italian Mafia
3. I got to leave the Sistine Chapel last and turn off the light.

I tag Steph, Anne, & Lis.

The Birthday Boy Cont...

The birthday boy!

Mom and Dad

STRAWBERRY PIE!!!


Yesterday Was Carter's Birthday and we had a nice night at home. I broke my "not taking pictures" streak, as you can see.
Thanks to mom for the amazing dinner! We had kabobs a la Janell Peay, potato salad a la Aysha Harward, spinach salad a la mom, and AMAZING strawberry pie a la Jim Brady! :) Then we had an exciting game of rook that I fell asleep in the middle of because I had taken Benedryl. :O I don't remember much of the rest of the night. So, in the picture I looked drugged, and I was. :)

Birthday Boy!

Well, tomorrow is Carter's big 21st BIRTHDAY! Woo hoo! We had our "Carter's birthday/our engagement anniversary" dinner. How that happened was: Carter's birthday was on a Sunday last year and we were going up to his mom's for dinner, but I wanted to make him a dinner too, so we did it the day before. What I didn't know was that Carter was going to propose that night too, so there you have it. We had the same dinner of steak and shrimp fondue with mashed potatoes, yummy carrots, rolls, etc. yum yum yum!
I have been such a horrible blogger lately, mainly because I don't like to post something without a picture, and I haven't taken any pictures lately! We've done such fun things these last two weeks and I just haven't gotten the camera out. But I suppose I can fill you in with what we've been up to. Well, two weekends ago was Memorial day and we headed down to sunny St. George. We had lots of fun with everyone there. We swam and ate and talked and relaxed, just what memorial day should be. This last weekend we went up to the Anderson's cabin to celebrate Zack's homecoming! It was so much fun to be with everyone from Carter's old neighborhood. We played games and rode the 4-wheelers and had a great time. I shot my first shotgun, well, my first any kind of gun and hit a clay pigeon, I am still pretty proud of myself. :) I don't know how I didn't get any pictures of any of this. tisk tisk.
Anyway, that's what we've been up to. Carter is in school this summer, we're hoping to get his bachelors next fall and then he might go on to get his MBA, which would be a really good thing. My boss put me in charge of all the advertising/marketing for the office, we're opening a new office in Ephraim so she really wants to get our name out there. Since this added responsibility, things have been really hectic at work, but I really love doing it. I created a logo for us that rocks (in my personal opinion) and I am also working on logos for two other companies as well! fun fun fun! We'll be moving to Provo in early July we think. I just realized that it's about a month away, where does the time go?! But I am SO excited for it. To have our own living space again will be awesome. Mom and Dad have been more than great and we'll miss all the rook. :) We hope everyone is doing wonderful and we love you all!

Haircut Picture

I didn't think people would ask to see the haircut, but they did. So, here it is! Even though it's not that short, it was a big cut for me :)

Haircuts and Sunny St. George!

Kyle, being Kyle

Pool Tag, you can see Autum screaming in the background...

The "match game" in the hot tub

Cute one of Court & Ali

Courtney & Ali dancing

Ali dancing (the flash was off so it's kinda blurry, but I think it looks cool)

Well, this last weekend we had another great trip down to St. George. I swam most of Saturday with the kids and got a nice little burn, didn't hurt but I got nice and pink. We love to see our family down there. It was Abby's first birthday so Renee's parents came up from Arizona, which was a bonus! I also got a haircut, which isn't exciting for anyone else but me, and I'm WAY excited about this one, probably because it's my first "big" haircut since 2004. Haha. I got it cut about a week ago, but it wasn't quite what I had pictured, so I got more layers and highlights yesterday and now I love it. This is making me sound kinda shallow, but I guess I'm just that excited. Carter got his hair cut yesterday too! I love clean cut hair! Yay! Anyway, I got some pictures of the pool fun. We usually listen to Greatest Hits by Elton John, hence why I put Tiny Dancer first on my playlist. Ali loves to dance for us, she's really a doll. So listen and enjoy!

Topaz Mountain

The Camp

Bryce & Jessica

Digging for Geodes

Carter's Geode, not in focus, but it is very awesome

The boys fixing the tire.

This last weekend we took a little trip down to Topaz Mountain with our friends, Bryce and Jessica Mortimer. It was our first run of all the camping gear we got for our wedding and Christmas, Thank you EVERYONE, everthing worked GREAT. We went down to look for, of course, topaz, and geodes as well. We camped on Friday night and Saturday was the big rock hunting day. Jessica was so excited to get down there, we finally got to our camping spot and got out of the truck, stretched, looked around, and Jessica was already halfway up the road digging for rocks. Haha, she was pretty excited about being there. We had tin foil dinners and talked and had a good time that night. By the time we got up the next morning, Jessica had been on top of the mountain chiseling for topaz for about an hour. As far as topaz, you only find little pieces, but we found some really neat geodes. Carter found the first (and the best) one, the pictures doesn't give it justice. To get to the layer where the geodes are, you have to dig about 4 feet into the ground. We just found holes that someone else dug and kept digging. :) There's a layer of red and white clay down there and that's where you find them. It was a lot of fun. Saturday we drove about 70 miles of dirt road, and when we finally got onto a paved road about 10 yards, the tire blows out. :( Poor Bryce and Carter had to get under the truck and use the incredibly awful jack (it was one that just has a little socket for a bar and you twist it up kind of like winding up a jack-in-the-box). The bad part was that with each turn the jack went up about 1/4 centimeter). So, the poor boys, after shoveling and pick axe-ing all day, spent a good 45 minutes twisting the thing. But, they were so tired they were giggling about how much their bodies hurt the whole time, which I guess is good, but makes me feel bad at the same time. Thank goodness for husbands is all I have to say! But, all in all, we were back in the road in about an hour, made good time, and the trip was still lots of fun!
P.S. to Demanie - I'm SO happy that I was the one behind the camera this time, the camera isn't friendly when you look like death warmed over with no makeup ;D

Spring and Name Changes.

Well, today was an exciting day! I FINALLY got my name changed legally! Yay! Until now the only institutions that had my name as Katie Rasmussen was our bank and the church records. But now I've got Social Security and my Driver's License all updated. Yahoo! Now all I need to do is taxes....... :(
We had a great Easter weekend. Saturday we colored eggs and flew Carter's plane a bit. Then we had dinner with Carter's old roomate, Cam. Sunday we had a great family dinner at grandma's in Bountiful.
Spring is in the air and it's about time! I started spring cleaning today with the car. I vacuumed, scrubbed, and Armour All-ed the poor thing to death, I even hung up a new Scentsy car candle, mmmmmmm. Now I just have to tackle my work desk (oh my).
Carter got some exciting news from his school counselor the other day. He's one semester away from his Associates in Drafting! Yay! I'm excited for him, he really works hard. He's excited to be half-way to his Bachelors. :) He's thinking of getting his Bachelors in Business Management, which I think would be really good for him.
We were thinking the other day about how lucky we are to have such a wonderful family and amazing friends, we are so blessed and we'd like to thank all of you for being so great. You're in our thoughts and prayers! We love you all and hope to see you soon!
Bacioni! (BIG kisses!)
C&K

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! We love you all!

Dixie Fun!

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This weekend was lots of fun for us. First we had Chelsey's graduation from Bon Losee beauty school, CONGRATULATIONS CHELSEY! Then we took a little trip down to St. George to be with Mom and Dad. Saturday morning we went out with the wheelers and had a blast. :) Then Sam and Lacey came over and we talked and sat around in the hot tub, ahhhhhh. Ali is the cutest little dancer and put on a show for us, she's really good at her ballet positions. Now it's back to trying to loose the St. George pounds that we always put on! Thanks for the wonderful weekend everyone!!

Linkin Park

Saturday night was the Linkin Park concert (Carter's Valentine gift). We had really good seats (not in the mosh). It was a lot of fun, besides being SO tired Sunday morning and then realizing that we went onto daylight savings and were late for church. Thank goodness for Sunday naps :)

A Baby!

Today was one of my very best friend's baby shower! Nicole will be having baby Kaydence Alee in about a month and a half and we are all excited! It's been so long since we've all been together and it was so fun just to chat with the girls from the old neighborhood. :)

My Office

Hello everyone! Today my co-worker and I had to give a presentation at Spanish Fork High about being Legal Assistants and we made this little video of our office (just pictures of different rooms and such, nothing too exciting). My co-worker wanted to show it to her dad so he could kinda see what the office looks like, so we posted it on youtube! :) Anyway, if you're interested, here it is!
Enjoy!
Katie

Mom's New Blog

Hello Everyone!
Today I helped my Mom make a new blog for music that she's written. The music is mostly for youth. She has had some requests for one of her songs "Take A Stand" since the song goes along with the theme for the Young Women this year, "Steadfast and Immovable". She decided to make a blog where she can post her music for anyone who wants to use it. So, if you want to, check it out! www.musicforyouth.blogspot.com

Templates!

A step by step way to make your blog super cute! :)
http://sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/

Hello everyone! I hope your holidays were great, ours sure was. It was so great to see everyone. This Fall we went down to St. George for some family pictures, so I thought I'd put them on here. Well, updates.... Carter just had his first day of Spring semester today, he had three of his five classes and said they were ok, his teachers will take some getting used to. He's still working at BOSS Engineering and is liking that. I am working at Marla R. Snow & Associates as a Receptionist/Assistant, within amonth or two we will be expanding the office and getting a new receptionist and I will be an assistant to two lawyers (in short, getting a raise, cha ching!). Anyway, I am really having a good time there, the people are great. I am also continuing with school and will hopefully be done at the end of February and then I will start my design firm (if anyone has suggestions for a name, PLEASE let me know). I am SO excited to get going on that. I mentioned the expanding office, my boss has put me in charge of the interior design and construction design of the office (we're knocking a big whole in the wall to combine two offices) anyway, I've been drafting and planning that, we start construction at the beginning of February, which will be really exciting. Other than that, we're just having a good time. Carter built a stand for the TV in our room, which has been great (kinda rustic looking, but it works great and will be great in our future garage). Well, we love you all and hope to hear from you soon!!!