Oh my word.

I miss her already.

I'm going back next weekend.

Back to Yuma!

Can I just kiss your face?

Tomorrow I get to hang out with miss Kristi Lee! We are besties. She calls my house and asks for "Kac" and tells me all about what baby Jack is doing. I can't wait!

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I want to bake something. I'm out of school by noon... I don't have to work... thus I shall bake. But "what?" is the question... This is where you... my faithful readers (Grandma?)... come in. What is something just so super great that I could make.? I suppose it doesn't have to be baking. I'm just fresh out of ideas, and I want to try something new! Feel free to leave a comment or email me. kaceyshaker{at}yahoo(DOT)com

Nothing too fancy... maybe something simple like this...

There's a Storm A-brewin!

All week my mom has been walking around the house assuring us "There's a storm a-brewin!" Consider it brewed. Where in the world did Arizona go? This is so crazy! My family has been loving it besides the fact that our roof is leaking... (at least it's not my room! bwaahaha) I've been told it is only going to get worse... I love the rain. But storms scare me. As soon as there is thunder and lightning... I am convinced we are all going to die. My mom swears the storm of the century will be occurring right when I will be going to class tonight. If this is my last post... I bid thee farewell.

WIIIIIND! (It's true. I haven't washed my hair in 4 days.)

Look who arrived when I went outside to take pictures of Jake and his friend! DAD is home! (With a black goatee? What happened to the grey hair? Midlife crisis alert....)

Next stop.... Memory Lane

Alas... I survived my first day at ASU. My first night really. I had class from 4:30-10:30 P freaking M. However. I have decided that's fine. I am a night person anyway.... hence why I am blogging at 12:30 at night. I have decided I need to be better at recording the events of my life. This has turned into a blog simply promoting my photo skillz (the z makes it more awesome). Which is important... but so is my life! Right? Right. Back to my post. I went to ASU tonight. I was lookin fly in my new boots. I ignored the storm clouds rolling in and strutted my way to class. My first class was great. My teacher is way fun. We may call her Professor Reed or Honey. haha When it was time to make my way to my second class.... the inevitable happened. It was pouring rain and wouldn't stop! So I hid my notebook/papers in my not-so-warm-anymore jacket, put my hood on, and ran across campus (in my stupid boots!) with no shelter in between. My second class nearly sent me into a B.R.A.V.E. attack. My teacher is very intimidating! But I just kept thinking about C.R.A.P. and made my way through it. When that class was over.... 3 hours later... it was still pouring. So I once again attempted to protect my belongings from the flood and made it safely to my car. *sigh* I did it. How dare me for not taking an 'after' shot. I was a mess.

So with this big step in my life... naturally I began to reminisce. Ah yes. My first day at MCC. Let's flash back to shorter hair and BRACES! Those were the days.

So what have I really accomplished these past 2 years besides a few inches of hair and new teeth? I think my only real claim to fame was when I lived in Mexico for a whole (brace yourself) MONTH! Oh I never told you about that?? Well. One time....

I lived here.

With her.... for a month. I was so stellar at writing in my journal while I was there... and I feel inclined to share some bits.

It was a study abroad program through MCC. I lived in Guanajuato, Mexico. This is my host mother Juanita. I called her Juana Mama! She was the best! I taught her all the necessary American phrases such as : Holler. For shizzle. Just chilling. And of course peace out!

Chelsey and I were the only 2 in that house from MCC. But there were 6 other girls from other states living there as well.

Just walking the streets of Guanajuato

Stormy day.... This was the view from our roof.
Nacho Libre corn. They love this stuff! I think it's gross.

Peeing with pesos

One of my professors, Antonio, getting his shoes shined. Raise your hand if you think he looks like Mr. Bean!
I was attacked by a street mime!
Just hiking the Pyramid of the moon. Enjoying the view are we?
One day I called home and I was talking to Garrison when he asked, "Have you hiked the periods yet?" hahaha
My roommate Chelsey. Booyah.

Sinking buildings... that seemed to be a common issue.

I can explain...
"I have been in this far away land for the space of many days. Yea, even 14."

I specifically remember taking this picture to show Austin. He hates when I walk on these things. Did you know he comes home in 7 months! :D Plus I had to show off my killer keds.

"We were crossing the street and those drain things had wide gaps so my whole foot went through and got stuck. But I escaped right before the taxi killed me."

Lots and lots of old churches and buildings. Don't ask me the names of any of them!

"It rained all weekend. I've accepted the fact that my hair is just gonna be bad news. So I am all Nat-ur-al."

"The rain is insane!! The streets have all closed because of flooding and 2 donkeys have died!"

Chelsey trying to push me into the Aztec ruins. Not cool.

Mexico City

These little kids were trying to make money by selling stickers. They would come up to me and just stick them on my shirt and rob me of all my pesos. They were cute though... so I got cleaned out.

Pretty building in Guadalajara just after sunrise

Karaoke night! I believe we sang Shania Twain.
My group from MCC. Pretty sure I'm the only sober one...
My room!

"I'm in my bed right now. It smells like a mix between dirt and mexican."

This is where we took our classes.

"It doesn't get dark till like 9 either. And that's when the dogs start howling. Those fags...." hahaha I don't remember anything about the dogs. Except they were every where. This was a particularly homely one.
GIANT pizza! Every once in a while Juana Mama would make us American food. Except... pizza is Italian.... and French toast is French... She was an awesome cook though. And I am still addicted to quesadillas.
The Estudiantil... I'm sure that's not how you spell it. But that's not what's important. They are a band that does a show every night. You pay for a ticket to follow them around on a tour of the city while they tell jokes (which I'm sure were super funny.... but I never understood haha) Plus. The one in the middle peering into the hearts of the chicas in the crowd let me try and play his guitar thingy! Oh miraaaaaa!

Calling cards... I went through quite a few of these calling home every night....

Some clowns were doing a show in el mercado. They grabbed Victor and I and had us get married. Constantly assuring us "is kidding".
The church that was the only thing left standing after a volcanic eruption!
Climbing the volcano

You can see the volcano way far away in this pic. We rode horses THAT far!

"I decided to name my horse Nelly."
"But then the Mexican guy told me his name was Palomo. More like Palo-slow! Stupid horse refused to do anything more than trot- which was very painful by the end of a 7 hr ride."

"Matt's horse was a brat and kept trying to bite me and kick my horse! I wanted to kick it in the head."

"Chelsey was blessed with a stallion that loved to run."

The volcano was SO steep! The first picture is looking back up, and the second is my view trying to walk down!

(After making it down the Volcano) Antonio (my professor and his THICK accent) "Kacey. I am bery proud of you. I thought you would be weak. But no. You are bery strong." ...."I'm proud of YOU Antonio. You're old!"

Ketchup. The WORLD loves you.

arriiiiiba!

Kodak moment. success.
"We are on a bus to Michoacan. I fell asleep for a while. And when I woke up and looked out the the window, I saw nothing but water! We were driving through the middle of a lake! What the Moses!?"
"We are now at our hotel. It's pretty nice... but it kinda smells like pee."

Chelsey and I were often lost...

Dancing at Guanajuato Grill. Everybody who's anybody will be there!

"I think one of our turtles is dying. It just lays there all day long. Angela put it up to her ear and shook it. I don't know what she was expecting to hear... but it's for sure going to die now of shaken turtle syndrome!"

It did.... "Angela, Whitney, and I put the dead turtle in a bag and threw it away in a trash can down the street! It felt so wrong... but what else can you do? We probably shouldn't have been giggling though..."

"Today I flicked a bug off the couch and it hit the lamp shade. I think it's been a very productive day."

This is where they put all the white girls... haha jk. I don't know really....

There were always random parades in the streets!
I got to go to church twice while I was there. This whole trip was very hard for me. I did a lot of super tight things.... but I was very home sick. I depended a lot on my Heavenly Father that month, and it was nice to be in a familiar place at church even though I was in another country.

This was kinda fun. Maybe I'll do some more "One time..." posts in the future. However.... I have to wake up for school in 5 hours. I must retire. Thanks for reading about my life.