100 days.

I have officially survived 100 days of college! It seems like I've been here forever, but it also feels like I moved in yesterday. Strange how time works like that. I would like to celebrate this wonderful day by dedicating this post to the people who have made these 100 days the greatest. They are my roommates. Here are just a few of the many things I love about each of them.

Kiana: 

I feel so lucky to have gotten this girl as my roommate. It is kind of creepy how similar we are sometimes. We both love adventuring and doing strange things in public and buying large tubs of ice cream at midnight. We both share a weird sense of humor that is equivalent to a 12 year old boy. We have the same taste in music-so similar that it's sometimes hard to tell who's iPod is playing. We have enough sass between the two of us to last a lifetime. I just always feel like we are on the same page, and that she really understands me. Kiana is also an incredible cook and is always willing to make us food. I don't know if it's because she's from Idaho or not, but she can do a million things with potatoes. She gives magical back rubs and won't except money when I try to pay her for them. She appreciates my honesty, and I appreciate her sincerity. I love that she is really good at rave dancing and is ready for a dance party at any moment. I love that she wears hammer pants and chick-fil-a shirts. I'm in love with her curly hair and high energy, and I'm so glad she sleeps on the other side of my bedroom wall. 

Laura:

Laura is pretty much my mom here at college. She has this sense of maturity about her that is so comforting to be around. She is genuinely the sweetest and nicest person ever. I know that if I need help with anything at all, she would be there for me no matter what. She is a great listener and lets me sit on her bed and talk about life. She works so hard it makes my head hurt. She's majoring in music therapy which might as well be rocket science because she is always at school, always practicing, or always studying-but she never complains. I swear this girl never lets her stress of school affect her personality. Even when she has a million things on her plate, she still has a smile on her face and time to watch a movie with us. She is the best fiddler in the nation, and after a couple minutes of me begging she'll always play me a private show. I love how she knows what she wants, and she dedicates her whole soul to those things. I love having a stable friend like her to balance me out. 

Carly:

This girl is bomb. (I say that because Carly describes everything she likes as "bomb") I swear everything that comes out of her mouth is hilarious, even when she's not trying. I can never be around Carly and not love life. Whenever we are together we bring out the strangest sides of each other. She never ever causes drama, and she is literally the definition of chill. She drinks more Coke than anyone else I've ever met. She always lets me cuddle with her, and she shares her really soft blanket with me. I love that she was a french fry for Halloween, and I love how excited she got when chocolate oranges came in season. She is always ready for a good time and always makes the best out of everyday. She has had to deal with a lot of hard times up at college, but she never lets it get her down. She's always shaking it off and remaining positive. I know without a doubt she always has my back, and she would take a bullet for anyone she loves. I hate that she's in a sorority, but I love that she completely breaks the sorority stereotype. I'm so blessed to have such a close friend who makes life so much better. 

Caroline: 

Well we all know how completely obsessed I am with Caroline. I could probably write a novel on how much I love her, but I'll spare you from that. There's no other way to sum up my relationship with Care other than simply saying, she's my person. She is everything for me. She's my best friend, my sister, my roommate, my other half. I can't think of one aspect of my life where I would not need Caroline. She understands my heart in the deepest way possible. She knows my fears and my dreams. She knows my intentions and my motives. I love that we don't think of each other as friends anymore, we are 100% family. I know her family is there for me, and she knows my family is there for her. We can enjoy our time together without talking. We can understand each other while still disagreeing. We can be completely different while still being the same. We know each other inside and out, and we never have to worry about losing each other. At this point there is nothing either of us could do that could break this relationship. We are too close to have anything change our minds about each other. I know all her flaws and weaknesses, and I still think she is the most perfect human ever. She's my person, and I don't know how I got lucky enough to have her. I'll love her forever.

halloween.

What day is empty hot dog day? Hollow weenie. (lol)

Alright to start this post off I would just like to take a short trip down memory lane. I was looking through my scrapbook today to find some old Halloween pictures from my childhood and boy did I find some good ones. I would like to formally apologize to any of you who knew me as a young kid because based on these pictures- I was a weird looking child. Not a cute kind of weird, but a straight up terrifying kind of weird. These pictures are from Halloween of 2000, which means I was 4. Next to the pictures my mom has written "This year I couldn't decide so I was a cat and a princess!", so clearly at age 4 I was already aware of my two identities. 

 Okay well this is me as a princess, which may be misleading since the look on my face says serial killer. I'm also holding my wand like a baby, which adds to the weirdness.

Look at that winning smile...

And here I am as a cat trying to seduce you with my 4 year old body. 

And here's just a personal favorite of my sister who apparently is the one who passed on the cat obsession to me. (sorry Karli)

Caroline and I came home for the weekend which was super fun because my siblings did as well. The twins were Mario and Luigi, and they looked so stinkin' cute! They loved toddling around with their little pumpkin buckets and playing with the candy. I love trick or treating so much, so it was awesome to finally get to go again. 

Even though I was the "adult" instead of the kid this time, I obviously didn't miss the chance to live out my fantasy of being a unicorn one last time. 

Caroline ruins everything...

I always love Halloween and this one was definitely not a disappointment. Glad I got to spend time with my cute family and my cute Caroline. Already can't wait for next year! 

howlin'.

If you are from around here then you have probably heard of The Howl, if you have no idea what it is, it is just a giant Halloween party/concert/rave/circus/strip club that Utah State puts on every year. It has acquired quite a rep for being pretty crazy, but to be honest I was a little underwhelmed with it. Yes there were tons of people and lots of craziness, but I didn't feel unsafe or like I was somewhere super sketchy. I didn't even really talk to strange men (but that was probably because of my unattractive costume). Last year for Halloween Caroline and I were cats because cats are my favorite animal and I am completely obsessed, so this year we decided to be her favorite animal which was....a unicorn. I found us these ridiculous hats from Zurchers and they became the center piece of the most magical costume I have ever seen. The rest of our costumes consisted of a feather boa tail, glitter body tattoos, and bright blue eyeliner. Clearly looking "cute" was not our first priority here haha. 

Lots of friends from back home got to come up for The Howl, and it was really fun to party with them again. We spent most of our night with Chelsea and Maddy, which makes any dance party 150% better. They go full out the entire time, which is admirable and inspiring. Also, Rockstar energy drinks sponsored this thing and were handing out free drinks the entire night. This caused for the most intense and embarrassing mental/physical break down ever. So apparently I'm not supposed to combine significant amounts of caffeine with the medication I take, and having two Rockstars definitely showed me why. Long story short, I pretty much passed out, had a tingling body, lost my mind and thought I was going to die. I have never really had an energy drink before and even though mango Rockstars taste so beautiful, they lead to unpleasant feelings. Anyways, these lovely friends of mine carried my to the car and put me in bed and bought me some chicken nuggets. I don't think friendship gets better than that. So thanks ladies for not hating me when I wouldn't shut up about Greg Kinnear and Matthew McConaughey and how hungry I was and how I didn't want my mom to find out. 

Oh and on Friday we went with some friends to Angie's and cleaned the sink! Forget about kissing on the A, I think this officially makes me a true Aggie. Even though we had six people, it was still enough ice cream to make me feel nauseous for 24 hours.  

 So all in all, it was freaking great weekend! Thanks to the nice people in my life who help me have the best nights ever. MY HORN CAN PIERCE THE SKY. (high five if you understood that reference)

masquerade.

My stellar roommate Carly (babe on the left) and her friends threw the most amazing masquerade party ever. It was held in the ballroom at the Blue Bird and there was a live band, an incredible DJ, and lots of super fun people. This night was probably the most fun I have had up at college so far. Although there are a shortage of boys up here at USU, I'm so grateful for my awesome girls who make me so happy and dance weirdly with me in public.

(we may or may not have been on the roof when we weren't supposed to be)

So clearly I wouldn't be representing myself very well if I didn't get a cat mask so....I was a cat. Because I am Emily McKenna.

 Such good roommates and such good friends. How did I get so lucky?

 Never has there been a picture that more accurately describes our relationship.

one year of twins.

So let me just start this post off with a little background story.  Well hello my name is Emily and ever since my sister's wedding day I was waiting and begging for her to get pregnant. Literally every time I saw her I would nag her to start having babies. There was honestly nothing I wanted more than to be an aunt. Well I had to wait like four years for them to finally get pregnant, but it was defiantly worth the wait because they got two little blessings instead of one. I probably cried like everyday of her pregnancy because I was just so happy. I was so creepy and overly obsessed that I would take pictures with her growing belly every time I saw her and wouldn't even want her to be in the picture because I only cared about the babies. (sorry Karli)

example...

The babies were finally born, and we all of course fell completely in love with these little boys. 

Well that was one year ago as of yesterday! The twins are one, and I can't believe it. It has been such an amazing year, and I have loved being an aunt more than anything. If you follow me on Instagram your probably are so sick of all my posts with the babies, but sorry I can't help it. I can't even imagine how obsessed I'm going to be with my own children...watch out social media. Yesterday they had a cute little pool party with some family and friends. While I was in Oregon in July I went to Powell's Books and found some really cool vintage Disney books from the 60's. The artwork is old-fashioned and I loved them, so I got one each for the boys and wrote a little message on the inside. 

I think they liked the books, because they both gave them some sweet kisses. 

fish and monkeys.

Breaking news...Caroline and I are now parents. On Labor Day we bought ourselves a beta fish, and I know all fish owners say their fish is the cutest, but ours really is. He's a light lavender and cranberry color, and he either does a lot of drugs or he's just extremely hyperactive. We named him Judy after our tennis coach, Scott Judy. Coach Judy made Caroline and I doubles partners our Junior year, and that's how we became best friends. We figured the only real way to thank Judy for our friendship was to name a fish after him. So there ya go Scott...hope you feel honored.

On Wednesday I drove down to Salt Lake for the night to go to the Arctic Monkeys concert. Even though I had to drive down there from Logan and then wait in line for four hours, it was so worth it. There's honestly no better feeling than being front row at a concert, feeling the music in your chest, and screaming so loud your throat hurts. If I could spend every night at a concert, I seriously would.  If you've never listened to the Arctic Monkeys before I would suggest you do that, probably start off with Do I Wanna Know? or Fluorescent Adolescent. 

Also, last night was USU's Institute opening social. Can I just say that I already love institute. I loved seminary, but institute is even better. I'm taking a class called Teachings of the Living Prophets, which is pretty much just studying past conference talks. It is really awesome (despite the fact there are only three boys in our class and one of them is married). I love getting the opportunity to learn more about the gospel and feel the spirit with my peers. The opening social was super fun. They had food, games, movies, a dance, and lots of new people! I feel very lucky to be apart of a gospel that creates such a positive and happy environment.