what happens when aunt courtney comes to town?

keyboarding sessions and lipstick kiss marks on that oliver grey cheek. 

clearly, i'm the favorite aunt.

don't mess with texas.

flying standby out of texas isn't exactly easy as pie... which by the way, i've been eating a lot of.

but, while sitting in the terminal for hours at a time doesn't really float my boat, i much prefer it over school. so here i'll sit with netflix and my bag of sand watermelon drops, cleaning out my iTunes.

hey fools.

while my vacation isn't over for another 48 hours,

here are a ridiculous amount of pictures.

none of that even made sense.

but i don't really care...

the sweetest hearts: olli g, and little miss taytum tots.

 gaming. we should get a medal for our gaming, no?

...and herbas with the mountain dew. really, primo?

 there were ten pies. made from scratch. minus the pumpkin. because it is a sin in this family to pass up a costco pumpkin pie.

maizey and taggerson. the most opposite dogs on earth are also the best of friends.

some authentic texas barbecue... praises be to the pork rib gods, and hard 8 bbq.

heyyyyy, julie sister. i like your terrorist hat.

 the blueberry-eyed baby, snickers, the suffocating elf on the shelf, and a baby cousin all grown up.

that last photo collage was completely random...

i apologize?

w/e.

thanksgiving has been good to me.

reeeal good.

thanks, teJas.

love you forever.

texas bound, yo!

...the land where my name changes to kiks, aunt kiki, and squirt.

hallelujah.

i am beyond ready to spend some q.t. with my big, loud, hysterically inappropriate, and most favorite family.

i will watch the family stone tonight to prepare. it only seems appropriate.

see you kearnsies mañana!

just saying.

in the midst of scrubbing my bathroom last night (and while googling "how to snake your drain" because i'm hard core...), my sweet cousin asked me to take a break.

and then she turned me into a geisha.

it's cool. i'm pretty professional when it comes to retaliation.

have a niiiiiice friday. mine has already been filled with the most delightful of surprises: fools who don't do their homework, and teach the class that st. peter's basilica is a byzantine phenomenon. wrong on one hundred levels. i was so embarrassed for her. group projects are the worst...

loves!

i slept through my alarm.

i never do that, honest.

a little miss-higgs for your afternoon/my morning.

[hap, hap, happy thursday, ya'll.]

post script:

have you bought this yet?
i have.
get on it.

an awkward mess.

that awkward moment when your cousin and her date are in the loft watching newsies and you decide that sitting in the dark kitchen beneath them trying to listen to the movie is less creepy than joining their snuggle fest.

that awkward moment when you realize that you've just written a run-on sentence.

that awkward moment when you know spot collins is on screen without actually seeing said screen.

that awkward moment when you're more jealous that melodey is watching newsies than the fact that melodey is on a date.

that suuuuper awkward moment when said date walks into the dark kitchen unannounced and asks why you're hanging out by yourself with the lights off...

that awkward moment when all you say is, "i just wanted to be alone."

...

that awkward moment when he silently raises his eyebrows and goes back up the stairs.

crap.

i'm your person.

emily matis, you are the yang to my grey.

...

love and miss you like mad.

secret is out.

i guess you could say that i love him. 

yes, i really really do.

so much so that i googled him for like... an hour and a half.

maybe more.

i like to think that if we were neighbors, we would borrow sugar from each other.

and cuddle sometimes.

[vanderbilt heir, visited burma as a 23 year old, worked for abc and cnn, friends with ellen... the man has got it all...]

i'm a walking anderson cooper encyclopedia, yo.

and then someone made this for me.

which i might frame.

just kidding, that would be creepy.

...but probably worth it.

he looks like he's not having a good time, but he is.

i am a good time, dangit!

and do you know something?

i have a mad obsession with him.
and when he wears black wide rim glasses, i think i'd rather watch the news than do anything else at all. 

i don't know if it's the pale skin, white hair, or the fact that he is a well seasoned highly educated contributor of society,

but he gets me.

e'ry time.
google him. it will change your life.

if i kiss you where it's sore.

i'm pretty sure this research paper rescued me.

it's amazing, the clarity that comes from reading.

because at the end of the day,

my heart still belongs to my education;

i am in so much love with art history.

title love, my girl, regina.

do you know those days

where you try to rip your hair out because you think it might solve all of your problems?

but then you remember that, no, breathing will. 

so then you do that. 

and then you scream.

then, you take two more deep breaths to counteract the irrational outburst of your rage,

and pretend that louis armstrong serenades well wishes your way from heaven.

well, i'm having one of those days today. 

scratch that, week. 

i'm having one of those weeks.

my friends are just funnier than yours...

in my inbox this morning, i had seven emails from elder monson.

seven of the most hilarious emails i have ever read in my entire life.

if you don't know carter, or if you think you know carter but really don't, you're missing out.

if it's possible, i think his mission is making him funnier.

proof:

and then there are these two pictures...

which

A: help me to remember that he really is on a mission, and not just randomly existing somewhere in the cosmos...

and
B: make me wonder where baby carter went... how handsome is he, right?! he's adorable.

we're almost to the one year mark!

h.a.g.m.

[have a good monday.]

i am authentically irish and french. thanks to these beautiful people.

it's probably because i came home with cary grant's comedy collection last night. 

[8$ at hastings... 4 disks, and a shiny case. i wasn't strong enough to pass it up.]

and i can probably blame it on the fact that penny serenade is my newest favorite cary grant film.

and it is also majorly due to the fact that i'm pretty sure my soul is from 1920.

[and it could have something to do me being confined to a bed all weekend...]

...

buuuuut... i found little leaves of my family tree that i adore.

blasts from the past, if you will.

via: my sweet southern bell aunt barb.

enjoy!

 

 my grandmother, mary louise on the right. she is the classiest lady. and a sassy red head!

my grandparents in the middle, and great grandparents on either side.

john kearns is an exact copy of william kearns. and ben kearns, the third generation clone! i loooove it.

after the rescue of my grandfather's plane crash on antarctica, c.a. 1946. stranded for two weeks, surviving on peanut butter and boiled water... my family history is seriously the coolest.

the most handsome devil you ever did see.

that bow-tie, seriously? dad, you're adorable.

my gorgeous aunt barb. is this picture not stunning?!

she is such a dish!

she's my claim to fame :).

i call her aunt barb, but maybe you know her as nina from all my children. 

need a refresher?

 oh, the amnesia.

...

family history. i'm obsessed with it tonight.

you belong to me.

so i just did a super cool thing... and made this. i'm not really sure how it got posted here... it must have been the result of a few crazy buttons that i pushed. and i'd own this entire thing. if i could ever afford christian louboutins. and i of course named this particular ensemble after my favorite dean martin song.
of course, of course.

anyway, polyvore is my new favorite waste of time.

scenes from a very sick little girl.

not so much loving the fact that this stupid cold has knocked me flat in a period of 48 hours. or the fact that i can't quite breathe out of my nose. or my mouth for that matter.

my bedroom has become a cave of germs, and i, the invalid who inhabits it.

the human condition. verdict: i have it.

do you ever just wish that god favored you over certain people?

i kind of do. 

i take it back. 

i do. straight up. 

does that make me a bad person?

no, it makes me human. i think. 

wait...

it probably makes me a bad person too. 

but to my credit, 

i laugh at people's jokes when they're not funny,

i pray before every meal, 

and i recycle. sometimes.

so that makes me a little bit more... good, right? 

yeah. i'm not buying it either.

i can't help it if sometimes i want to see that one person trip just once. one big hard fall. they've had it coming for quite some time now, let's be honest. and let's justify.

i'm a bad person. crap.

the most adorable pumpkin muffins you ever did see.

feeling under the weather as of yesterday... germophobia can only shield you from the common cold for so long. first time in two years, it has served me well.

however, until i'm alive and well again, i fear that i might bake to my death. this disease i've caught makes my statements paradoxical, and my pumpkin muffins fluffy. go figure.