The Kate Adventures

     I don't remember much from the year 2006, but there was one huge change to the Draper family that year. We gained the final member of our family...Daphne!! Before 2006 there were three Draper kids: Jason, myself, and Michael. I was the princess. I had my own room, I was the only girl and let's be honest, I got just about everything I wanted!! ;) When my parents announced that they were pregnant, I realized that I wanted a baby sister so bad!! I remember saying, "If this baby is a boy, I will be doomed!!" We didn't figure out the gender of the baby until she came out, but I think that Heavenly Father knew exactly what our family (especially what I) needed when he gave us Daphne!      Daphne was the first child that I really got to help take care of. I helped potty train her, I have helped her time and time again when she has been sick, I have fixed her hair, helped bathe her, and continue to help her as she grows up. Daphne was my first roommate. She t...

For the past month I have been staying at my parents house for the winter break. It has been so fun to spend time with my family and to enjoy the warmth and safety that you can't get anywhere but at home!! I have enjoyed staying in my old room and occasionally finding gems from my middle and high school days. One of those gems is a "favorite jar." The Jar!! I honestly do not remember why my young women's group made these jars or what the lesson behind the jars was, but when I found this little container of memories, my heart was warmed! What I do remember about this craft was that we all had popsicle sticks that we wrote down things that make us happy or our favorite things . Looking back, I think that this jar was supposed to be something that we could look at when we were feeling down and just remember a few of the things that make us the happiest! As I rediscovered this jar I was so excited and I had a blast reading some of the popsicle sticks so I wanted t...

Happy New Year!!! Goals and I have had an interesting past. Every year I seem to make more goals than I can even keep track of and by February I am overwhelmed and discouraged. I can't even remember if I made any goals for 2017 and if I did, I certainly didn't keep them. This year, I decided that I wanted to try again with New Year resolutions, but I wanted to be smart and realistic about the goals I made. With this new mindset, I decided that I wanted to make three goals that hopefully will not overwhelm me, but rather encourage me to be a better version of myself for 2018!! My first goal is my spiritual goal for the year and that is scripture study. I haven't promised myself that I am going to read the  Book of Mormon five times or that I am going to get through the entire Bible, instead, I have decided that I just need more scripture study in my life. I need to be more diligent in reading the Book of Mormon every day and I need to study the words of modern proph...

2017 was a great year!! I grew and changed so much in this year and want to tell you about some of the highlights of my year!  {I split 2017 in quarters, so there will be four sections of memories!} 1. Spring Semester!!     My first spring semester of college seemed to be so long!! I had a month for winter break and during this time I had a pretty good schedule. Everyday I would get up and work on summer internship applications for a couple hours and then I would head to work for several hours. After work, I went home, helped with dinner and ended the night with a couple episodes of West Wing  while continuing my application work. Filling out all 20+ internship applications was the first part of my year!! Once classes were back in session I was done with applications and was able to focus on school. I took 17 credit hours and was incredibly busy with my school work and my part time job at the daycare. As much as I enjoyed my job and my classes, this semester...

     When I decided to go to ECU I was told that going to East Central University was going to just be an extension of Ada High School since they are in the same town...whoever said that was incredibly wrong. I started my second year at ECU this week and was reminded how awesome my University is!       1.) Small campus with a big community! I love that I can see people I know every time I leave my dorm room! I know professors, football players, band members, sorority girls and everyone in between. I am so glad that I can be friends with so many different people because I go to a small school. It makes life so much more interesting to have a lot of different kinds of people in your friend group! 2.) Parking You always hear horror stories about parking at college but at ECU the parking is not a problem and is pretty cheap! 3.) Athletic Teams I LOVE that I am able to know the college athletes and then get to support them at their games! School spi...

Hi guys!      I am finally back in Oklahoma and it feels so good! The last week in Maryland was tough. There was a lot to get done in preparation for our symposium and our departure. On Thursday August 10, 2017 I was able to present my research on blue crab population ecology at the final symposium. I was able to go first and it went very smoothly. We also had a poster session where we all presented our posters. I was so glad to finish this project and have a completed product! Presenting my research!      On Friday August 11, I flew out of Salisbury and flew into Charlotte. I stayed in Charlotte for four hours until I boarded my last plane that took me back to OKC. It was such a smoother travel day this go round. None of my planes were delayed and both my luggage and I successfully got back to Oklahoma. I flew into the most beautiful Oklahoma sunset and was so happy to be home!      The next morning, I moved into my dorm room! I was ...