The Natal Festivities of Karen... Part 1

Well my friends truly outdid themselves this year. I wasn't able to celebrate just my birthDAY, but it also my birthWEEK. Kind of like how Hanukkah celebrators get 8 days compared to Christmas being just one day.
It started on Monday the 29th. My friends and co-workers at IRT (Intensive Residential Treatment) ordered delicious Chinese Take-out and we all ate together. After the meal my bosses Ned and Randy spent an hour playing Bridge against me and Cari. I'm the newest Bridge player of the group, and I still don't know what I'm doing, but we managed to beat the boys 2880 to 170. (Including winning two 700 rubbers.) It was a beautiful thing and I wish I had a picture to post. I still have the score sheet to save in my journal.
Tuesday the 30th, (my actual birthdate) Diane and I both took the day off of work. I slept in, then met her at Village Inn for pancakes (I brought my own REAL Vermont maple syrup) and birthday bacon!! We went and saw Eagle Eye and Nights of Rodanthe. I can't think of a better way to spend a day off of work than going to the movies! I liked both movies, though I wasn't in the mood for one of Nicholas Sparkes' tearjerkers. If you'd like me to recommend a movie... see Ghost Town. I've seen it twice now... that one is FUNNY! (Though they do say the F word twice. Once at the beginning and once at the end. It's almost like they went back and added them just for a rating.) Jared had a football game later that night. Michael volunteered to help with the chains. Diane, her foreign exchange student Michelle, and one of the beagle pups came too.

I'm trying to hide a big fat zit on my forehead!





Jared, #90, making a sack!!

After the game, (THEY WON!!) we went out to Red Lobster for their Endless Shrimp Festival. It was delicious! Michelle and Diane gave me some fun gifts including the following Spongebob disguise.










Yes, that is our new Kohls in the background!




Wednesday October 1st: Diane, Michelle and Michael took me away and didn't tell me what we were doing. I thought we were going to see the Da Vinci exhibit at the University Mall, but we passed that. Then I thought we were going to see Body Works where they have cadavers all posed and you can see muscles and bones and how everything fits together...but nope, that wasn't it either. They took me to dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then to see Into the Woods at Hale Center Theatre in SLC. I had never seen it before. It's a Steven Sondheim musical and I really enjoyed. I heard there's a movie with Bernadette Peters that I'll have to track down and watch. It was great fun!!





























Sneaky, Sneaky Girls!!



OK, so there's still more to report about Thursday and Friday stuff... stay tuned

Saturday, in the park!

I had tickets to go to the Relief Society meeting in SLC last Saturday. I wore a dress all day long, (even to Jared's football game that morning) just so I could be ready for the meeting.

My best friend and first time beagle breeder had been contacted by a family in Logan that wanted one of her puppies, but they weren't sure which one. So we brought up 4 pups in my car and arranged to meet the family in Salt Lake. The family got to SLC before we did, called on the cell phone and suggested that we meet at Pioneer Park so the kids could play while they waited for us to arrive. We thought to ourselves...Pioneer Park?? Are you nuts??? But we agreed.

When we arrived at the Park, the family was sequester- ed in their mini-van with the doors locked. I guess they realized that it wasn't the most picturesque park on the planet.

So here's a pic of some of the colorful people that are living in Pioneer Park who came to say hi to the puppies. They were actually quite nice people even though he had a naughty word inked on his cheek. They asked Diane if she had a transient, train hopping price. "Uh, no." They already had a beagle mix as seen in the picture. Her name is Shelly.

They picked Spot, who I nicked-named Harvey Dent. (Half his face was brown... he was Two-Face)

Every boy's dream. My very own beagle in a box!

So the family picked out their new puppy and hit the road back to Logan. We took the other puppies out to Magna so Diane's sister Amy could puppy sit them while we went to the Relief Society meeting. We had wanted to go to dinner beforehand, but it was getting to close to the time we needed to be in our seats. We thought we'd stop at Wendy's and grab a quick bite. I was irritated a little bit because I'd had the opportunity to ride up to SLC on a big charter bus with fun ladies from my ward to attend the conference and I chose to go with Diane so we could get a nice dinner first and now we only have time for Wendy's?!?!?!?! So we headed back to SLC from Magna and I made it through three crowded lanes of traffic to get in the HOV lane. The HOV lane exit to 4th South was backed up and I didn't want to sit in traffic so I got out of the lane and planned to take the exit just north of the one we really needed and we could back track. But the freeway was too crowded and I couldn't get over in time for the first exit and then I missed the second exit and then I just decided to bag the Relief Society conference and drove to Maddox in Brigham City for the best dinner ever! If you've never been to Maddox, you've missed out on some of the best food in the state. They have the yummiest rolls, the tastiest shrimp, and scrumdiddlyumptious steak! My mouth is still watering when I think about my meal. My family loves Maddox. My Grandma Mischke lived in Kaysville when she was alive so it wasn't too long of a drive for her. My parents ate there too back when they lived in Ogden in the 1970s. So eating at Maddox makes me feel close to my family. I feel bad for letting my conference tickets go to waste and missing out on the opportunity to see the prophet, but devouring Maddox rolls with raspberry honey butter is a spiritual experience as well.

p.s. I thought it was a funny that we had the family from Logan drive to SLC and then we ended up driving to Brigham City.

Climbing Mt. Timp!

Sheila, Silvia, Nicole, Me, Diane, Cyndi...Cari was there too.
These are some of my friends and me at the top of Mt. Timpanogas. We climbed it for my 34th birthday which was 2 years ago. It really was one of the best experiences of my life, and I'm thinking that I'd like to do it again. It was perfect to do it on General Conference weekend because I could lay in bed for two days. I seriously could not walk the next day, and my friend Wendy had to give me butt and leg rubs at work the whole next week.

The best calling in the church!

One of the greatest blessings I have is to be able to go to camp. It's like a little slice of Heaven for a week. This is a picture of the Stake Leaders. The Old Ladies and the Senior Staff. (The Senior Staff are kneeling in the front. The old ladies would have knelt too, but it takes too long to get up and some of us pee a little.)


This is a Mormon moose.



This is Corey Ollerton. (Formerly Corey Jacobson.) Some of you may recognize her from a little movie called Saturday's Warrior. She played Julie and she is sooooo mature. Corey is clinging to Chris, who happens to be an Old Lady. (and Corey's mother in law.) Corey put on a great fireside for us and sang for us too.







This is our Stake Relief Society President, who came and did a fireside for us. I can't remember what her name is right now... but she's Peter Vidmar's older sister. Do you remember him? The famous Olympic gymnast? She told some great stories about Peter. I can't believe I'm blanking on her name.









This is our fearless Stake Presidency. They all took a week off of work to come and stay with us at Camp. They are great men and we love and appreciate them.











This is Robinne Booth. A kindred spirit and a Stake Old Lady with me. I adore her. She lives five houses down the same street as me. We are in different wards so we only see each other at camp. How sad is that? Robinne's house is haunted and she's a community theater actress and director. She's also done commercials and a church movie or two. And her middle name is Karen.





This is Connie W. who got to play Emma Smith for our spiritual program.






Myrna is playing Marjorie Pay Hinckley. If you look close there is a deer crossing the meadow behind them.

This is Julie playing Esther. Just beautiful don't you think? And Patty is in the picture above playing Eliza R. Snow.









Skits

















Sunrise Hike with the 3rd Years.





















They try to look innocent, but shenanigans are second nature to these ne'er do wells. They are watching as their ward camp leader gets plucked out of the lake after her canoe mysteriously tipped over.









I got to spend my one month anniversary at Girl's Camp. I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be. This is a picture of the Spring Creek 4th Ward. My home ward. I serve with the Stake and stay up in the Stake Pavilion. This year the 4th ward lived far away and uphill from the Stake. I was really lazy and didn't visit them like I should have. But here's photographic evidence that I did visit at least once.












This is our senior staff. They are young women that have just graduated high school and come back to camp as Stake leaders. They plan and lead the whole camp. (with a little love and direction from the old ladies)














These are our senior staff who played the five wise virgins and Queen Esther for some of our spiritual programs. Gorgeous aren't they?!





Our camp is named "Camp Ni Desh da" which means "I will return." Each year we do an opening ceremony which tells the story of a young indian maiden and her spiritual journey. My friend Char comes to help us narrate every year. (She's the one in the white dress.) We do this on the 1st night and it always invites the Spirit. It's a really neat program.

Jared's Timberline Experience

Jared got to go to Timberline this year. It's a Boy Scout leadership camp.

















It's great to see the old men can be just as silly as the old ladies at Girl's Camp.


Kyle Tuft was the youth leader in charge of the camp. He did a great job. I found out that he is the son of my former dentist. Brian Tuft was in the Air Force with my brother Todd. Brian and Pam were good friends with Todd and Nancy. And apparently Kyle (shown here) had a little elementary school romance going on with my niece, Caitlin.












You can't tell from the pictures, but he said he had a great time. (It's so uncool to smile for pictures.) He and his pal Jeremy couldn't stop talking about it for the 45 minute ride home. They were as "shaky as a fiddler on the roof."

Fetche le vache

(I'm still trying to get you all caught up with my life.... here's the last of the wedding/honeymoon stuff I'll torture you with.)


Spamalot was hysterical. Michael had never seen Monty Python on the Holy Grail before he'd met me. I had him watch the movie while we were in New York visiting the fam. I'm happy to report that he laughed in all the right places and seemed to enjoy the play.

John O'Hurley (Seinfeld's J. Peterman) played King Arthur. He did a great job. (Though I did get to see Tim Curry in London and he was AWESOME!)


"Your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries. Now go away, lest I shall taunt you a second time. "
















Someone actually did a painting about the flying cow defense. Maybe the cow was thrown over the moon.

Honeymoon in Vegas

We went to Vegas to see Spamalot for our Honeymoon. We booked a room at Treasure Island, across from the Wynn where Spamalot was playing. When we checked in, we were told that they had run out of the regular rooms and they had to upgrade us to a suite. Shucks. I really wanted the small room with separate beds. I knew it was meant to be when I found out our room number was 30011. 3 and 11 are my favorite numbers.




I took some pictures of the suite. There were three bathrooms. His bathroom, her bathroom, and a guest bathroom. There were his and her scales in the bathroom. I guess it's to weigh yourself before and after the buffet.












The double doors in the back lead to the bedroom.











I couldn't get the whole room in my picture frame. There was a couch and a love seat in the bedroom too, and an IPOD dock to listen to your own tunes when you wake up.
The double doors in the back of the pic lead to the "Her" bathroom.
There were double doors to the left of the picture frame that led to "His" bathroom. There were terry cloth robes and slippers for us.






My friend Alli posted some pics of her bros in the bathtub... they were so adorable. Do you think I should have given myself a bubble beard or are grownups in the tub just not as cute?