Happy Thanksgiving!

I fell in love with this picture! It makes me laugh.

Natal Festivities Part 3

Friday, October 3rd. Our story continues...
It had been a festive, fun-filled week of frolicking with my friends (and occasionally family). Friday night rolled around and I was tired. I had nothing scheduled on the calendar and I was looking forward to just being home. I happily remembered that it was Conference Weekend and that meant BYU plays Utah State on Friday night! Hooray!! I can stay home and watch football! I drove Jared to football practice, picked up some Little Sleezers, and came home to settle down and watch the game. I realized that I had enough time to soak in the tub and really wind down.
So there I was just relaxing in my bath, when all of the sudden there began loud, persistent, knocking on the bathroom door. I assumed it was Michael. I thought the game must have started and BYU had scored a TD already. I called out, "Did they score?" I was answered with more continuous knocking. I started to worry that something was wrong. And then I thought something better be wrong, because this knocking is SUPER annoying. I finally told the knocker to come in. The door slowly opened to reveal three of my friends...Diane, Angie, and Tanya. They had come to kidnap me for another birthday celebration adventure. They packed an overnight bag and let me get dressed and they drove me to Park City where they had rented a condo. We went out for a great dinner and then played Pinochle into the wee hours of the morning. We worked really hard to get a picture of all of us together on one of the beds. (Diane's exchange student Michelle came along too.)













We weren't able to stay and play (shop) in Park City because Jared had a football game that I wanted to get back for. It was the playoffs and they almost won....almost.






















Diane, Angie, Michael and I went to Outback after the football game! I love me some Bloomin' Onion. Then Michael and I went to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at University Mall.











One of da Vinci's inventions... a mirrored room where you can see yourself from all sides without turning your head.











I've often been told that I bear a striking resemblance to the Mona Lisa. It's probably because my smile is mysterious and demure. I rarely open my mouth when I smile.









The night ended with a game of Settlers of Catan at Jennie's house. Complete with a fabulous dinner with pizza from Pizza factory. I had to take a picture of the board. Can you see the oddity with the random layout of the numbers? All the red numbers ended up on sheep. If you play Settlers, you know that that is just plain weird.


THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE FUN TIMES EVERYBODY! I'M BLESSED WITH THE BEST OF FRIENDS, THAT'S FOR DARN SURE!!!!

Natal Festivities Part 2

Thursday October 2nd, 2008. It was the 28th anniversary of my baptism. It was also another day of celebrating my birth. And it was freaky fun! I got taken to lunch by my friends on the Housing Committee at Wasatch Mental Health. I picked the Smokehouse because they have one of my favorite desserts... Peanut Butter Pie. It's like a slice of heaven on a plate, drizzled with chocolate.



Thursday evening, I met some of my work girlfriends for dinner at Wingers and then a movie. We saw Mama Mia... The Sing-A-Long version! It was my 4th time seeing Mama Mia and the 3rd time seeing the Sing-A-Long version. It's where they put the words up on the screen and you sing along. (No bouncing balls, but it's easy to follow along.) When I had previously seen the sing-a-long version, it was really hard not to get up and dance, particularly during the Dancing Queen scene. On this particular night, before the previews started, there were just my friends in the theater along with a couple of older ladies sitting in the back. A couple of other girls came in dragging a boy behind them. They asked if we were going to sing, and they were told that it was my birthday and we were going to sing and maybe dance too. They laughed with us and we settled in for the show.





Wendy and Diane... the Dancing Queens.











This was the cute fella that came and danced in front of us near the end of the movie. We had no idea who he was but assume his girlfriends convinced him to come and dance for for me. He wished me a Happy Birthday and I gave him a big hug. It was so funny! Everyone in the theatre was laughing.










Thanks Girls!!! Krissy, Miriam, Michelle, Bekah, Katie, Karen, Polly, Amanda, Wendy, Alesa, Diane, and Nicole.
p.s. Shawna, thanks for coming to dinner. Wish you would have stayed for the movie and made a fool out of yourself with the rest of us.

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.