Catching up:A few highlights

A
Wonderful
Thanksgiving: Ty and Cami came to see us for Thanksgiving. They took the Amtrak train from Provo to Denver. It was a great moment when we saw them coming down the ramp at the train station. We loved every minute they were here. They brought our Christmas presents (for mom and dad) and wanted us to open them while there were here. Steve got some movies he had been hoping for, and I got a wonderful digital camera, as shown by our lovely model, Cubby.


Though it was hard seeing them go, we had a great visit and look forward to seeing them again sometime. The only sad part to Thanksgiving was that poor Jenn and Adam weren't able to make it because they both came down with that horrible cold/flu thing that's been going around.

Here's our cute Cubby, all dressed up for school. Just had to take a picture!

We're not sure how she managed this, but here's Kricket all cuddled up and taking a nap.

Christmas concerts: First Noah and I went to Cubby's Orchestra concert. It was very nice. Cubby's group was the best and it was great to listen too. It's hard to see Cubby, but she was there with her pretty purple violin. Cubby is front and center in the picture on the stage. In the other picture, Cubby's group is waiting for their turn to perform.

Then we all went to Tori's choir concert. Though much longer than Cubby's concert, it was nice. Sorry the pictures weren't better, but it was hard to get good ones from where we were sitting. In the first picture, Tori is second from the left in the bottom row. Then is the 3rd from the left on bottom row.

We had a great ward Christmas party. It was all decorated to be an Inn in Bethlehem. They had "coins" that were used to pay our taxes to the Roman soldier who came around to the tables. The young women and young men in the ward served dinner which was made of food that would be similar to the foods offered in Bethlehem.

Then we had a nice program. Cubby and Tori wore some pretty scarves to help look the part. All of the people involved in the program and serving were dressed up. Brandon Smith, a good friend of Cubby's helped Cubby serve and clean up and he and his father sat at our table. We all had a very nice time.

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Tori is back to crocheting as something fun to do to pass the time. She has been making some really cute baby blankets and also made herself a nice scarf. She created the pattern herself and unless you see it in person, it's hard to see in a picture the creative stitch she came up with.

Getting the Spirit of Christmas: We had a wonderful chance to do some projects for some very special young people. Tori helped me make a few ponchos for some sweet girls and a scarf for their younger brother. It really helped bring the spirit of Christmas into our season and it was fun to work on them together. Tori and Cubby help model them before we wrapped them up and sent them off. You will see more detail on the Crochet website.

Tagged by JennAdam

Jenn and Adam got tagged, again, by a niece and passed it to me. So here are my answers. You can go to their blog to check out their answers. The link is on the right, with the other links.


I am... a woman. W. O. ..MAN!!! I know... lots of things that I can never recall when I need it. I want... too much I dislike... confrontations and deadlines. I miss... Ken, JennAdam, Ty and Cami, and Meg, John & Timothy!!! I feel... Excited. I just got a part-time job I think is going to be great. I hear... Ginger, singing to Gilligan on the TV. I smell... The seven layer dinner, cooking in the oven. I crave... Steve’s smile. I cry... when someone catches me off guard with an overwhelming kindness. I search... for new ways to drive Steve crazy(at least that’s what I hear) I wonder... how my family can be so amazing, even though I helped raise them. I regret... Not taking more time to “smell the roses”. I love... My family! They rock more than anything, except perhaps the Gospel. I care... about a lot of things. I worry... about……not remembering things I should worry about. I remember... Jenn, walking on water. I believe... in the 1st Article of Faith, (& the other 12 too) I dance...in my mind so Steve wont roll his eyes at me. I don’t... like doing the dishes!(and sadly, just about any kind of house work) I argue... with teenagers. I rarely win. I write... blog posts. Some of which embarrass my poor husband. I win... the “Best Family in the World” award! I lose... most of the time, but I’m not competitive, so I don’t care. I wish... I was better at lots of stuff. I listen... and listen and listen. I can usually be found... Blogging, checking blogs, commenting on blogs and/or crocheting. Sadly, you wont often find me taking care of my house like I should. I am scared... I am? I need... very little. I forget... pretty much everything. I have no memory at all.(this is a good answer, I’ll go with that) I am happy... Because I know my Redeemer lives and I have an awesome family.

Stuff from the last few weeks

Cubby works on her "Anime" for art class. Looking good to me!

Tori has a "dance" recital at school. That some of them were considered dances and that some of the songs were allowed by the teacher are unexplainable. Tori was great and looked like she was having fun, vs most of the others who did not. Tori was in two different ones. The one where she is in the red tights was a "hip hop" type dance. The one where Tori is wearing the purple hoodie and baggie sweats is one that she mostly choreographed, and was done to the song, "I'm a Gummy Bear". It was real fun to watch. Hopefully we will have a CD to show anyone who wants to see the two she was in. It will be much better than having to see the others, just to see her.

Grandma came for a visit. It was so nice to see her again. She came on the train and had a pretty long day because of train delays. Too much time sitting was hard on her, so she chose to fly home. As you can see, she spent a lot of time reading, but she seemed to have a good time.

She also got to see Tori as the narrator in "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat", with us and enjoyed it too.

And here we are during intermission at Tori's play. We had seats far in the back, which I wasn't real happy with, but it was still fun to watch Tori and the others, who had worked so hard to put on a good production. I really don't think it's because I'm her mom that I say, "she really lit up the stage". Good times!

Here we see a very excited Tori, right after the production. A full house, a standing ovation, 1/2 the ward, family and friends in the audience, and a great performance makes for a night to remember!!!

Here is Noah, very happy to be watching TV and not working. Well, maybe not completely happy, but at least a little jealous because..., yep here it comes, lets put our hands together, and give it up for..MOM!!!!! Oh yeah! I got a job. Thank you, thank you. You can all stop cheering now.

I will be one of the few, and the only new employee at Fiona's Granola. Here is her website.

http://www.fionasgranola.com/about.html

The pretty lady is my boss. I have met with her and her cook. It's a small operation, but it will be perfect for me. Between Oct. and April, things are slower and it picks up from Apr. to Oct. Spring and summer, she does a lot with the Boulder farmers market. Now she has some business picking up a bit because her small bags of granola are being picked up by some of the gift basket/box companies. Anyway, I will be the new packager. I will be bagging the granola in the different sized bags and packaging the power bars. I start on Monday. I love this because it will be very flexible and for now, between 1 and 3 days a week. Perfect for me. I can get some audio books, sit and listen and package my little heart out.

Hi All

Hi All!

Just thought I would pass along my love to you all.

We are enjoying having Grandma here and some nice weather. It's supposed to be getting cold and we have had some cold weather. I'm happy to say that I have even felt it. That's not usual for me. The idea of getting out a sweater or a coat; putting on gloves and socks to take the dogs out. wow! A nice change from being too warm all the time and freezing my poor family out.

Life's good and we're all doing fine. Sure hope you all are too.

Love Ya!!!!

Opening "Joseph"

Last night the cast of Skyline High Schools production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" had their first performance.


Though I took a big crockpot of homemade soup and helped serve it to the cast and crew before the performance, I was not able to stay and watch it. No comp tickets, even if you help feed everybody. Oh well!


One of Tori's friends, Nikki, was able to go to opening night. He said it was good and that Tori did a great job.

After the show, they drove through Dairy Queen and got some celebratory ice cream.

Howdy Ya'll

I know that some of you have been missing me, and I figured I should do a post to all my favorite people, and you know who you are!

Life has been very different for me since my family moved me here from Utah. For one thing, they still haven't put in my door. Can you believe it. This family couldn't be safe and protected or feel truly loved without me and yet they continue to ignore this very important issue. Of course Kricket/Little Dog or as I prefer to think of her, the annoying, ankle biting, food stealing (this one being by far the biggest difficulty about.....her) nap wrecker, is having a very hard time dealing with this. This little.....friend of mine seems to have very little self control. She not only begs our poor family for food all the time, but doesn't seem to think ahead at all. When she needs to be taken outside, she needs to go now. If someone in the family doesn't hurry, she starts to go nuts. Poor dumb thing. I really feel sorry for her. It's a good thing I'm around to help keep her in line.

Anyway, it's not too bad here.

I know you are wondering what I do with my time. Well, lately I have spent a lot of time trying to relax. It took some time after we got here, making sure the yappy little animals that live behind us to know who is the new boss around here, and a few other little things here and there. Now that they are falling in line, I have been able to keep my surveillance to unfamiliar people and unfamiliar noises.

I also make sure to keep mom and dad protected for any and all intruders at night. I have assigned Kricket to take the downstairs area at night. So far, we have everything in tip top shape.

On another note: I'm happy to say that mom and dad went and voted the other day.

Here is a picture of them with their "I voted" stickers on. Aren't they cute!

Well, I love you all and hope you are fine, without me around. I hear some of you will be coming in a few weeks. Cool! I look forward to sniffing you and giving you some much needed kisses.

So I just have one more thing to say:

I DO!!!

If you want to bring some with you, I'll help you eat them.

Halloween

Only because I love to see cute and clever costumes do I tolerate Halloween.

I figured you all would like to see the clever costumes the kids came up with this year.

You should definitely go to Meg and John's new blog. Timothy is so cute, you don't want to miss the pictures of him. What a doll!

Last week, Tori went to a Young Womens Halloween party and went as a Monster Drink. Yep,..... weird!!

Yesterday, Tori went as: ?

She has told people she was one of two things.

If you can guess both, you win a big prize, if you guess one of the two you get a smaller prize, but a prize never the less. So you don't waist a guess, I will tell you that "hyper psycho" is not it. Try to think like Tori, but not long enough that it hurts your brain.

Nikki, you can only guess one, because I know she told you the other.

Robert Redford look out! Here comes Noah!!!

As the dashing lawman, Noah breaks hearts, but never the law.

He didn't go tricker treating, but waited patiently by the door downstairs while watching "Bite the Bullet", to hand out candy, but no one came to get candy or see his great costume. Oh well! I would imagine he also ate a goodly share of the candy himself. :)

Look out bad guys!

As a lawman of the old west, he's the original "licenced to kill" guy.

Sad? Yes. Pathetic? Most definitely!!!

Here, my beautiful little girl is transformed into a Hobo. She was so convincing that most people thought she was a boy and some gave her extra candy.

Cubby also got 1st prize in her 3rd period class at school for best costume.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Through the air and ethernet, and from our hearts, we send out a big:

Happy Birthday Adam!!!

It's times like these that it's hard not living by all the family.

Adam, we all wish you the very best on you birthday and hope you know how much we love you. Hope you have a great day,
surrounded by the people who love you ,
minus us :(
We look forward to hearing all about
your speical day.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Pitter Pat Goes My Heart

There he was. This handsome man, just standing there. I just couldn't help myself. Swallowing down my timidity, I walked up to him and said, "hey you handsome thing you, how would you like to go to dinner with me". He looked at me for a long moment, his beautiful baby blue eyes looking deep into my soul. Then he answered...., "sure". It was at that moment I realized I had hardly been breathing as I had awaited his answer. A a mixture of excitement and relief washed over me. Emboldened by his response, I brazenly stepped forward, put my arms around his neck and gave his a big slickery kiss.
Awe, such romance for an old married couple of 26 years. :)
Well we did go on a date and it was really fun. We were going to go to the movies, but there really wasn't anything playing worth spending the money on and Cubby needed Steve to help her with her math homework, so it wasn't a late evening, which truth be told, is the way Steve likes it.
We went to Red Lobster. Steak and Shrimp! Doesn't get much better than that!!!!!!!
I also dragged Steve through a craft store while I checked out yarn. He may not have been thrilled, but he was patient and kind about it.
So there you have it. A handsome date, good food and a craft store. Does it for me!!!!!!

I'm still sick

Yo what up my homeys? It's me Tori, your favorite person. I'm taking this opportunity to say that I think whoever invented getting sick was either a genius or very disturbed...that is to say I'm tired of being sick...it's outlived it's usefulness (and you ALL know what I mean.) Now it's just a nuisance....so what do you guys want to be for Halloween? I'm going to be....a spy. That way I can dress however I want and just say I'm in disguise. It's brilliant. I think Ty should be Indiana Jones. Or Chuck Norris.

Tag, I'm it

I have been tagged by Cami, so here are the answers to the questions:

8 favorite tv shows:
Well, the closest I ever get to watching a regular TV show is Heroes. I watch it the next day online. That may change though as I have been very disappointed in this season. I do watch TV series that we have bought on DVD, so here goes:

1. Stargate – Thanks to Cami, we were introduced to this. Love it? Indeed!!
2. Any Star Trek (except maybe Deep Space 9)– To infinity and beyond! Oops, wrong show. I’ve been a Trekie since before all ya’ll have been alive. Live long and prosper!
3. Alias – Kind of creepy sometimes, but it sucked me in.4. Monk – Makes me laugh, and feel like I’m not as crazy as I could be. Keep the rebuttals nice please. Hee Hee
5. The Dick Van Dyke Show – Hilarious! Good old fashioned fun
6. Colombo – I can watch these over and over.
7. Heroes – Getting frustrating. They can’t let the good guys just be good guys. Ugh!
8. The Muppet Show- Wow, such talent.

8 Favorite Restaurants - These are(No)t in order of preference (my mind doesn’t work that way).This one is harder. I have favorites from UT, but haven’t been here long enough to find new ones.
1. Mc Donald’s – I didn’t used to think this, but I love the Southwest Salad.
2. The Las Hermanos in Lindon. Love the Chimi’s
3. Mc Graff’s in South Orem. I LOVE seafood.
4. Porter’s Place in Lehi – It’s a fun dive with great food.
5. Sizzler – Look out salad bar, here I come!
6. Iceberg- Great shakes, and the best fries and onion rings ever. Wish I could still eat them.
7. Applebee’s – Though usually more crowed than I would like, the food is good.
8. Still looking

8 Things that happened yesterday:

1. Made Steve and Cubby’s lunches.
2. Dropped Cubby off at school, dropped Steve off at work.
3. Took the dogs for a walk.
4. Made my drink of milk, cocoa powder, cinnamon, Stevia, fresh ground flax seed, scoop of fiber, and chugged it down with my handful of pills for the day.
5. Laid back down to warm up and ended up sleeping until nearly noon. Ugh
6. Picked Cubby up from school.
7. Made Lemon Bars for Relief Society Enrichment Meeting
8. Picked Steve up from work and made dinner.
(and of course, crocheted in between it all.)

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
1. Ty and Cami, and JennAdam coming for Thanksgiving.
Actually, I think that covers at least 4 of my 8 things I’m looking forward to.
5. Seeing Ken again at the end of his mission. Hopefully going there and picking him up.
6. Getting a better, more reliable vehicle. I don’t mind playing taxi all day, but it would be nice if everything worked and I didn’t have to worry so much about it breaking down.
7. Moving to a bit nicer neighborhood, in a place with a fenced yard for the dogs.
8. Tori’s play, because Mom Kenworthy might be coming out to see it and I know it’s going to be awesome!

Things on My Wish List:
1. A time when I wont even crave the things I can’t have anymore.
2. A small, hand held carpet cleaner for the small jobs.
3. One couch to be cleaned and the other to be reupholstered.
4. A self cleaning kitchen!
5. A king sized duck down comforter with a removable cover.
6. A small green house so I can grow my own veggies all year round.
7. To sell my crochet creations at a craft fair or something so I can, at the very least, make my hobby pay for it’s self.(& some extra for Christmas would be nice)
8. To have the money to go and pick Ken up from his mission in August 2009

Hummm, I think my wish list could go on and on. I need to remember “it’s not having what you want, but wanting what you’ve got”.
Now you all know me a bit better. Sorry!

Tori 2

Here is a peek into Tori's life these days.

Well, we can see that she is on the phone. Hummm, perhaps a lot. Talking with.....a young man (and you know who you are)

























Then she gets dressed up and goes to the Homecoming dance with a nice young man from our ward.
























Then, besides rehearsals for "Joseph", she has been practicing and working on try-outs for All-State Choir. We took her yesterday to Loveland for her try-out. She was a mass of nerves and performance anxiety, but she went in and gave it her best shot. We should hear next week sometime about the results. No one was allowed to go in the room except her accompanist, so I can just tell you that what I have heard of her song, she was terrific!
So, more on that and the other exciting adventures of Tori coming soon! :)

Still Alive and Kicking

I have changed my profile picture. For now, I will use this one.
Here I am, walking Zuzu in the park behind our townhouse. The reason I'm using this picture is because it was so funny to see Cubby's reaction to me wearing jeans. I had fished them out of a box of clothes I haven't worn in a while. It's been at least 6 years since I have worn jeans, and Cubby can't remember. Kind of funny. It seemed to up my "coolness" ranking. Stuff like that always makes me laugh.
The weather has been very nice. Just enough over cast to make it cooler and nice for walking in the park.


Thank you all for the wonderful calls on my birthday. That made my day special like only talking to my favorite people can make it.





Yesterday (Sunday Oct. 12th) I taught the Relief Society lesson. I had very little time, but I was grateful for the Holy Ghost that helped make the time I had very powerful. It was exciting to be a partner in teaching. There really isn't much more exciting than having the Holy Ghost teach through you. It doesn't happen every time. I hope I can be prepared/worthy to have that happen more often.

In this picture, I'm wearing the pretty glass necklace piece my dad gave me. I found a nice gold chain that it looks good on.

Saturday evening, Noah, Steve and I went to the Denver train station to pick up Tori. She has been in Utah for just over a week.
She had a great time seeing family and friends and also had a fun trip home on the train.
A fun new adventure that some of us wish we could do to.
Because the train was so neat, Ty and Cami are now looking forward to coming for Thanksgiving by train even more than before.
We are happy to have Tori back. It was a bit too quiet around here. I can't even begin to express my gratitude to JennAdam, Ty and Cami and Grandma Kenworthy and all others who made Tori's trip a good one and for taxiing her around and keeping her safe.
I hear from my dad that he and Lorene had made it to Mesa and are getting settled in. They had a good time in New Mexico at the Balloon Fest. It was too pricey to go up in one, but they had fun seeing all the cleaver and colorful balloons.
We're all doing pretty good around and hope you all are too.

Is 47 the Magic Number?

Yesterday I turned 47. If you are an “Alias” fan, then you know that the number 47 can be significant.
I am hopeful that this year will be even better than last year. Even though Steve was out of work, last year wasn’t all that bad. We had a lot of neat things happen, which made the frustrating things not so hard to deal with. Counting your many blessings goes a long way in helping you keep perspective. I haven’t always been perfect at it. Sometimes I really loose my perspective and that can be destructive to me and others around me, but things are going good and I’m hopeful for a good year.
This last week, I was happy to see my dad. Though I didn’t see Lorene, my dad and I had a nice visit. The girls only got to see him for a minute, but hopefully we will have more time next visit. He was so sweet and got lunch for Steve, Noah and I and we met Steve at the library to eat. We had a nice visit, then Steve needed to get back to work.
Dad gave me a beautiful pendant. It’s made of layers of glass, melted together in a kiln. His friend, who has taught him a lot about stained glass, (and any of you who don’t know this, my dad has made a lot of amazing projects. I’m lucky to have a few of them) made it and dad says he’s going to learn how to do it too. This picture doesn’t do it justice at all. It’s so shiny that it’s hard to get a good picture of, but it’s really pretty and I have a red shirt and skirt outfit it’s going to look great with.
Dad and Lorene headed off to New Mexico for the yearly Balloon Festival. I’m looking forward to some great pictures.
Noah stayed and helped Steve at work that day. He impressed the people he worked with at the library and now he does volunteer work there. Shelving, making master copies of CDs and DVDs etc. Now, when he doesn’t go, they ask about him. Noah is such a wonderful helper
Wednesday, I helped Tori go off to her adventure in Utah. Those of us left behind are perhaps more than a little jealous, but we are also happy for her to go and see family and friends. So far the reports are that she is having an amazing time. Getting her home maybe harder than finding her a ride. I’m pretty sure that if she wasn’t in the play at the school here, she would just ask me to ship her things to UT.
Jenn and Adam were so sweet to go and get her. They had to meet her ride in Layton and it was really late at night. Then they had her over night and got her off to Liahona the next day. Pretty awesome!
I miss JennAdam and Ty and Cami something terrible and now I have to wait until Thanksgiving to soak up as much as I can until the next time.

I went to parent/teacher conferences yesterday at Cubby’s school. Two of the teachers are thinking that she should be in an honors program. They see a lot of talent in that little package we call Cubby. The one C she had has already been brought up to a B and all of the teachers say that she is getting in the groove of this new school and the new system. She has worked hard to catch up on her math and works hard to make sure her homework is done.
I think she’s pretty amazing and it’s nice to see that her teachers are seeing that too! Go Cub!!!!!
(Here is a picture I took of Cubby at the parent/teacher conference. Her hair is sure getting long again)
Throughout my life, I have been so blessed to be around some of the choicest people on the planet. We had to leave behind a wonderful and loving ward family and family family. Then, once again, we are blessed to be in a new incredible ward family here. They have been wonderful to us. Yet even with all of that, and I mean no offence to ANY of the afore mentioned people, my children are my favorite people in the whole world. They are so amazing and talented and loving. Adam and Cami, that means you too. No matter how weird, eccentric , in bad health, cranky or whatever I am, they show me an abundance of love that never ceases to amaze me. That goes for Steve too. Sometimes I’m laid up for days and he is understanding and caring. He does the little things that remind me all the time that he loves me. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
Well, to all of you out there in blog land, I’m looking forward to this year of being 47. It just might be the greatest adventure so far, and I’ve had some great ones already! Love to all!!!!!!!!

Just for Fun

Cub was going to a "Best of EFY" activity and we decided to do something fun with her hair.
It's wrapped with embroidery floss and then I added beads.
Kind of fun!

Once Upon a Recent Time

This last summer we had some pretty neat occasions to get together, to party, and to celebrate. With all the packing and stuff going on, these were wonderful times to take a break and be together.
Now that I have this neat new venue to share things with you all, I thought I would go back a bit and let you see some of the fun things we were able to do before we moved from UT.
I hope you enjoy them. We sure did!!!!!!
Thanks JennAdam for the idea!

Noah Gets His Eagle

A very happy time! Noah receives the rank of Eagle Scout.
As proud parents, we get to be involved in bestowing this honor.

Mama Karen gets to pin the Eagle madallion on Noah.


Dad Steve gets to put the Eagle neckerchief on him.

Noah gets a neat honor. Because Noah is a decendant of a member of the Mormon Battalion (The Momon Battalion were Mormon pioneers asked by the US Government to help fight in the Spanish American War). So, Noah was given a special neckerchief slide and presentation.



With some congratulations from the Bishop,


and a mother pin for Karen, it was a special time.


Ty and Cami, Jenn and Adam, Grandma Kenworthy and some other friends and great leaders were there to help make it a memorable time.
As parents of 3 boys, we are very proud of our 3 Eagle Scouts. Our boys have learned a lot of basic skills and a lot about leadership.
Ty is still very involved in the Scouting program. Ken is on his mission, but Noah is now helping one of the young men in our ward to progress toward Eagle.