Felix Fun and Friend Flashbacks

To belatedly celebrate Amanda's birthday, we went out to eat last night at a Vietnamese restaurant downtown, did a traditional Hatch's run, and then went to the movies and saw Pitch Perfect. I laughed so hard in the movie and at one point, actually had to hide my face in Amy's shoulder because I was grossing out from the scene on screen. Fun times!

 

Tonight I met up with my old visiting teachers for dinner at City Creek. One has left the Church and is dating all these non-member guys. I asked her about how she is doing and we had a good conversation. She even got teary-eyed and cried at one point where I'm pretty sure she felt the spirit. Who knows if this night might have a good effect on her in the future!



Zabel Zoo

The title of this blog entry isn't quite right because the Zabel boys are actually quite well-mannered. They push me out of the kitchen so that they can make dinner, do the dishes, etc. Jer even cleaned toilets at one point!

 

Brett had a conference in St. George so Jenny went with him for a long weekend away/anniversary celebration. I drove to Heber Thursday after work and spent the night there. I. LOVE. spending. time. with. these. boys! They say the funniest things! Yes I did scare myself to death Thursday night in the dim hall lighting by the plastic Halloween decoration spider on the wall. What do they do when they hear the story? Hide a giant rubber spider in my bed after which TJ comes to me and emphatically says, 'T, we didn't put anything in your bed. There's nothing in your bed!' Suspicious much? Hilarious more like it. I drove in to work Friday morning but it was so hard leaving them at the house still to get off to school and the babysitters. They did a good job of it though and I took off a bit early so I could get there by the time they got out of school in the afternoon. Lori came up Friday night and spent the night w/Ari so we could go and play racquetball in the morning. After she left from the Rec, I stayed there w/the boys and let them tire themselves out playing soccer and football. Then we picked up a pizza and watched a movie together. I think they enjoy having me over as much as I like going there. I spent Saturday night there too because Sunday was the Primary program. Micah had his part memorized which he'd done on his own. TJ did really well reading his and Chris even had his sentence memorized. I was sad to leave and go back to my own house!

 

Jer having 1st dinner. He went back for more that night.

Love the kisses!

The giant rubber spider in my bed.



Stuffed to the Gills

This week has caused me to be stuffed to the gills, but it was worth it!

 

Monday was a nice surprise when Sarah called and asked if she could come up for lunch with me, Lori, Ari, and Brittany. We met at the Nauvoo Cafe and had a good chat. I'm so glad they came!

 

Tuesday I had two lunches and a dinner. The first lunch was at Nauvoo Cafe again to do a review with some of the ushers of how the seminar went last week. I left immediately from there and met up at Farr's Sandwich and Ice Cream Shop across the street to have lunch with Shauna and Karen who were up again for family history. Shauna brought me a jug of fresh pressed cider from the apple orchard that she has. They also treated me to lunch. Have I mentioned how much I like spending time with them? We always laugh so hard! Then that night, Brittany Pacini and I met up to pick up Winger's and to listen to the last hour and a half of our Audiobook that we didn't get to finish from our Alaska trip. I felt like I rolled to bed after this day of food!

 

Wednesday my entire division at work went to the Lion House for a farewell luncheon for my boss Randy Rasmussen. He retires at the end of this week and we wanted to give him a proper send-off.

 

Thursday I had lunch with a friend in my ward who also works at the Church Office Building. It's a standing appointment that we have every other week. It almost made me late though to my boss' retirement farewell over in the chapel of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Considering I was the prelude music...it was not good. Desserts were served there. Loved the key lime because it had this delicious nut crust! Of course, I really didn't need anymore food by this time...

 

 



The Busy Craziness of Seminar

I LOVE seminar time; but this year, I made the mistake of taking a trip right beforehand so I was already behind on my regular work. Then mash in the long hours preparing for the Seminar for New Temple Presidents, and it was a crazy rush! Usher maps, binders, seating charts, name cards, you name it, we made it! It was nice having the feeling that for the first time, I could answer most of the questions that were asked me by temple presidents, matrons, general authorities, translators, ushers, etc. We sorely missed our dear Kathy Barlow who is no longer in the Temple Department (secretary to a member of the Presidency of the Seventy) and Linda Clawson who retired earlier this year. We made a video one night at the dinner table while we were waiting for the presidents to get out of the Joseph Smith movie. Kathy said it made her cry. Success!

 

 

Friday evening after the seminar was over I went to dinner at the Radisson with MaryAnn, her husband Brett, and daughter Margaret. I'm so glad they invited me as it was fun and Margaret is such a cute girl. I slept 10 1/2 hours that night and then met up the next day w/Sarah Mayfield for a pedicure to treat our sore, tired feet.

 

Tonight, Mindy and her two kids came over so she could drop off the birthday present that she made me. It's a cute bracelet. She's thinking of making more and more of these to sell.

Pack's Pumpkin Party!

I watched Conference at mom and dad's this past weekend. Turns out, Taylor gives AMAZING back rubs! He went at it for over an hour. Then Jeffrey wanted to try his hand at it. I am more than willing to be their tester.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite times of year is when mom and dad host a pumpkin party at their house. All of the Spanish ward was invited and enjoyed a dinner of taco soup, tortilla chips, and dessert. Plus they got an FHE lesson, I did a ring toss with the kids, they got to each pick a pumpkin, and the highlight of the evening - the candy cannon! Mom got me a pirate wench costume. We had a pretty good laugh at the end of the evening when I walked into the house and mom told me how much everyone loved my costume. I said, while gesturing expansively at my chest, that it was because the costume emphasized my breasts. That's when I realized we weren't the only ones in the room. Lots of laughter.

 



 

 

Alas-KA Part 2

We drove out Saturday morning for our longest road day of the trip. It was snowing in Anchorage when we left which made us worried for what was to come, but it cleared up after about an hour and was beautiful. We had a moose scamble back and forth across the road in front of us. Brittany kept saying Moose! Moose! What she really meant was Camera! Camera! I can't believe I missed that photo op! We drove 15 hours that day and made it into the little town of Whitehorse in Yukon Territory. The next day was 13 hours to Fort St. John, 11 hours to Edmonton, 3 hours to Calgary, and 13 hours to Salt Lake. When we were in Edmonton, we stopped at the temple there so I could drop off some more sacred materials and then we spent extra time in Calgary meeting up with one of Brittany's old mission companions. Turns out her roommate is Sarah Baugh, from my time in England! We went to the Calgary Alberta Temple Open House in a Spanish tour and then picked up some Chinese food and went back to the missionary companion's home and watched a few Honey Boo Boo episodes. Pretty funny! Surprisingly, the long hours on the road passed by quickly because of the beautiful scenery, the wild animal spottings, good company, and of course our awesome Audiobook which riveted us. It wasn't until the last day from Calgary to Salt Lake that the day dragged. I blame it on the ugly road! We saw lots of animals during the trip which included: bison, caribou, elk, moose, black bear, porcupine, coyotes, etc. We also drove through the territories of British Columbia and Alberta. Lots of ground covered!

 

Snowy conditions leaving Anchorage

Depending on the section of road, the animal on this sign would
change to have a moose, elk, caribou, whatever on it!

I was a little sleepy-eyed by this time.

There were herds of bison on both sides of the road!

I learned that a caribou is really just a reindeer.