Jenn is home!!!

YAY!!! YAY!!!! YAY!!! Jenn is home! She is home from her mission! She called me this morning and we talked for just a couple minutes. Then we all went to lunch (Amy, Megan, & I already had it planned) and let me just tell you how great it was to see her!! Dang, I've missed that girl!!

We had so much fun at lunch just talking and having a great time!

Kenzie (Jenn's sister), Jenn, Megan, Baby Addie (Amy's niece)

Me & Amy

Baby Addie just snuggled right up and fell asleep! Isn't she cute!

Then after work Amy & I went bowling with the Young Single Adults. It was up on base, and after getting just slightly lost, we asked a guy walking down the street where the bowling alley was and once we found it, we actually had a great time! We both even bowled pretty decent! Amy's goal was to get over 50 and my goal was to get over 100. And we both reached our goal! Way to go us!!

Me & Amy

Action shot! And yes, for the record I even hit those pins...I missed alot of pins but conveniently those ones I actually knocked down

Me, Rebecca, & Janelle

Amy & I only stayed long enough to play one game because then we had to run and stop by Kelsie's choir concert! We got there in time to watch her sing her couple songs then we snuck outta there and headed to my house for weekly movie night!

We had a pretty good turn out...me, Amy, Megan, Jenn, Ty, & eventually Jeff. We actually opted to not watch a movie and instead introduce Jenn to the joy that is the wii! We played alot of random games and just kinda gave her an overall view of the fun possibilities!

This next picture was when Megan lost her phone in my couch (you would be surprised at how often that happens...we're not sure how...but many of my friends have lost their phones in my couch many times)

Jenn holding the chair back and Megan crawling under to find the phone

Alright....these next pictures needs a little explaining...we LOVE frooties! (fruit flavored tootsie rolls) The only problem is that they come in packages of all one flavor so we have always bought multiple flavors then dumped them out, mixed them up, and put them back in the packages. And we always take pictures with them. The packages have gotten stingier...they used to be 440 per package and now they are only 360 per package...rip off! So this years pile is not near as large as previous years! (there also are only 4 flavors this time and we've had as many as 7 before)

Amy, Jenn, Megan, & I

And we always take a shot with Megan pouring them down on us!

So that was our fun night! I also made Skookies! (Awesome awesome chocolate chip cookies baked in a cast iron pan then you let it cool off just barely, put a couple scoops of icecream on top, a little hershey's syrup, and eat it warm right out of the pan!!! DELICIOUS! Jenn needed to be introduced and lets be honest - that is the only reason Jeff comes to movie night!)

So all in all it was a pretty great day! And did I mention that I am so excited to have Jenn home!!!

Another Quick Post

I haven't gone to bed yet so I'm counting this as Sunday's post!!! And its going to be another quick one! We had our Payne Family Christmas Party! I took some pictures and will post them later but really there were no great stories and no fights at all (which is very very rare for us to not have someone leave crying) so it was a pretty good night!

Also, I'm still working on my knitting!

And that's it, goodnight!

Saturday!!

Today was a pretty busy but great day!

For starters when I woke up this morning....IT WAS SNOWING!!!!!!!!! I triple love the snow! Perfect way to start the day!

The first thing I did this morning was get my haircut. (Normally it is a whole big day 'Haircut Day' and it includes a whole dinner tradition but since that didn't happen this time I'll wait until it actually does before I blog about it!) My hair needed to be cut soooooo bad! I called Rachael last week practically begging for any time she could fit me in, and today was the lucky day! I love haircut day! (and the best hair day is always the day after)

Then I met Lisa, Leslie, & Morgan at the playhouse and we headed to see our friend Jessica in Little Women. I had never seen the show (and am kinda embarrassed to admit that I've never even read the book) and I really enjoyed it. The music is really beautiful and I thought Jessica did a fantastic job! I don't really care for that theatre itself and it seemed like a really long show and the lighting was kinda annoying but other than that I enjoyed it! And the company was great!

After that I picked up some dinner and headed to Layton to visit my best friend Emily who was lucky (??) enough to get to work for 15 hours today. So to try to make it possible for her to make it through the last couple hours...I took her some food and a Dr. Pepper! So I got to hang out in the tech booth with her for about an hour! It was really fun!

Then I just headed home for a night of a whole lot of nothing-ness! But then Lana came over and I showed her the next step in knitting her socks! It has been so much fun showing her how to knit and I seriously can't believe how good she is! I also worked a little bit on my wallaby...I got over my fear off putting on the pouch and just did it...and I actually think that I might be doing it correctly! I took some pictures and added them below for Diana!! (and probably Audrey!)

Here is Lana working on her sock and me working on my wallaby!

It's kinda blurry but that's how far I am on my wallaby! I am so proud of myself! I've been reading the pattern and everything all by myself!

And that was the story of my fun day!

Voice Male!

Every year the Payne side of my family (us, the Stotts, & Berchtolds et al) try to do something Christmas-y together! I think we've done something for the last 3 or so years. Last year we went to the zoo lights (BOOOOOOOOO) and this year we decided to go see the Voice Male Christmas concert!! And what an excellent idea it was! It was a fantastic concert! There was great music and they were very entertaining and funny!

First we all met for dinner at Wingers (and if you know me at all you know how much I love Wingers!) Then we headed to the Browning Center for the concert!

Me & Amanda waiting for them to open the house!

Me & Traeden & Casey

Half of the group! Brenna, Shelby, Traeden, Andy, Abbey, Mike, Casey, Mom, & Dad

The other half of us! Phil, Tina, Becky, Michael, Amanda, & I

Becky & Michael

Amanda, Me, Brenna, & Shelby

Casey likes to cheese it up for pictures!

Casey took the rest of these pictures! I love when people take my camera and snap away! I just picked the best of the bunch!

Mom & Dad

Abbey & Mike

Shelby, Traeden, & Andy

I think Shelby had enough of Casey's picture taking!

We had such a good time! I love when we get together with the family! We laughed alot! Great night!

Another Project!

Okay...I like to have projects and make things! I was talking to my friend Annie the other day and telling her about putting picos on a quilt to bind it and she didn't know what picos were. I tried to explain it to her but was not very successful...so I told her I'd post pictures on my blog so she could see them!!!

Also I figured that this would be a great time to show off one of my greatest accomplishments! The turtle quilt!

My sister LOVES turtles! There are 91 squares...each one is a piece of muslin with a different turtle on it. I found them all over...from clip art on the computer to coloring books to Becky's underwear! Then I blew them up to the right size, traced them with pencil onto pieces of muslin, colored them with crayola crayons, ironed the crayons to set the crayon, then outlined them with black sharpie! (I did not do any of this by myself - I had lots of friends help)

Here are the squares layed out ready to be sewn together
(Notice the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles in the middle and also can you find Philbert from Rocko's Modern Life?)

Then they are pieced together with different turtle material in between(which was VERY hard to find FYI!) Then after the front is pieced together we quilted all the squares and each turtle.

Me & Grandma quilting

Altina, Diana, & Brenna quilting

Then its time for the picos! The extra material is cut into 3 inch squares then ironed to make them into triangles. Then pinned onto the front, sewn (by machine) onto the front, then the back is pinned on and it is hand stitched to finish off!

It only took me about 2 years to make (yes I took a few very long breaks!) but dang it is cute!

Below are some pictures I took after it was finished!

The front
(Annie see the triangles around the edges - those are picos!)

The back - isn't that the cutest material!!!

A couple close ups to see the finished product!!

So there is just one of the many quilts I have made but definitely the most difficult and most work! Most of the time I just take two sheets and tie them together then finish off with picos! Much easier!

Reba Loves Music Man??? & Other Stuff

So I've kinda mentioned some Music Man stuff in previous posts...here's the story. My good friend Leslie is directing it and she has asked me to be her assistant! (Not assistant director, she wants me to be assistant TO THE director) This will be the third show I get to help her with, we did Seussical two years ago and My Fair Lady last year. I love getting to help her...I am pretty much just her go-fer (or anal assistant as we lovingly refer to it!) It has so far been a really great experience for me...I LOVE people and I LOVE getting to be up there helping and meeting new people! So this last week she's been having auditions/call backs for Music Man! I am so glad I am not the director and don't really have anything to do with casting because there have been lots and lots of good people show up! Anyways....the point of this blog....up until a couple of days ago she did not have anyone to choreograph the show for her. Last week we had joked about me doing it for her and this is the start of the texting conversation we had on Monday night (you'll see why I love Leslie so much!!!)

Leslie: Reba came to me in a dream and told me that you were suppose to chorograph music man

Me: Well if Reba said so I am in

Leslie: If i'd have known it would be that easy, i'd have done that weeks ago!

(Now for those of you who know me...please take a moment to picture that in your head...me...choreographing a show...HILLARIOUS! The mental picture alone makes me giggle!)

So imagine my horror of showing up to call backs on Tuesday and finding out that Ryan was actually going to be the one to choreograph it! I asked Leslie why she got my hopes up just to shoot them down :) And after Reba told her it was suppose to be me choreographing it!

So tonight they had call backs for the chorus and smaller roles (I had to miss because it was my annual work party...more about that later) So after it was all over Leslie called me to tell me a funny story. When her husband showed up to pick up their son because his part was done...her husband came in and said "I'm here to audition" to which she was like "what?" (if you know him, you'll know the chances of him being in a show are about as high as the chances of me being in a show!) and he said "Yup, Reba told me to audition" HILLARIOUS!!! So after Leslie & I had a good laugh I told her "Well obviously Reba cares alot about Music Man and wants it to be a good show!" And its true...why else would Reba think I should choreograph and John should audition...she must truly know how to make a memorable show!

And now our new thing is going to be "Reba told me too..."

So on a completely different note...tonight was my annual work party. It actually wasn't bad...Cory was my date (for the 3rd year in a row we realized tonight). It was at the country club and so the food wasn't bad and the entertainment was really good! They sang great arrangements of some great Christmas songs! I love good Christmas music.

And I realized tonight that my two favorite Christmas songs are "O Holy Night" & "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" if they are done correctly! My favorite versions are

O Holy Night by
-Reba (I know I know...that shouldn't come as a surprise but more than the fact that I love everything Reba does...it is a REALLY good version!)
-Josh Groban
-David Phelps (I just recently fell in love with this one...youtube it...I promise you will not be sorry!)
-My friend Isaac (He blows me away every time I've gotten to hear him sing it)
-and many more! (I have seriously considered making a mix cd of only O Holy Night by all different people)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by
-Michael Webb (my all time favorite version...it was on a tape left in one of the cars on my mission and I fell in love with it and searched for about 4 years after my mission to find a copy of it on cd but have finally found it)
-Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLaughlin

I also love Angels We Have Heard On High - especially the version by Billy Gilman

Okay I will stop now or I could give you lists and lists of my favorite Christmas songs but I think those are my top favorites!! (atleast for today...subject to change by tomorrow)

Boring!

I feel like I'm pretty boring lately, I guess the truth is really starting to come out! So far on this blog you all thought I was pretty exciting and did lots of fun stuff...well now you all know the truth...I'm a pretty boring person! And I am so exhausted that all I want to do is go to bed! So I'm just gonna summarize my day...work this morning...then I went to go visit my friends Annie & Shelby & Family (I had some tickets for them I needed to drop off) I seriously love them! Then I went to Music Man callbacks...I didn't do much but get to sit and enjoy so it made for a pretty good time! And that was pretty much my day...good times huh? :)

Movie Night!!

So every Monday night @ 8:00 we have movie night at my house! Any & all are invited! Some weeks there are so many people here that we don't all have room to sit and sometimes there are just one or two people here! But it is always fun and we always enjoy ourselves!

Today Amy came over a little early and we watched the office from last week then started heroes from today until Kelli got here! Then we headed downstairs! Trev showed up shortly after Kelli! They were all wonderful enough to help me cut & tie some more blankets for the center! I have done soooooooooo many blankets lately! But we were able to get done all the ones that I had at my house so I'm feeling pretty good about that! We watched Zoolander because Trev had never seen it! We all laughed so hard (well Kelli, Amy, & I did - not sure how Trev felt about it) It was a fun night! Now Kelli & I are enjoying watching Amy make some Mii's on my Wii! We are laughing alot!

Before movie night started Lana stopped by so I could help her with more knitting! She is currently working on making socks! She is doing so good! I helped her start knitting the heel...she is catching on surprisingly well! I have been pleasantly surprised at how good she is doing! The only set back we've had is that I incorrectly taught her how to purl (oops...its been a long time since I knitted okay) so the ribbing on the ankle is incorrect but it looks okay and I figure as long as she incorrectly does the other sock then no one will be the wiser! But I was able to pull up a youtube video to show me how to correctly purl (thanks Diana - it was linked to the how to cast on video you sent me a few weeks ago) and so the heel looks correct and now we both know the correct way to purl!!

Quick Post

Here is just a quick post cause I'm tired and headed to bed!!! :)

Today was a pretty great day! I love my calling in the detention center and today just re-confirmed that for me! I felt really good about my lesson in Sunday School at the singles branch! Then today was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional! So me, Amy, my mom, my dad, Ed, & Kathy headed to the conference center in Salt Lake! It was really a good time! The devotional was really good! A nice simple devotional! My favorite part was that the tickets I had were in the Terrace in the section where the deaf people sit to see the sign language interpreters so I got to watch it in sign!!! Fantastic! Then Amy & I came back to my house, watched last weeks Heroes, and then I went to family prayer!

Great day!

Good night!

The Forgotten Carols

Every year Michael McLean's production of the Forgotten Carols comes to town! Brandi & I have gone for YEARS! So long in fact I don't actually remember when we started but it was while we were still in high school I'm pretty sure! And pretty much every year we have a good memory to go with it! There was the year we had to go see it somewhere in like South Salt Lake cuz we missed the other ones. The year the snow was HORRIBLE and we were seeing it in Logan. The year Brandi tried to get us a discount on the tickets because her uncle knows Michael. The year we definitely parked in the wrong place so it took us over 30 minutes to even move in the parking lot. Always so much fun!

We prefer to go see it in Logan so that we can have dinner at The Blue Bird but for one reason or another the last few years we haven't been able to go on those nights so lucky enough, we have an Ogden tradition as well! When we see it in Ogden we go to Roosters for dinner! Excellent alternative to Logan & Blue Bird!

This year was a Roosters & Ogden year! So on Monday, we (Brandi, Larry, & I) met at Blue Bird, had an EXCELLENT dinner! Then headed to the Forgotten Carols! We parked strategically (I wanted to hurry out to get to the playhouse to be able to say goodbye to Brady) and headed in! Our seats were great (Thanks Brandi - you can still be in charge every year) The show itself was as I remember it! (Well each year they change a little something but its basically still the same) I do miss how simple it used to be and Katie Thompson was definitely the best Connie Lou I've ever seen, I miss her too! But other than that it was a great time! Brandi & I always have so much fun together - I forget how much we just 'get' each other!

Brandi is apparently really happy to be here!

We really did have a lot of fun!

Larry looks like he's having a blast, doesn't he!?!?

I love traditions, love the Forgotten Carols, & love Brandi! So it made for a pretty dang good night! (and yes, I did make it in time to say goodbye to Brady and get one last hug!)