Pumpkins

I love carving pumpkins. My idea of the best Halloween is to get a few friends together, watch a movie, eat candy, and carve pumpkins. That didn't quite happen this year, but I did carve one pumpkin and talked my roommate into doing one as well. Here's how they turned out.

All At Sea Murder Mystery Party

My roomate, Chante, decided to throw a murder mystery party for Halloween and I was enlisted to help with the festivities.

We had a pretty good turnout and I think people had a lot of fun.

We had a storyline based back in 1914 aboard a ship called the SS Libertania. All at Sea was the name of the story. You can download an introductory pdf of the story here.
All of us had a different character that we acted out and certain goals that we were to accomplish. I was the head stewardess and my main goal was to become a singer and of course find out who killed the captain. I didn't guess right, but a lot of people did.

We had a few from our singles ward come.

Most of the group were people we worked with at the Church Office Building.

Here's a shot of our friend Molly, Chante' (my roommate), and me.

Here's Molly and her husband, Bryan. They won the cutest couple award. :)


We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner and it all turned out pretty well. My roommate was a bit concerned we would run out of rice (she had calculated about 2 cups per person), so we ended up with tons of it. She humors me and I humor her and it all works out all right and we both end up laughing at each other quite a bit.

General Authority Run-ins

Because I work at Deseret Book Headquarters AND the Church Headquarters I occasionally run into different General Authorities. Thought I would share a few of my run ins.

Sister Silvia Allred is the First Counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency. We were doing some work on their website and had to go to the RS Building. We saw her in the tunnels and said Hi. She's super nice.


Yesterday, I rode the elevator up 18 floors with Bishop Burton. We chatted about the beautiful fall weather we are having. Very friendly guy.

Elder Russell M. Nelson just recently had a new book published and needed a few boxes delivered to his office. Since I work in the mail room at DB, I got to take them over. Normally I just deliver them to their assistants, but he happened to be there and I delivered them directly to him. I was little surprised to see him at his desk, but I said hi and he did the same. We didn't say a whole lot, but I left feeling like I had just met a very powerful and spiritual man.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks - I only saw him briefly in the lunch room they have in the Admin building on my way to make a delivery.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - I delivered a few boxes of books for him and he seemed to come out of thin air. I'd just come down the empty hallway, through his doorway to greet his assistant, and all of a sudden he was holding the door for me to pull my hand truck through. He said, "Hello" and asked how I was doing. Sweet, genuine guy.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf saw me sweating while holding a heavy stack of boxes, waiting for the elevator. He mentioned that the boxes, did indeed look heavy. Unsure of what to say, I smiled and said.."Oh..they're not too bad." He smiled and left to go meet with President Monson.

My whole goal is to not say something stupid...sometimes I succeed and sometimes I just blow it. Oh well. It still totally makes my day to see them. It's almost surreal to see them in everyday situations. They're regular people, but you can tell that they have a special calling and there is a powerful spirit that they all have with them.

Disneyland Photos

Alan came through and sent the pictures. Enjoy!

In front of the Mantterhorn

Splash Mountain - you'll notice you can't see me. I'm third back, but hiding behind Jason as to not get as wet. My strategy worked and Jason took my share of the splash.

For Halloween and the Christmas season, they decorate the Haunted Mansion up with a Nightmare before Christmas theme.

If I look tired, it's because I was. We had gone surfing that morning and it had wiped me out pretty good. ;)

They had some cool decorations.

We should have taken more pictures of other rides we went on, but we were having too much fun and forgot.

Pictures of Rowe

So...I borrowed a few pictures from Michelle's facebook account of Rowe. Hope she won't mind. :)

Rowe's Blessing

On Sunday, Rowe had his baby blessing. His daddy did a really good job. It was cool experience, but what made it even more memorable was the fact that he was blessed in the presence of 3 Apostles. Judson and Michelle live with her parents and they happen to live in a ward with a few General Authorities. They are: President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Elder Robert D. Hales, and Elder David A. Bednar. All 3 of them happen to be there on Sunday. :) How cool is that?

Conference Weekend

Here I am with part of the Web Media team in the Audiovisual Department that worked Saturday during General Conference. We were backstage at the Conference Center making sure that the world would have each session in 4 different languages (English, ASL, Spanish, and Portuguese). We would post the sessions to the web site after Conference had aired live. So...in other words...if you didn't get to watch or listen to conference you can right now. Just go here: http://www.lds.org/move/index.html?type=conference&event=Oct179&lang=english

For the first time in history, we posted the Priesthood session online after it had aired live. Very cool!

It was a really cool experience even though I didn't get much out of conference. I'll have to go back and listen to Saturday's session myself.