Thanksgiving Break Highlights

Last week's Thanksgiving Break provided us with a much needed break from classes. Jake spent a good portion of it creating a computer game, which is turning out to be one of my favorite computer games. In this game each player is a cannon and your purpose is to blow up the other players. I'm so good at it, I beat Jake every time.

Actually, that's not true. He destroys me unless I get a few lucky shots in.

We also spent some of break working on law school applications. That was not an enjoyable highlight, but it's awesome that they're almost out of the way!

My family came to Utah to spend Thanksgiving here and we did some things with them too.

Erik and I jammin' before dinner:
This piano can do back flips.


Dad carvin' the turkey:

All of us at dinner:
I think Aunt Peggy is poking out Rusty's eyes


Pictures of "broom" (rolled up newspaper) hockey later that night:


Holly is posed and ready:

My good-looking husband and me:

Present from Australia

Almost two years ago I got a letter from my friend Jaren who was serving a mission in Australia. In this letter, Jaren informed me that he had a present for me that he was going to haul all over the Outback and then give to me when he got home.


Last month Jaren got home from Australia and gave me the present. As the picture illustrates, Jaren is a fantastic gift wrapper.



I opened the present to find a small frame around a faded movie ticket stub. I won't lie--I had no idea what he had given me. Fortunately, I was on the phone with him when I opened it and he reminded me of the story.

During high school we were driving in my car. I was driving and Jaren was in the passenger seat. Jaren found the previously mentioned ticket stub in the car and commented that we should go and see the movie (it was for Harry Potter). As I looked down at the stub I started to swerve off the road (we were on Belleview... back before the expansion construction) and almost hit something. Since we didn't die that day I proclaimed the ticket stub good luck.

At least a year later Jaren was in Australia and opened his wallet to find this lucky ticket stub. After remembering what it was, Jaren decided that he was going to keep it for his whole mission as his lucky ticket stub, and give it to me when he got home. This ticket stub has been to the MTC, San Francisco, Auckland, Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide, Mildura, Angkula, Sydney, and Los Angeles.

It's now sitting on my bookshelf as my lucky ticket stub and an ever constant reminder that I really should drive more carefully.

Halloween

We were really excited for Halloween this year. Unfortunately, Jake was sick that weekend so we didn't end up doing much on Halloween night. But we did carve pumpkins earlier that week. Jake's pumpkin was scary and mine was afraid of it.

Mission Reunion and General Conference

Friday night we went to a reunion for Jake's mission -- the Budapest, Hungary Mission. I like going to his mission reunions because it's fun meeting people that he lived with, served with, and loved for those two years. I also like to go because I always hear new stories about his mission that I haven't heard before. This year I particularly enjoyed listening to him talk with one of his former companion's about some of the people they taught. As they talked, laughed, and reminisced it made me excited to go to Hungary and meet these people!



This is a picture of us at the reunion. At one point Jake stopped to talk to someone that he knew, and another former missionary standing nearby said, "Hey! You're Elder Kartchner! It's nice to be able to put a face with a name I've heard so many times!" Apparently, this missionary had served in a lot of the areas Jake had been in (after Jake left the country so they never knew each other) so Jake's name was on mission records and the members in Hungary talked about him. It seems that Jake is famous in Hungary, or at least infamous!

Another highlight of the mission reunion was talking to Jake's mission president. He's a wonderful man whom Jake loves and respects immensely. It was especially nice talking with him that night, because as we were talking he remembered that he had extra tickets to General Conference that he gave to us! Neither of us have ever attended a session of General Conference live before, so we were really excited. Jake's excitement wore down a little bit when he realized we had to leave home a 7 on Sunday morning (the day we usually sleep in) to get to Salt Lake in time, but it was still a great experience. The session was especially neat because we got to be there for the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word as well. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is an amazing group, and it's always incredible to hear them live. I think the time there was extra special, because Jake and I were together without all of the distractions that we usually deal with. I'm really glad we got to go, and it's definitely an experience I'll treasure.

My Latest Project

I'm taking a Museum Projects class this semester, and I absolutely love it. In this class there are only 5 people, which is a nice size in my opinion. We're studying museum management theory (which is awesome!) and then we have several projects to work on. For the first half of the class we each designed and are carrying out individual projects. For my project I chose to rehouse and stabilize some of the Museum's basketry.


This is me working on one of the baskets. This picture was taken on a Friday night, and I was back there Saturday night working on it again. Partially I'm addicted to the project, but mostly it's just due soon and I need to get it done. Holly came with me on Friday and worked on homework while I did the basket (she took the picture above). Jake came with me on Saturday night and put in some volunteer hours helping me out. While we were working Jake commented to me, "You just seem to be good at everything you do!" That is completely false, but it was a nice compliment anyway.

Activity Days

I'm the Activity Days leader in my ward. What that basically means is I plan activities once every two weeks for the girls in my ward ages 8-11. It is a really fun calling.

Last night I planned to act out the Book of Mormon story of Samuel the Lamanite. I brought this to help us out:


The wall is made out of rice krispie treats, and all the people are pretzels and marshmellows. When we got to the part in the story where the people started throwing rocks, I let the girls throw marshmellows at Samuel. They were very careful and made sure that the "stones" didn't hit Samuel, just like it the story.

The whole thing only entertained them for 10 minutes, but oh well. It was fun anyway.

The Cutest Kids I Know

Another perk of the Kartchner family reunion is that we got to see all of our nieces and nephews. They are without a doubt the cutest kids I know. I apologize to all of the other kids I know, but these ones are really cute.

This is Jaron tubing in a creek close to the cabin. He always wears these sunglasses!


This is Rylee in front of a waterfall that they hiked to.



This is Brinley (Jaron's sister) taking her turn with the pinata.


This is Will (Rylee's brother) in a tube at Seven Peaks.



This is Tyler playing in the sand at the playground near the cabin.


This is Jace (Jaron's and Brinley' brother) sitting in his grandma's lap.


We were blown away because all of these kids have changed so much since we last saw them. You have to admit though, they are really cute kids.

Defending Lindsey's Honor

Jake thinks these pictures are hilarious, so he wanted them posted on our blog. I figured if I posted them then you'd get the truth about what is going on and not the story that Jake thinks is so funny.

This is Lindsey and Will.



It looks like Lindsey is drowning Will (which is the story Jake thinks is so funny). The truth is, Will is swimming and Lindsey is standing by in case he needs help. Lindsey, I defend your honor.

Kartchner Reunion

Jake's family also had a reunion last week. This one came at a better time for us, because it happened right when Jake finished up his finals and I was able to take some time off work. Jake's parents and his siblings came over and stayed in the "Kartchner's Kabin" in Provo Canyon. This is a picture of the entire family in front of the cabin.


While Jake's family was out here we did a lot of fun thing, including spending a day at Seven Peaks (notice my amazing farmer's tan),




and climbing Mt. Timpanogos. This was taken before the hike



and this one was at the top.



It was great to able to spend time with Jake's family, and to spend some time doing "summer activities," because we haven't been able to do much of those this summer.

Family Reunions

This month has been the month for family reunions. The first week in August there was a Brison reunion up in Oregon. Unfortunately, Jake and I couldn't get off work and school to get up there for that one. My dad and sister went and had an absolute blast. They came back with enough stories from it to make us all jealous.

After the Oregon trip Dad and Holly came to Utah where my mom was already visiting my grandma. Again the timing wasn't the best because Jake was working on his finals and I was busy with several work and school projects. Jeff and Erik (my brothers) couldn't make it out either. But, we did get the chance to see what family was here for a little bit. We went to a movie (Iron Man!) and went out to eat a few times.



This is us at dinner. Jake was locked away in the library during this. Dad and Holly also visited me at work.


It was fun to have some of my family out here in Utah!

Wedding Season

This summer several of our friends have gotten married, and there are several more that will be married soon. I wanted to post some pictures of me with the beautiful brides!

This is Cherie and me at her reception. Jake was the photographer for this one.



This is Tammy, Sarah, and me at Sarah's wedding. We're outside of the Mt. Timpanogos LDS temple right after Sarah's wedding ceremony.

What Are You Going to Take Out?

A few days ago, a group of us at work had to write a short proposal. Every time one of us would add a word to the proposal, one of my coworkers would say, “You added something--what are you going to take out?”

This stuck out to me because this motto seems to apply to people in our life as well. Perhaps that viewpoint is a bit dramatic, but this weekend, it really seemed to fit.

Last week, our friend Kenny was honorably released after serving his full-time LDS mission. I've consistently heard from Jake about how much he missed Kenny and how excited he was for Kenny to be back; luckily, we were able to join in on a party that Kenny's family threw him to welcome him home.



This is a picture of Jake, Kenny, and Connary who (although they don't look it) were ecstatic to see each other. Later that night, Kenny came and stayed the night at our apartment. Jake really enjoyed having him back.

Since we added someone, it appeared that we needed to take someone out.


This is a picture of Tammy and me. We've been friends and have worked together for the past year at the MPC (that hardly sums up the past year, but it's good enough). She recently graduated and is now moving on to bigger and better things, beginning with a trip to Asia. Even though I know she's moving on to more exciting things, it's still sad to see her leave. She is one of the most generous, loving, and caring people I've ever met, one of those people who makes you happy when you're with her. She will definitely be missed.

Overall, it's interesting how life has a way of balancing things out.

A Wonderful Display of Patriotism

Yesterday at 3:00 pm people started lining the streets of University Avenue in preparation for the 4th of July parade. We were kind of shocked at the number of people who were camped out along the parade route 18 hours before the parade was going to start.

This morning we got up and ventured out among the massive amounts of people to meet Jake's mom and stepdad at the parade (whom we never found by the way). As we waded through the crowds of people we started to get more and more excited. We still thought people were crazy for camping out to see a parade, but at the same time we were very excited at the wonderful display of patriotism. Jake commented that on national holidays in Hungary people would be out in the streets partying and celebrating, and the people lining the streets for the parade sort of reminded him of that. It was great so see people out celebrating and rejoicing for this country.

Passports

Yesterday, the MPC sponsored a family day event, which featured stations that highlighted several different cultures from around the world. Each culture was represented by a different station that participants could bring a passport to to get stamped. I worked for a few hours at the station on Africa.



At this station I had a lot of cool objects from Mali, Africa and a couple from Egypt. This was quite the cultural gap to cover, but it was still a lot of fun to do. I absolutely love my job!

With a Sigh of Relief

Monday afternoon Jake took the LSAT. After six months of studying for this wretched test and of trying to balance it with work, a heavy class load, church responsibility, and his personal sanity, the test has been taken! We're still waiting with crossed fingers to hear how he scored, but we both sleep a little better at night knowing that it is over.

To add to the excitement, I'm almost finished with the research for my senior thesis. I've been studying the supporters of BYU's Museum of Peoples and Cultures for the past couple months, and will be spending the rest of this year analyzing my data and writing it up into a (hopefully) brilliant paper.

We look back at these past few months with a sigh of relief and can't help but be excited that we somehow made it through them.