The Harris Family Report

Simple Recipe = Great Dinner

2011-10-28T08:34:00.004-06:00

Last Tuesday night, we had a dinner and a missionary activity with the youth. This recipe was suggested by one of the leaders. We served it with tossed salad and rolls, and the leftovers were even better the next day. It was easy to put together too. I thought you'd enjoy it, so here it is:

Red and White Pasta

1 lb. mastaccioli pasta or other tubular pasta like penne or ziti
3 cups homemade Alfredo sauce (I used two 15 oz. jars)
1 26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread a thin layer of red sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Make layers: half the pasta, half the Alfredo, half the spaghetti sauce, half the cheese.
Repeat the layers: remaining pasta, Alfredo, spaghetti sauce, cheese.
Cover with aluminum foil. (You can refrigerate it at this point and bake later.)
Bake, covered with foil, for about 30 minutes, until it is hot and bubbly. (If it has been refrigerated, increase the baking time 10 to 15 minutes.)

10 to 12 servings

Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T14:20:00.002-07:00

Wow, it's been a really long time since anyone posted here. Maybe we need a New Year's Resolution....?

We have lots of good things to look back on from last year, and I think this year will bring many good things with it.

Any New Year's resolutions or goals that you want to share?

2008 Update

2008-11-20T08:34:00.017-07:00

It's been a busy year. In light of that fact, I felt it better to show you rather than tell you what we have been up to. enjoy.

In addition to a ton of riding, this year Steph and I had some awesome times together.

It all started when I proposed to Steph and she nodded her head yes because she was so sick she couldn't talk.

On May 17 Steph and I got married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. We were able to share this special day with lots of family and friends which made it even better. Steph and I couldn't be happier together.

In July we headed down to Junction, UT. [AKA middle of nowhere] for a family reunion. We had fun riding four wheelers and it was a good opportunity for me to get to know Steph's family better.

Our next roadtrip of the summer also found us in Southern Utah. Steph had an older sister recently move there and we went down for the weekend to visit. This is Cole, their youngest, showing off his new helmet, which was a constant fashion accessory even off the bike.

Over the summer Giant Bicycles held a sales competition to sell their full suspension mountain bikes. For every bike sold the employee and customers' names were entered in a drawing to win a number of prizes. For the first time in Taylor's Bike Shop history, my name was one of the lucky winners and this lovely bike was my prize. Estimated Retail Value - $2500 ...Christmas came early.

The last week of September my boss flew us down to Vegas for Interbike. In between Steph wiping the drool from my mouth as I stared at the latest and greatest bikes, we were able to check out a few of the sights. I think Steph had almost as much fun as I did.
Maybe.

Even in November we saw some warm, sunny days. We were able to spend some of them together and enjoy a nice bike ride on my new bike. Christmas came early... again.

Coming Home

2008-06-30T10:28:00.011-06:00

We left Thursday night for a quick trip to Grandma's house. At one point, it started to rain so suddenly and so hard that we could hardly see the road. For some reason, there were lots of semis on the road, and their spray makes things even worse. That was the longest 10 minutes ever. I was all for pulling off and grabbing something to eat (we had planned to stop anyway), but Ken felt it was best to drive on through it.

We had a busy weekend, and Ken got several big projects finished with the much appreciated help from Shawn and Andrew (who joined us on Saturday). They rebuilt the well-house cover, put a new door on the garage/barn--people door, not the car door--laid carpet in the bedroom off the living room (which entailed moving all the furniture, etc.), hung new shutters, put siding on some bare places on the garage/barn, and probably some other things that I am forgetting. Each job seemed to have some major problem, plus it kept raining on and off, so it took far longer than expected. We'll have to go again for another "project weekend" soon.

Grandma, Madison, and I kept busy too, although much of it was cooking. We ran the errand to buy the shutters, which took more than a couple of hours. On Saturday, we all helped Grandma babysit Karter. What a cutie pie he is! He is a smiley, happy baby. At six months, he is starting to sit up, and he rolls all over the place. (Wish I had thought to get out my camera!)

After Church on Sunday, we had a nice dinner and then packed up to come home. The trip home was fairly uneventful--spots of rain, but not as dramatic as the storm on the way there. However, when we were about to pull into the driveway, Ken stopped dead in the street and we saw that there was a visitor in our front yard.

The deer just looked at us as we unloaded the car. It didn't mind the dogs in the neighborhood, who were quiet at first but started barking after Ken decided he would go check the garden. He walked toward the deer, but it just got up and moved a few feet away.

I guess it really liked our yard, because it wasn't in any hurry to leave. It munched on some fallen maple leaves, and then settled back down. The deer stayed quite a while before wandering into the next yard. Wouldn't you think this would be too populated and noisy for deer? I think they have gotten used to us.

Last Class

2008-05-06T16:40:00.006-06:00

We did it! The last class of the last semester of our DH program--a pizza party, and we took group pictures.

This is Sandy, our class president. She is having a little boy in August.

Left to Right: Margret, Katie, Sandy, Shelly, Kristen, Stephanie, Kristie, Carrie (in back), Nicole B., and Mary

Danielle, Nicole C., April (in back), Lydia, Kim, Christina, Chandra, Melanie

Updates

2008-02-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

I've got some news. check it out here.
~massive

For a Laugh

2007-12-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

The funniest thing in the entire world is this link.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1349977890
I have never laughed so hard in my life! Thanks Steve and Al!

These others are funny too, but for me can't be topped by the reaction I had with the first one.

Charlie and Jack
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1350108401
Jen, Greg, Scott and Katie
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1350209928
Jen, Greg, Charlie and Jack
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1367435318

I had to put them in the blog so we wouldn't forget this funnyness! Love you!!

Wedding Wrap Up

2007-11-01T09:29:00.001-06:00

Hi Everyone!
Bill sent Scott and I some wedding pictures to tide us over until Christmas. So I'm sharing them with you.
Love kd.

massive updates

2007-10-14T02:55:00.000-06:00

what's up kids? not much has changed... still doing the school, work, steph thing. but i have managed to squeeze in some riding time. check it out here

stay in school.

Reason #742: Cleaning Checks (Updated)

2007-10-13T10:46:00.000-06:00

Reason #742 why coming back to Utah was a bad idea:

Disease Prevention: hiding behind my bedroom door while taking the picture

Our story so far: In the interests of self-preservation, I went AWOL on my last cleaning check day, firm in my belief that this kind of cleanup should be left to more qualified parties such as the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization. I decided I would rather pay any fine, monetary and otherwise, than touch our bathroom with a ten-foot pole, let alone get on my hands and knees and separate the empty soda cans from the furry soap, etc. When I came back later in the day, I asked my roomates how we fared. Failed, of course. Everyone failed, except for... me! Since I'd only been living there two weeks, they decided to give me a pass. What is this unprecedented logic and reason? I picked myself up off the floor and retired for the night, my faith in humanity restored.

But there was a little hitch. When the management came back on Tuesday morning I was still in bed trying to sleep off a mild cold (or perhaps I caught tuberculosis from the couch in the living room, I'm not sure which), when my roomate came in and delivers some bad news.

"Sorry to wake you up, but the cleaning lady says you actually did fail the cleaning check. BUT, if you come out and talk to her now, she'll pass you."
"All I have to do is talk to her?" I asked, starting to get out of bed.
"Yes, come out and talk to her, and you'll only get charged $10, otherwise it'll be $20 if she has to come back."

Forget that. It was way too early in the morning to be dealing with extortion threats. "Tell her I'll sort it out with the office later." And I went back to sleep. Well, as it turns out, my roomates talked some sense into her and Al Capone The Cleaning Check Lady decided not to hit me up for any fines. I guess there is some good in the world, after all.

Somebody Stop ME!!!

2007-10-10T21:09:00.001-06:00

K, so besides being crazy busy with school now, I've started another blog. Oh yes, I believe I have a disease... Anyway. Check it out--Mom and Jen will probably find it more interesting though, and you'll see why :) Love ya, katiebug

Ok, so now it's OCTOBER!!

2007-10-01T17:42:00.001-06:00

Hi, everybody!
You guessed it! I am so busy with school that the month of September just fairly flew past. My birthday is right around the corner (hint, hint). The entire year has flown by. Guess that is the result of having a very full schedule. School has it's good and it's bad...I will tell you more soon. But today I found out that I have a test tomorrow, so I have to go and study!
Love you lots, Mom

SEPTEMBER?!?!

2007-09-01T12:56:00.002-06:00

HEY-when did it get to be September? Is August really over? I guess I was just too busy to notice or something. We zipped back to Ohio after Scott & Katie's wedding, were home just one day and left to drive to the Atlanta area for the reception with the Brown family and friends. The drive was not bad at all, and the country was just lovely. What a wonderful time we had with the Brown family! The reception by the pool was gorgeous, we met some very nice people, and enjoyed the delicious food. The day after, we went into Atlanta and visited the World of Coke and the Aquarium. Loved it!

The rest of August was spent fixing up the house to get ready for company and the reception here--and even though each project took about twice as long as we expected, we got it all done and the kitchen and dining room look great. Of course, Ken did the bulk of the work, but I was right there too. Wish I had pictures to post.

The Ohio reception went pretty well. The gym looked beautiful. I think I have lost my touch when it comes to planning the amount of food necessary because we had too much. I did think there would be more people in attendance though. And I couldn't have pulled it off without all the help. Thanks, everyone! The best part was seeing all of our family, and it was much too short. We need to get together more often.

Two days later, I was sitting at a desk in school. I am not ready for this yet. I need at least another month of vacation ; ) . I have five classes-Seminar, Pharmacology, DH in the Community, Periodontics II, and Dental Specialties-plus 3 clinic sessions each week. We are also going to be doing specialty rotations where we observe in an office for a morning or afternoon, so even some of my days off will be spent with school duties. Yesterday I had to go in just to make appointments for my clinic sessions. Lots of people were not at home, but I did manage to nearly fill all of my September spots. Hopefully some of the ones who had answering machines will call back and make appointments to fill up October too. There are already three tests scheduled for this week. FUN.

So, I am wishing that Charlie and Jack were still here to play with, and Jen and Katie were here to chat with, and the boys were here to tell their adventures and eat all the food in the house. It was great, everyone, but next time, let's do the fun stuff and forget all the work, OK? Love you guys. Let us know how things are going for all of you too.

Georgia, Part Deux

2007-07-15T12:06:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post, at the beginning of my first week I was feeling a little out of my element. But by the end of Monday night, after the other health counselor had to take someone to the local urgent care facility to get their pain medication changed and I was left to hold down the fort by myself for the rest of the evening. On Monday nights the kids play a number of get-to-know you games, many of which involve running, jumping, or even tackling each other. And so for the rest of the night I was going from group to group dispensing ice packs, over-the-counter pain-killers, ace bandages, and so on. Not having done anything medically for the past few months, it was a good feeling to get back into it.

My usual methods of operation as an EMT consisted of sitting in one spot, waiting for someone to dial 911 and then meeting them on the scene. Since we don't have too many emergencies here per se, I disocvered that it works better for me to rove around the campus, and then usually a counselor or a kid will pull me aside and ask for a band-aid or a Tylenol, or resolve some other medically-related issue which I'm happy to oblige.

And there are instances where my training and experience come in handy. The first week had a couple of these incidents. One night this guy was standing in a doorway when someone slammed the door closed. He was able to duck out of the way of the door but the metal latch of the lock grazed his face just below the eye. I was called for a band-aid since the "scratch" wasn't bleeding very much and was a pretty clean cut, but when I looked at it I could clearly see that it was deep enough to have reached the fatty layers of the skin, and would need stitches to close. However, my omniscient 17 year-old patient was adamant that I merely place a band-aid over the injury and leave it at that. I was able to convince him, however that it would be in his best interests to go to the ER with me after I showed him the ugly keloid scar tissue on my right hand and asked him if he wanted that on his face. The nice doctor in the ER gave him 10 stiches.

More to come...

Andrew's Last Night in Town

2007-07-09T18:49:00.000-06:00

This is a few weeks old, but here are a picture from when Andrew, Greg, Steve, myself, my friend Cade, and Jordan Haws went shooting. Not a bad way to send andrew off on his EFY adventures.

Life is Peachy in Georgia

2007-07-08T22:37:00.001-06:00

I have just finished two very quick weeks as a Health Counselor for the EFY regional sessions in Gainesville, Georgia and am actually writing this to you from sunny St. Petersburg, Florida where I will be spending the next two weeks.

Hey, ya'll. I apologize for the long silence but finding computers with internet in The South is like trying to find someone who speaks the kind of English where the nouns and verbs agree. I kid! This has been a time filled of hot summer days, hormone-crazed teenagers, and enough Goofy Mormon Giddiness to make Pollyanna herself vomit in her own hat.

My first impressions were not good. It's kind of a long story how I ended up here, but everyone else who works here is either from this area or has worked for EFY in the area before, and they all know each other and so I was feeling a bit out of the loop. Also, there was a little bit of culture shock. I'm not talking about the biscuits and gravy with every breakfast, or small towns with more guns than library books, or cow-tipping and country music. It's nothing like that here, at all. Rather, due to my affiliation with EFY, my colleagues expected me to be all touchy-feely and expected me to share their infantile sense of humor. By the end of the first week I was invited to go with a group of the male counselors to a manicurist during the weekend to "get our nails done" and think it would be funny. Now, I might be in favor of spending $1 or $5 on a joke, but as a manicure costs somewhere in the $20-$30 range, I humbly declined. This was a mistake, as then my superiors thought that I was not enjoying my EFY experience enough and singled me out to make random speeches on My Life Story or Five Unique Things About Myself at the beginning and ends of meetings and things.

Nevertheless, it's hard to be surrounded by such Goofy Mormon Giddiness and not get any on you. Two weeks ago a 10 minute conversation on bendy straws would've made me want to find the nearest bathroom so I could throw up, today I was able to keep down my lunch with no effort. I think that the classes taught by CES employees are fantastic, and working with teenagers is fun, and it's really touching to see the camaraderie they develop by the end of the week. The medical aspect of the job is kind of a bust. There were perhaps two or three instances in the past couple weeks where I had to draw on my experience and skillz as an EMT, and the rest of it has been spent dispensing band-aids and Tylenol. Which is good news for the participants, I suppose.

Anyways, I have tons more that I could write about, such as the details of some of the medical incidents I've responded to, the misadventures of trying to find Six Flags in Atlanta, and my personal experience with gossip traveling faster among EFY counselors than it does through any Relief Society. But it will probably have to wait until I'm done with the whole Health Counselor gig. I have some pictures, too but don't have time to upload them. I love you all, and can't wait to see you at Katie's wedding and receptions.

P.S. For any of you Browns that read this, I don't believe you're actually from Georgia. I spoke to literally hundreds of Georgians over the past two weeks and found nary a soul that has even heard of you. Any of you.

I want to hear about Andrew!

2007-07-02T22:59:00.000-06:00

Andrew! How's EFY???
Where the heck are you?
Give us some details!

kD bugged.

2007-06-26T09:31:00.000-06:00

nobody ever writes.

this is called the Harris Family REPORT ya know. You're supposed to report and tell us WhaT's Up in your lives. :S

haPpY bIrThDaY to Me

2007-06-06T15:07:00.001-06:00

YAY for BIRTHDAYS!! I do have to say that it is about time i turn 21!!

I had a really busy day running around doing all sorts of things!! I have to say that it was a blast!

Thanks Drew and Al for coming over and helping to get the biKe (and Steve (and Jen?), and thanKs Jen for letting me come hang out for a little while (we'll catch ya for dinner this week to celebrate with you), Thank You mom for the beautiful earrings (i've been opening up the box just to look at them at least twice a day!!) and the littLe bugs!

Thanks Scott for doing everything you did to make me so happy, it wouldn't have been the same without you.

It was an incredible day.

I'm 21 years oLd!! WHoO hOO!!you're jealous. i can tell.

May Mayhem

2007-05-30T17:41:00.000-06:00

<---------------[the dining room]

As I'm sure you all know, I've had a busy month. I went to two proms, one for the Andrew's School with Erin and one for South with lisa. The Andrew's School prom was on the 12th and it was held at The Union Club in downtown Cleveland, which was pretty amazing. We had the whole first floor of the place to ourselves which included the dining room, another room that had a ton of couches and all the dessert like chocolate fountains and such, the ballroom which had lights in the floor(it was pretty sweet) and another room with the bar. There weren't more than 60 people there so we had a pretty fun time.

I also got to drive one of my favorite cars all night which was pretty sweet. An Infiniti G35--306 horses at my control MUAHAHAHA it was fun. Let's just say I was right on time, if not a little early.

South's prom was a step down, to say the least. It was held on the 18th, so i went there instead of to Menner's. It was still pretty fun. Our group consisted of me, lisa, ryan chapman and ashley morrison(a girl that i used to play with in 3rd grade, she lived next to bear. It's a small world.)

Joe Novak was also there with his girlfriend and all his friends, who i already knew. After-Prom was way more fun. We had the entire lost nation sports park all to ourselves from 1am-4am. Me and Ryan received minor whiplash playing one of the games(as shown above in normal and slowmo) I flew like 6 feet it was insane. That was it for the proms, the next day i turned in my tux, whch was a week late(a little trick al told me) and she said to not worry about the late fee($70)--it pays to be the good looking one in the family.

Then came sunday, my birthday. Im old, im legal and i hate it. As you all see i am still mom's favorite. Since all 18 candles wouldn't fit on just one, mom made me pie, angel food cake(with strawberries of course) and she bought me a Cars ice cream cake. And yes Al I decided that since I'm unemployed and live in the headlands, that I would dress like white trash too. It was really hot that day anyways --- 90 I think. I LOVE STRAWBERRIES!

The following weekend(25th-28th) mom and dad went up to grandma's house to help clean and fix things. Since I had plans friday night, I drove up on saturday instead. I got there right in time to help dad install the garage door opener. yay. On sunday we went to church in jonesville and there were almost 20 people there. fun. I drove home sunday night because I had to leave early for Cedar Point on monday with Jordan and Jacquelyn, and i didnt feel like driving from grandma's house(which was the original plan). It was a lot of fun, but the new ride, "The Maverick", broke when we were about to get in line. I guess I'll just have to go again this summer...darn. On the 5th I am going down to king's island, which was a lot of fun last year and it will be even more fun this year. Fun times. See you all in a month.

Memorial Day

2007-05-28T21:21:00.000-06:00

Today, Al, Andrew, Scott, Me (Katie) and Nikki all went up to Hobblecreek Canyon to go shooting.

We had 2 old computer monitors, a couple old keyboards, a toaster, several empty glass bottles, a couple of shaken up cans of root beer, and a couple 2 liter bottles of root beer--shaken up of course, and a gallon of gasoline. We had a .22 handgun, a 9mm handgun, a .22 rifle and a 12 ga. shotgun. After setting up our "targets" Andrew showed us how to load and shoot the guns.

It was my first time shooting, but I still managed to damage a 2
liter bottle of pop and put some holes in a keyboard. We all took turns with all of the different guns, and shot up everything pretty good. Then for some more fun Drew made some Molotov cocktails--glass pop bottles with gasoline with a piece of paper--light the paper and then shoot the bottle. When the bottle gets hit there's a small explosion and it's pretty sweet!

Always funny to hear peoples' reactions the first time one of these things goes off...

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

answers

2007-05-27T17:38:00.000-06:00

Since Steve became the last kid at home and just for less than a month on top of it...mom and dad have no one else to spoil within their reach :)

Ps. Do I get cake on MY birthday?? ;)

questions

2007-05-26T23:42:00.000-06:00

since when does someone get a birthday pie, cake, and icecream cake?

-and-

since when does steve wear tank-tops?

a new blog

2007-05-23T19:54:00.000-06:00

well, i figured will all the huge happenings in our family my contributions to this blog would pale in comparison, so i started a blog of my own. so if you're bored, go here.

My talk went excellent!

2007-05-21T12:21:00.000-06:00

Saturday we went to see Al at the bike shop and I told him about it, so I was half-expecting him to be there, and so we weren't that surprised to see him...however Andrew surprised us all, we (Nikki, me, Scott and Al) had sat in the front row. I looked back and saw him there! It was awesome to have my brothers there, I think it made me less nervous too.

I tried to pawn it off for $50, Scott would have really done it for me if I let him. But my conscious wouldn't let me. I had to do it myself.

My talk was on the Hymns. I'll post it here (as a comment for this post) , but I didn't exactly stick to it 100%, so for the full affect you would have had to be there. But I did a pretty good job considering how long it's been.

Steve Is Legal

2007-05-20T09:45:00.000-06:00

Happy birthday, Steve!

(Not that I'm 100% sure you can see this).

This Sunday

2007-05-17T14:53:00.000-06:00

After all these years of being at college, they've finally tracked me down. Brother Klegg, our first counselor in my ward, found me after church last week. I noticed him and I could kind of tell that he had a "i want to talk to you" look in his eye, so instead of running away, which I very well could have done, I let him talk to me. He knew that I hadn't given a talk "for a while". I laughed and said "how did you know?!" jokingly. He only knows that in the 2 yrs in this ward I haven't given a talk. He didn't know that I haven't given one since being at college!!

So anyway, I'm giving a talk about Music and Hymns this Sunday--It's off of Elder Jensen's talk from conference "The Nourishing Power of Hymns."

My church starts at 11:10 in the back of the Cougareat in the Wilk if you wanna come. AND if you have any jokes, stories, whatevers that go well with this topic, send them my way!!!

School's done, and so am I!

2007-05-15T14:01:00.000-06:00

Hey, I finally had time to figure out how to post on our blog! You cannot believe how wonderful it is to have a break from school. I learned lots, but those cumulative finals are killers. It is spring in Ohio. The dogwood and the lilacs are in full bloom -- beautiful. Steve is going to two proms. One was last week and one is this coming Friday. He cleans up pretty good.

[photography compliments of steve]

A Busy Day Off

2007-05-10T23:55:00.000-06:00

I didn't have work today, but that didn't leave me anytime for relaxing. An outline of the events:
- Lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Harris
- Picked up Greg's bike to change the wheel and fix the cables
- Took said bike to work to do the durty work
- Back to G and G Harris' to mow the lawn and water the plants [in exchange for doing laundry]
- Returned the car to Andrew, rode my bike home [with a helmet on... it was way too hot for that]
- Watched Smallville
- Finished the day off with a good bike ride

It was a busy, but good day. It was great to see Grandpa on his feet and moving around a lot. He's doing much better. It was great to help them around the house, and enjoy their company.

Graduation

2007-04-29T00:30:00.000-06:00

I wasn't planning on going to graduation, but when BYU announced that the featured speaker at April's commencement ceremonies would be the Vice President, Grandma and Grandpa Harris told me to score them some tickets. Graduates were entitled to 6 tickets, so I figured I'd give two to the Grands and scalp the rest, or something.

But then Grandpa went in for surgery and wasn't feeling up to the trip, and Grandma still really wanted to go. So I decided to take one for the team and attend.

Grandma had arranged for our cousin, David Butler, to hang out with Grandpa for the afternoon, so I picked up him up Heritage Halls where he's been living and attending BYU since January --who knew?

When I arrived at the house, Aunt Lisa was there. She stayed over the night before to help out. I was directed to the dining room where she and Grandma had decorated the place with banners, balloons, and a cake!

Since I was in no hurry to go stand in line for hours and hours, we had some cake and I read the cards that Rob and Lisa's kids had made for me.

We got to the Marriott Center at about 2pm, and stood in line for about an hour and a half waiting to get through security. Fortunately, it wasn't too hot and there was a nice breeze so it wasn't too bad.

Once we made it inside, they had some live entertainment going on --singing groups and whatnot. Then some event staff guy walked past and said "You know you have food under your seat, right?" I thought he was kidding, but then the person next to me reached under their seat and pulled out a paper bag. We all had similar paper bags under our seats, which contained water bottles, pretzels, a brownie, and a card with BYU trivia on it (Question: how many gallons of chocolate milk does the BYU Creamery sell each year? Answer: over 34,000).

When the thing finally started at 4pm, the Vice President walked in, escorted by President Hinckley, Elder Scott, Elder Bednar, Elder Carmack, and Sister Tanner. While I had planned on watching at least the VP's speech on BYUTV, it was a neat experience actually being in the Marriott Center. I gotta say it was a good day.

Scott and I are ENGAGED!!!

2007-04-25T17:22:00.000-06:00

Making it Official !!

So the last couple of weeks I've been waiting to see when/how I'd get engaged to Scott. Everyone kind of knew it was coming we just didn't know when.

Well Today is the day! April 25th 2007!!
How it all went down:

I was expecting breakfast the canyon just from things he'd told me: I'm picking you up early and wear a jacket...
Then yesterday he told me he was picking me up early. Early turned out to be at 6:15 AM !!! yeah that's definitely early.

So I wake up at 5:30 get ready just as it turns 6:15 and he knocks. I open the door and he's got flowers!
I grabbed some keys and we walk to the car. Inside there's a plate with bagels and strudels and hot chocolate in the cup holders.

Not knowing what we were doing or where we were going, i didn't eat the food or drink the hot chocolate because for some reason I thought we were going to eat it somewhere. I was wrong. So we drive up to the canyon and he just keeps going and going--way past where I had thought he was going. We get to Heber and it's not til then I realize OK, I really don't know what's up. Then he pulls into this place called the Hub Cafe, and I thought, OK this is where we are going to have breakfast? But he brings his hot chocolate with him. I thought I don't want to bring mine if we're going to eat here...but then he says, I don't think we're going to go inside. (then i wished i did bring it ) He took me across the parking lot and there's this SUV with a trailer. Then it hit me, I saw "Utah Outdoor Adventures" "hot air balloon rides" and the trailer had a hot air balloon basket on it!!! This is when i exploded with surprise and excitement, I just couldn't believe it!! BIG surprise

We hopped in the car and drove over to the Heber airport and the two guys, the pilot, Will, and groundsman, Mike set up the balloon. It actually took a while to do this. They had to pull it all out and set up the basket and such and then take a big fan to get it blown up a bit before putting hot air in it. Scott helped hold the balloon open as it was filling up.

Once all the setting up was done, we climbed in and we were off!! It was SO amazing!! I wasn't too scared because I felt pretty secure, Scott was a little nervous. It was so cool because of how far up you get so fast! One minute you're floating at ground level and then the next you are already 50, then 100 ft up and more!! It was a beautiful sun shiny day and not too too cold. The hot air was nice and warm when he pulled the triggers to release it.
We went up and down and Will, the pilot, took pictures of us (which he'll send us later) and Mike the other guy was in the truck following somewhat depending on the roads. Will was radio-ing him telling him where to go. And sometimes sounded quite anxious that he wasn't close. (i found out why later)

So we're floating up and down and it's beautiful, somewhat cold, but it was so beautiful. Then Mike gets pretty close with the truck and Will tells him to get out the "picnic basket" Then Scott starts saying all these sweet things. Then he says "I want to be with you forever" I say "i will" because I"m not exactly sure that he's proposing (he says things like that all the time these days) It wasn't until he turned me around to look down at the truck to read a banner that says "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" !!! I look at him in shock and he's getting down on one knee, he pulled out this beautiful red ring box, opens it and asks if I will marry him! OF course I say YES!! with enthusiasm and he puts the ring on my finger (he almost put it on my right hand ;) ;) ) and then we kiss, we hug, I'm saying how amazing he is and I can't believe it. He jokes that now he doesn't know what to say because everything was just leading up to that point!! It was so amazing!! more pictures, kisses and hugs, and LOTS of looking at my sparkling ring!! I just couldn't believe it.

Back on the ground, Will pulls out cobalt blue glasses and we toast with sparkling cider looking over at Mt Timp. It was so awesome!
Back in the car we're talking a mile a minute and about everything. We tried to call the parents but no one is home yet, we eventually got a hold of all the immediate family.

We went to breakfast once we got to Provo, because we were hungry :)
I kept the receipt--the first meal together being engaged :)
Scott had more flowers for me hidden in the trunk--these were big beautiful roses!! I was shocked with getting so many flowers!!

We stopped by Scott's sister, Darcy's, apartment (it's actually only one below mine), to tell her the news and then we go up to my apartment where there was a LOT of screaming and hugs from Nikki, Melissa and Lauren (and a little later from Mallory when she came home) as we told them the story! It was so much better than what I'd hoped for!! (apparently they just knew I was getting engaged so they were waiting around for me to get home!)

Sadly Scott had to go into work and still has one more final to take! So i don't get to see him the rest of the day!!
I can't hardly believe it's actually official now!!

Setting up

holding open the balloon. (after this picture my camera died and so we'll have to wait to get the rest of the pictures from Will. Sadly we didn't get one standing with the balloon all blown up behind us or anything, which is a shame because it's a gorgeous balloon)

Update On My Reward

2007-04-19T23:36:00.000-06:00

The CS Department posted an article about my research team's award, which can be accessed by clicking here. It even has a picture (I'm the short one).

Based on the last few pictures of me here in combination with maybe this post one might come to the conclusion that I only own two shirts. Rest assured this is not the case.

Our Grandparents

2007-04-18T13:55:00.000-06:00

Our Prayers are with our Grandpa Harris this morning and this week as he goes in for open heart Surgery.

We love you Grandpa!

Our picture with Grandma & Grandpa.

2007-04-18T13:25:00.000-06:00

Here's the picture we took with Grandma & Grandpa last night (We'll have to check Uncle Robs copy to see if Al's eyes are opened.. hehehe).

I'm calling you out, Scuppers!

2007-04-17T14:48:00.001-06:00

Come on, Steve, post something!

Easter Dinner & Andrew's Birthday Cake Pictures

2007-04-17T14:14:00.000-06:00

I'm so glad that you all were able to come over for Easter Dinner. It was a lot of fun. We really need to do it more often.

In attendance: Me, Greg, Charlie & Jack. Andrew & his room mate, Orlando. Al. Katie & Scott.

The menu: I baked a honey glazed Ham, & served it with mandarin orange sauce. We had baked cheesy potatoes, a spinach salad, fresh green beans, & homemade rolls. And "Smash" cake for dessert--- mandarin orange cake. Andrew's favorite.

We put "1352" candles on Andrew's cake because that's how many weeks since he was born (and the only numbers we had on hand-- very strange how that worked out).

(#1, Jack, Al, Andrew, Orlando, & Charlie. #2 & #3 Living room of excitement.. Andrew & Charlie wrestling, Jack jumping on the coffee table while Katie & Scott are playing a little mini-ping-pong, & Al and Orlando just sitting back watching the chaos.)

(#1 Me and Greg. #2 & #3 Andrew wearing Charlie's new baseball helmet while they hit a few balls.)

Family Pictures

2007-04-17T09:04:00.000-06:00

Hey if anybody has a picture they want to post on the borders of this blog or for our main pic, will you email them to me? I can make them the right sizes in Photoshop. Also, On the sides/borders we can make lists and put quotes or whatevers we want basically. Everyone is an administrator now so we should all have access to every part of the blog. Thanks for everything. This is fun!!! LUV kd

Massive Al on 15 Apr 2007

2007-04-15T22:08:00.000-06:00

I figured since this was partly my idea, I should at least contribute to the blog. So...
My Current Status:
- Single
- Student at BYU studying Construction Management
- Working at Taylor's Bike Shop [best job ever!]
- Living at Brownstone with Carson, Cade, Dane and Ari
My Future Plans:
- To be rich
- Flying home for a week from 24th April to 2nd May
- Want to buy a new bike in May and a motorcycle in August
- Find a cute girl

Almost there...

2007-04-15T21:26:00.000-06:00

The End is near: Only 2 more days of class, one paper, one project and 3 finals away from the end for me. Really, Tomorrow will be the worst day for me because that paper is due and have to finish my project for Interior Design before class on Tuesday morning which kind of stinks, but after those two things I'm not really worried about the rest.

My roommates and I are going to try to have one final bashing hangout before we all part ways. Lauren is going to New Zealand Wellington Mision and reporting July 5th. Melissa is going to start her papers and turn them in before the summer is over. Nikki will hang with me in our APT for Spring but then she's going to kick it in Hawaii for the rest of the summer. And Mallory is getting married this June in Boston (she's from Connecticut and her fiance is from Idaho). For our final fling I don't know what we're going to do but it will be bittersweet. It's going to be tough to split up and start separate lives. Guess that's part of growing up though--it had to happen eventually.

My "research interviewer" position is lasting a lot longer than expected. I will work a few hours during finals, but I signed up to continue working through spring. I"m still going to try to get another job though. I'll be able to work both because in the spring/summer terms you can work up to 40 hours on campus whereas right now i can't go over 20 a week. I get about 10 right now at this job, but maybe will be picking up more. I may also get the position of supervisor and i'll get a 2 dollar raise which would be cool.

That is now. I'll report back later if I survive these next couple days. :S katie

A First for Andrew

2007-04-12T13:44:00.000-06:00

Like Jen, I love firsts and had one today.

Since January I have been working on a capstone project with some other seniors in the Computer Science Department at BYU. Today I presented that research at a competition and won first place. I think this is the first time I won something since the Arbor Day art contest in the first grade, and certainly the first time I've ever won anything of consequence. My CV has an emtpy space for the "Awards" section except for when I won Time magazine's "Person of Year" for 2006 (however, that was a shared honor).

So how about that: a first at my age.

A New Tradition

2007-04-10T14:16:00.000-06:00

Hey Family,

You may think this is dumb, but Al and I thought it would be fun if we started this family blog! We can just write a short note once in a while or a long one if a lots been going on. Just drop a note every once in a while to keep in touch or share a silly joke or funny story or something. This could be fun! Cheaper than cell phones and less time than mail! We can keep the author of each blog organized by simply using your name in the "Label" box--that way you can always find your own or all of someone else's. Everyone can write in it/share pictures/videos/ whatever your heart's content.

With Love, Katie