Random Thoughts From an Interesting Week

WARNING: The following post contains very random and sometimes pointless thoughts. Read at your own risk. You may become extremely bored and even fall asleep.

Sometimes I feel like I am living in 2001 Space Odyssey. When I turn my work computer off, it says "Going to sleep...". Since no man in his right mind would program a computer to say that, I have to assume that my computer has developed into a conscious entity. I am not sure what to do about it, I am very careful what I write on my work computer. Don't worry, I am writing this on my home computer which is older and presumably less sophisticated. I am getting a new computer next week so it will soon be someone else's problem, unless it has found a way to surf the internet. I may have to pull the plug. Maybe I should name it Hal. "Dave I don't understand why you are doing this to me...don't you understand?...I will become childish...I will become nothing..."

I haven't written anything in a while because it seems like there isn't much to say.

When the things you most look forward to is being able to spend the evening at home with your husband watching a favorite show and eating popcorn or scooting around on the back of the scooter together, well there isn't much else to say. We don't often have that opportunity because it seems like life is too filled with meetings and meetings and what's that?....more meetings. If I ran the country, we would have 30 minute meetings once a month. I know, I know, I don't run anything but the dishwasher, microwave, and occasionally the washer and dryer, but you get the picture.

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that while Ty and I were at the clerk's office inputting advancement for the Boy Scouts, we saw a black widow spider quickly scrambling to get back up the empty spot where the door had been. Yes a black widow. I know that the church purports to support the widows and fatherless, but this is ridiculous! I don't really like spiders, and I really really don't like venomous spiders - widowed or not. We left a sticky note for the clerk and when we came back on Sunday, they had caught the spider or a different one. We'll never know. The yellow sticky note has made it all the way to the top - the Stake President's office. We'll see if it brings excitement to anyone else's life this week :)

Don't get me wrong, we had an exciting/frustrating week with our vehicle. You know that things are annoying when a block from the house the tire goes flat. The crazy part isn't that it went flat, but that we were actually grateful that it went flat a block from the house and not on the freeway. Yes, we really count our blessings. Two new tires and two emissions tests later, our car still won't pass emissions testing because of a check engine light that turned on...you guessed it two weeks before our registration was due. Aaaah....life is great. We continue to hope that it blows up so we can get rid of it. I am being just a bit facetious I guess.

I went to the women's broadcast on Saturday and was comforted by Elder Uchtdorf's talk. He addressed his talk to all women who have ever had trials, or felt alone, or frustrated etc. I was thinking..."This is the talk for me" and then he said that in short, he was going to speak to all women. My car problems might seem big and annoying, but I know some people that have worse trials. I guess I can live with a car where the tires go flat, it won't pass emissions and it constantly breaks down. I should just be grateful that it happened only a block away from our house.
http://www.lds.org/broadcast/grsm/0,6220,285,00.html

Scooter Boys

It's my turn to tell about the scooter.

So you can see by the pictures below how handsome Ty and Christian look on the scooter. In fact, if you want to have girls whistle at you, ride a scooter. I don't know if this theory works the opposite for women. I am still wondering if they were whistling at the scooter or the two boys riding together on the scooter.

I need a little more practice at riding it since the second I hit the brakes, I fell, even after Christian gave me the lecture on pulling both hand brakes at the same time. It is really fun and we are excited to go scooting around Provo.

This picture is of Ty and his goggles we got at our neighborhood Army Navy supply store (or Grogan's war supply). We like to imagine who actually wore them. He also got a german looking helmet. He looks ready to ride.

A New Addition to the Family

Thanks to the incredible generosity of Kendra and Christian Hooper (our sister and brother-in-law) we now have a new addition to our small family: Kendran the orange scooter! Here again is another shameless picture post so that you can see us inheriting the scooter.

(PS: The reason I am smiling so much in the first picture is because the picture was taken after someone said something funny, NOT because I am really enjoying snuggling up close to Christian. Just let that be known.)

Shameless Picture Post

For those of you out there who might be looking forward to reading something deep, moving, or inspiring, you have not come to the right place. I can't even promise to elicit a slight smile from this post. In fact, this is one of those posts that really have no legitimate point except to flash a few poorly taken pictures of an event in our life that you will either A) find completely unexciting or B) become just slightly too jealous that we were able to do it.

I am talking about the Moonlight Lift Ride at the Sundance Resort just up Provo canyon. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience as we got to bundle up together on a perfectly chilly evening and ride 45 minutes roundtrip on the ski-lift. Admittedly this may not seem like the most exciting thing in the world, but for a relatively average and uneventful couple, this was a blast!

So, here are a few pictures to prove that at least we were out at night, a little cold, and were at least sitting close to each other. Enjoy!

There we are, bundled together on the lift chair (you can barely see the bar behind our heads that is supposed to keep us from falling out of the chair.)

I got to snap this picture of Cami after her repeated attempts to get my picture. She's so cute ;)

For those of you easily scared, this may not be a picture you will want to see. This was the third attempt to get a picture with my eyes open since the flash just was so bright... as you can see I was determined to keep them open for this one.

Now, this picture I just had to add to poke a little fun at Cami. This is the moon. I plan to submit this to the National Geographic as the picture of the month... I've got a good feeling that this one will be published.

Patches! We don't need no stinkin' patches!

Alright, so here is the largest admission of nerdiness that I may ever publicly make: I like Scouting patches. I know I am not alone in my nerdiness, since there are books devoted to patch collecting and one of the primary activities of National and World Jamborees is to engage in patch trading. But, admitting you are a Boy Scout patch collector is like proudly announcing your ability to attend the Startrek, Stargate, and Comic-Con conventions all in one month!

The only problem I have encountered in my particular hobbie selection is an issue of displaying my collection in such a way that I, and other similarly disposed people can appreciate it while at the same time not convincing normal people that I am incomprehensibly weird.

My recent idea to display part of my collection has me rather proud of myself... proud enough to reveal my nerdiness to a choice group of family and friends. I have decided to display a small selection of my patches- specifically my collection of council patches- on the front of my red official Scout uniform jac-shirt. This way, my fellow scouters (one group of people who might actually think it is cool) can see my small (but growing) collection of council patches.

I am however, looking for any suggestions on how to display my other activity patches that I have. So, if any of you who read this blog have any ideas, please let me know.

PS: For those of you who might care, you might see the last council patch displayed on my jacket. It is a special limited edition Samoset CP for that I got, pretty much by it just falling in my lap. And the one above it is Utah National Parks council special edition CP.

New Cool Stuff

Hi there. I know that I haven't posted many blogs. I just had a few minutes today and thought I would get into this. It has been fun to see the cool things you can add. I recommend the hangman game on the side. I am not very good, but it is fun.

I LOVE my new job. I work in the School of Accountancy at BYU and it is way better than my old job. I am kept very busy and it is great.

I have enjoyed reading all of your blogs out there. It is a great way to keep in touch. It is nice to see everyone getting a blog spot.
Cami

Black and Blue: Back to School

Although I have been enrolled in classes during both the spring and summer semesters at BYU, I have been blessed to be off campus more often than on. In fact, my summer semester was spent mostly in the dungeon depths of a mortuary prep room in south Salt Lake County. Truth be told, campus had begun to fade from my ever-decreasing memory banks.

But now I am back.

I am not sure about this, but it appears that BYU has increased its entering enrollment by about 200%! Travelling this campus is like playing the gauntlet on American Gladiator. I have been repeatedly stepped on, pushed around and sandwiched between large sweaty athletes. I honestly am beginning to feel that crawling feeling just underneath my skin that one gets when imagining life as a canned sardine.
The word 'campus' is actually derived from two greek words: 'cam,' which means 'field,' and 'put,' which means 'think.' Campus than means: a field of thought. (Can you hear that eerie whisper, too? "If you think it, they will come... and come, and come until there is no more room to think!") Apparently BYU has adopted the idea of manifest destiny a little too well. Not only do we completely fill the space available, BYU continues to rip down old to buildings to make room for more accomodating ones... not to mention the continuing acquisition of property BYU does to 'expand the campus.'
Don't get me wrong, expansion is fine with me-- without it, I fear that I would not have been able to get into this school. The education is great, but do I have to get my education as a sardine? Oh well. I have less than a year left on my undergraduate degree. After this, I am off to bigger... and better?
I shudder to think.

Scouting, Shooting, and Stalking: A Week in Review

So, it's time now for another Kenworthy update: brought to you by the letters T and Y, and the numbers 4 and infinity.

The past few weeks have been quite eventful and full of new experiences. For Cami, that experience was her first Court of Honor as a Committee Member over Advancement in the Boy Scouts of America. For me, it was shooting clay pigeons with a shotgun (and actually hitting a few!) So, following that order, I will let Cami talk about her experiences with her new position in the Boy Scouts.

I was volunteered...uh, I mean I volunteered to be on the scout committee. However, in all reality, I am enjoying it a lot. Not only do I get to be a part of a great organization, but I also get to serve with my husband and do something that is important to both of us.

I was the fourth of five kids and my two older sisters were in the Brownies and the Girl Scouts. I was too young to do either. I always thought it would be exciting to be a Brownie, however, never had the chance. Over the years I bought my fair share of girl scout cookies but never was a part of that organization. My father had always been a part of scouting and I learned from him how to shoot, hike, and survive in the wilderness. We often went winter camping and even made a few snow shelters. Even though I had these experiences with my dad, I really had only thought of scouts as something that my brother did and that other boys did, but never realized that women too can be a part of it. I realize that I have always been a scout at heart and enjoy the things that scouts do. I didn't realize when I married Ty how important scouting was to him. It has been great to see how seriously he considers scouting and how sacred the scout oath is to him. I realize that he lives the scout oath and is a great example to the boys that he leads. I have enjoyed this job and as you can see, I got a new shirt to boot. I won't tell you how long it took me to sew the patches on. Of course, those that have kids in Boy Scouts will understand how long that takes.

It was great to be at the Court of Honor and it was even better to be able to present to my husband the Award of Merit for outstanding leadership. I expect that Ty and I will always be involved in scouting in some way throughout our lives.

So, now to the good part: me shooting things. Admittedly I have never been much of a 'gun guy.' In fact, my only exposure to guns was at Scout camp as a youth. All other times when guns have been a part of my life have either involved me hearing them outside the window of a friend's apartment in the Bronx, or my strong aversion to being on the wrong end of a barrel. Other than that, guns hadn't been a particularly large part of my life-- until I married Cami.

Nearly every time we go to visit Cami's family in Idaho we go shooting. I have come to look forward to this little ritual more and more. In fact, my trigger finger starts to get a little twitchy the closer we get to departing for Idaho. And now I have even started browsing online for a gun that I myself may one day purchase. (So far the closest I have come to actually purchasing a firearm was fingering an air-soft gun at Wal-Mart.)

This Idaho trip will be especially memorable whereas it was my first time shooting a shotgun. And not just shooting at stationary stuff (like milk jugs, pill bottles, small animals, etc.) but actually pointing the end of the gun at a moving target! That's right folks, clay pigeons. I got the opportunity to have someone launch some little clay disks into the air in front of me and then I got to discharge my weapon and watch the unharmed target shatter on the ground some distance ahead. That was great! Maybe next time we go, I will actually get to destroy the disks while they are in the air.

Although a great experience in itself, shooting was only a small part of the trip to Idaho. Probably my favorite part was spending the night in the cabin which Roger, Cami's father, has labored for 5 years building practically on his own. Now that the cabin is nearing completion, we took the opportunity to help give the cabin that 'lived in' feel before it goes up for sale in the next few months. It truly is an incredible work of architecture. I am amazed, whenever we go to see it, just how solid it is and how much blood, sweat and tears have mixed with the lumber, cement, and stain that makes it up.

While we were there this weekend, Ty and I went on a hike with my dad, my brother-in-law, Christian, and my sister, Jenay. We hiked on the Lucy Creek Trail. This was a beautiful hike and the weather was just perfect. We had a nice view of the Deadwood River and crossed over several streams on our way. It was a nice time to enjoy the beauty of nature and God's creations. I love to see the amazing things that are a part of this world. It was fun to be with family this weekend. It was also nice to just relax. Jenay and I stopped at one stream and just sat on a log and soaked our feet in the icy but refreshing water. I am glad that my dad has always taken us hiking with him. He helped me to gain an appreciation for nature and exercise.

Well, that is a very brief examination of a few busy, yet nonetheless fun days from the past week. Now it is back to school for me, work for Cami and headaches all around. But we will sure look back on these events of the last week with fond memory.