Havin fun with make-up!

So as I said in my last post, all my friends went berserk over my make-up job at Saturday's party. My friend Janna has some major appearances that she has to make as a wicked haggy witch this week and she asked me to do her make-up for it. I LOVE that kind of stuff!! Here was the "trial run" that we did yesterday.


Sorry the picture is so bad. I only had my camera phone with me.


I love how the nose and the chin turned out!


Today with full costume! What do you think?


I think she looks awesome!!! (If I do say so myself!)

Murder Mystery

Saturday night, Matt and I went to a Murder Mystery dinner with all of our friends. Earlier in the week we were each assigned a character to dress up as. Matt was Count Mernoff - a real life VAMPIRE. You know, for as long as I can remember I've had this thing for vampires/Dracula. No, not because of THAT certain BOOK and all the hype behind THOSE characters. It was from a movie that I saw when I was young. Dracula appears and with his hypnotic eyes weakens all of the damsels abilities to fight him off. She simply turns her neck to allow him to BITE. Ohhhhhhh, soooooo romantic!! I loved it! So I was quite thrilled to see Matt in the Count Mernoff get-up.


My character was... a clown. I KNOW. How non exciting can that be?? When I saw what I was supposed to be I was so disappointed. A clown?? Wuh?? So I took matters into my own hands and created this look.


My sister, Brenda told me that I looked like "IT"'s girlfriend. I guess that might be close...


All ready to go!


Crazy-Clown-Girl and my friend Janna, AKA Poison Pen



Poison Pen and her hubby Darren Dirk (Todd)



Kerrie was Miss Scarlet. Her husband Dave, was supposed to be Don Juan - a very suave lady's man. But Dave did his own thing and came as Don Juan's brother - Doug.


Stan - Black Jack poker man, and his lOveLY wife - Nurse Ratchett (Cami)



Mad Bomber - Charlie Erickson our YM president!




Amber and Graham - The Cowgirl was a suspect and Cyclops totally ratted her out!





Leslie, our TOP GUN executive starts things off by giving us details of the "murder". Who are the suspects?? Well in a room full of assassins - we ALL were!



This was a fun evening!! Everyone oohed and aahhhed over my makeup job (compared to my "CATS" makeup this was easy!). My friend, Janna wants me to do her makeup for her witch costume this coming week. I will post some pictures of that later.

UEA weekend get-a-way

We totally took advantage of the kids having Thursday and Friday off and Matt having no school (YES!) this weekend. We loaded the camper and wheelers up and went WEST. Last spring, Matt went exploring out by Tooele and discovered Delle and the Knolls. It's a pretty neat place to go riding and exploring. Brenda, Chris and their kids came out Thursday night and stayed until Friday afternoon. Our kids could only stay until Friday as well so we made the most of it until then. For even more pics go here , here and here to Brenda's blog.

This is a really neat abandoned cement plant that we explored. It was HUGE. Too many deep drop offs inside though for my liking. I'm not good with heights or edges or death by falling or anyone else being near the edge or something really, REALLY high. Just about makes me pass out.



Lauren, Shannon and Trevor going in to the elevator that went to no where...




Matt laughing at my inability to go anywhere near this total drop off. It was deep and scary, trust me.




This was what looked to be a giant oven. Something the witch in Hansel and Gretel might have used. Christopher did not want to climb in either.




Madison and Ellie working the controls




These stairs led to a dark dungeon. It was creepy.




Brenda and Chris. This was taken down in the dungeon. I think that they were overtaken by spirits, you can see it in their eyes! Spooky!




Big mixing drum thing. Are those blotches in this picture from dust particles, or could they possibly be... ghosts? The spirits of dead cement workers that are haunting this place?? Is that why it's been abandoned?? Whooooooooooo




Outside! In the fresh and unhaunted air. It was such a nice day - perfect weather!



My niece, Lauren. And just for the record, this was already there. Promise.




Back at camp and getting ready for a ride!




An old abandoned bus we found. It's probably not that old, but everything rusts quickly with this much salt around.




On a side note: Madison had a loose tooth. She wrapped some dental floss around it and let me yank it out. She wasn't even scared. It wasn't until after I pulled it out that I realized her mom should have had the honor of pulling Madi's first tooth. My bad. Sorry sis! You can pull Ellie's first tooth. (Does it count that the dentist already pulled the first one?? Sorry, um you can have the second tooth then!)



Those who have weak stomachs look away.




Shelby and I at the Salt Flats. It wasn't what I expected. I just thought that there would be... less water.




Matt and Shelby



Matt giving her some salt to taste.



On Saturday it was just Matt, Shelby and I. We spent most of the day riding and exploring the Mountains to the north of us. This is looking out towards Willard Peak.



The Great Salt Lake. Antelope Island is behind this first mountain I believe.



This is my new favorite picture of Matt and Shelby. We stopped to eat some lunch and these two were just in their own little world. I took a couple of pictures while they were unsuspecting.


Eating a rock.



With my guy!! This was such a fun trip and just what we both needed!

White belt

Christopher had his first Tae Kwon Do test on Friday night to get his white belt. It was really cool to watch him go through all of his basics and then his forms.



I'm going to apologize now for the picture quality. I had to turn my flash off in order to get any picture at all. And I was standing in the back hold Shelby who was a little squirmy that night!



Master Goonan said that he is a very good student! He did such a good job and we are so proud of him!

Transplant

My dad had his second stem-cell transplant on Friday at the Huntsman Center in SLC. I got to be there this time and it was really neat. Due to a fever spike the week before and the day of we weren't sure if he was going to stay on schedule. But they gave the okay.

In the waiting room.

My sister Jana, Noel (Amy's boyfriend), sister Amy and my mom.

BMT Clinic at Huntsman


He was so sick from the chemo and he slept through most of the transplant


Pulling out the frozen stem-cells. I think they were at a minus 320 degrees.


Dr. Tricot gives the okay for the transplant. He is such a wonderful man.



They gave my dad lollipops to suck on during the transplant. The DMSO (preservative that they combine with his stem-cells so that they don't break down) is quite powerful. It not only smells bad but puts a horrid taste in my dad's mouth. So they combat that with some sugary goodness!




My dad's stem-cells


These little guys have been on ice since they were harvested from my dad back in June. They originally collected 30+ million stem-cells. He received 4 million stem-cells for his first transplant in July. This time he is getting two bags for a total of 7 million stem-cells.


Getting things hooked up


If you looked close you could see clumps of the stem-cells through the IV. It was really neat. I tried to get a close-up, but the camera had a hard time focusing on the IV tube. So this is the best I could do.



This was a really neat experience... It is amazing to me what these doctors and nurses do to save the lives of their patients. I am so grateful to them for their knowledge and compassion. It is hard to watch my dad be so sick - but he and my mom have such positive attitudes. I'm so very proud to be their daughter!