LACK-Dawg's

Approximately eight years ago, a large group of random people planned to take a weekend trip up to my cabin in Idaho.  The people consisted of old friends, new friends, ward friends, and friends of friends.  For a week or two we prepped, planned and anticipated for the big group.  In the end, only four came; Laura Leatherwood, Amy Shackelford, Celeste Johnson, and me.  Who would have ever thought such an unlikely grouping would become forever friends!?  

Amy and I met in the good ol' Island View Park Singles ward after she, Val & Holly moved up from Salt Lake City.  One of my first memories of Amy was on one Easter Sunday.  I walked into Sacrament meeting only to be accosted by a cheerful, smiling head, with an enormous Easter bonnet atop!  Only Amy could pull that off!  

Celeste is two years younger than me and we grew up in the same ward together.  We go back to the days of slicked back motorcycle hair (Celeste-ha ha), girl's camp antics, and forming our own branch of the Buttercream gang.  I usually didn't even mind driving that pesky sophomore to school.

I met Laura when I was a Senior in High School.  I was going on a trip with Adie's family and we picked up Laura on the way.  Before I ever met her, all I knew was that she was "the good eater" of the entire Leatherwood family, and let me tell ya....that is saying something!  We hit it off that trip and have never looked back.

So back to the cabin trip...aside from one or two mishaps on the drive up (who turns the radio up full-blast when one of the passengers worked the grave the night before??) we had a nice time.  Although, I actually don't remember the trip, all I know is ever since the four of us have been inseparable. Ok, that's a bit extreme, but we have spent a lot of time together, often going to dinner every single month.  We've had so many hilarious things happen and have had so much fun; one day I'll have to write our stories!  

So, you can imagine our shock and sadness when Amy announced her family was moving to Washington D.C.  Several of us got together at The Cheesecake Factory to say our farewells.  Good luck Amy, we miss you already!

Amy, Celeste, Laura, Me, Tandra & Holly

The LACK-Dawgs  (Laura, Amy, Celeste, Krista)

At least we have a FREE place to stay if we want to go back to D.C.!!

So Many Things....

....have transpired in the past month.  I suppose I should be a more consistent blogger so I don't forget everything.  Among the happenings: Ryan & I went to the BYU game in October, Kellee and I sang at Stake Conference, we had our annual niece/nephew Halloween party, Baby Ashton was blessed on November 2nd, and last weekend had a fun GNO.  

Another fun thing Ryan and I did was to hang out with Becky and Caleb.  Becky is my sister and she married Ryan's look-alike.  Ok, not really.  But we're practically related! Her sister Hollie is married to my brother Jed.  And Caleb and Ryan look a lot alike!

We went to eat at a Chinese restaurant where apparently I mortified Becky & Caleb by asking if I could make one or two substitutions, to which I was told, I COULD NOT!  I mean, what if I don't like the fried shrimp?  Ryan must be used to it.   After dinner, we went bowling where I CRUSHED everyone's score.  I bowled 126, Caleb 106, Becky 103, and Ryan....well, I don't know if he'll appreciate this, but he got 68.  HA HA.  Good times!

Here's some pics of the night:

We set the camera on the top of the car and set the timer.  We made them take several shots before the kibosh'd our further efforts!

Caleb & Becky

Ok, they're not twins or anything, but don't they look similar?!

Ry & Kris

Another car shot

After taking SIX (yes, six)  HIDEOUS pictures of ourselves, I finally cropped us out and put up a picture of our matching eyes! HA.

Becky kept asking all night long who had longer hair.  Finally, Caleb & Ryan decided to take a picture so we could see for ourselves.  You be the judge!!  

The Wench, the Hippie, and Mrs. America!

I love fall!  Everything the past month as been so beautiful.  The weather has been perfect and the leaves on the trees are so colorful!  I've had a fun month.  Ryan and I went to the BYU game three weeks ago, and two weeks ago I went with my family to my brother's cabin in Bear Lake, and this past weekend I went to Amberlee's fun Halloween party.

Amberlee has pictures of me at her very first birthday party, so you can imagine the history we have. In fact, be sure to ask her about our best friend necklaces when you get a chance!  HA.

Anyways, we went to her party on Saturday and had a fun time!  It was good seeing her and Katie.  Adie was supposed to come but she "went out with other friends," so we decided to take pictures of us having "the best time ever" to try and make her jealous. Ha ha!  The following pictures are the result:

And these are a few others I stole off Amberlee's blog...

By the way, Ryan and I dressed up as hippies; Trevor (who was in Moab) has a Captain America costume so Katie had to be Mrs. America; and Amberlee was a pirate wench!  

Amberlee took more pictures with her camera and I'm hoping to get them so I can post them soon!  Thanks for the fun times! (Now posted!)

Seriously Lacking...

....on the blog front! It's been over a month and a half! It's crazy too because it seems like there's been a lot to write about. Oh well. I'll go back...

Back in the first week of September, my 2nd oldest brother Brady got married. A few months prior, a close friend of Brady's pursuaded him to sign up for LDS Singles. After going out with one hoochie girl, he went on a date with Mindy. Now, mind you, Brady has been rather bitter towards women (and for good reason) for quite some time. So the following event had to be a miracle! Upon dropping Mindy off at her house on their first date, he got it. He got a strong impression she was to be his wife. If any of you know Brady, you'd know that whenever he heard stories about how people knew after one date, he'd roll his eyes and call 'em crazy! As he pulled out of her driveway, he uttered the words, "Oh, CRAP" (though to be honest, I don't think crap was the word he used)! He later said he felt like the Lord had to hit him over the head with it because he probably wouldn't have asked her out again (not because he didn't like her, but because he wasn't interested in getting serious with anyone). So after five months of dating, the got married in the Manti Temple for time and eternity. Our families made the trek to Manti and had a very nice time. After the ceremony we reconvened at the local B&B where they had a luncheon. Brady and Mindy had asked Kellee and I to sing a few love songs, which for any normal person would be fine. I, however, seem to bawl like a baby whenever singing at weddings.

Case in point: February, 2002, Jed (brother) & Hollie's wedding luncheon. It was the first time singing at the wedding of someone with whom I was closely related. Kellee beautifully started belting out the words to Martina McBride's "Valentine" while I waited for my verse to come. I got out the first four or five words out before a loud, PFFFTTTTT, was heard throughout the PA system when I started to cry. I stopped "singing" and proceeded to apologize into the microphone. Luckily, my sister-in-law RaNae motioned to Kellee to finish out my verse. I think I may have pulled it together somewhere towards the end of the song, but I really don't know as I've tried to block it from my memory.

Anyway, back to Brady's wedding, we sang "God Blessed the Broken Road," and "Standing Right Next to You," at their request and ALMOST got through it with a snafu. I was doing quite well until I looked around and saw that everywhere I turned someone was crying! My voice was rather shaky on a couple parts, but at least I didn't snort into the mic! After we sang we had a special surprise for the Newlyweds. Brady had requested us to sing a song called, "I've Got a Winner in You." It really is a cute song and had a sweet message, but Kellee and I weren't about to sing some Don Williams song, so I taught it to Brady's son, Preston. I played the guitar for him while he sang and it was a total surprise. If I thought people were crying during our two songs, then they were sobbing during his!

After the luncheon, the Fisher clan headed to Mt. Pleasant-where my mom grew up-and went to our grandparents headstones, the house my mom grew up in (which is now a cute B&B), and some of her relatives homes. Although there was one or two mishaps (just ask my brother Brett about his drive there), it was a very happy, wonderful day!

So, that was just one of the many things that have happened since my last posting. I'll put up pics from the wedding soon! :)

Events of August

Since today is the last day of August, I figured I better get caught on all that's happened. It's been quiet an eventful month!

Girl's Camp: August 12-15

I was quite looking forward to girl's camp this year, just as I always did when I was a young woman! We met up at 5:45am, had a devotional, and hit the road. We went to the Etna/Jackson Hole area to stay in our YW Pres's cabin. We got unpacked and unloaded and got right into it. Without giving a play-by-play of all that happened, I'll reveal some interesting observations and highlights of the trip.

-It is VERY different being a leader than being a young woman. And to be honest, I'm not sure which I like better. I actually kind of felt stuck in the middle. I liked being with the leaders and getting closer to them, but at the same time, I felt more comfortable, and more myself with the girls.

-I've always prided myself on being good with directions and knowing where I am, but when given a compass with coordinates, I was clueless. All of the girls were too, but not anymore!

-Girls can do impressive things when given a bag full of random items. We gave them bags filled with different objects that they had to make articles of "clothing" with to show off on the runway.

-River rafting on the Snake River is very different on different stretches of the river! I know this is a "duh" comment, but I thought going swimming/rafting in the Snake river every year of my life since I was born would not cause any nervousness in me. I was wrong. This stretch was not the same as the stretch in front of my cabin. However, once we got on the river, my nerves dissapated and we had a great time, even despite the arctic temperature of the river.

-Some girls are just happier than others! Or rather, Beehives are more oblivious and generally seem to always be happy!

-There is a LOT of drama that goes on behind the scenes. Sheesh. Perhaps I was being too idealistic in my views, but I was not expecting quite a production of this caliber.

-Don't ever let your YW President tell the girls right before testimony meeting that, "This is supposed to be testimony meeting, and not testi-STORY meeting." They end up feeling "gipped," because no one feels like they can say anything OTHER than their testimony and it ends up being done in 45 minutes. I mean, I know what she is trying to teach them, but for crying out loud, this is the ONE time a year that girls get to really vent and let out all their feelings.

-I like dutch oven cooking. :)

-Sitting around doing crafts with a bunch of girls is fun. I got so into it, the girls dubbed me, "Krafty Krista." They even made me a cute bag displaying that moniker. I'll have to take a picture and post!

Here are just a few pictures from camp:

A long day after being on the river

A very large cowboy boot

Priesthood leaders are fun to have around

Get that fire started or else we're not passing off your certification! :)

The Big Kahuna (Doesn't look near as daunting as it was!)

Going through the Big Kahuna--way blurry!

Some of the girls with their favorite leader. HA

All in all, we had lots of this. :)

Pain and Joy!

August 18th, and 20th

So, my dad has degenerative disc disease. About four years ago he had surgery to have three discs fused. Since then, his back has gotten worse and the time came that he needed to go back "under the knife," if you will. This time, they had to take out all the screws and do-dads from before, and then fuse two more on top, and two more below, meaning seven discs in all fused. Poor man. His surgery went well, but now, almost two weeks later he is still majorly suffering. After the last time he had surgery, he was superman and had an extremely speedy recovery. This time is clearly different, and it's starting to weigh on his spirits a bit. However, he is quite groggy much of the time since they have him doped up on so much pain meds, which by the way, he would absolutely hate if he was at all coherent! Anyway, hopefully he will recover well and be back to himself soon!

Upon returning to his room after surgery, my dad's lips were quite swolen due to the anesthetic. I told him, "Dad, I didn't know you were coming in today for Botox injections!" Still "under the influence," he kept pursing his lips saying he was inpersonating Britney Spears. I don't even know if she's done the Botox thing, but nonetheless, he kept saying it. Ha ha, I hope he doesn't kill me for posting this. :)

Here's my dad with the T-man :)

Get well soon, Dad!

Not two days after my dad's surgery, we were blessed with a new bundle of joy! Jed and Hollie had their 2nd baby on August 20th, at 7:44am. He was TEN pounds even. Oh he is a cute little chunk! I'm so excited for them and for us, cause we love having babies in the family. This is Ashton Jed Fisher:

So precious!

Chunky little baby. So cute!

CapitOl Reef

Ryan and I wanted to get away so we decided to take a quick trip down to CapitOl Reef National Park. I've been going there for years now and I wanted him to partake of its greatness! My first time to CapitOl Reef was for our Senior trip. Oh, the memories! Adie's family has a summer home in Teasdale and that's where we decided to go to celebrate our graduation. In fact, I'll have to post pictures from that first trip. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to travel there many, many times and it holds a very special place in my heart.

For Ryan and I the weather was overcast and rainy most of the time, which was good and bad. Nice, because it was cool. Bad, because we couldn't go down CapitOl Reef Gorge due to the possibility of flash floods. Nevertheless, we went to Fruita, the waterfall, Gooseneck overlook and drove all over seeing the sites. It was relaxing and wonderful to spend time together!

I forgot my camera so I turned to my trusty-though poor quality-cell phone camera and produced these masterpieces:

Isn't this beautiful country?

Notice how red the river is.

At the top of the waterfall. Can you tell I cropped myself into the pic with Ryan? We took pictures of each other in the same spot, but I wanted us together. Ha ha

Some kind of craziness going on.

Ryan at the Gooseneck overlook

The Fremont River. I've never seen it this red!

Serious driving going on.

I'd also like to thank Melissa, who I have been with MANY, MANY times in Capitol Reef, for pointing out my error in spelling it wrong. I mean, seriously...can anyone tell me why it is Capitol and not Capital?!

It's August?

Where has the summer gone? I never got around to blogging about our time at the cabin, but rest assured we had a wonderful time! As always, we swam in the river, rode the four-wheelers all over, went tubing, body floated from the bridge, played bacce, went into town to get ice-cream at Dave's (who has incidentally raised the price from .79 cents to .99 cents! As much as they pack in those cups though, it is WELL worth it!), went to the Ashton City 4th of July parade (which is a pretty awesome parade since they go through town once, then turn around and go back through again! They threw out candy, t-shirts, balloons, toys and even walked around giving out chocolate milk cartons), went to Rexburg to shop at the scrapbook stores, went to Mack's Inn Theater and saw a satirical musical called The Phantom of the Grand Ol' Opry, and of course, I did my fair share of reading (The Twilight series)! It was nice to go for 10 days, but it still didn't seem long enough.

Since then, life has returned to normal, which translates to busyness. Luckily our KSS rehearsals have ceased during the summer, but I'm still working at LDS Hospital, putting in almost sixty hours a week. Young Women's is rather busy as we are coming upon the ever-exciting Girl's Camp next week! I really love the girls in the ward and can't wait to go, but I'll blog more about that when I get back!

Here are a few pics from the cabin:

The whole fam goin' floatin!

Bracken, Dallin, Brookie, Kellee, Tayson & Nicole on the cabin lawn

Ryan-getting reading to go float the river

Beautiful view of the Snake River





Me, Hollie & Cola






Baby Tayson. I love him!





Nicole, me, Hollie & mom enjoying our prime rib dinner





Dallin & Bracken begged Kellee and I to take a midnight dip in the river. We finally agreed after they said they'd give us a foot massage for 40 minutes each!






Bro's Ryan & Weston at the Ashton parade

The watermelon eating contest in town. Weston & Ryan

Go Lexie, Bracken, Dallin and Alisha!

Takin a Stroll Down Memory Lane...

I'm jumpin on board!

1. As a comment on my blog, write about a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next (if you choose to), re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.(Even if you don't want to re-post this on your blog, leave a comment anyway.)

Three Whole Years!

It was three years ago today I met Ryan. I remember what he was wearing and the first thing he said to me. He was witty, quirky, sweet and all of twenty-three years. We eventually had our first kiss, and the rest is history.

Today was our day to celebrate our time together. He arrived at my house around 6:30pm with a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers. From there, he took me to one of our favorite restaurants, Tepanyaki. As always it was delicious! Oh, and I only spilled on my shirt about eighty-four times! Sheesh! (At least it wasn't as bad as the time Laura spilled a plate of cheesecake in her lap though.)

Anyway, we thought about going to the fireworks in Ogden but decided to go buy our own. We went to Smith's and spent approximately $15 (big spenders) on fireworks we never even lit. We got back to my house and opened the gifts we got each other. I got him the game of Bacce, and he gave me a new MP3 player and wrote me a beautiful letter. Wow, he is the most amazing writer I know. Gosh, I wish I could post the letter for the world to see! He really is just so intelligent and creative and I don't know how he puts his words together. I could say the same thing he says but it would be so plain and ordinary! So, after reading his sweet letter (and shedding a couple tears-cause I'm a sap) we layed on the trampoline, watched the stars, and talked for hours. It was such a perfect night!

I love you Ry!

Pretty flowers!

Happy Anniversary to you!

After several attemps at taking our own picture, this is the best we could come up with!

The Manti Pageant

Warning: Ranting/Raving Blog Ahead!

After spending a rather uneventful day working at LDS Hospital, I was excited to meet up with Ryan and head out to good ol' San Pete County. I left work with an expectant giddiness as I made my way westwardly on North Temple. As there are several different possible routes that would take me to meet Ryan, I called him to ask which one he'd suggest. He concluded that during rush hour traffic, they would all be bad. I made the decision, and chose very, very un-wisely. Let me just say to anyone traveling in the Salt Lake Valley, don't ever take the 201 westbound to Bangerter around 5pm. HUGE mistake! I was so anxious to get on the road that the terrible traffic and a slight miscommunication with Ryan almost resulted in a near meltdown for me!

By 6:20 we'd finally made it to I-15 and were well on our way. Things, by now, were going much smoother! We went to Manti by way of Springville, Indianola and Mount Pleasant. Once in Mt. Pleasant, (which is also where my mom grew up) we made a stop at the cemetary to visit my grandparent's grave. I wanted to show Ryan where they were buried, but I also wanted to visit myself, since it had been several years since I'd been. I found it right away and it was nice to take a moment to think of them. I hadn't realized, but they had both passed away 20 years ago. Time sure does fly!

Shortly after, we were back on the road in hot pursuit of our destination! Ok, it wasn't a hot pursuit, but we were both pretty hungry and wanted to get there in time! We arrived in Manti and since it was a Wednesday night, saw that it wasn't too crowded. We found a great parking spot only a couple hundred yards or so from the action and headed to the seating area. We found great seats right in the middle section on the seventh row. What luck! We put down our blankets and went to seek out some food. They had a "food court" area with several different booths offering various "cuisines." We settled on some very healthy choices and shared home-made curly fries, "famous" marinated turkey, and a funnel cake with caramel topping. (By the way, while standing in line, I noticed how terrible the mosquitos were. I'd already gotten six bites at this point! Luckily, I brought bug-spray along, unfortunately, it wasn't seeming to work!) With ten minutes to spare before the pageant started, we sat down and started scarfing our food. About the time I was shoving curly fries down my throat, I noticed a woman and a young man walking aound the table at which we were sitting. They walked slightly past, spoke to each other, and then came back and asked if the seats next to us were taken. (Clearly, they were not, along with the four empty tables surrounding us.) The first thing they asked was if we had ever been to Manti before. I knew immediately they were not from the area and was immediately put on guard because I'd already seen all the protesters in front of the temple grounds. The next question they asked was if we were LDS. We, of course, said yes, and then I asked them what religion they were. They said they were Christian. I said, "Oh, are you here to protest the pageant?" (Ryan later told me he thought that was pretty bold and slightly rude, but hey, I said it in a nice way, AND I've dealt with protesters before and didn't want to get into it with them!) Anyway, they said no, they weren't prostesting, they were there to find truth. I got a little excited for a minute because I thought, "Wow, maybe they really want to know!" Needless to say, they pulled out their copies of the Book of Mormon and began to question different principles and beliefs. I thought it was so strange, the young guy kept bringing up the scripture Moroni 10:32 that talks about being perfected in Christ and denying ourselves of ungodliness. He kept saying, "How can we be perfect? How can we deny everything ungodly? So you have to be completely perfect to go to heaven?" Of all scriptures to choose to contest, I was confused as to why that one. I think it is a wonderful scripture that talks about giving all we can, and THEN by God's grace we can be perfected in Him.

By now, the show was about to start soon. I didn't "bible bash" with them, but just tried to bear my testimony that if they truly were seeking the truth then they should really read the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart and the desire to know. I told them I didn't want to be rude, but the show was starting and I didn't want to miss it! We got up and started walking and they walked all the way back to the temple with us. It was clear they weren't there just to "find truth!" In their defense though, they were actually quite polite and not too pushy, but it was still not the way I was hoping to start my Manti Pageant experience, nor for Ryan!

We got to our seats right as the prayer started and got settled in. I was praying that it would be a great show and Ryan and I could feel the Spirit. At this point, however, I couldn't help but notice the relentless pain/itchiness of the dozens of mosquito bites I now had! Grrr! They were everywhere, including several on my butt! I tried to ignore them and focus on the show, and it worked for awhile. There were a lot of cool effects, and if you haven't been in several years, they've updated a lot of things technically. It seems to be a bigger production too. About the time I started forgetting about my "protester" encounter, and the mosquito bites, I became aware of the four young teen boys directly behind us. At first, they were only making rude comments now and then, and mocking some of the narration. Soon after, it was more giggling and whispering. Not wanting to put a damper on their "fun," I let it go for awhile, but eventually turned and gave a quiet, "shh." It quieted them for awhile, but before long, one of them farted and they all started laughing and making farting noises! Are you kidding me?! By this point I was starting to get mad and I was worried cause I really wanted Ryan to get something out of the pageant. I kept telling myself, "It doesn't matter, just ignore them and focus!" But it was so hard! At the most climactic part of the play, (when all the angels appear in white on the hill and the couple reunites) these dumb boys were full-blown talking. I turned directly around and went, "SHHH!!!" It finally shut them up, but by this time I was so angry and the closing prayer was being said. After the prayer, I just wanted to turn around and say, "Don't you know how rude you were being?! Don't you know the person directly in front of you is trying to find answers about the church and all you did was talk, and laugh the ENTIRE time, therefore ruining it for the rest of us?!" Ha ha! I didn't say anything to them of course, and I know they were just young boys having fun. Even though there were some mishaps, it really was a fun night and I was happy to spend it with Ryan. The funniest part about it all is that Ryan thought nothing of the "protesters," nary complained about a bite, and he didn't even notice the talking-boys.

Go figure!

A Little of this and that!

For the past three weeks I've been working a lot of overtime. I've been working down at LDS Hospital in the Maternal Fetal Medicine Department (my old job) twice a week. It's nice because anything I work over 40 hours, I get paid time and a half. I've been trying to save up as much money as I can since I've lately been on a big Dave Ramsey kick! For those of you who haven't heard of him, he is a financial guru who has had several books on the New York Times best seller list. He also does a radio program on 570AM every night from 7-10. I may be a nerd, but I love listening to his show! He is a Christian guy who believes it is important to not only save, but to give (as in tithing). The biggest points he tries to make are, get debt-free, don't use credit cards, and don't finance anything. During a portion of his show, he has people call in who have used his program and have become debt-free. They count down from three and yell, "We're debt free!" It sounds pretty cheesy, but it's actually really inspiring and I always get choked up because you can tell how "free" these people have become. Anyway, I've been following his plan for a few months and have become slightly obsessed. I'm completely debt-free and have saved over three months worth of income, on top of paying the maximum on my 401K. Another bonus, he's funny and has a cute southern accent. HA!
In other news, my brother Jed and his wife Hollie just bought a new house. They moved back here to Utah from Las Vegas almost two years ago and still have been unable to sell their house down there. Imagine paying a mortgage (a big one, too!) on a house you haven't lived in for almost two years! The market in Vegas is terrible and I guess there are hundreds of empty homes down there. BUT, at least they finally were able to get some renters, which has enabled them to get a home here. On Wednesday, the entire fam came together again to help them move in all their stuff. Ryan and I were also there tonight putting on doors and doorknobs. We also got to hang with Becky and Caleb for a little bit too! Becky is Hollie's sister and her husband Caleb looks rather similiar to Ryan. She must have good taste! Anyway, I'm really happy for Jed and Hollie, and my adorable niece Brookie!

This is what happened to Brooke the last time she spent the day with Aunt Becky. She was goin to town on that ice cream!