Hi Family - I obviously need help on figuring out how to use this crazy family blog. Blogs are a mystery - my generation was all about privacy and identity protection. This new tech is all about baring your soul to the entire world (including future friends, spouses, employers, etc). I really don't get it. After my lame attempt to post to the blog, I will use old email tech to send around a similar message.

My thought tonight: mom and dad just had their 49th anniversary, and mom has thrown down the gauntlet, basically telling us kids it is our responsiblity to come up with and idea for their 50th anniversary. So here is my brainstorm - braindump as I sit in my boring hotel in Norwalk CT. Note: I have given no thought to finances yet which is obviously a concern for all of us, so this is just a brainstorm.

-Charter a motor home and go on a 2 week cross country tour (adults only) with video cams and tape recorders to make a documentary on all key places in their lives (high schools, old houses, job locations, ward houses, hotel brigham, slc temple, etc)

-Charter a bus and go from temple to temple on the east coast, doing sessions from Orlando to Boston

-Charter a sailboat and cruise the carribean

-Surprise party at some place cool, like a resort or something on MD eastern shore

-No charter no travel, but we all work to make a video presentation like "This is your life" - include multi media photos from their wedding, young married life, etc

-Week at the beach with adults only

-Give them a free night at a bed and breakfast in hunt country va then show up with all of us and our kids for a surprise dinner party

-Send a letter to Sarah Palin and ask her to have dinner with mom and dad (ok it's late)

-invite them to a temple session with just the adults and their spouses, and then they show up and they see 80 closest friends and relatives ready to go through the session

-family trip to grand canyon, glacier national park, or yellowstone

-sell their house for them and buy them a condo (ok, now it's really late)

-I'm done.

Please let me know your thoughts. 8/11/2010 will be here WAY TO SOON

Lizzy!

Happy Belated 9th Birthday to Elizabeth Terry!!!!! It's late because I'm a horrible sister and since yesterday was Saturday I was completely consumed by work and didn't look/think about the date once. :( Sorry, Bibby! I hope you had a good day!!

Listen to Meagan's Christmas Concert!!!!!!!!!

So, I don't know if anyone who doesn't already know this will read it on time, but tonight the BYU Choir's Celebration of Christmas will be broadcast live on KBYU, which means you can listen to it online at kbyu.com! It starts at 7:30 mst, which makes it 8:30 for the Aase fam, and 9:30 for everyone else. The concert last night was excellent. I promise you'll love it. Also, it will be rebroadcast on kbyu on Sunday December 21 at 5pm MST. They are also taping it for byutv, but it won't be on until next Christmas since they have to edit it to make it look perfect. I hope you all are having a fabulous December! I'll be home in 12 days and counting!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It sounded like you did a lot of fun stuff this year. Don't forget to write all about it and put up some pictures!! Meagan and I are in Henderson, NV staying with Mom's family and it's been a lot of fun. Yesterday we met Sarah at a mall in Las Vegas and had lunch. (I brought my camera, but I don't think it was used at all.)

Have a wonderful weekend! Meagan and I will be home in 20 days and counting! I love you!

If You're Reading...

Greetings from Provo, Knudson Family!

I don't know if anyone ever reads this blog besides Meagan and Kristi and me, but I decided to let the family know what is going on in my life right now anyway.

I don't have a whole lot going on, just school. Homecoming is this week and it's neat to see the Y all lit up. I'm not going to any of the dances, and I wish I were going to the Spectacular, but I'll settle for the football game. GO COUGARS! Like Sister Samuelson says, this is a great season to be a fan of BYU Football.

In school, I just finished my 4th midterm of the past 2 weeks marking the end of the first period of extended stress. I do have another midterm next week...and one in volleyball as well...so maybe I should be a little more worried than I am. I like my classes and I'm learning a lot this semester. One thing that helps is that my geology and geography of landforms classes cover a lot of the same material, so I kind of learn it twice and that helps my grade in both classes. Volleyball is fun, and we might actually start playing in teams soon instead of doing drills to practice specific drills. Yesterday was the worst! The skill was blocking--probably the thing I'm worst at, and the drills are horrible. In the gym, there are three full volleyball courts side by side. For the drill, we learned the two-step block and had to do it all the way down the line of all three nets. Step, step, jump, step, step, jump...all the way down 3 nets. Then we learned a three-step block. We did that all the way down the nets: step, stepstep, jump, step, stepstep, jump. Then, we learned another three-step block. Same thing, all the way down: step, step, turn, step, jump. Finally, we had to go all the way down the net in combination! step, step, jump, step, stepstep, jump, step, step, turn, step, jump! I seriously wanted to run out of the gym screaming. Blocking is my worst skill because jumping is my worst ability. My teacher did say that if any girl gets a block, she gets an A. For me, it's out of the question as the nets we use are even higher than MEN's standard height. So, that was my 15 minutes of torture yesterday. I came out smiling though. Something I've been working on in volleyball is not getting embarrassed when I can't do something. I'm getting better, too.

My one activity outside of school is tutoring at a local elementary school. This semester, I'm working with an after school program to put on their school musical: ALADDIN! 2 weeks ago I helped some 6-year-old untie his shoes after he tied them together. This week, I learned a Halloween dance. It was a lot of fun, and I really like the group I'm working with. Some of the kids are a little crazy, but those are the ones who need someone to work with them the most.

That's pretty much all that's going on in my life. I have 2 new roommates and one that's the same from last year. All are sophomores and for the first time in my life, I'm the oldest! It's a weird feeling, but we get along great! In weather news: The snow has arrived, in the mountains anyway. All that rain that came just for Conference weekend translated to snow in the highest places.

Goodbye for now, family. I hope that you all enjoyed Conference. I know I did! Have a wonderful day, and KEEP BLOGGING!

RISE AND SHOUT!!!!!!!!!

GOooooo Cougars!!!!!!!!!!! We're on a role this year with and undefeated record, recently concreted by TWO shutouts in a row! And I get great seats at every home game to boot! I'm in the North nzone, row 9 with my friend Sadie, who is in the picture with me below.


I tried hard to get you a video of the fight song in the sold out stadium, but I sadly found out that the video on my camera has no sound. The fight song is no fun without sound, so we'll just have to be happy with pictures. Next home game: October 11!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Sarah! Teenager no more! That was a long 10 years. ;)