Wicked Girls Weekend

Last weekend was hunting weekend (for Dad), so Mom and I decided we'd schedule some girl time.  Although Kyle didn't join Dad for the hunting, it didn't stop Kalynn from joining the girls :)

Watching a show, shopping, eating, gabbing... I love that I have such awesome women in my family!

Ooh, look at our fun activity!

 We watched, we laughed, and we might have sung along...

 Pretty green lights :)

 Hands-down favorite shot of the weekend.  Poor Kalynn handled the abnormally-chilly-end-of-November temperature pretty well, but maybe she was just numb :)

All in all, I think it was a success!  Might even be worthy of a repeat sometime soon!

SURPRISE!

Yesterday, I was quite shocked to walk into work and find a balloon-and-streamer fortress enclosing my cube that would make any small child jealous... as well as several of my coworkers!  I have to say, it was very impressive and VERY cool.

I thought the empty-office-right-before-Thanksgiving thing might get me off the hook (since I might've initiated the vandalizing decorating of my boss's office on her 40th birthday earlier this year), but it just meant we celebrated early.  Here was my first clue that something was up: the entrance to the bay of cubes where I "live".

Confession: the might have been more than one game of balloon volleyball that ensued.

Trust me, there was plenty of ammo.  I cannot even tell you where all of those balloons ended up.

We got enough of them cleared out so that I could at least get in.  Peek-a-boo!

 

Here's the view from inside my awesome work-cave:

I have a visitor.  I believe he was the main cave architect.  

(Hey, it's Brian... father of the famous Ellie!!)

Speaking of famous... I got the recycled birthday sign!  For the longest time after Jack's birthday, it was hanging in his cube.  Rather than taking it down, someone just added "not" to the "It is your birthday" sign.  I got an "almost" added for my occasion.  Not only are actuaries party animals, but we're environmentally-friendly party animals.

Brian snapped his picture from his desk in the middle of the afternoon... you'd never know I'm sitting in my cave, happily working, would you?  I'm not sure if this is before or after a group of coworkers decided to pile all of the balloons that had been inside my cave on the roof to see if they could cause a cave-in on my head.

Hey, that was pretty fun... maybe this birthday-ending-in-a-0 deal isn't so bad!  

 

Game night

Last Friday night was a game night in the Karmen household.  Not so many pics of the actual event, but much fun was had by all.  One recommendation that came from the evening: if you have a chance to play a game of Fluxx, you should do it!  I can only recommend Zombie Fluxx personally, but I think there are lots to choose from... pick one up and check it out!

A little pre-game-night entertainment, provided by Miss Ellie

Galena Newbie

On our way down to Brownstown convention this fall, my friend Sheri was appalled to find out that I had never been to Galena, only driven through once.  She set out to fix that right away.  The result: fun with friends, good food, good shopping, good times!

Root beer floats at Root Beer Revelry: Karmen, Sara, Sheri, Jen

Ellie time!

Ellie time is one of my favorite kinds of time.  A couple of weekends ago, I headed out on a Friday night and had some Ellie time while her parents headed out for some non-Ellie time.  Everyone wins!

Cheese!

 "Hey, why are you still taking my picture?"

The side with the door is for sissies!  Ellie is a big fan of the Cat and the Hat.  Apparently, she's also a fan of making it a drive-in movie.

My plans for the next morning included heading to Galena with some friends, and since Ellie's house is about almost an hour on the way towards meeting up with said friends, I was graciously allowed to stay at Ellie's house that night.  Look who paid a visit the next morning!!

 

Not a bad way to start my morning, I think :)  Thanks for the fun beginning to my weekend, Ellie!

 

Traveling evangelist

I've spent the past couple of years at work trying to convince a couple of (almost hopeless, but not quite) coworkers that traveling is good, even though:

A) It generally costs money
B) It definitely involves leaving your house
C) Photographs of many parts of the world are readily available via your local internet connection

Earlier this year, we had a new person rotate into our division, and this past week I was distressed to learn that he too needed some convincing on this topic.  No problem; I'm up for the task.  I started in right away.  Pretty soon, I noticed that said coworker was laughing at me.

"You're so funny.  You're like a little evangelist for traveling!"

I may have gone a wee bit overboard.  But I'm not done yet; someday I'll convince them all.

Bein' Crafty

A couple of times a year, a few girls gather at a rural camp and spend all weekend being crafty.  For most of us, that means scrapbooking (aka gluing paper on paper, unless you're of the technologically-advanced digital crafting variety, like Mex) or card making, with the occasional knitter thrown in for good measure.  Turns out we make quite a mess.

As Kam noted, though, it's too bad no one had any fun....

Today's Challenge

Most car trips in my childhood involved music of some variety - whether it was coming from my Mama, who often sang to us, or from a variety of stellar "Wee Sing" tapes.  I'm quite certain the latter option must've been a last resort for my parents.

Anyway, I ran across this video a few weeks ago, and it brought back some good memories.  This is a fantastic version of the song, and I challenge you to sing along towards the end.  Let me know how you do :)