He's been hit by a smooth criminal...

Hello, Kat Paul blog readers! This is her sister, Tracie, and she has granted me exclusive rights as a guest blogger!
The message I bring to you this day is an extremely grievous one, brothers and sisters. One of my favorite on-the-way-to-Bear-Lake and cleaning-my-house jammers went the way of all the earth yesterday, as Kathrin and I were taking pictures at the Thanksgiving Point. (I added 'the' before the proper noun for Kathrin, she knows why.) Michael Jackson is his name. Creating masterpieces was his game.
As I type, Kathrin is sobbing behind me. The passing of this outrageously talented man was a shock. My mother and I took it the hardest, harder than Lisa Marie, even. As I fondly watch those excellent videos with the eerily long, skinny arms swinging about, lip synching, the annoying screaming girl (his date) in Thriller, and exquisitely high floods with white socks, my heart feels empty. Like a vast ocean that was just drained, sea life left twitching on the desolate sandy floors. Or a weary squirrel returning home to a lightning-shattered tree. Or an extremely fat kid after watching Willie Wonka finding out that there is no such thing. These worst case scenarios pale in comparison to the devastation felt by the Paul household...
"Hold on there, bobbalooey," you may say. "Hasn't he been absolutely disdainable the past twenty years?" To this I reply with a simple, "That was not my Michael J." We will not discuss his appalling behavior past this point. I believe the immense talent contained in this natural man was too much, and it tragically disabled his thinking abilities.
But as we return from that shudderingly dark age, we must remember only his early years. Not only a fantastically creative song-writer, (assuming he wrote his own songs, I'm almost positive he didn't, but let's just give him the benefit of the doubt), Michael had a mind-blowing voice partnered with some outrageously buck dance moves (minus the crotch grabbing, really, MJ? That's just silly, if you need to go potty, go before you perform). The variety of his music is astonishing, including even disco - my favorite song is Don't Stop til you get Enough!
In closing, we, the Paul sisters, would like to express our appreciation for this great man, pre-crazy years, and all the contributions he made to pop, 80's culture, and ensuring that we had an enjoyable ride to Bear Lake.
"RIP. Billie Jean will trouble him no more." -Erik Paul, a.k.a. funniest kid ever, from that comment alone.

Keep scrolling. . .

All right, you have girls camp right beneath this one and my fame under that. So don't give up, keep reading. Or looking at the pictures. Whatever.
Also, heads up, I'm done feeling sorry for myself that I don't have a job yet because I know I'll have one before the year starts, and if I don't show my faith by not being depressed, maybe Heavenly Father will say, ok, crybaby, no job for you. So. I'm in the process of updating my website. Don't look yet, I'll let you know when it's done, and if I've taken any pictures of you in the last two years, check it out, you may be on there. I'm going to start a new blog for my pictures, too, because I like to talk about the pictures instead of just putting them on there. . . then you can see all the new stuff I do! Give me a week or so.

Girls Camp: Be Loyal to the Royal Within

I heart girls camp. Always have, always will. There is magic that happens there in the mountains where everyone is sans makeup and frizzy-haired (mostly that's me). The spirit is stronger there than in any young women classroom, no matter the centerpiece. It is undeniable the closeness that you feel to your Heavenly Father when you are taken out of "society" and the hustle and bustle of real life and allowed to ponder on the more spiritual things in life. You also meet really great friends at camp. I got to know a lot of really great women during my years as a camper and even more great women as a leader. I feel very blessed to have been able to go again this year, even with all of the crises that built up to the week. . .
Problems, you ask? Problems indeed. Remember how it rained for the last month? And how we were supposed to go deep in the heart of the mountains to Camp Everett where it's all dirt (as most mountains tend to be) and so there was MUD everywhere? Well, they decided MONDAY MORNING after my dad and mom and the camp director and husband had taken up our trailer and set up our rockin' tarp heaven (that was Sunday night) that we were going to change venues. I had just finished packing up my car. It was a little frustrating. Then I found out we weren't going to leave on Monday as planned, but instead Tuesday with the rest of the girls. It was really irritating at first, but after the initial feelings of inconvenience, I decided to stop being a whiner and get over it. A bunch of us trekked south to Springville to see the camp site, Jolley Ranches in the Springville canyon. I will have you know that Sprinville, also known as Art City, is a very well kept secret. It's beautiful! They have some amazing homes and properties and the camp site was absolutely beautiful! There is a really nice golf course there as well, Hobble Creek or something, and if I was a golfer, I would be more excited.
I have a problem with taking pictures of things I am participating in, so I don't have a lot of pictures. I got the important things, though, so don't worry. Although we got rained on Tuesday night, Wednesday and Wed. night, we had a beautiful day and night Thursday and it was perfect while we packed up on Friday. We were very lucky to have found such a great place to go where we were able to be out of the mud and set up great shelter so that we were still able to have great experiences. Here are some pics!
This is a picture of our amazing "living room." It kept us dry and sometimes warm, and it was just perfect! DeLynn's husband added the gromets and tarps to the sides and end to ensure that we were protected from the elements.

I was the MC for our Princess Fashion Show, and it was a lot of fun. I should never be in control of a microphone. I'm not going to lie, my awesome psychedelic dress fits a bit differently than the last time I wore it. . .let's go BL! the next picture is of two of our stake leaders, Debbie on the left and Janet on the right. Janet is such a great lady, she was my Mia Maid advisor and is a really great friend. Love her.

This is me and the ward camp director, DeLynn. She has been a good friend for a long time and did a really great job with camp this year. One thing she did is made CLOTH horse heads so every girl (and me!) could have a stick horse, because every princess needs a horse! They turned out so adorable and the girls loved them! She worked really hard and it turned out so great! T-Force and me. Me and T-Force. I can't even think about moving out without wondering what I'll do for entertainment without her as my neighbor. I will know where all of my stuff is, though.

We had a midevil fair on Thursday and it was so fun! Our purple shirts (we were integrity) had the letters IGYB on the back, representing a them we touched on a lot, "I Got Your Back". It went over really well and the shirts are so cute! Our YW pres cut out all of the letters! Our leaders are so topps.
One of the girls in our ward comes from a very artistic family and drew this for the stake, what talent! So amazing. This is my "just try it, dragon" face. I know, he/she is scared too. We put a lot of emphasis on "slaying the dragons in our lives" and talked about standing up to peer pressure and believing in who you are, thus the royalty within, and it was a really great theme for camp. The videos are of Tracie and I jousting, the second is our song. If you have to choose just one to watch, choose the joust. It's great.

Good Things Utah

I was on GTU today for a fashion segment promoting Lane Bryant clothing, clothes for size 14+. It was a lot of fun meeting Alicia Richmond of Chic on a Shoestring, their fashion consultant, and the hosts of the show. I did my fitting on Tuesday where my clothes were chosen and then today I went to the studio at 9:15. First, though, since I'm makeup-ly challenged, I asked my friend Ashley Chadwick who is Mary Kay Extraordinaire to hook me up. She was so nice to come over so early and help me out, and I loved what she did! I wish you could see it better on the set pictures, but I'll throw one in of my eyes that T-force just took. So, if anyone needs Mary Kay anything or wants a girls night with facials or whatever, Ashley is a lot of fun and super talented so she can hook you up! She also does wedding and other special event makeup (and she told me it was free. . .if that's just for me, I'm sure she is super cheap but I think it was free).
Anyway. Here are the pics, and I think the segment should be on the GTU website sometime, but not positive. It really wasn't very exciting to watch, I'm sure, but I did get my 15 seconds of non-speaking fame.

Yes, I am looking at you. Darn hooded lids, you can't see all the rad color on them!

Me and Alicia. Her waist is about as big as Victoria's.

This is the set, and specifically, I thought it was funny how everything is set really low down on the walls to allow for good proportions with the table and chairs. Who thinks of that stuff? People who get paid more than me.

Me and the gang. They were all super nice and chatty with everybody.

This is all of the models. The girl in the middle had really hot red shoes. Darn wide feet.
Good times! If anyone wants an autographed picture, let me know. I'll see what I can do.

Just putting this out there. . .

My family and some friends are doing a "Biggest Loser" competition from June 15-September 14, so 12 weeks, and anyone is welcome to do it. I know that some of you may be looking for some motivation, and our pot is up to $420! The pot will be split in half and the person with the biggest percentage lost will win half, those who meet their set goal will be put in a drawing for the other half. That way, people who don't have as much to lose still have a chance to win. Anyway. If you are interested, click on the "Biggest Loser Competition" on the right side of the page and check out the info!

"The Proposal" movie review

Loved it. So, so, so good. Sandra Bullock, who I have always loved, has such great comedic timing, and Ryan Reynolds (who has the timing also) is just so good looking. And Sandra has really really fantastic shoes.
There is surprisingly little profanity, no "F" bomb, and not a lot of inuendo. There is a scene where the girls visit a bar with an exotic dancer, but it's Oscar from "The Office" so how exotic can it be?! He is hilarious. He is wearing awfully tight speedo-like underwear, so be warned. And the part that is in the commercials where they run into each other naked isn't much worse than what they show on tv, it does show a full body shot of her trying to get a towel and covering her boobs with her arm and the other with a small hand towel/thing. And it shows full side view of them when they collide, but honestly, and maybe I'm desensitized, but I didn't think it was too bad. That's all.

Quick mud update. . .

Ha ha, so the stake camp director just called and said we are switching camp sites completely because of the excessive mud and we are going to SPRINGVILLE. Are there even trees there? Or springfield. . .but isn't that where the simpsons live? Anyway. Remember how my mom and dad and the ward camp director and her husband went up last night and set up a rocking tarp canopy, not to mention our entire trailer is up there. . . . so now my dad has to go get it. Wow. He was cooler about it than I was. But I'm such a loose cannon anyway. :)