It's My Birthday....OK it was yesterday.

Officially, I was born 7/16/76 weighing 7lbs 6oz sometime around 11:06 or 11:07 am. In case your math is bad, this makes me 32. I had black black hair, and apparently looked Chinese, according to a random couple looking through the nursery window.

Officially, I was named "Girl Moulton", and unofficially called Kimberly by parents until I was 3 months old. At that time, my mom (and dad? I'm sketchy on the details of this decision) decided she liked the name Micaela Heather better, and unofficially wrote my "new name" on my birth certificate in pen. Officially, this became a fat pain in the arse for me when I was DROPPED OFF at the DMV on my 16th birthday for my driving test (my parents either had a misplaced amount of faith in my driving abilities or were a wee bit foolish). I managed to pass the test by a healthy margin of 2%, but was denied my license because, according to the State of Washington, I was still legally "Girl Moulton". Apparently, writing on an official court document with a Bic does not constitute a legal change.

I love that story, and since hopefully none of you know me as Girl or Kimberly, I guess we got Micaela officially documented.

Here is me at 2 months. Methinks this is not what Chinese babies look like, but what do I know?

This is our little fam at my parents wedding in SLC (this is my stepdad). I'm starting to get cuter by this age, and I'm the only one in this picture that shouldn't be embarrassed by their hair. I guess Cassy's isn't THAT bad.

TAG

OK, this is too funny. I was catching up on my blog reading and stumbled on a fun tag Peggy had done. Just so you know, I LOVE TAGS. I thought to myself "this looks like a fun tag, but no on actually tagged me to do it, but I really want to talk about myself, so I'll just do it anyway". Admit it - you have all had similar thoughts. Anyway, I kept reading and noticed at the bottom that Peggy actually DID tag me, so if I do this tag, I'm not a self-absorbed freak after all! Hurrah! Thanks Peg!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
1998... Let's see, I was on my mission until October and then went home. I got engaged a month after that which ended a month after that - all before 1999! I am an overachiever.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list today.
1. Work for 8 hours - I think I've logged in 90 minutes?
2. Clean the house - work in progress
3. Marinate the chicken for our dinner guests - awww crap
4. Shower - check (yeah me!)
5. Exercise - later

*This is my own addition - things NOT on your list that you did today: rearranged the living room, read blogs, posted on blog, plucked my eyebrows, shopped eBay, read People.com and talked to my sister. Very productive day.

3) What are some snacks that I enjoy?-
Oh my, this could be a very long answer.
-Diet Coke, although this is more of a food group for me than a snack.
-All time favorite - Nutella and pretzels
-Cereal, any kind
-Popcorn
-Paradise Bakery cookies in CO, Specialties cookies in Seattle
-Soft cheese and crackers
-Pirate's Booty
-Pik-Niks (original). Honestly, these are like crack. Don't start!
-Graham crackers and canned frosting


4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
First, I would pay off all debts and invest, oh I don't know....a lot. Then I would pay off all our immediate family's debt (houses/cars, etc.) buy each family a new house, and a car of their choice. Over the next several years (because traveling is tiring and you need breaks), I would visit ever single dingle place I've ever wanted to go, including, but not limited to:
Banff -Canada, Grand Canyon, Australia, Japan, Lake Powell, South Africa, Greece, India, New Zealand, Kenya, Chicago, Germany, Ireland, Jerusalem, Egypt, Austria, Moscow, Nepal, China, Peru....OK, you get the idea. I would travel. I would also take my whole family on an amazing vacation every year.
I would buy a home in Switzerland and maybe the South of France, an apt in NY, and a house overlooking Puget Sound and the Olympics in Seattle. I would get 3 cars (b/c more than that is excessive), laser hair removal, permanent teeth whitening and possibly liposuction. I would have lots more kids including several that I'd adopted, and 2 nannies. I would put a movie theater in my house and have a personal trainer and a chef. Once I reached a size 2 (OK 6), I would go ballistic and buy amazing clothes, and at least 20 ridiculous purses. And lots of jewelry - really cool pieces I could pass on to my kids.
I would setup some kind of scholarship fund for either young marrieds in college, or something like that. And I would drop anonymous baskets of food and money at people's houses that I knew needed it. I would find my own causes and donate lots of time and money to each. My kids would all be in private school and would learn at least 2 other languages. Oh and I forgot - I would have 10 dogs, a pool, tennis courts, and I would host a semi-annual girls week at my house for all my old girlfriends.
Holy hannah - time to stop. You get the picture.

5) Places I've lived.
I think I've answered this in a different tag - it's not a very exciting answer. WA, ID, UT, CO. How about foreign countries I've visited? Mexico, Canada, France, England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Belize, Honduras, is Grand Cayman a foreign country? I don't think so.

OK, I tag: anyone who wants to self disclose.

Idaho Boise Mission comin' at ya

It is 11pm on Saturday night, which means that I should either be asleep or preparing music time for primary tomorrow. As you have no doubt observed, I am doing neither. The song I am supposed to be teaching the younglings this month is Called To Serve (which is about being a missionary). As I was digging through my non-scrapbooked mess of pictures and various nostalgia inducing mission paraphernalia looking for my mission nametag, I got totally distracted and spent a good hour laughing at all my old mission pics.

I know these pictures and anecdotes will not be half as amusing to you as they are to me, but I couldn't resist posting oodles of photos. I cannot BELIEVE I was ever that skinny or young. Note - I am not a champion scanner, so please, no complaints about crooked and otherwise retarded shots.

Classic and obligatory MTC map shot (my district)

Quite possibly the most awkard moment of my life: running into my not so long ago dumpee, Andrew, at my first area in Boise. Think about it like this...you're thinking to yourself "wow, it was only like 4 months ago that I was kissing this guy, and now here I am with a nametag". Hmmm. It didn't help that he seemed to still be holding a grudge and took great delight in making me feel as weird as possible.

*Sidenote - pretty sure this is the last time I ever wore a belt.

Aaaaah Peggy my love. Peggy was my first stake missionary who made S. Fuller and I monkey bread and kept me sane during my first 3 months in the IBM. Peggy is one of only 2 people I keep in touch with from the mish (so sad) and most definitely the funniest person alive. We visited her and her cute fam recently in UT - see this post and then this one. I cannot possibly top Peggy's artful descriptions of our trip.

P-Day at Bogus Basin with my first zone. One of the funnest days ever.

In case you were wondering what people in Idaho do in their spare time - this is it. Learn how to do "The Wedding Ring".

I call this little piece of photo art "Dork on a Bike". It started snowing shortly after this picture was taken. Because that made it look even more normal (Nampa, ID).

And in case The Wedding Ring didn't convey what complete hicks all residents of ID are, this should help. This is me in Twin Falls learning how to "run the shoot" while my Zone Leader (E. Bloomfield on the right) was "bull-dogging". I kid you not, that's what they called it. Basically it means trying to wrestle a wild bull to the ground with your bare hands. You only win if they get all 4 hooves up in the air. I think this was what people did for fun before Tetris was invented.

Here is Vick and I (or Sister Beaumont, now Mrs. Kennington) washing Barney the purple love bear. I don't think we called it a love bear, but it sounds more interesting this way (Sun Valley, ID).

And this, of course, is what we wore tracting. My sister thought it would be funny to send me this little camo see-through nightie, since I would get so much use out of it as a sister missionary. As ever, Vicki and I found a way to be totally inappropriate and laugh our guts out.

Sister Swainson was my 2nd companion (although this is a reunion several months later) and a Canuck, who ended up marrying our Zone Leader 4 months after she got home. She was awesome. SUPA-STAR!

A missionary's halfway point (for sisters that would be 9 months out) is called their Hump Day (think of a bell curve). And since it's 9 mths...you get the idea. It's tradition to pretend you are prego and about to pop. Although it just occurred to me that even when I was 7 mths pregnant for reals, I was WAY bigger than this. I think this is me being optimistic.

This is Sister Munganzaya, my cute little Mongolian companion, and I in our dive of an apartment in Mountain Home - the ugliest place ever. I think I drove her totally nuts. In my defense though, she made me get up at 5:30am every day and go RUNNING. Those of you that know me can imagine that this was not a boon to our relationship.

And to close, my sweet, sweet love, Vicki, who used to punch me in the boobs and still honks when she laughs. I miss you, you crazy Brit!