Happy Birthday, Auntie Karla!

Hey Auntie Karla.  Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday.  Hugs and much love!

Symone and Justin

Mom (Wilma) asked me to make a post for her. If any one is planning to give her a Christmas gift she would appreciate cash. There is a show coming to Sacramento called "Walking Dinosaurs" that she REALLY want's to see. She has already bought the ticket so that she will get good seats, but would appreciate the money to replace what she spent. This is not a request for gifts, just letting us know what she would like if that is already the plan and agreeable to you.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season.
Love Camille

Just one week to Thanksgiving!  Cannot believe the year is almost over; only 6 weeks to the New Year!?!

Mom/G/GGMom & I have been invited to join Samuel & Family - the Kurt & Vickie branch of the Kennedy Tree (by the way it is a Very Nice Branch of Our Family Tree.  We actually have a Very Lovely Family Tree - many branches from the original branches & they are all talented & gifted branches.  We are Very Blessed).  We are looking forward to seeing that branch of the family.

What is the Kitty & Andy branch doing - I believe you opt for ham or roast for Turkey Day!?!
What is Roy & Camille's branch doing - got a steak lined up Roy?
Klain & Toni will just be taking it easy & then they plan on mtg w/Mom, Kurt & Vickie and me on Sat for lunch & some visiting time.
What are Jan & LK, Krystal & Family, Tiffany & Family and Michelle & Family branches going to do?

Love you all & would love to hear how everyone is doing.

Karla/Auntie and Mom/G/GG

Murdock update

Hey everybody!  A lot has happened since the last time I posted here.  I'll just list a few highlights.

Justin and I finally bought a dresser.  It came with a matching nightstand and vanity mirror, and they all needed some work, but I think they turned out great.  We finished painting them yesterday and moved them into our room today.  Woo hoo!  Somewhere to put our clothes!  I've included some before, during, and after photos for those who are curious.  (Sorry they're blurry.  Justin took them with his phone.)

We went to Salt Lake City on Saturday to see Ballet West perform my favorite ballet, Giselle.  Justin is such a trooper for going with me.  He didn't even complain at all.  I love my hubby!  After the ballet, we did a session in the Salt Lake temple, and we got to be the witness couple.  It was our first time doing that, and we got to do it in Salt Lake.  How cool is that?  (BTW Grandma, the doorknobs in the temple do all have "Holiness to the Lord" engraved on them.  I made sure to look.)

Our jobs are going well.  Justin gets to start reading applications soon, so he will be able to admit or deny students to BYU.  My job is going well.  They have me doing more writing than I expected, so that's a definite plus.  We've settled in here pretty well.

Oh, we got new callings this week.  We will now be teaching the Sunbeams every Sunday.  Yeah, laugh it up.  They assign the newlyweds to teach the 3-year-olds.  Any ideas of how to handle the little tykes would be much appreciated.

I think I'll end it here and add those pictures I promised.  Love you all!

Symone

What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving?

I like this time of year - the changing colors, the days getting cooler, the crisp mornings & of course Thanksgiving.  I want all of you to know that I Love You & I feel very blessed to have you all in Our Family!  We have very talented, gifted, intelligent & special persons in our wonderful family.

Please enjoy this time of year - be safe, healthy & careful.  I'm selfish & want you all around for a Very Long Time!!

Love you all.

Hope everyone had a Fun & Safe Halloween!

Up date on Symone & Justin would be Lovely.

Up date on David & Family would be Great - understand David is venturing into a different career and moving back to WA to do it.

Mom/GMom/GGMom's friend, also Kitty & Andy's Ward member has posted his testimony on YouTube.  It is Dads testimony by John Rushton.  He talks about his grandmother knowing Prophet Joseph Smith & playing w/him and other interesting & spiritual items.  Something you may want to see/hear.

Love to everyone & any pics would be Nice.

We are OK & looking forward to working at the election tomorrow - Tues.  Remember to Vote.

Love you,

Karla/Auntie

Events for Nov.

Nov 1st. --  Millie Raymond's Birthday

Nov. 11  --  Veterans Day

Nov. 27  --  Thanksgiving Day

Nov. 30  --  Mashell Atwood's & Tiffany Shope's Birthday


Hope everyone has a lovely November!

Please let me know if I missed any.  

we got some rain today - Hip Hip Hooray!  The weather has been basically normal - temp - for the last several days.  Was a nice day & tonight was the Ward Harvest Party (really Halloween - costumes).  It was nice.  I'm going to try to attach a picture of Mom/GMom & I had taken by Chester.  It worked. 

Murdock family update

Hey everyone!  Here's an update on the Murdock family.  

We're all settled into our new apartment in Orem (pictures coming soon).  Our new address is 1060 S. Orem Blvd. #13 Orem, UT 84058.  

Justin's doing well with his new job at BYU.  He really likes all his coworkers, and he's getting pretty comfortable with all his tasks and whatnot.  As for me, I started work at a personal injury law firm about two weeks ago called Flickinger Sutterfield & Boulton.  I'm an assistant to one of the lawyers, Mark Flickinger.  Everyone has been super nice, helping me get adjusted and learn all the crazy things I need to know.  My head was spinning for the entire first week, and it hasn't really slowed down yet.

Our new ward is pretty good so far.  There are a lot of young families like us, mostly because we live smack in between BYU and Utah Valley University and this ward gets a lot of married students.  A whole bunch of new people moved in about the same time we did because the new semester started, so at least we're not alone.  

We finally got our wedding pictures back from the photographer.  They look great!  I was able to post most of them to an image hosting website, but they had a limit of how many pictures you're allowed to have, so you get 225 of the 280 pictures we got.  They're kind of out of order, but I don't think you'll care too much.  Here's the link: http://imgur.com/a/8bLnN#0.  Enjoy!

Events for Oct.

3rd - Charlotte's Birthday
7th - Samuel's Birthday
15th - Andy's Birthday
17th - Zoey's Birthday

Besides Columbus Day & Halloween is there anything I'm missing?!?

We have rain .  It has been raining for over 3 hrs now; not hard but a steady shower - which is what we need.  It would be lovely if this happened every couple of days through March; however, we will take what we can get.

Hope everyone's Sept is going well!?!

Weather here a little unusual - hot, slight cool down & then clouds (not just the smoke from the fires) & a little more of a cool down; feels like "Fall" for CA Central Valley.  They are saying that the drought may not let up this winter, the temp of the Pacific is not doing as they had hoped.  Can only keep praying & hoping.

Mom/GMom & I are not doing bad considering the smoke - quite hazy the last couple of days.

How is everyone else doing?  The new apt, ward, job(s).  How is school, for all?  How are the babies & their siblings?  Generally what is happening?

Here are the Sept events I have.  Please let me know what, if any, are missing.

September - 9 Celeste and Dennis Beesley – Anniversary

                  20 Wilma Kennedy

                  21 David Matthew Raymond

Congrats to Symone & Justin on finding an Apt & getting moved.  :)

Justin, we hope you had a great 1st day of work!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY  
         
             Kitty

             Kurt

              and 

         Mariah

Need to add Mariah's B-day

Aug 28th

August - 3 Kitty and Andrew Raymond

              4 Bryan and Danielle Kennedy

             4 Michelle Beesley    [Hi Karla Michelle's birthday is the 4th. Love you Andy]

             9 Justin Murdock

            12 Camille Kennedy

            26 Kitty Raymond

            26 Kurt Kennedy

            28 Mariah Raymond

 Events happening in Aug. (some have past but some haven't).  Please let me know if there are missing b-days - believe Brooke & Aden's are 13th & 20th?!?

Aug - 3 Kitty & Andrew Raymond Anniversary - 40th

      3 Michelle Beesley

      4 Bryan & Danielle Kennedy Anniversary

      9 Justin Murdock

      12 Camille Kennedy

      26 Kitty Raymond

      26 Kurt Kennedy

Apartment hunting

Justin and I just got back from our trip to Utah for apartment hunting and signing paperwork for Justin's new job.  We put in applications for residency at three places, and now we're waiting to hear back from them.  They have to check our references, make sure we're good people and can pay the rent, etc.  Only problem is that housing in Provo and the surrounding areas is going like hot cakes right now.  The fall semester starts in about two weeks, so apartments are being rented within a day of being posted online.  We had several places we wanted to look at that got rented out before we even got to Utah.  And the places we applied to had multiple applications already.  One place we looked at on Friday had 17 other couples applying to live there.  So we really need your prayers that one of these places will accept us and let us move in.  We'll let you know as soon as we find out.

We're moving!

Justin and I are moving to Provo!  He got a job at BYU in the admissions department as a content manager.  Woo hoo!  He starts work on the 25th, so we're moving on the 22nd.  Yeah, not much time.  But we have lots of people willing to help us, so we'll be able to get everything done in time.  We're going down on the 15th so Justin can sign paperwork and get a tour of campus, then we're going apartment shopping.  Our plan is to pick a place, sign the contract, and get everything set up so we can move in the next weekend.  Wish us luck!

It is back to triple digits, yesterday 100 & 104 today but is to be mid 90s for rest of week (at least they are saying as of tonight).

The thunder storm Symone (ID) is getting almost sounds good.  We could use rain but it would be really Weird if we did, at least here in the Valley.  I guess it beats Hurricane Arnold & the typhoon in the Pacific.  I would love to have the weather of the Northwest (west of the Cascades) for summer or Kurt & Vickie's OR coast weather.  Guess we all have trade offs for where we live.  So far still want to live in CA.

Picture time!

I found some pictures from the family reunion and thought I'd post them.  Enjoy!

Hey everybody!  Thought I'd get around to actually posting something on here, let you all know how we're doing.

Justin's in the process of making final edits to his Master's thesis.  He gives it to his readers on August 4th, and he defends it on August 20th.  We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!  Any questions about the thesis itself should be directed to Justin.  :)

The other big thing on our horizon is waiting to hear back from BYU-Idaho.  Justin applied for a position in their online learning department, and he really wants this one.  He worked in online learning as a student (he built a sizable chunk of the online learning website) so he already knows exactly what the job would entail, he knows most of the people in the department, it's work he enjoys, and BYU-Idaho employees get to take classes for free (he's really excited for free art classes).  If everyone could cross your fingers for us/keep us in your prayers, we'd really appreciate it.  Thanks!

Lots of love,
Symone

Congrats to Trista & her Girl Scout Troop on raising  $225.00  :)

Besides working at the storage place & for Donner Music Camp w/Samuel, her "duties" for/with her Girl Scouts & being a Mom of 4 lovely daughters she is a Very Neat & Cool wife & an All Round Special Lady.   Good move by Samuel on asking her to marry him 5 years ago (correct??)!!  Samuel thanks for asking Trista & Trista thanks for saying Yes!  So Glad Trista & girls are part of Our Family!!  It is a very lovely "branch" on the Family Tree!

Guess I should have waited for the evening news.  It has changed again.   They are saying low to mid 90s & no triple digits for a while.  Next week is to be in the mid 90s as well.  YEAH.  They can be wrong as long as it is w/temps that keep dropping!  I just find it interesting that w/all the new, wonderful tech stuff they have to predict that they don't seem to get it right very much.  Oh well, just stay in the low to mid 90s for the next 7 - 10 days.  Anyone else have weather people that are as accurate???

Weather has been a little crazy here.  We were expecting 104 for Monday & Tues. but the clouds rolled in (the Sun. night news said nothing about clouds until Wed.) & it only got to 97 [Fine by me!! :) ]; we even had a little breeze; the weather guy seemed surprised it occurred.  What is with them not being able to predict it in a 24 hour time period?!!??  Today not to bad & it is to stay in the mid to high 90s for the rest of the week.  Then 101 for Sun - Tues of next week - hey that could change in the next 24 hrs too.   Roy told Mom on Sun that it had poured in their part of ID while at the Reunion. 

How is everyone else doing??

The Beach!

It was my (this is Justin, BTW) first time at the ocean, and so the whole family decided it would be fun to go and see it. We had a lot of fun at the beach tidepooling and climbing on rocks, though there were apparently fewer things in the tidepools than what were there usually. Everyone kept saying that it just wasn't a good day or good beach for tidepooling, but I was pretty happy regardless. We saw a starfish and some anemones.

More pictures after the break.