The Wing Coop

We live right around the corner from this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called The Wing Coop. Mark went there the first time after Priesthood session this last General Conference with one of our friends from the ward. He's been dying to go back.

We went on Saturday. We had a coupon to get up to $8.00 off. And, Mark has been talking about trying their challenge--their hot wing challenge.

This challenge is not for sissies. At all. Apparently, Mark is not a sissy.

What is the challenge? Well, first, let me explain their hot sauces. They have a range of hot sauces from mild to deadly. The mild is numbered "1" and their deadly is numbered "11." The challenge is to eat 11 of their #11 wings in 11 minutes without any other food, without any water, and without dying.

They actually sit and watch you eat the wings. You must eat all the meat on the wings.

Mark did it. His wings were not smothered in the sauce, though, which the owner gave Mark a hard time about. However, Mark just ate what was given to him. Mark's eyes were red. Mark's lips were swollen. And, Mark was sooooooo uncomfortable.

After he accomplished his goal, they took a picture of him (for their "crazy people" wall). They are supposed to give him a t-shirt, but they didn't have any handy at the time. So, they told him they'd give him 10% off until the t-shirts came in.

I told Mark he doesn't have my permission to do the challenge ever again.

Mark challenged me to take a test taste of the #11. I told him NO WAY. But, I did pick up one of his chicken bones and licked it. I said, "That's not hot." About 45 seconds later, the pain was upon me. I was almost dropping tears into my lap (or on my belly, whichever). My lips and tongue were blistering I was certain. Ice did nothing to help. I couldn't even taste my chicken tenders--and they had lost all their heat because I was already burning.

I will tell you--my chicken tenders were some of the BEST I have ever had. Soooooo good. And I would have got a different sauce (because I liked it better) but it was a little too hot for me. I highly recommend the Honey Habenero. I also recommend (the one that was too hot for me) the Garlic Parmesan.

It was definitely hot sauce...but it was worth it. They have someone there timing you, and when they said I had 6 minutes left, I had 6 wings to go and thought I better pick up the pace. I then ate the last wings in about 1.5 minute. The waiting the last 4 minutes was the worst part.

Youth Conference 2009

We took the Youth up to the National Ability Center in Park City for our ward Youth Conference. It was just a two day trip--one night. But, it was marvelous! We have wonderful youth.

Friday we gathered at the church in the morning. Then we went to Temple Square for a little while. We had a short tour by a couple of missionaries. Honestly--I'd never been to the basement of the visitor center with the Christus. I hadn't even ever thought about looking downstairs. But, lo and behold--there's some pretty cool stuff down there.

We also had a demonstration of the amazing accoustics in the Tabernacle.

When we got to the NAC, we unloaded and got oriented. Then we ate our sack lunches.

The first thing we did after lunch was a service project. Some of our group worked on making stands, or poles, for some movable shade. They used old tires, filled them with quick-drying cement, and stuck some big tall wood poles in them.

The rest of us pulled weeds. Now, that may not sound that hard. But, we pulled weeds where there are weeds EVERYWHERE. I mean, the NAC is in the middle of those sage brush hills. It's not like the place is a manicured garden and we were pulling weeds from a flower bed. No, we were pulling weeds where weeds ARE the vegetation. Ha!

After we did our service project, we gathered again and got prepared to do an "Amazing Race." They divided us into three teams. We only took twelve youth, so we had four youth in each group. We had two leaders go with each group. One leader was asked to participate in each of the stops.

I went with Mark, two boys, and two girls. Mark was the one that participated, I just followed and encouraged. It was amazing to see our youth work together. I didn't expect our group to click as well as they did--but they were working together so well I wanted to squeeze them and couldn't stop cheering them on!

Our group lucked out and got to the climbing wall first. The climbing wall turned out to be a bottle neck for the other groups. We got through it first and managed to finish all the other stops. No other group had time to finish the rest of the "race."

These were our activities....

• Climbing wall: three of our team had to climb the wall--blindfolded.
• Wheelchair course: filling up a pitcher of water one cup at a time--from across the parking lot.
• "Traffic jam": the youth stood on a log and had to rearrange themselves according to birthday--without falling off the log.
• Moving hay: moving hay, eight bales, from one place to another, all team members had to help.
• Skis: walking on "skis" from the road to a marker about 50 yards away, using teamwork.
• Horseshoes: getting three ringers.
• "Whale watch": all team members had to balance a large platform for ten seconds.

Our team really worked together. I mean, they listened to each other, they provided ideas, they didn't put each other down, and they cheered for each other. It was amazing!

After dinner, we had a very informal fireside. Bishop talked to us for about 45 minutes. And then we bore testimony.

It was a great, great day.

Mark and I didn't spend the night because we had obligations back home the next day. The youth stayed Saturday and had some more fun and did some more service. I hope they all realized how wonderful they are, how much they can help, and how much they are loved.

Instead of posting pictures here, you can go to our SmugMug account and look. You can see pictures of the service projects and each of our activities.

Father's Day Ugly Tie Contest

On Father's Day, our ward had an Ugly Tie Contest. The top three were to win pies from Marie Callender's. The Young Women were the ones to decide the winners.

Mark won.

Of course Mark won! He loves stuff like that! And I love that he loves stuff like that. That's why I married him. Oh yah, and because I love him.

In the past, the ugly ties that have won have been things like bungee cords and duct tape. I forget what they were--probably because I haven't witnessed any of them myself.

Well, this year, Mark had some fierce competition. My favorite ugly tie (besides Mark's) was one of our Young Men's: he made it out of straws and tape (look real close at the picture). It rocked! Other ugly ties included a belt with a large toy limo hanging at the end and piping of some sort (sported by Bishop).

First place: Mark.

Second place: Austin (who made his tie from old Christmas ribbon and yarn--knotted quite neatly)

Third place: Mark/Mark's dad (Mark let his dad wear his real tie, his real ugly tie).

Alternate third place (because they couldn't let Mark have TWO pies): Brother Allen (it said, "CONFUSED" and "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY")

I hope you enjoy!


Having the raccoon (Lamont is his name) on under my suit jacket was so hot. I had to conduct church with him around my neck too.

100 Days to Go

That's what the counter on the left says: 100 days to go.

That's pretty crazy. Our lives with forever be changed in approximately 100 days. Woot! Good stuff.

Three Grandmas

Wow. Last year I almost lost my Grandma Worthen. She was on her death bed right around the time when Mark and I got engaged. Then she bounced back and spent another year with us.

It was about that time that I posted this blog about all the grandparents that I have, or had--as the case now stands.

On May 13th, Grandma Robinson passed away.

On May 19th, Grandma Worthen passed away.

And, just now, June 8th, I found out that Grandma Guymon passed away.

It was a surprise when Grandma Robinson passed away--though she hasn't been in good health for a long time. Both Grandma Worthen's and Grandma Guymon's passings have been blessings. I just hope that my mom will be okay. She's one of the sweetest, most tender people I know. She's been really sad about Grandma Guymon's state of being for a long time.

I told Mark when we first got together about all of my grandparents and that I would really like to go to all their funerals. When we were talking about where we'd live, it was a very important issue for me that he understood that. Gratefully, he does--and he's been extremely supportive.

I'll miss you Grandma Guymon!

Here is a video of Grandma Guymon singing a Utah State drinking song. I'll miss you too!




P.S. Here is a link to Grandma's obituary: click here.

Utah Temples Goal

Glad to report that Mark and I have now done an endowment session in each of the Utah temples since we were engaged--just 16 months ago--which completes our goal to visit all the temples in Utah. We went to Manti, our final Utah temple, yesterday. Mom and Dad Worthen met us there. It was really nice. And my parents are so dang cute!

We got to shake hands with President Pace (my stake president at one time, also the man who performed our marriage) as we were leaving the chapel. He was happy to see my parents and us.

You will notice in one of the pictures below, that I merged two separate pictures--the one where we are not right next to each other. I made Mark's hand disappear, like in Back to the Future.


My little blister, I mean, sister, went over with Mom and Dad. She sat in the car reading while we were all in the session. Afterward, we went to a Mexican place and had some yummy food.

When we got to Provo, my brother and his wife fed us dinner. It was a great day to spend some time with the family!

Crib - Finished

We put the crib together on Friday night. It was one of the easiest pieces of furniture I've put together--and Mark managed to put all the pieces on the right direction this time. Yay! We were happy to discover that it DOES have the drawer. That's nice.
As you can see--that's the purple room. But, it'll be green when I get my way. Green!

Belly Pictures

You've wanted to see it--here it is: my belly. Mark says my pink dress show off my curves--all of them--more than the blue shirt. That's okay, I think it's cute. The pink dress is today. You can also see my hair--though it doesn't look mega short. Probably because I straightened it today.