Please come!

Hello all!


I will update on my crazy life the past couple of weeks, and the first day of school (today! Yipee! My last first day of school! :) ), but I wanted EVERYONE to be aware that we are doing a show dedicated to Catey Warner ( Jeremy's wife) this weekend. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come and help us raise money for our friend.


Catey was waiting for a bus in Springville last Wednesday when a driver, high on Heroine, hit her. This accident shattered her right leg and tore her left ACL, as well as facial fractures. She had one more semester left, and was about to graduate in Dance. Essentially, she will never be able to dance the same, if at all. The Warners don't have insurance, as Jeremy is looking for work. We love, love, love these people, and we want to help as much as possible. More info here.


If you're far away, go to the Divine Comedy website to donate. Even five dollars will help. Come this weekend, and tell your friends! We will be doing AvYtar, Harry Potter, as well as other favorites! It will be a great show, and it is for a great cause!


Tickets on sale at the Wilk Info Desk for only $5. It's a great way to come back to school, and a great way to help out a person in need!


See you this weekend! And don't worry, we have shows Friday night so you can still watch the football game this weekend. Go Cougars! :)

Happy Monday :)

Tomorrow's the first day of pre-school! Wish me luck!


Hopefully my kids are as funny as this little girl :)

Update

Look how cute Alex is in his new blog. Alex is a missionary all the way. I love how mindful he is of the gospel all of the time. It's pretty obvious why I love him :)


Before I get started, here's a really great zucchini bread recipe I used the other day. Yum.

Zucchini Bread

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup grated unpeeled zucchini ( I just chopped some up and put it in the blender)
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips ( if you want. By why wouldn't you want?)
• 
  
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour,  salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips.
• 
  
• Spoon into a greased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

• 
  

Things have been getting busy around here. I'll start from recently, and make my way backwards :)


Last night was opening night for Tuesday's with Morrie. Matt from DC is in it and is FANTASTIC. I've been assigned to work as a Stage Hang/Assistant Stage Manager for the show, so I've been going to rehearsals for a while now. Opening night went well, and now I have shows for the next little while. See ya in a month, honey :(.

My dad came is for a short visit this past weekend, to help move my grandparents move back to SLC. He flew in Friday night. We saw him Saturday for lunch - the morning was filled with Alpine Days festivities. Of course, I left my camera, but Alex and Tim ran in the 5k, and then we went to the Fireman's breakfast as per tradition. I'll get pics from Jodie later. I saw Julie B. Beck and got totally star struck. (Alex's) Mom offered to introduce me, but I was too nervous! I just love her! :)


Anywho, my dad came into town to help my grandparents move back to SLC. They are back where the used to live -- in the prophet's ward right by Temple Square! Alex was such a trooper and helped lift heavy things, while I put things away. Cousin Cody was with the men, too, and it was so fun to see him. When we weren't moving boxes and hanging up artwork, we got to spend some time with Dad. He even stayed with us one night, which was so fun. :) I am so grateful for the Dad that I have. He is such an amazing man, and I love getting to see him when he visits! We also visited Trissy and Sam, two of my favorite people. It was a great weekend! I only took one picture while Dad was here. He left all too soon, catching a flight back Sunday so he could be at work on Monday. Seriously, what an amazing man!

When Dad was here, we walked around temple square, went to 

Music and the Spoken Word, and explored around 

downtown for a while. It was so fun!

Brigham Young's grave in downtown SLC.

Speaking of Trissy and Sam, here's an old video on my camera of Neve/Nora playing ring around the rosy. Too cute!

I've been gearing up for my new job! We had teacher training all last week. I will still be working as a secretary on campus, and taking a full load of classes, and doing Divine Comedy one more semester. It will be so fun, and so exhausting. :) But, I feel very blessed to be able to do everything.


 TOMORROW if meet the teacher day! I must say, I'm a little nervous! I'll let you know how it goes. I'm so excited to meet these little one that I'll be able to teach. I'll have 12 3 year olds. Keep me in your prayers! ;)


Alex starts school next week too, and he's already getting into the zone. Because I've had rehearsals/performances so often lately, he's been going to the library and reading his textbooks he'll be using this Fall. What a guy. :) He really is the best.


Two weekend ago was the DC Alumni Show. Man, was that fun! TONS of my dearest friends from my first year in DC came back, and we did a bunch of my favorites. As always, it was crazy preparing for it. Some cast members didn't get there until about 12 on Saturday, and we had two shows at 7 and 9. We totally sold out -- we had to turn people away! Whit did an amazing, amazing job of putting the whole thing together. Since it sold out, it got HOT in that auditorium. August show + 400 people per show + us dancing around in hot costumes = gross. It really was such a fun show, though. We got to spend some quality time with everyone the next day on Sunday, and that was wonderful.

Marriott School Musical. I bet it's really hard to tell who is what character. ;) 

High School Musical finale dance! :)

 I think we cracked everytime. Someday, Brian, someday...

...and then the camera died. So we didn't get any Latter-day Miserable pictures. I'll get the group picture from Jodie soon, too! :)




And of course, I've still been working at the good ol' Math Department. We're gearing up for Fall to start, so it's been really busy. I've been writing this blog post here and there for a while whenever I've had some free time at work. 


Alex is still working at the Dental Lab and still loves it. We're both excited for school to start, but sad to see the summer end. It's been such a fun, relaxed summer just enjoying each other. Highlights for me have been evening bike rides followed by popsicles. And, of course, NC. Only two more years until the next one...


Now you're updated! Hope all is well -- and good luck with the start of school, everyone!


Love you all,


Natalex

Call me Mrs. Madsen...

I got a job. As a TEACHER. 

HERE! Notice how it says Dance, Theatre AND Preschool, all on the same building. Heaven.

I can't believe how incredibly blessed I am. I'll be teaching part-time, teaching once class, as I finish up my degree at BYU, and I'll start working as a full-time teacher once I graduate.


Seriously, who gets so lucky?!


Here's a picture of what my classroom will look like:

Blurry, but it's the actual classroom!

I am very grateful today! :)

Monk Reunion 2010

We had the chance to go to a reunion for my Mom's family -- we do it every other summer. It's totally heaven!

We took a red-eye flight to get there -- here's the view as we were landing in the JFK airport. It was actually kind of fun!

The view from our room :)

Our first night there :)

My cute parents!

This is how Nora looked most of the time!

Thomas siblings :)

The whole family! :)

Thomas girls

Cute Neve

Tommy Boy :)

Our movie this year was Pirates!

Nice tan line, eh? :)

Then we got stuck in Chicago -- they put us up in a hotel, it was actually really fun! We had an extra day of vacation.

We can't wait to go back, and we miss all our Monk family members! :)

P.S.: Here's a picture of the Cilantro Lime Quesadillas I made a while ago

Yum! :)