Hello from Washington, D.C.

Hi! For those who haven't heard, I made it safe and alive. My flights were good enough, though there was more turbulence than Kristi would have been comfortable with so I was glad in those moments that she wasn't with me. Other than that there have been very few moments I didn't wish she and the kids were with me. I already feel much more homesick than I anticipated. I actually even have friends here, but it is weird. I was assuming it would be kind of fun and exciting like a business trip, but it does feel different. It feels like I'm here for awhile, I don't know what's next, and it's kind of scary. I am really glad I brought my own pillow--that gives me a little taste of being home that is sweet. Also, I'm so grateful the kids drew me their pictures and that Kristi made all the little videos for me. I have watched them twice already--each day so far--and imagine I'll watch them at least once a day. I already miss Kristi and the kids SOOOO much. I also miss Kristi's cooking and her taking care of me. Anyway, enough with the feelings I guess. Here's what I have done so far, with some pictures. I figured I'd better write tonight because, after I start work tomorrow, all this stuff might not seem important anymore. But I thought some of you still might like to know it.

I found my shuttle and made my way to the house, arriving in the evening around 6. Rick and Ellie showed me to my room. My roommate James and I share the upstairs, including its one bathroom, except for the kitchen which we all share. (James and I and Rick and Ellie, who own the house.) I have my own little fridge, so that is nice. I'm learning to live with the bathroom situation (there was clutter in all of the drawers so I don't know what to do with my bathroom stuff. I kind of scooched some stuff over to carve myself out a spot . . .) Here is a picture of my room:

Not much but . . . I like to call it home. :)

Our landlord, Rick, drove us around town (Silver Spring, not D.C.) and was super nice to take us to the grocery store and sit in the car and read while we shopped for at least an hour. Food here is so expensive! It kind of made me sick. I tried to be as conservative as possible on what I got but it still cost me $120! Hopefully that will last me for awhile.

I stayed up late talking to Kristi and then talking to James. It was really fun talking to both of them. You guys know Kristi so I don't need to describe how great it was talking to her. But talking to James is really fun too. I feel really lucky about that. Because I haven't met too many people that I can talk to about kind of philosophical stuff without feeling like I am boring them--you know, the kinds of conversations that Dad and I have, or that I have often had with Nick or Warner or some of the rest of you. Anyway, I am excited because our conversations really gravitated right toward that and I really enjoyed them. Anyway, I think we have a lot in common so it will be nice being roommates with him.

In the morning I decided to go with James to church even though he was going to the singles' ward. He had gone there before so he kind of knew a lot of people. But at least he also knew his way around D.C. so I thought it would be smart to stick with him. We left at 10:00 for our 11:00 but still didn't get there until about 11:30 or 11:40. It's too bad that we not only missed the sacrament but also missed some of the speakers. The ones we heard were really interesting. Both were converts of a few years, college students and prestigious universities, and their topic was something like "Maintaining perspective and testimony in a secular world" or something along those lines. Anyway, it was a very interesting meeting.

It was a very crowded room--probably 300-400 people stuffed into a large chapel and full cultural hall. But at the end they did was James had warned me was a little tradition of this ward--they asked all the visitors and people here for the first time to stand and introduce themselves. This is still in sacrament meeting in the chapel. Kind of weird, right? We couldn't hear anyone else because no one talked loud enough. Also, there were literally between about 30-50 of us. So they were quick introductions. I guess they get a lot of interns during the summer in a ward like that, which makes sense.

Sunday school was fine. They had a combined Priesthood/RS in the cultural hall where they basically just spent the time doing a tutorial about how to update your information on LDS.org and how to switch from their Yahoo group (which is going dark this month) to their new Google group. Out with the old; in with the new I guess. I'll be honest, that hour felt less important that I be there. The highlight was when the bishop had some people set up this HUGE ladder for him--probably a 20 footer I would guess--and he climbed to the top and gave his speech up there. You see, this was what the technology was in King Benjamin's day--that was the only way he had to communicate with lots of people. But today we have new technology--we need to learn how to use it effectively . . .

Anyway, we hung around for a long time afterwards. James knew tons of people in the ward. He was nice to introduce me to everyone but I was just kind of the married friend who kind of stood awkwardly in the background. There were a lot of cool people though.

We then wanted to head into the city. While we were waiting for the bus, we were talking to some girls from church (also waiting) and this guy from Cameroon came over and started asking us questions about the church. He said he wanted to come with us next week--which was cool--but he was also pretty straight-up that he wanted to marry one of the girls. It wasn't quite as creepy as it sounds--he was charming and cute about it--but it was still a little creepy, or at least awkward. But he was actually a really cool guy. It will be interesting to see if he goes to church, although I'm not sure what ward I will go to next week.

We got downtown and found James' work, and then what I thought was my work (which I took like 10 pictures of):

After awhile, we figured out that that wasn't actually me work. After walking around for awhile, we found the real thing--which wasn't nearly as photogenic. At least it is the real building, as evidenced by the sign:

The cool thing about the real building is what is across the street when you walk about 100 feet down. Yep that's the back of the White House!

There was a big protest rally going on across the street from my work and right behind where the camera is in taking that picture (if that makes sense). I'm not sure what it was about, but they sure weren't happy with the job the government was currently doing. There was a speaker really riling up the crowd. Then there was this older black guy in the street (probably just to my right in the picture) who just started screaming at that crowd. "SHUT UP! NO!! SHUT UP!" Or something like that. You got the sense this was all kind of business as usual. There were police cars and motorcycle cops around just kind of sitting there, taking it in, waiting for someone to do something illegal. It was more interesting than anything, but maybe would have been intimidating if not for the cops. 

Our tour continued. We walked around to the front of the White House (which you couldn't get as close to which is why I had to zoom in and am not in the picture. There were doing a bunch of work on the grounds around it I guess.)

Then behind us was the Washington Monument (which is really a lot bigger than it looks or than I remembered it from the first time I saw it right after high school.) James taught me that the reason the color changes about half way up is because the project got delayed and then restarted after the new deal but they couldn't find quite the same color of stone. Interesting. You probably can't see it in this picture but in person you really could see the color change.

From there we walked a saw a lot more cool stuff including the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the capitol: 
 

 . . ., the Supreme Court . . . 

And lots of other cool stuff that I didn't get pictures of or will send later. We also met up with another guy from school. He was cool and there is a chance he might live with us since he doesn't really have a place to stay right now. 

By this point it was about 7:00 at night and I hadn't eaten since breakfast so I was getting extremely hungry and, as Richard would say, extremely weary. My compadres were, as Richard would say, game for getting some food there and continuing but I hated to buy food a) because it was the Sabbath and, though it felt a little like being on vacation, I knew that wouldn't be a habit I should get into when this really is where I live for now, and b) I spent so dang much on food at the grocery store yesterday that I couldn't bear to spend more today anyway. So we parted ways at that point and I was left with the task of getting myself back home, which was truly a pain. I had to ride two different trains and walk about a mile not really knowing where I was going in a world of hills and curvy streets and 5 way intersections. 

Anyway, I had have to take a couple pictures of the metro stations. They're like way deep underground (you ride an escalator that goes into a dark abyss where you can barely even see the bottom from the top a mile down there) but they're built like palaces. I just couldn't believe how grand they were, how high the ceilings were, etc. It boggles my mind to imagine the engineering that would have to go into building an infrastructure of these things. But they definitely get their money's worth, since that's all anybody uses around here apparently.  

Anyway, I better get to bed. It's almost midnight and I have to be up early for my first day of work. Stay tuned for more details about that but for now just know that I love and miss all of you!

Haha...If only

Things would sure have to change :)

PS Click on the image to zoom in.

Something to make you think

I just found this video today and it's pretty interesting.  The points that are brought up in it will make you think.

Economic Fail

PS With this post, I just made the 500th post.

And, we're back...(Nick)

Hi Family,

I feel like writing to the blog has been on the top of my priority list for weeks, and yet I haven't gotten to it till now.  It's a warm (really warm) sunday afternoon here in St. George.  Bret and I just finished our home teaching for the month and had a great time out visiting our families.  I always feel better after doing my home teaching.  I really have a strong testimony of the importance of doing it.  Bret (by the way) is not my official companion, but when I'm not able to get my real comp to go, Bret is always a good sport to tag along.

Lots of things have happened since I last wrote, and I've been trying to keep a mental note of each of thing for when I write this post.  In a nutshell, here is what's happened:  I attended the county republican convention, celebrated my 28th birthday, travelled to Washington DC and Georgia for work, and kicked off summer in Saint George.

The republican county convention was a wonderful experience for me.  I was nominated as our caucus delegate at the caucus meeting a couple of months ago, and went to represent our area.  It took up most of a Saturday morning and included highlights such as hearing from all the state candidates including Hatch, Herbert, hearing from all of the local candidates and having the two people I voted for win their elections, and teasing Gov Herbert about having Cream of Weber (not Winder) at his election table :).  I felt especially patriotic as I stopped at the scout store on my way home to finally exchange my new scout shirt I got from Mom and Dad for Christmas for the right size and I got all of my patches and stuff.  Brent and Nancy and family were in town that weekend and we enjoyed spending time with them hiking, eating, and searching for easter eggs.  Karen Y. found the $20 this year, and I think I got the second most with a $5 in it.  Caroline got like 12 cents or something...haha! :).  We were also so grateful to mom who is always so thoughtful to think far enough in advance to put together fun Easter baskets for our family.  She even sent down my bunny bash blue bunny.  Thanks mom (and dad)!

I consider it a tender mercy that Kris and Mom and the kids were all able to be down here to celebrate my birthday with us.  On Wednesday after work Kris and Gwen came and picked me up and we went and got some pizza from Papa Murphys and then headed to Yorgs.  With the whole gang there we ate yummy pizza, and then ate a really fun "rock climbing" cake that Stef had made.  It was very creative and tasty to boot.  My gift I was given was new undies :).  Mostly because my exercising undies are long over due to be thrown away.  Mom made sure I explained to all the kids watching that I of course always wear my garments, it is just for the short time that I exercise that I wear "other undies".  Thanks for helping us keep that clear mom!  We watched the Tourist that night, and I ran in to work the next morning. Also, on Friday night, Stef and I got to go out on a fun date.

I think some of you are aware, but I had the chance to travel for work where we went back to DC and Atlanta GA to visit a couple of hospitals who are successfully doing a couple of things we are trying to do at our hospital.  I was travelling with the OR director and one of the managers.  Unfortunately, in DC we weren't there long enough to do anything other than fly in, attend meetings, and fly out.  We went to GA after that and had slightly more time there.  We had time on one of the evenings where we went to downtown Atlanta and ate dinner at Gladys Knights restaurant.  The signature meal was fried chicken and waffles...haha!  I wouldn't say the two really go together, but each separate was tasty.  It was fun to travel, but is always nice to come home.

Finally, and probably the highlight of the month was our "summer kickoff" yesterday.  Stef let me to and "run" a race called the heroes havoc. It was basically a 2 mile long obstacle course where we climbed walls, did pushups and situps, climbed through a mud trench, etc.  It was fun.  After that, we went over to our washington community center and went swimming for most of the afternoon.  I can't believe that is the first time we've been there.  It was $10 for our whole family, and it had a lazy river, a  big waterslide, a playground in the water, etc. etc.  After that we came home and had a BBQ and then let the kids play outside while we sat out and talked with our neighbors.  After putting the kids down, all the adults in the neighborhood met in the commons area and had a campfire and did s'mores.  We feel so blessed to live close to so many great people.

Sure love you all!

Nick

I didn't know my comment would have such an impact...

It appears that my comment about flying Southwest airlines and writing on this blog has had a real impact on the number of blog posts since.  I'm sorry.  I didn't know that it would have such an impact.  Or....maybe it's because Spring is here and nobody wants to sit at the computer and type something out.  Whatever it is, I wanted to share this great video that I saw of some BYU kids and their Easter prank.  Don't get any ideas Max...especially not while you're in the dorms.  Enjoy!!!

Haha, Crazy

It's so weird to me how people think alike.  I just found this picture on twitter and it's crazy how close the resemblances are.  I mentioned during conference that the guy over the shoulder looked like Ron Paul.  The person that posted this to twitter wrote: "Paul Ryan conducting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir w/ Ron Paul peeking over his shoulder."

For those of you who don't know, Paul Ryan is a US Congressman and Ron Paul is running for President, also a Congressman.  Or click the links to read more, and to see a real photo of them. :)

Obviously "Il ne comprend pas" (Warner)

So, I was driving on my way home from school on Wednesday and I was listening to a talk radio show (Rod Arquette if you're wondering) and he had a BYU law grad on the phone that he was interviewing.  This former BYU student talked about how he was a strong defender of traditional marriage while he was attending BYU and everything else.  Then he started doing research, he was a biology undergrad, and found (as he claims) that gay couples and hetero couples can love and raise children the same way.

Anyway, that's not all.  He was on the Rod Arquette show because he, a BYU grad and "active LDS" churchgoer wrote an opinion article (click HERE to read) in the Salt Lake Trib and so I had to read it when I got home.  I was very saddened with his "opinion" and it helped me to realize how you can be "active in the church" and not so "active in the gospel" (whoever can name the author of the talk from last general conference wins...something).

When I was younger and  I read in the scriptures about how people would call good evil and evil good, I didn't quite understand how that could be possible.  To me it was so black and white, you follow God's word or you don't.  You listen to the words of the prophets (Amos 3:7) or you don't.  I'm just so grateful that I was born into a family that taught me well and married into a family that taught Janey well the words of the prophets, or really, the words of Christ himself.  Thank you!

PS My title was meant to confuse you just as I was confused when I read this guy's article.

Blast from the Past

Dear Family,

As I write, the piano song Tune Twisters is being played. Did you know that Max teaches piano? He has two students, both girls (Sabrina and her little sister Michelle). It is amazing how hearing all those early Eckstein songs brings back lots of memories. He must be a good teacher, or they must be good students because they are progressing pretty well.

So it's been over two weeks since I have written (You can all search your own souls to think how long since you have written). Since then I have been down to St. George to see Stef's dance concert. The concert was wonderful and Stef is such a beautiful dancer. There was a wonderful spirit at Tuachan as they told stories of Christ's life through dance. Very unique. If she does it again I hope you can all attend. It was sweet how good the little boys were, too, watching their mom. They love to watch her dance! And it was great to spend time with Rosey. We slept together in the master bedroom and may I just say she is a much better bed partner than when she was a little girl and would sleep in dad's bed when he travelled. She doesn't even turn sideways anymore and kick me.

I was happy to come home from St George late on Monday night and find dad fast asleep. We had been apart three weeks and I really missed him. We are thankful to be back together. We are enjoying our new sleep number bed that was delivered while he was gone.

I loved General Conference weekend and appreciated that we could all be together for the final session on Sunday and then dinner and Bassett Second Sunday at Sid and Steph's Utah home. I'm always sad when conference weekend is over as I love it so much. There is an extra special spirit in our home.

Grandpa Bassett's brother-in-law, Wayne Scott, passed away and the funeral was the Monday after conference. Dad and I attended. His brother, Elder Richard Scott spoke and did a wonderful job. But I think the highlight for me was the beautiful musical number by his five daughters, Love At Home. It sounded so angelic. Their voices blended so beautifully and it was powerful to me. I guess they sang it a lot growing up as their parents started some kind of Family Foundation back East when they were growing up.

Let's see, you all heard Gwen Maughan had a baby boy. Nancy came home from Peru and went straight to Logan for a week. She got home late last night and they headed to St George this morning for the Easter weekend. I have really missed her!

So Max has been off school all week and we did a fun thing on Tuesday. We basically went on what we use to call a "BYU field trip." We picked up Janey on the way. Instead of going to the Bean Museum, the purpose of the trip was to look at housing. We checked out Wyiew, which is by far the most reasonable on-campus housing, and that was good. We went to lunch and got ice cream at the creamery. Rosey joined us there. Then we pulled up to the Law bldg. and there was Blaine! He visited with us for a few minutes, leaning his head in the car and telling us secret stuff that he didn't want anyone else to hear. Basically, he got another job. People are calling Blaine, begging for him to apply as a TA so they can give him a job. How would it be? Way to go Blaine! It was a really fun day. And then yesterday was Max's magic moment to register for online housing (they assign you an exact time you can go on line) and he got a good spot at Wyview. Hopefully he will tell you more about it.

One last bit of news. All of our flights are booked for the cruise! A big thanks goes to Kristi who helped me the past few days. We are flying Southwest and had to book in groups of two or four (for future reference - group rates are NOT cheaper). Every few days a few more flights would become available at the web price which was cheaper. Well today I booked the last four and we are all on the same flights. Hurray!

Gotta go. love, mom

WOW! Glad all family is safe.

This is pretty incredible.  You always hear of how powerful tornadoes are, but then when you get to watch video like this it truly shows how incredible they are.  Maybe Twister wasn't so far off after all.  I'm glad that the Bassetts that live near here are all safe.

Click this link to watch: Amazing Tornadoes (turn down your volume before you click unless you want to hear a really annoying sound)

Here is a better video

If you watch long enough you can literally see semi trailers being blown around like Bret and Clay are playing trucks in the living room. (Sorry, not alluding that Bret and Clay are destructive...you get the point)