DC Days 3 & 4 (Kristi)

May 13, 2012

Sunday was really nice. We got up and found the nearest LDS church and the most convenient time. We scrambled to make the metro shuttle (I literally had to bang on the window as he was driving away!). And raced to Chevy Chase (which is where I think Carolyn Franklin is from), and caught the Singles Ward. It was eerily quiet. Well, correction, it was freakishly LOUD before the meeting and then eerily quiet once it had started. It was ironic that it was mothers day since I was one of only a small handful of mothers in the enormous room. We enjoyed hearing the speakers and attending the first sacrament meeting I can remember in a long time where I wasn't taking care of kids :). Oh we also enjoyed that one of the callings extended during the meeting was "ward tweeter". That's a new one.

After the meeting I was able to meet James (Blaine's housemate), and I also got to meet um. Dang it. I can't remember his name. But the guy that Blaine met on the metro his first day in DC and had invited to church. Apparently this guy had kind of fallen for one of the girls that Blaine was with and has called her almost every day since then. So, his motives maybe weren't most pure, but at least he was there, which was fun.

We then got back on the Metro and headed to Arlington. We figured that would be a great Sunday activity. And it was! I loved Arlington. We meandered around, saw the flame on JFKs grave (lit by Jackie at his funeral and hasn't been put out since).

My favorite part was the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. Wow. There's not much else to say but ... wow. I sat there for a long time, just indulging my thoughts of gratitude towards those who have given their lives for our country. We hung around long enough to watch the changing of the guard, which was also amazing. We even got online and read some interesting facts about the soldiers who protect the tomb. We were also able to witness a couple of groups who were presenting wreaths to the tomb, which was awesome (an amazing rendition of TAPS was played each time). Wow, it was just an amazing experience to be there.

Afterward we meandered around and found the memorials to those on the Challenger, and a couple of other memorials. Then we made the long trek back (maybe it wasn't really that long but we got lost a couple of times). The sheer quantity of graves is just enough to blow your mind, and break your heart.

We stopped on our way home at Whole Foods to buy some breakfast for the next day (chocolate croissants!), and then grabbed some dinner at Cosi, where we tried to pretend our expensive yet meager portions had filled us. Unfortunately we had to resort to eating our next days breakfast for a second dinner later on! 


We spent some time on FaceTime watching the kids jump on the tramp and being jealous of all of your homemade ice cream!

DC Days 1 and 2 (Kristi)

This is going to be kind of a random post, but I want to write down what we did in DC before I forget, and I'm afraid I've probably already forgotten some things!

Friday May 11 -

I left Salt Lake about 10:30AM, I was relieved to sit by THE NICEST man in the world. He was probably 55-60 years old, owns a 600 acre cattle ranch in Kansas and was just a pleasure to talk to. It came up that I was mormon and he got a puzzled look on his face and asked, "wait, so, if you are mormon, what is your husband doing in DC?". Which made me laugh. Apparently he didn't realize that mormons were allowed to stray too far from the homeland :). We both had four hour layovers in the Denver airport and he was so kind and bought me lunch and kept me company for the layover. Probably seems weird to write so much about the person I sat next to on my first flight but it really changed the tone from being a scary thing to being a fun thing. So, be nice to people on planes! You never know when you are sitting next to someone who is terrified! (Unless they tell you, like I would!). Ha.

I got in to Washington Dulles around 9:30 that night. One of Blaine's co-workers (well, not exactly a co-worker...but an acquaintance who happens to be LDS as well) was so nice and offered to drive him to pick me up from the airport. We stopped at McDonalds for dinner and then he dropped us off at the Marriott Bethesda. Blaine had bought flowers for me, which was kind of a big deal since he had to drag them, along with his luggage around DC and the metro all day!  The hot tub was closed, much to Blaine's dismay.

Saturday May 12 -

Our hotel had a shuttle to the metro, which was nice. To get down in to the metro you have to take the worlds longest escalator, which was a fun adventure.

 Turns out I kind of have an irrational fear of mass transit too. The
subway kind of stressed (and grossed!) me out. I eventually got over that during the week, but it took a while : ) Our first destination was to Wingos. See-- being that this trip was sponsored by student loans, and that no matter what we did the trip was going to be pretty expensive, we did our best to save on hotels and meals. Groupon has a cool thing in big cities called "Groupon Now" where it posts a lot of deals that have to be used within a couple of hours. So we paid $5 for a $10 certificate at Wingos, and I had $5 of groupon credit, so this was a free meal. And we walked about two miles to get it :). Ha ha. It was literally a hole in the wall, but man, I've never tasted such good wings! The area Wingos was in was kind of a ritzy shopping district (Georgetown), it was fun to walk around and see Hugo Boss stores in really old buildings. I was in awe at how green the city was. 

Oh also while we were eating our wings I had a nice conversation with a policeman, and being LDS came up again. Man, if you ever go to DC don't forget to take your pass along cards! 

We then walked over to the Potomac where there was a big Crew race going on. It was kind of fun to watch for a while, seeing as how I've only ever seen people rowing in movies!

Then we rented a kayak. When I got in I kind of broke the seat. And as we were drifting while getting settled some dude in another kayak started freaking out, "watch my oar. Watch my oar! WATCH MY OAR!" And I was thinking, dude, I am not in control, you may want to get your oar out of my way. Oh well. Now we have a fun quote (WATCH MY OAR!).  Since the crew race was going on (which the guy on the doc so kindly reminded us of as we started paddling that way), we headed South down the Potomac. Saw a dead fish. I had a panic attack because I thought I saw a snake. And finally about half an hour in to our hour rental we made it to see the back of the Lincoln Memorial :) It was pretty darn fun!

Then we walked around "the mall" and just kind of got the lay of the land and saw the memorials and monuments and the white house. Blaine showed me where he worked. I thought my feet were going to fall off. I can't remember what we had for dinner that night -- I think we took the hotel shuttle to a mall and ate at The Cheesecake Factory (don't worry, I only got an appetizer to save $$). Oh yeah, when the table next to ours got their meal Blaine said something like "dang! I wonder what that is, it looks good!" And the girl just turned and told us what they had ordered and offered us some, it was so funny. Turns out they were LDS and in town for a DoTerra convention (DoTerra is the essential oil company my granola neighbor sells for). They were really funny and nice, it was a mom with two of her TWELVE kids. Crazy. I can't imagine raising 12 kids here, but they must have gotten some stares raising 12 kids in Delaware where they were from!

We made it back in time to sit in the hot tub (thankfully!). And I think maybe this is the night that we were with three older women in the hot tub who had taken a road trip together to DC. We talked about the price of milk in our respective areas of the country : ) Oh and I had fun being cynical of the lifeguard who sat in the corner applying her makeup while kids were swimming in the pool. Awesome. 

Wow, Maybe I better take this one day at a time so as to not write the worlds longest post!

Bunk Beds

This will be a short and sweet post, but we set up the bunk beds the other evening and I thought you all might like to see. They took me WAY longer than I thought to set up, but we still got them built just the same. Also, I haven't seen Bret so excited about anything in a very long time. He loves it!!

Sorry to copy and paste from the other blog, but I am pretty sure everyone has given my other blog up for dead--- so I figured I would repost here. Plus, I don't want to be the only one without a Cinnabon at the airport!

----

The other night I stayed up until 3AM. I didn't intend to. It started out because I had an idea to follow up on a blog I had read about a year ago about a guy who had lost his wife suddenly. I just thought I would check in and see what had changed in the year since her passing (such a sad story). But then I made the mistake of reading some of the comments on his blog, which lead me to this blog. I had heard the story of Sheldon and Jace a few weeks earlier on facebook, they are friends of a friend of mine.[If you don't hop over to read- On Julie's 31st birthday her husband took her toddler out for a canoe ride on the lake behind their house, and they both drowned]. Wow,  reading her blog really did a number on me. I literally felt so much physical pain for her, such an aching, such empathy. I couldn't help but just sit and sob the whole night through. And of course, reading some of the comments on her blog led me to others. It was a long night full of tears, love, and mostly full of prayers of gratitude that I have not had to experience such tragedy, and pleading that I never will. 

It was timely to read those blogs when I did. I had had a hectic day, it was day 10 of being a temporary single mom. I had made it through the day but had hastily thrown the kids in bed, no story, a rushed family prayer, a quick goodnight and a sigh of relief. I think there was quite a bit of yelling in there too. As I sat alone in my bed reading I just wanted my family to be with me. I wanted Blaine by my side, and all of my kids in my bed. I didn't care if Ivy's feet were in my face, or if they were all fighting, I just wanted them close. It pained me to not be with Blaine. The pain eased only by the fact that he is not gone forever, just for a little while. And that I can call and talk to him on the phone each day. A luxury all of those people I mentioned no longer have. 

Lots of things struck me on those blogs. It was heartbreaking to read the posts that happened right before the posts that talked about the tragedy. These are normal people with normal lives. Doing fun things, having fun days, having rough days,  playing at the park and then BAM. It ends. It's over. A huge part of their life is gone in an instant. I bet they'd give anything to read their kids a story, to fold their husbands laundry. Julie talked about a dream she had where she was wiping Jace's face after he had eaten lunch. Such a simple thing, a thing we do twenty times a day, something we likely dread doing, and she misses that so much and would give anything to wipe his face. 

It made me realize too how we need to live for the now. For instance in the case of Julie and Sheldon, he had just barely finished optometry school. He had been in school for their entire marriage (10 years I believe) and then six months after finishing the accident happened. I am so glad Blaine is in school and following his dream. We've been lucky, our lifestyle hasn't suffered too much (thank you student loans!), and I really am enjoying life right now. The days are long, Blaine is working his tail off, but things are good. Blaine is learning and growing in so many ways. It's amazing to be a part of his growth and to watch his accomplishments. His work, for example, is practically on the back lawn of the white house ( he has fun making his way through protesters of some sort almost every single day on his way to work, exciting right?). I think if something happened to Blaine during school or shortly thereafter that I wouldn't consider the decision to do law school a waste of time or money, because he is truly a happier and more fulfilled person because of it. I just hope that we can always focus on being happy where we are at in each stage of life, because accidents don't care if you are just finally starting your "real" life, the part you've been waiting for-- or if you are in the middle of working towards that life. They just happen. So I'm determined to be doing everything I can to ensure our family is just living up every stage of life we are in. Sorry, random thoughts I know.

I've been thinking a lot about my kids too. Each of those bloggers I mentioned probably clings so tightly to any and every memory, snippet, post, picture, video, etc they have of their lost loved ones. I've been horrible at blogging or documenting anything for a long time now. Something about being back in Utah made my life seem completely boring and dull and overall not worth writing about. I had been writing this blog for the masses, to make you all laugh, and to be validated as a good writer. And I didn't have fodder for that any more. But...if something were to happen to the kids or Blaine, I know I would wish that I would have documented more of our everyday lives. So I am going to try to do that more. (I just heard a hundred of you go and delete me from your google reader feed, ha ha). Oh well ;) 

So now I am basically just rambling. But I love my family, I hope they know it. I also love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, that has allowed me to be sealed to my family forever. So that if something ever did happen, I would know that this life is not the end. That we can be together again. What peace that brings!

One Pleased Mama (mom)

Yes indeed. The flurry of activity on the BAWB is making me smile. You can all call it Mothers Day if you want because that is all I really want is for our family to be close. Just a couple more items from me that I want everyone to know (or maybe I am really doing this for posterity as you all know most of this) So here is an April recap. First, we are so proud of little Rosey. Dad, Janey and I attended her BYU commencement on Thursday April 19 and her convocation the next morning. We even got in a celebration meal at Red Lobster - yum! It was fun to watch Rosey in action at the Social Work open house after the convocation. There were about 40 in her program there with their families and friends. After snacking on light refreshments, including famous BYU mint brownies, the Dean called everyone together for a presentation to a retiring professor and then he turned the time over to Rose. She has been the "president" of her program and had all these fun and silly awards to give to the professors, along with adorable homemade cards that everyone had signed. And she did it all with humor and ease and you just got the sense that everyone loves her (but not as much as dad and I do). I just enjoyed seeing her in action and also meeting her friends and professors. Great day. We are thrilled to have her home. Though she will be attending the singles ward with Marg, she went to the home ward yesterday and bore such a powerful testimony. Then she saved the day by teaching a primary class spur of the moment. It was not an easy class! Quick comment on Max. He is off for life guard training every day this week. Kristi was right, this is the Seven Peaks that used to be Raging Waters. No, he won't be driving to Provo. (what, did you think dad and I had lost it?) Once Rosey gets a car, Max will get to drive the Civic. It's nice because he also has two close friends working there so maybe they can occasionally carpool. While I am on Max, his acapella group (5 guys from Madrigals) called Freelance (not to be confused with Free Lancer) took first place last Monday at the Grangers Got Talent Assembly. The crowd went crazy. I wish you all could have been sitting there with me to watch the action. It was pretty fun. Oh I will miss having a high schooler! Other fun April events of note. I loved going to St George April 9-12 with Krisit and kids. I was a delegate at the Salt Lake County Convention where Mike barely won. Dad and I celebrated 32 years of marriage. Max went to Grangers Prom with Taylor (it is no longer jr prom or sr prom, just prom). We had a fun beach b-day party for little Bret. I loved seeing Stef's dance concert again and being so close to the dancers this time. There was a beautiful spirit there. I spoke in sacrament meeting about my love for Relief Society and was glad Nick and Stef got to be there. We treated Janey and Warner to the Avengers movie (thanks to Sterling Financial) and dinner for her birthday. That was all because we felt to bad to miss the surprise party Warner planned. I think that about wraps it up for now. Keep writing! Love you all, mom

Response to Max and more of my thoughts on the mission

Haha, like Stef, I am having to remove my comment from the comments section to be a regular post. However, unlike Stef (but more like Curt) my reason was not how I was logged in but that my comment was simply too long. Anyway, here was what I was going to reply--enjoy!

Max,

I echo everyone else's thoughts about what a fun and also well-written letter that was. Ah, studying for finals (or AP tests, which are basically like finals while you're still in high school). The most fun thing ever, right? I hadn't really thought about the similarity until I read your email, but AP tests are just like law school tests. I had thought that I had never taken a class that my entire grade depended on one test before, but, in a lot of ways, that's exactly what the AP tests are, isn't it? You've worked hard for the whole semester or the whole year and your entire evaluation boils down to what you can crank out during those 3 hours (or whatever it is) on test day. Welcome to law school. That is the highest pressure feeling, isn't it? You were so nice to keep referring to how much you wish you had some of my mental capacity to help you but, I'll tell you, if it is possible to be smart enough to not get nervous for those kinds of tests, I'm nowhere near that! They just make you sick to think about, and it just gets worse the closer they come. Anyway, I understand what you're feeling. My only advice is to just make sure you work your hardest and do your best. Then you can be happy with whatever score you get because you know that you did everything possible and that this was what the Lord must have wanted you to get for whatever His purpose was. It may surprise and disappoint you sometimes, but the Lord doesn't always need/want you to get the best score in the class. Example 1: I knew I'd fail AP American History so I didn't even take it. As a result, I had to take American Heritage at BYU. This ended up being one of the most meaningful and memorable classes of my life and certainly had an influence on what I am doing today. Had I taken and aced AP History I probably wouldn't even be in law school today. Example 2: I studied hard for the LSAT and had practiced on a level that would have been good enough to get me into any school in the country but on test day I totally botched it. Because of how poorly I performed I didn't have to turn down the top schools in the country to be able to see that BYU was the right place for me to go. I don't know if I would have had the perspective to do so but I've always been glad the Lord only let me get the score I did because I really believe BYU is where I'm supposed to be and that disappointing LSAT score landed me here. You get the point--He'll help you get where you need to be as long as you work your hardest and do your best.

As to the missionary preparation stuff. That is so exciting to hear you talking about it and to think about how close you are really getting. I must confess, the thought of you reading my letter never crossed my mind as I wrote it or I may have tried to pull my punches a bit. I hope it didn't scare you too bad. On the one hand, yeah. Let's be honest. Missions are harder than you can comprehend sometimes. Feeling those emotions again now, it just makes me want to cry for myself and for you and for all the missionaries out there who struggle. Even people who find lots of joy and love for their missions, don't let them tell you the mission wasn't hard because I really think it is for everybody unless they're completely doing it wrong.

But, that said, there are so many great things about a mission that help ease the pain. Many of those, unfortunately, are not things that I currently enjoy here, so in those senses, you shouldn't let my letter from last week worry you too much.

1. People generally don't yell at you on your mission. At least not people who you have to care what they think. For me, even if my trainer or some companions were not super fun to live with and be with all the time, at least they were never hateful toward me. They understood what I was going through and they tried to help. Certainly this was the case for the President and other mission leadership. Getting chewed out was kind of a new feeling for me with this job but not something I felt on the mission. As a missionary, you may occasionally have people who don't like you, who yell at you, who slam doors in your face, etc. But honestly, you learn pretty fast to let that stuff roll off your back. Because the thing is, you know deep down that that's not really your problem but theirs. Those people become the fodder of good stories in your letters home and little more. None of those types of angry people stand out to me as I remember back on the mission.

2. What does stand out to me more, is the high pressure that you put on yourself knowing that what you are doing is important. The level of this pressure is self-imposed to a large degree, which is a handy thing to remember. If you get to where you can't breath under its weight, you can let yourself ease off a bit (something I don't have control under in this job, unfortunately). It is easy to get weighed down by the thought that every mistake you make could possibly be the cause of someone not getting found or baptized who otherwise would have and that you'll one day have to pay the price for that. These thoughts were much more difficult for me to reckon with, but I came to be grateful for the atonement--one, because I could repent for my shortcomings and use it to improve, and two, because I came to understand more fully the pressure that was on Christ to be responsible for saving everyone. While it is scary to be a missionary and carry that weight, at least all you are called to do is invite people and call them to repentance. You aren't responsible for SAVING them. That is the impossibly horrible task that Christ already accomplished. I came to have great gratitude that that wasn't on me, and came to feel more confident that the little role that was on me was something I could handle.

3. You'll have plenty of people around you on a mission who can relate to you and who you can forget yourself in serving. While you'll be the newest missionary for a little bit at the beginning, in no time there come even newer missionaries that are now looking up to you and asking for your advice. They are jealous of how "soon" you get to go home, even when that is in 18 months and they still have 19 months. They wish they could speak the language as well as you even when you can barely bear your testimony. They wish they got as many letters from as awesome a family as you have. They just help remind you all the time how lucky you really are. Going through this experience with others who are the same as you or a bit above or a bit below you is really a joy. I felt as close a bond to many missionaries while I was serving as I have ever felt to anyone with the exception of Kristi. You find a couple really great mission friends and even if you don't stay together forever like we get to as families, for that time in your life, you'll find that, by necessity, you get every bit as close to them as you do to family. That is another thing I am lacking here--someone who knows exactly what I'm going through that I can talk to and go through it with. I'm dealing with a different type of loneliness than I ever had to face on the mission.

Okay, I guess this is getting way too long now but it is just fun thinking about you going on  a mission and thinking about all the things I want to tell you about it. Hopefully we'll have plenty more chances to talk before then (hello, cruise!) but those are a couple things on my mind.

Anyway, love you man and good luck on your tests. Also, congrats on your job. Can't wait to come visit you throughout the summer (we have our passes of all passes--if I pluralized that correctly). I also am curious about how you're going to work that out. Are you going to commute? Carpool with other people who work there? What do you drive these days anyway? Can't wait to talk to you more about it. Thanks for writing!

Blaine's Bark Letter

Since Kristi reposted my last BAWB post to the Bark with such success, I thought this week I would write directly to the bark and then do the repost here. Hopefully you all read the comments that people gave to my last letter (at least Curt's and Sid's) or else some of this may not make sense. Anyway, I see a lot of you have been writing since the last time I checked, so I'm excited to go read those. Anyway, without further ado, here is my letter I just posted to the Bark:

I started to respond to everyone's nice comments on the last letter that Kristi posted for me and decided to just bring my thoughts out to a separate new post. First of all, thank you all for your comments and for taking an interest in what is going on in my life. For what it's worth, though I rarely write or even comment on the Bark, its not because I don't read or because I don't care. I do read almost every letter and comment that you all write when I get my digest from Google everyday. I often want to write a quick reply or comment but have learned that, as soon as I start writing, I can't stop. Some of you know that about me--brevity is not my strength (as I have a feeling this letter will show . . . :) Thus, I have learned that if I never write I can at least keep up on reading and that has kind of become my habit, for better or worse. But thanks to the encouragement that my last letter's reception gives me, along with the fact that I actually have a bit of time, I thought I would actually write an update today.

Things have gotten a little better since the letter I wrote Tuesday. That is the good news. The bad news is that, believe it or not, I actually held back quite a bit for what I wrote Tuesday, so the fact that things have gotten better does not mean that they are going great now. :) But Tuesday was the low point and they've been slowly improving. I've thought a lot about how this got away from me and why this experience has been so much more difficult so far than I had planned. I think Curt got a lot of the right ideas--I'm not sure how much BYU or being a Mormon has played in, but I do think it was a mistake to ever tell anybody that I am only a 1L. Not that I really could have kept silent about it forever, but if I could do things over I would keep that bit of information to myself at all costs. Most of the people lucky enough to have a seat at the table here have not only finished law school (many from highly ranked schools) but have also worked as lawyers for a while and/or have done other clerkships for lower courts to work their way up to this point on the ladder. Now, understand, no one mistakes me for an actual clerk who has done these things. It's not like a really just got to skip all that. There is a stronger hierarchy here than anything I have experienced in my career and there is no question in anyone's mind who the interns are and who the clerks are. (BTW, Jann, Kristi was right about the difference between externs and interns. At BYU, externships are for credit and not pay while internships are for pay and not credit. It is a useful distinction but not one that seems to be widely recognized beyond BYU; they refer to us in the office all as interns and none of us are getting paid . . .) But the point is that we still are all sitting around the same table and privy to the same information that not very many people are privy to.

So on the one hand, I think there is probably an element of jealousy or sour grapes that someone got to be here quicker than I did so I'm going to give him a hard time. But I'm learning that there is also a more practical, less malevolent aspect to this hostility. And that is that someone like me probably really ISN'T qualified to sit at the table! It is a pressure cooker in there. We're dealing with things that really matter--real cases and real people and real money hang in the balance--and if I'm honest about it, I kind of agree that someone with only one year of law school under their belt has little business being there. I mean, it's not the end of the world. I am only an intern and so there are still a couple layers of safety before something I do wrong could really mess things up. But there are fewer layers than I am very comfortable with. And I think there are fewer layers than my bosses are comfortable with as well. I'll say this: though we do many of the same things, I definitely am not qualified to be a full-fledged clerk. Whereas I have previously believed that the requirement that clerks do prior clerkships and work as a lawyer for a few years was probably just a way of making them "pay their dues" and filter out only the very most serious candidates, I now have come to understand that those things are actually probably necessary to qualify someone for the job. I just can't imagine myself or anyone in my class being ready for these full responsibility in two years at graduation. And to be ready only a few years after that still seems like a stretch.

Anyway, there are some of my thoughts about it. I still think she was overly mean and unprofessional the first day which could stem from any number of things (several of which Curt named), but now I think that much of what is going on is that I really am out of my league and I am having to pay the piper for the honor of putting Judge Rader's name on my resume after only my first year.

I also wanted to respond to Sid's comment. I think it is so fun that you remember both of those experiences in Round Rock. I do too, and I am trying to decide which week was harder--that first one answering calls or this last one at the courthouse. It is actually a hopeful comparison, especially when you get to the end of that story and find that everything turned out okay. If I had to choose, I would still say that the first week at NI probably was even harder than this, but then, I was getting paid for that and I could come home to my loving family every night. So all in all I don't know which one wins. :) Anyway, thanks for reminding me that I can do hard things, and that I have done them before and emerged the victor. :)

Anyway, to dwell more on the positive--yesterday (Saturday) I actually quite enjoyed. I went on a nice long run early in the morning. They have miles and miles of beautiful green trails here that seem like you could take months exploring even if you went out every weekend. That was very fun and refreshing. I then showered and changed and ventured to the grocery store. Here, I was reminded of another mission similarity--the concept of shopping for food based a little bit on what you like, a little bit on how much it costs, and a LOT on what it weighs. For you know deep down that everything you buy, you will have to get home some how. I had taken the bus (my first time here--so far I have just used the metro for everything) which was about a half mile away from my house and a half mile away from the grocery store. Though I did my best to be realistic about what I could carry, I guess, as so often happened in the mission as well, I let it get away from me a little bit. I don't know how much it all weighed but my entire duffle bag was full of liquid and cans and then I had a backpack and 3 grocery bags full of lighter stuff (but that was still pretty heavy). I made it home with all my stuff but I'm kind of amazed that I did. I am still stiff today. It was so heavy that not only was I limping and grunting as I walked through the crowded public areas and got onto a public bus, but I also had to stop about every 20 steps to switch which arm was carrying the heaviest stuff. Anyway, it took awhile to get home and I was a sight to behold, I'm sure. :)

I quickly changed when I got home from my four-hour grocery shopping trip and walked to the temple. In Utah we always say how much we take it for granted that we live so close to so many temples, but I'll tell you, I've never lived close enough to walk to one before. So that was kind of a cool experience. I actually was kind of running because I had a lot of other stuff I needed to do and I knew I would be cutting it close to make the session I wanted to make. Of course I thought about Ben and Curt and our little "fib-tabulous" experience as I walked past the temple visitor's center.  It is SOOO humid here. By the time I got in the temple I was just a big dripping ball of sweat. And I didn't even make the session--missed it by about 3 minutes. :( It was okay though. I wandered around the temple and talked to some of the workers while I waited. It's a very different temple than I have ever been to. For one thing, there is no chapel to wait in before your session starts--you just go sit in the endowment room and people wander in and sit wherever they want. I had never seen that before. Anyway, I had a nice time there and then hustled home to try to have time for my last activity of the day--I took the metro into town, got dinner at Noodles, and saw the Avengers at the biggest movie theater I have ever been to in my life. The actual screen I got was not necessarily the best (though it was very nice), but the theater as a whole was just enormous. They had about 25 screens--many of them IMAXs. The whole bottom floor was just a huge ticket office where, when I got there, I would say 200-300 people were waiting in line. Then you rode up a huge escalator to the next floor where it was almost like an airport. There were no moving sidewalks but they could have used some. The were signs pointing to different wings of the building--screens 1-12 over here, screens 13-25 here, etc. There was the biggest concession stand I've ever seen. Anyway, fun theater and great movie.

Thanks for hanging in there, any who did. And again, thank you for all of your love and support and prayers and comments on that last letter. This really is the greatest family. To be clear, I wrote this in a whirlwind so I hope it more or less makes sense. If anyone is thinking they understand why I was given such a hard time based on the quality of this writing, just know that the writing I turn in for my job is done much more carefully and is of a much higher caliber. :) But, as I mentioned, when I am unconstrained in a writing project like this, I just kind of go to town and eventually just have to cut myself off. I guess the time has come to do that. :) Love you all!

Blaine

New Stage of Life - Rosey

Good Morning from West Valley City!

I know most of you already  know, but I have officially moved back to our stomping grounds in good old West Valley City, UT.  I have a lot of mixed emotions going on and have for about the past months, but I am doing well and feel excited for the next stage in my life.

I have been meaning to write a post FOREVER as I have been experiencing so many different feelings preparing to graduate.  For the past 5 years, I have been living in Provo going to school.  The majority of my friends are in Provo, all of my intramurals are in Provo, my favorite scenery is in Provo, and the list goes on.  As I was preparing to graduate, I knew that a lot of changes would be taking place: I would no longer be attending classes, I would be working full-time (no homework! yeah!), and I would hopefully have a lot more money.  My plan had originally been to find a job in Utah County, and continue living my comfortable life in Provo.  I could still play intramurals, live with some of the same roommates, and hang out with the same friends.  Upon graduating, I began applying for jobs.  Nick was nice to help me apply to the IHC (since nobody else cares that I just write IHC on the blog NIck, I am not writing it out :)  in Provo, and I really got myself excited for getting that job.  Meanwhile, I knew it would be smart to apply for other jobs, so I applied for anything that popped up.  One of the jobs I applied for was a job with Valley Mental Health (which is the mental health agency for any person on Medicaid or Medicare) in Tooele, UT.  They ended up interviewing me the day before I interviewed with IHC.  The interview went really well, but I figured it was just good practice as I had already made up my mind to stay in Provo....

Well, long story short.  I ended up taking the job in Tooele, for a lot of reasons.  1) I didn't get the IHC job AND most importantly 2) I felt like taking the Tooele job is what I was supposed to do.  So, I will be working in Tooele on the Adult Outpatient unit working with a variety of people who have pretty severe mental diagnoses (schizophrenia, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, etc.)  I am scared to death, but know that it will be a MAJOR learning experience, so I am excited as well.

So now I want to jump back a little bit because I had a few really neat experiences during the end of my last semester in graduate school.  A lot of you  may already know, but my couple weeks of classes were, to say the least, a nightmare!  I had a giant research paper that had many problems throughout the semester that I basically had to write from scratch and I had the test to determine whether or not I got licensed as a social worker the morning of my graduation - along with several other little assignments and responsibilities.  Basically, I was very stressed, something that I honestly don't feel very often (I feel very blessed about that...)   Anyway, Mom and Dad (and most of you) were very aware of all the big stuff I had going on and thus were praying hard for me.  Also, the Monday morning of my crazy week, I received a text from Mom who told me that she had fasted for me the day before (not a fast Sunday)....

Anyway, the week ended up being a very spiritual experience for me.  I could literally feel the Lord directing me to help me write the research paper, (which I thought may result in me getting a failing grade in the class and actually resulted in an A- in the class) keep me feeling calm throughout the week, keeping my mind clear to be able to focus on whatever task was at hand, and then finally directing my thoughts as I took the very important license test at the conclusion of my week.  I am not sure when I have ever felt the Lord's presence in my life as much as I did during that week, and I know it is because of the prayers and fasting of each of you.  It really was a special week for me, full of different feelings which I will never forget.  I know that the Lord is very aware of our personal lives and will comfort, guide, and direct us if we allow Him.

Since that neat week, I have strived to continue to allow the Lord to help me figure out what to do with my life.  While I felt nervous about taking the Tooele job, I was grateful for the immediate peace I felt after accepting the position.  I know that the Lord allowed me to feel that peace to know that it is important for me to take this position at this time, for some special purpose.  I often think about Grandma Bassett and the unique relationship she had with our Father in Heaven, she really did trust him with every small detail of her life, and I have recently tried to take on this attitude of nothing being a coincidence in my life.  Everything happens for a reason, we just simply may not understand why it happened until much later.

Anyway, I have rambled enough, I know this is more of a thought post than an event post, but I have been wanting to write out these thoughts for a long time.  Hopefully they make sense.  So, to tie back my thoughts to the title of this post...I am about to embark on a completely new journey in my life, and certainly a new stage.  It is amazing how often our lives are changing, constantly molding us to progress and grow.  I would be lying if I said that I am not nervous about all the changes that have taken place in the past week for me, but I hope to make the most of this time living in West Valley City, and working at this job.  Let the party begin!  Sure love all of you.  Carry on with all the awesome stuff you are doing in your life!

Love, Master Rosey (just kidding)

A Blast from the past (Nick)

Dear Family,

Just a couple of things:

I spent around four hours tonight getting our newly beloved van in tip top shape.  It was tons of fun for me to go through nearly every inch of that vehicle.  Oh the memories.  I almost got tearful as I was cleaning the inside back window and noticed the little twisty thing that just pushes the windows out an inch or two.  For some reason, and I apologize in advance Blaine, but the memory that instantly came back to me was that of sitting in the back with Blaine, and suddenly there is a foul smell in the air, and starting to dramatically yell to the front "hey, please open up the back windows...it STINKS back here".  It certainly wasn't always Blaine stinkin it up, and in all honesty, he graduated the year we got this particular van so I really haven't ridden much with him in the back, but those back windows brought back a lot of memories from our childhood.  Anyway, I thought you might all care to know what consumed 4 hours of cleaning a car.  Here is a list of the things I did:

1 - Washed the outside of the car
2 - Thoroughly vacuumed the inside (this included pulling out the middle seats and trying to clean inside the little tracks really well)
3 - Armor-alling the dash
4 - Cleaning the inside of all the widows
5 - Spraying down the tires making them look like new
6 - Waxing the hood and the top (this will help prevent aging in the St. George sun)
7 - Wiping down the engine (haha, I don't know why I do this...but hey, what the heck)
8 - Defogging the left headlight (the right one is new, but the left one is an original.  Cleaning those is actually probably the hardest thing I did tonight...there are about 4 steps and 3 chemicals involved with doing it...it looks almost like a new headlight though)
9 - I painted all of the big paint chips (not the marks, but actual chips).  I've had some gold Honda car paint for a while that I'll use with my Accord when I get big paint chips.  The paint looks a little funny (not much better than just having a chip) but it at least will help prevent moisture getting in and rusting the car.
10 - I dusted and scrubbed (with carpet cleaner) the floor rugs.  They don't quite look like new but they look better.
11 - I did my best cleaning out the sliding door car tracks

Us helping mom part with her beloved van of 12 good years

I think thats about everything.  haha, I'm a nut.  It was fun doing it though, and Stef and the boys will at least be riding around in a nice clean car for a few days.  Bring on the rain huh? :)

Also, as long as I'm on the car, Stef and I sincerely couldn't be more grateful about the way things worked out with the car. We're grateful that mom and dad were willing to part with it, but we're also grateful that they had us pay a fair (but good) price for it. It feels more our own that way, and besides none of you would have ever let there be a free car handout :). We're grateful that we didn't have to take on another car payment though, and most of all we're grateful to have 2 cars.  Life is stressful enough as it is, but figuring out how you are going to get to all of those stressful events can sometimes be just enough of an additional stress to push you over the edge.  Thanks again mom and dad for letting that work out!

The other thing I wanted to mention was how grateful I was to get to talk to Blaine tonight.  He sounded in good spirits and I seriously am just so proud of him.  I think it's so cool what he's doing.  I know he's unbelievably busy but I was grateful he'd take 45 minutes or so to share more about what he's got going on.

I'll leave it at that.  I love you all. Have a great day

The Nick and Stef Bassetts with their 2 gold Hondas

Nick

Comment to Max (STEF)

Max, for some reason, I am logged in funny and I can't leave a comment on your post, so I will leave it here!!!  So fun about your job at 7 Peaks!!  I worked at Raging Waters one summer and had a fun time (Kristi actually worked there at the same time we figured out later).  You will be great and learn great life saving skills too!  Good luck with all your AP tests, we will pray for ya!!

Miss everyone, love STEF

For the Strength of Youth Parody Video

http://youtu.be/yvdFpF5EuTU
I thought this was a clever little video ;)  enjoy!

Foreshadowing the future (Max)

To start off:
Blaine
I'm sorry this comment is a little late. As I listen to Dad talk to you on the phone in the other room, it's good to know your still alive and doing well out there.  This last post of yours stirred many feelings and ideas as I am currently preparing to serve for my mission. Like, I think it is pure inspiration for me to hear and read about your experiences at this time in my life so that I can prepare mentally for my mission (It's just right around the corner.) I'm so grateful for your example of how to pull through hard trials and stick to the task at hand. I hope my mindset will be as optimistic and positive as yours when I'm out in the field. I know, through experience, that in order to grow stronger, we must fall. And the Lord will always run to us to lift us up. I felt as Rosey did toward the lady the dogged on your writing. When I think of a good writer, I don't think of Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams, I think of Blaine Bassett. I mean-come on- you got nines on your comps in english! For me, that is impossible. (The highest score given this year was an eight to Elizabeth Wynn.) Now, I don't know this lady or her position, but in my eyes...if WOODY says Blaine's writing is amazing, then Blaine's writing is amazing. Way to be optimistic and positive Blaine. You are an inspiration to us all here at home and you are in our prayers. I'm so excited to hear your continued progress.
Your post was perfect to read at the end of this crazy week for me. I've encountered many experience which I believe are foreshadowing my future.

Mission -
Our seminary class recently completed our missionary week. I was called to Zimbabwe with Simon Thatcher (Rosey, you know his older brother Ryan. Simon is not much different :) ) We were given a list of different what's and what not's to do for an entire week. Examples are:

• No electronics, including internet (facebook/ other social networks), cell phones (only to call or text family)
• No media, including T.V. and movies, music (except church related, or 89.1)
• No swimming
• Saying a prayer every morning and every night
• Reading the scriptures for at least 15 minutes every night
• Studying Preach My Gospel
• Writing to a missionary.
• Learning to say the missionary intro in another language.
• Memorizing the seminary theme (1 Sam 16:7)
• Doing your laundry

.....and the list went on! As I personally challenged myself to complete as much as I could, I was surprised by how difficult it was. My biggest difficulty was not being able use my cell phone (which I use pretty darn regularly) and no movies (which is one of my favorite activities, especially now that Fringe is gettin good.) In the end, however, I am so glad that I challenged myself as much as I did because it really did boost my preparation both physically, mentally and spiritually. One thing it didn't boost my preparations with was the trials that will come on the mission, which is why Blaine's letter really was such a motivation. It was the icing to this wonderful missionary week, helping me to see that a mission isn't just about letting go of cell phones and movies, but also letting go of my entire comfort zone.

College -
In a week from today, I will be sitting at a desk frantically writing with a sweaty, nervous hand, trying to fit in all my thoughts into three reports, 40 minutes each. Yep, next week is my AP english test and let me just say (as I kind of mentioned earlier) I wish sooooo bad I could have just a smidge of Blaines writing skills, I would be set for 5! (highest score) Instead, I'm stuck on hope for 3 (lowest passing score) I have done pretty well on our practice tests, but I'm pretty lucky to get even a 3. I'm just praying that I'll be able to focus and get the thoughts in my mind onto paper when the test actually comes next week.
In a week from yesterday, I will be sitting a desk, frantically solving with a calculator in my sweaty, nervous hand. Next wednesday is my AP Calc test and, surprisingly enough, I feel pretty ready for this test. When the year first began, I thought I would for sure be more nervous for this test than my english one, but that is not true at all.  I mean, I'm not doing amazing on these tests or anything, (I could probably use some of Blaine's knowledge on this one too) but I am getting high 3's and 4's on our practice tests. So I am feeling pretty darn good with Calculus. Mr. Clawson was my teacher for the beginning of the year, and then Marg Yorgason became our student teacher. They both did an awesome job at not only teaching the material, but also teaching us to enjoy the logic of calc. I understand it so well, and I feel like calculus is math that I can actually apply to real live things. It makes me wish I would've taken physics.
Anyways, so this week has been a wild one as a frantically review my stuff. (I was so sad because I had to miss Janey's surprise party for it, I spent over 4 hours in the front room, just doing calculus problems. It was nuts!) So please keep me in your prayers this next week as I take these tests, that would be greatly appreciated!

Career -
Now, I know my future career kind of depends on what I do in college, but I also got a call this week with some news that will help me prepare for the workplace. I got a call from a guy at Seven Peaks asking if I am interested in working there this summer. I sent in an application about a month ago and after sending emails and whatnot, I kind of gave up on them. When they found my application, they thought they had already called me but I guess my email must have helped a lot because they somehow realized that the call never happened. The man asked if I wanted to do just a quick interview over the phone. He asked me about my strengths and why I wanted to work as a lifeguard. After about 15 minutes, he stopped asking questions and started telling me about the salary and training, this was a pretty good sign. :) Then he said, "Well, as long as your interested in it, we're going to have you." So I'm going to be a lifeguard at seven peaks this summer! :) I am so so so excited! I never thought, after all those trips to Seven Peaks with Blaine, Kristi and Rosey, that I would be working there someday. And after every 30 hours that I work, I get to bring family in for free!! So Get ready for some fun trips to the waterpark (even though I'm sure you guys all have the pass of all passes, right?)
Anyways, I am super excited to finally work with a solid job, and in such a fun environment.

Well, I think I better close my letter up. I've got to go do my second job (Cut n' Edge) over at the Kuhn's! :) I don't really have time to spell check or anything, so I hope it all makes sense.
Blaine, thanks again for your example. You are awesome!
And thanks to everyone else for your love and support through all that I go through! I love this family so much! We are super awesome!
Love you all,
Max

p.s. I am currently trying to come up with ideas for a family movie to film when Blaine gets back and before I leave for the mission next year. If you have any ideas, let me know! :)
Loves   

Its the mission all over again (Blaine)

Well I just finished my second day, went on a run on the beautiful trail (where there were about as many deer frolicking through the meadows as there were squirrels hopping through the trees and birds chirping in the branches--I'm telling you, it was like a Snow White situation! Fun!), and it occurred to me that these feelings I'm having here are feelings I haven't really felt for about 10 years since I was on my mission. In a way that's a good thing. But in another, seemingly more significant way at this moment, that's really kind of a bummer. (I just finished reading Richard's letter about the miracle investigator they found and how much he loves the mission; you'll remember there weren't many letters like that from me... :) Yeah, I won't lie. Yesterday was all right. Today was a downright bear. And I'm neeeervous to even go in tomorrow.

Like the mission, the days are hard mostly, but have up and downs. So far I have met a lot of really nice people but have also had to deal with those who, to be kind, must have very different personalities than me and for whatever reason just don't like me too much. It was the most humbling (to put it kindly), downright depressing (to be more realistic) day I've had since, well, probably the mission. Never have I been insulted with such little regard for my feelings or treated so inferior since the mission. And never have I fantasized about just giving up and coming home so much since the mission.

I work all day and wonder where the time goes. After the work, there never seems to be much time to wind down. My nights are so short and not even that sweet. I live in a tiny room without any of the people I love most. None of the food I eat is very good but I have to work so hard for every bite since no one cooks for me. Apparently I spend my nights writing in my journal, or in this case, the BAWB, which is the closest thing I have to a journal. I have very little freedom to do what I want. I can't just up and drive away; I don't have a car. I can't put on my headphones to ease the pain or speed the hours of the day; it's against the rules (or at least I don't dare to find out if it is). I live with people I like but they are other dudes and not my wife. I miss my family so bad it hurts. Like really hurts. All of this is exactly how I felt everyday in the mission.

But, at the same time, I can't believe I'm here. I walk past the White House everyday on my way to work--How did I end up in this incredible place? It's such an adventure. I can't believe how lucky I am to have this opportunity. I can't believe I'm entrusted with the things I'm entrusted with. There is so much of what I'm doing that I really can't talk about in any detail, but when I really think about the more positive parts of my day, it really kind of blows me away. I never thought I would get to do some of the stuff I get to do. Even if I was done with law school and had years of experience. If you told me a year ago that I'd be a part of what I was a part of today, I would have freaked. And truth be told, I am probably right about that and I never will again have quite the same type of "calling" I have now; at least not until I'm old. But for this very short time, for whatever reason, I was called and chosen to do something special. It's not really fun. It's definitely not easy. But coming home? No. Can't do it. This opportunity is too special. Too short. Deep down I know that but it's easy to forget from moment to moment in the middle of a hard day. Again, all of this just like the mission.

So there is how I will tell you about my day without going into all the ugly details that Kristi had to hear and without going into all the confidential details for which I would probably be shot or something if I ever told (they are, like, REALLY serious about confidentiality. Like maybe even more than AST was.)

Know that this is only my second day. I realize that. With luck, I hope things will get better. But there is probably good reason to believe they will go up and down but that I have neither hit my highest highs nor--stop my beating heart--my lowest lows. Perhaps I will love the rest of my days or maybe I will change my mind if it keeps going downhill and see you all in a week from now (whether by my choice or by someone else's!) but there's my thoughts for today.

Oh, and on the happiest note of all, it's Janey's 26th birthday! Happy birthday, Jane! Love you and love all of you!

Signing off from Washington, D.C.

Blaine

P.S. You all should write on the BAWB. Or at least comment on mine (thanks Nick!) It's fun to know people are out there after you write a big post! :) No guilt trips, I just miss you is all!