How did I spend my Christmas night?
Well, when a stick of Christmas chocolate Avon lip balm went through the washer and dryer in a load of whites, including a brand new cute Wesley outfit, I cried. A rewash did nothing.
The solution? Take every item of wet clothing, one by one, spray the baked-in chapstick stain with Zout (or any other grease stain removal agent), and scrub each and every stained spot with your fingernails until each and everyone one comes out. And they will. It just takes forever.
I decided I could live with the stains on the socks. Sigh.
There's your post-Christmas tip! But like I said... I hope it never happens to you.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
video update
Hey Grandmas (and friends), here is some of the latest and greatest raw footage of the hilarious toddler we know and love, Wesley.
Please enjoy our most exciting animal sound to date (although his newest verbal expressions are quacks):
Please enjoy him showing how he feels about my Christmas present:
Please enjoy his laughter as he slides his turtle around the kitchen (note at the end, how he picks up his turtle and chucks it. That's something we're working on... "No Wesley, we don't throw our heavy, more-expensive, chunky plastic toys."):
And last but not least, please enjoy business as usual in the Gottula home; we love to stomp our feet, make sure our choo choo train music is going (at all times), and throw our plastic balls all over the place:
I just love that boy!
Friday, December 18, 2009
a time to serve
This Christmas season has been a fun one so far. I've got my list all ready for my loved ones (stockings and presents and surprises, oh my!), and the Christmas cards are (mostly) out and the packages to the family members are all out.
But something else that I've really been enjoying is service opportunities. I want to serve more. In fact, I've already started working on my 2010 resolutions and in it I included a goal to do at least 6 organized or thought-out service projects during the year. I really want to get outside of myself and help others.
This Christmas has had lots of opportunities to help.
Shane's work group at Boeing sponsored a family through an organization called Housing Hope. They learned the family consisted of a single mom with an 8-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy. The girl liked Barbies and the boy liked hockey. Shane was in charge of spending between $50 and $100 on the boy! He found a hockey net with sticks and pucks, and he sent me on a mission up to the Everett Silvertips (local WHL team) store to buy some hockey stuff. I even had the grand idea to get discounted hockey tickets, and we were thisclose to getting them -- the manager offered them to me at a great price! -- but we needed to pick a date for a game night and Shane didn't feel comfortable doing that. In the end we got the boy a Silvertips T-shirt and jigsaw puzzle, a generic hockey calendar, and a hockey poster of a Washington Capitals player who I guess is good but I've never heard of before.
Then, to top it all off, Shane got the job of delivering all the stuff to Housing Hope.....which meant it made more sense for me to do it! Yesterday, I delivered a bunch of Barbie and hockey stuff and gift card for mom. Housing Hope then wraps it all and delivers it to the family. It felt so good.
In a similar vein, the Young Women at Church did a really cool service activity for the Forgotten Children's Fund. They have a ton of toys and books and coats and everything in this big warehouse space. We showed up and are assigned a family, then we went "shopping" for the family and wrapped and bagged all the presents. Our family was a single mom, a mentally handicapped young adult, and two young children. The young women got to hand-pick three big toys, hats and scarves and coats, stocking stuffers, and books for the children, plus presents for the young adult and Mom. There were reams of beautiful shiny wrapping paper to wrap it in, then we packaged it all up in sacks that looked like Santa bags! It was a neat experience. I'm so impressed this stuff goes on around the holidays.
For Christmas in the Gottula home we're getting a number of wild and crazy gifts, like an office chair and a vacuum. In turn, we needed to get rid of our old (well-loved) office chair and vacuum. Shane has strong opinions and hated them both vehemently, but I have strong opinions against blanketly throwing stuff away.
So, I posted them on Craigslist -- for free.
In an hour, I had 8 people respond about the chair.
In an hour and a half, I had 13 people respond about the vacuum.
A few of the chair people were non-committal, and I finally gave it away to a UW student named Kirk from Seattle. The vacuum went to the first guy who emailed me, Larry, who said he lived with a few mentally handicapped people and they didn't have a vacuum currently. Wow. Just that made me feel like maybe I too was really helping someone this Christmas.
To ice the cake, I got this email from Kirk, the office chair guy:
Omigosh, isn't that the nicest thing EVER??? I couldn't make this stuff up; his email just blew my mind. It just goes to show that Shane's trash is definitely someone else's treasure. I suppose I could have charged money for this stuff, and maybe gotten a taker or two, but you know I didn't need to and I just I wanted to get rid of it. I wanted someone to have it who would use it. Maybe in a couple weeks Kirk will decide the chair is awful (like Shane had decided), but maybe not. We were poor college students when we got it, and now we passed it on to him.
Anyway, I think service is important and I want to be better about it in my life. I've made it a goal for myself. I hope you feel served this Christmas, because we all need people to do nice things for us every once in awhile.
But something else that I've really been enjoying is service opportunities. I want to serve more. In fact, I've already started working on my 2010 resolutions and in it I included a goal to do at least 6 organized or thought-out service projects during the year. I really want to get outside of myself and help others.
This Christmas has had lots of opportunities to help.
Shane's work group at Boeing sponsored a family through an organization called Housing Hope. They learned the family consisted of a single mom with an 8-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy. The girl liked Barbies and the boy liked hockey. Shane was in charge of spending between $50 and $100 on the boy! He found a hockey net with sticks and pucks, and he sent me on a mission up to the Everett Silvertips (local WHL team) store to buy some hockey stuff. I even had the grand idea to get discounted hockey tickets, and we were thisclose to getting them -- the manager offered them to me at a great price! -- but we needed to pick a date for a game night and Shane didn't feel comfortable doing that. In the end we got the boy a Silvertips T-shirt and jigsaw puzzle, a generic hockey calendar, and a hockey poster of a Washington Capitals player who I guess is good but I've never heard of before.
Then, to top it all off, Shane got the job of delivering all the stuff to Housing Hope.....which meant it made more sense for me to do it! Yesterday, I delivered a bunch of Barbie and hockey stuff and gift card for mom. Housing Hope then wraps it all and delivers it to the family. It felt so good.
In a similar vein, the Young Women at Church did a really cool service activity for the Forgotten Children's Fund. They have a ton of toys and books and coats and everything in this big warehouse space. We showed up and are assigned a family, then we went "shopping" for the family and wrapped and bagged all the presents. Our family was a single mom, a mentally handicapped young adult, and two young children. The young women got to hand-pick three big toys, hats and scarves and coats, stocking stuffers, and books for the children, plus presents for the young adult and Mom. There were reams of beautiful shiny wrapping paper to wrap it in, then we packaged it all up in sacks that looked like Santa bags! It was a neat experience. I'm so impressed this stuff goes on around the holidays.
For Christmas in the Gottula home we're getting a number of wild and crazy gifts, like an office chair and a vacuum. In turn, we needed to get rid of our old (well-loved) office chair and vacuum. Shane has strong opinions and hated them both vehemently, but I have strong opinions against blanketly throwing stuff away.
So, I posted them on Craigslist -- for free.
In an hour, I had 8 people respond about the chair.
In an hour and a half, I had 13 people respond about the vacuum.
A few of the chair people were non-committal, and I finally gave it away to a UW student named Kirk from Seattle. The vacuum went to the first guy who emailed me, Larry, who said he lived with a few mentally handicapped people and they didn't have a vacuum currently. Wow. Just that made me feel like maybe I too was really helping someone this Christmas.
To ice the cake, I got this email from Kirk, the office chair guy:
Angela,
My wife and I ended up coming over at about 8:30 pm and picked up the chair last night. I wanted to thank you so much for letting us have the chair for free. My wife and I were talking about how much of a hassle that it would be to give something like that away when it would be much easier just to throw it in the trash. Thanks again for being such a good person and helping out a poor college student.
Kirk
Omigosh, isn't that the nicest thing EVER??? I couldn't make this stuff up; his email just blew my mind. It just goes to show that Shane's trash is definitely someone else's treasure. I suppose I could have charged money for this stuff, and maybe gotten a taker or two, but you know I didn't need to and I just I wanted to get rid of it. I wanted someone to have it who would use it. Maybe in a couple weeks Kirk will decide the chair is awful (like Shane had decided), but maybe not. We were poor college students when we got it, and now we passed it on to him.
Anyway, I think service is important and I want to be better about it in my life. I've made it a goal for myself. I hope you feel served this Christmas, because we all need people to do nice things for us every once in awhile.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
big day for boeing
I often forget that the title of this blog is "From the Seattle Gottulas," and there are three of us -- myself, Wesley, and the Shanester. This post is for him.
Yesterday was a BIG DAY. Many of you know that the Shanester works for Boeing, and the goal, since 7-8-07, has been to get the dang 787 airplane off the ground. There have been delays delays and more delays, schedule slides, order cancellations, and more, making most if not all Boeing employees crazy. But yesterday, history was made! (At least we like to think of it that way.)
The 787 took off. And Shane got to be there to see it.
He said it really was one of the coolest experiences ever. He and a bunch of people from his office trekked down to the airstrips near their offices at Paine Field. They were told it would take 2 hours to navigate all of the way-finding and stake a spot, but it only took 45 minutes. And then the 10 am takeoff was delayed 30 minutes or so.... so Shaner was waiting outside in the cold and wet for a couple hours yesterday. (His shoes were still wet this morning.)
But, he reports it was well worth it. He said the 787 was taxiing for a bit and getting ready for takeoff, and what he noticed most was how quiet it is. Interesting! There were two "chase planes" which stay with the aircraft during flight, and those two little planes had already taken off and were circling above. The 787 taxied out of view, and then Shane noticed the chase planes circling again overhead and getting into position where they'd fly straight along the jetway and be on either side of the 787. Shane knew this was it.
Sure enough, as the chase planes approached, he heard the 787 taking off, barrelling down the runway -- even though again, it was relatively quiet. It took off right in front of him, and one of the chase planes ROARED directly overhead. He said that is another reason he knew the 787 was pretty quiet -- because those dang chase planes were so loud. It absolutely shook him when they passed by.
I knew it was happening at home and tried to watch it online, but technology hates me so that didn't work. Every time I heard something outside I ran to the balcony to check it out... twice it was a helicopter (news crews everywhere), and once it was a bi-plane! Weird, huh!?
Anyway, very very cool day. I can only imagine it's rewarding for Shane, since this is something has has put his blood, sweat, and tears into. Shane didn't design that plane exactly, but the 787 is the line he works on every day. He does the "livery," and if you know what that means I'm ridiculously impressed. It's the paint schemes. He is coordinating all sorts of things for the various paint schemes on the hundreds of 787s that have been sold to airlines. Since he has hundreds to design, and they're only on like the 10th or something, I happily call that job security!
We always said if the plane took off successfully we'd sell our condo and buy a house! So maybe. We'll see what happens. Test flights on this one plane will go on for the next 9 months or so, then I guess they'll be ready to deliver planes to the airlines.
Congrats, Boeing! What a big day!
Yesterday was a BIG DAY. Many of you know that the Shanester works for Boeing, and the goal, since 7-8-07, has been to get the dang 787 airplane off the ground. There have been delays delays and more delays, schedule slides, order cancellations, and more, making most if not all Boeing employees crazy. But yesterday, history was made! (At least we like to think of it that way.)
The 787 took off. And Shane got to be there to see it.
He said it really was one of the coolest experiences ever. He and a bunch of people from his office trekked down to the airstrips near their offices at Paine Field. They were told it would take 2 hours to navigate all of the way-finding and stake a spot, but it only took 45 minutes. And then the 10 am takeoff was delayed 30 minutes or so.... so Shaner was waiting outside in the cold and wet for a couple hours yesterday. (His shoes were still wet this morning.)
But, he reports it was well worth it. He said the 787 was taxiing for a bit and getting ready for takeoff, and what he noticed most was how quiet it is. Interesting! There were two "chase planes" which stay with the aircraft during flight, and those two little planes had already taken off and were circling above. The 787 taxied out of view, and then Shane noticed the chase planes circling again overhead and getting into position where they'd fly straight along the jetway and be on either side of the 787. Shane knew this was it.
Sure enough, as the chase planes approached, he heard the 787 taking off, barrelling down the runway -- even though again, it was relatively quiet. It took off right in front of him, and one of the chase planes ROARED directly overhead. He said that is another reason he knew the 787 was pretty quiet -- because those dang chase planes were so loud. It absolutely shook him when they passed by.
I knew it was happening at home and tried to watch it online, but technology hates me so that didn't work. Every time I heard something outside I ran to the balcony to check it out... twice it was a helicopter (news crews everywhere), and once it was a bi-plane! Weird, huh!?
Anyway, very very cool day. I can only imagine it's rewarding for Shane, since this is something has has put his blood, sweat, and tears into. Shane didn't design that plane exactly, but the 787 is the line he works on every day. He does the "livery," and if you know what that means I'm ridiculously impressed. It's the paint schemes. He is coordinating all sorts of things for the various paint schemes on the hundreds of 787s that have been sold to airlines. Since he has hundreds to design, and they're only on like the 10th or something, I happily call that job security!
We always said if the plane took off successfully we'd sell our condo and buy a house! So maybe. We'll see what happens. Test flights on this one plane will go on for the next 9 months or so, then I guess they'll be ready to deliver planes to the airlines.
Congrats, Boeing! What a big day!
Monday, December 14, 2009
toddler gastronomy
We've had crazy success with a few fun foods for the toddler, so I thought I'd share the wealth of knowledge.
Banana Cakes
I had a friend tell me this one. Whip up a small batch of pancake batter and slice a banana. Coat the banana slices in the batter and cook on the stovetop. Serve! Wesley can't quite handle the whole slice, so I cut them in half after they are cooked. They are a huge hit. A fun breakfast -- fruit and pancake in one!
Freeze-Dried Anything
Our little dude loves freeze-dried fruits. At first I got a teeny bag of something at Trader Joe's, and he inhaled them. I realized I needed a better option.
That's right, I bought a case (six) of freeze-dried fruits in #10 cans from BePrepared.com for emergencies. And the emergency is snacktime. We've currently opened the peaches and strawberries. Um, yum! Huge hit with the little guy. They are still pretty expensive ($20+ per can), but I am pretty sure that the math works out and they are a better deal than the teeny bags from Trader Joe's.
Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese
I like fall/winter squash, but you have to do amazing things to it to make it to-die-for fabulous. The leftover for this meal were fought over! So it's a sure winner. I found the recipe in Parents Magazine, which I love. It's called Butternut Squash Casserole in the magazine:
Seriously. Huge hit.
That's all for now. Just a fun post on food. Yum!
Banana Cakes
I had a friend tell me this one. Whip up a small batch of pancake batter and slice a banana. Coat the banana slices in the batter and cook on the stovetop. Serve! Wesley can't quite handle the whole slice, so I cut them in half after they are cooked. They are a huge hit. A fun breakfast -- fruit and pancake in one!
Freeze-Dried Anything
Our little dude loves freeze-dried fruits. At first I got a teeny bag of something at Trader Joe's, and he inhaled them. I realized I needed a better option.
That's right, I bought a case (six) of freeze-dried fruits in #10 cans from BePrepared.com for emergencies. And the emergency is snacktime. We've currently opened the peaches and strawberries. Um, yum! Huge hit with the little guy. They are still pretty expensive ($20+ per can), but I am pretty sure that the math works out and they are a better deal than the teeny bags from Trader Joe's.
Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese
I like fall/winter squash, but you have to do amazing things to it to make it to-die-for fabulous. The leftover for this meal were fought over! So it's a sure winner. I found the recipe in Parents Magazine, which I love. It's called Butternut Squash Casserole in the magazine:
Ingredients
- 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1/4 t. salt
- 1/2 lb. whole wheat elbows
- 2 T. butter
- 2 T. flour
- 1-1/2 c milk
- 1-3/4 c white cheddar cheese
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Toss squash and oil and salt and spread out on a tray. Bake for 20 minutes or until tender; set aside.
2. Cook pasta for 2 minutes less than package directions; drain and mix in bowl with squash. Meanwhile, melt butter over low heat and mix in flour.
3. Slowly whisk in milk. Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1-1/2 cups cheese; stir until melted. Stir cheese sauce into pasta and squash.
4. Spoon into 6 greased, individual ramekins (I did it all in one huge casserole bowl, so that's OK too). Sprinkle on remaining cheese; bake 10 minutes. Serves 6.
That's all for now. Just a fun post on food. Yum!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
utah adventures
Warning! Most thrilling travelogue ahead!!
We got back from Utah on Monday. Whew, what a whirlwind trip. Our tired bodies (and chapped lips) were happy to get back safe and sound to Washington. A recap of our adventures (with lots of shout-outs!):
Friday
Our flight went well. We flew Southwest, which was a first. If you know airlines, you know that Southwest has a "first come, first served" seat policy, as in, get on the plane and find a seat and sit in it, quick! The flight was completely full and Wesley had to sit on our laps. We kinda sat near a business guy who wanted the aisle, and he didn't seem overly cautious to let us in. Wesley was a good little flyer.
He's in this phase now where it likes motion. When we're driving (or in the plane or on a shuttle this weekend, as it were), or if he's in his stroller, we better be moving or he lets everyone know he doesn't like being static. It's interesting. Shane thinks we're raising an impatient kid. I don't know if he understands the concept of patience yet.
So anyway, as long as we were moving, Wesley was good. We had lots of toys, books, snacks, etc., to keep him occupied. It went well!
We landed and got our bags with no worries and got our rental car with no hassle. Let me just say I LOVE how Salt Lake International is laid out re: the rental cars. They are RIGHT THERE! No awful shuttle to wait for that takes you 10 miles away, where you stand in line waiting for a car and you have no idea where you are. The Salt Lake rental cars are right across the street in a big garage. So nice.
We put my new fancy phone to good use and used GPS to meet my brother Brad and his wife Leslie at the Gateway Mall. We got lost at first since I put in the wrong address. We realized this when we were basically at the University of Utah in the foothills of Salt Lake and not at an outdoor mall. Yikes. I put in the correct address, and voila, we made it alive.
Brad needed to go to store, but he also wanted to show me my name carved in stone. That's right kids, here I am, in the glorious Gateway Mall in Salt Lake:
We got back from Utah on Monday. Whew, what a whirlwind trip. Our tired bodies (and chapped lips) were happy to get back safe and sound to Washington. A recap of our adventures (with lots of shout-outs!):
Friday
Our flight went well. We flew Southwest, which was a first. If you know airlines, you know that Southwest has a "first come, first served" seat policy, as in, get on the plane and find a seat and sit in it, quick! The flight was completely full and Wesley had to sit on our laps. We kinda sat near a business guy who wanted the aisle, and he didn't seem overly cautious to let us in. Wesley was a good little flyer.
He's in this phase now where it likes motion. When we're driving (or in the plane or on a shuttle this weekend, as it were), or if he's in his stroller, we better be moving or he lets everyone know he doesn't like being static. It's interesting. Shane thinks we're raising an impatient kid. I don't know if he understands the concept of patience yet.
So anyway, as long as we were moving, Wesley was good. We had lots of toys, books, snacks, etc., to keep him occupied. It went well!
We landed and got our bags with no worries and got our rental car with no hassle. Let me just say I LOVE how Salt Lake International is laid out re: the rental cars. They are RIGHT THERE! No awful shuttle to wait for that takes you 10 miles away, where you stand in line waiting for a car and you have no idea where you are. The Salt Lake rental cars are right across the street in a big garage. So nice.
We put my new fancy phone to good use and used GPS to meet my brother Brad and his wife Leslie at the Gateway Mall. We got lost at first since I put in the wrong address. We realized this when we were basically at the University of Utah in the foothills of Salt Lake and not at an outdoor mall. Yikes. I put in the correct address, and voila, we made it alive.
Brad needed to go to store, but he also wanted to show me my name carved in stone. That's right kids, here I am, in the glorious Gateway Mall in Salt Lake:
Woot woot! That's right kids, the name is Angela Twining. And why is my name is stone? I was one of the kabillions of volunteers for the 2002 Olympics. I had a ton of fun, and one day Brad was wandering around the Gateway and saw my name. He took a low-resolution picture of it on his camera phone, so it was nice to see it for myself.
As were walking around the mall, I was running my mouth about something and who walked past us? L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Brad, Leslie, and Shane all saw him and recognized him. I completely missed it. They said who it was and I turned back and saw the back of his hat. It was a debonair kind of hat with a little red flower in it. How cute old-man is that? Anyway, our brush with fame.
We also ran into another kid I new growing up in Maryland, Jacob Long. Very cool to run into people I know in a city I haven't been to in years!
It was really cold. So we left.
We drove to Provo and checked into our hotel. We rested and then took Brad and Leslie out for dinner at Los Hermanos. My goal was to eat all Utah-ish food all weekend, reminiscing of the past.
We drove to Provo and checked into our hotel. We rested and then took Brad and Leslie out for dinner at Los Hermanos. My goal was to eat all Utah-ish food all weekend, reminiscing of the past.
Saturday
Our adventures Saturday were such fun. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures!
In the morning, Leslie met us and one of my old co-workers, Megan, and her little boy Quinn, on BYU campus. I desperately wanted to walk around and see what had changed. Wowsers. We met at the ginormous and gorgeous new alumni building. Brad even told me later that if you go sit in one of the cushy chairs in the alumni building, some sweet old patron lady walks up to you and asks if you're an alumni, since only alumni are allowed to sit in the cushy chairs. Yeah baby.
(stock photo I swiped from the Internet)
There was this huge hill from Helaman Halls -- freshman dorms -- up to campus. I walked that sucker every single day when I was a freshman (and sophomore, since my apartment was just past Helaman Halls). Well, the new alumni building is on top of the pathway. They graded it to level the building and put the path in a tunnel. Crazy how some stuff now only exists in memories.
Anyway, moving on, we checked out the new communications building (Megan and I both majored in communications), which moved our department out of the Fine Arts building. A lot of the other stuff was the same. They are constructing a new broadcast building, which is very cool, and they finished in the last several years this monstrosity of an athletics building that is on top of the soccer fields where I used to play. And they knocked down Deseret Towers, the dorms my brother Kurt lived in. (Nothing's there, there just knocked them down. Weird.)
We let Wesley and Quinn run around the quad, then Wesley had to go up and down the stairs in the library atrium. It was really cool being back.
That afternoon we got Sconecutter for lunch. YUM! And then I met my old roommate Krysti (who is back at BYU getting her PhD!) at the BYU Creamery for some ice cream while Wesley got a nap. My buddy Krysti rocks. She is even coming up to Washington around Christmas and we're going to hang out again!
At some point around here, Wesley lost his hat and mittens. So sad! Aunt Leslie and Uncle Brad came to the rescue by driving back to the scene of the crime, looking for them, coming up empty, then buying some new ones. Thanks again guys. My little man needs a warm noggin!
Saturday evening was -- of course! -- a football game Shane just had to watch. Texas vs. Nebraska, a big rivalry, plus we're huge Nebraska fans. Brad and Leslie came over to our hotel to watch. We had pizza and salad.
Leslie and I took Wesley on a football break and went across the street to the Provo Tabernacle, where one of the stakes in Provo was performing a live nativity. It was nice. The best part was all the farm animals they had on the Tabernacle's lawn. Wesley about mauled an unsuspecting black sheep. It was really fun. Why did I not take any pictures?
Sunday
The next morning we headed to Clearfield, which is north of Salt Lake, to visit Shane's sister Bonnie and her husband Manny and their new teeny baby Evan. Again, no pictures. I'm lame!
We bought some groceries and we did a brunch and a dinner for them. It was fun! We let Wesley nap in Evan's crib and we talked about baby stuff: baby sleep, baby poo, baby schedules, baby milestones, baby cries. And I promised Bonnie I'd go through all my old Wesley clothes and send her a nice package in the next couple weeks of some stuff she could use.
That evening, thanks to Aunt Leslie, we had tickets to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional! How cool is that!! When I realized I'd be in Utah the first Sunday in December, the day the devotional is every year, I started doing some searching to see if we could get tickets. I asked my Church at home (sometimes we get some), I asked Leslie to ask around, we checked Craigslist, etc. Leslie had a friend who had 6, but he was using them all. So, we gave up.... until a couple days later when the friend called and said his plans fell through! He now had 5 extra tickets! We took 4 of them. Bonnie, me, Leslie, and Brad all went. We left the babies home with the dads!
There are three sections in the Church's conference center: ground level, terrace, and balcony. Our seats were for the terrace, but when one of our party was there saving seats, someone came up to him and upgraded him to the ground floor!! We were in row S -- and row A was the very front! What great seats. I've only ever sat in the balcony before.
Yup, those two teeny little people you see sitting in front of the gold-lighted trees are President Eyring and President Monson. Awesome!!! President Uchdorf was hidden from my view behind the podium.
It was a great devotional. President Uchdorf talked about not letting other things keeps us so busy at Christmas that we lose sight of the reason we are celebrating; President Eyring encouraged us to tell and retell Christmas stories, because in doing so we speak of Christ and service and love; President Monson encouraged us to look for opportunities to serve, at this time of year and always. He always tells such good stories that make me want to be better.
The story he told this year was of a packed airport, full of delayed flights, in the early '70s. A business class traveler had a confirmed ticket on a flight home, but a weary soldier in uniform pleaded with the gate agent to get him on the flight. He said his battalion was getting ready to go to Vietnam, and he didn't want to miss what very well might be his last Christmas at home. The agent couldn't accommodate him.... but the business class traveler gave up his seat. Wow. What a story of selflessness.
When we got back to Bonnie's house, Wesley was a crying mess. He was cranky. We left for our hotel soon after that. We stayed in a super cushy nice hotel near the airport! It was definitely for businessmen. It was AWESOME! And I pricelined it for $20 cheaper per night than the hotel we stayed at in Provo! Crazy! And it was worlds nicer.
Monday
We decided Wesley needed to sleep in, but I got up early to go on an adventure of my own.
My company is the structural engineer on a huge project in downtown Salt Lake. I told my boss I'd do her a favor and go takes some pictures of the construction. My goal was to get up high, if I could, and get an aerial shot. Well, that is 100% impossible since the project is SO HUGE. But I did have the audacity to go up the highest high-rise nearby, knock on the glass doors of the KeyBank executive offices (26th floor), and ask if I could snap a picture out a window. Hehe. I felt kind of silly, but people in Utah are super nice! They let me do it!
It was really cool to just walk around the site. It was cold and the weather wasn't too clear, but I got to see this cool project under construction. Our company has a guy there on site, handling construction administration stuff, who was going to meet me and give me a narrative of sorts, but because of the weather he didn't come in that morning. Oh well! It was still cool to check it out.
Our flight was later that day, and it was mostly empty so we were able to bring on Wesley's car seat and strap him in. That was nice. He fussed a bit (mom wasn't smart for booking a flight during nap time), but overall he did well. He's a good little traveler.
We had so much fun visiting with our friends and family, but it is good to be home. The static electricity in my hair is waning and my chapped lips are feeling much better. Utah was such a part of my life for 5+ years, it feels funny to just be a tourist at this point.
It was a great visit. Go Cougars!
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