FRUSTURATION!!

Why is that when you start looking into buying a townhouse interest rates go up! Come on three months of being as low as ever they go up three times in one day. So lame!! I guess that's my bad luck rearing it's ugly head.

Memorial Day, Abe's B-day and Yellowstone

For Memorial Day weekend and for Abe's birthday (a double wammy) we hopped in the car and headed up to Yellowstone National Park. It was my third time going to the park and it was Abe's first time. We really enjoyed spending so much time together. It seems like when you work 40 hours a week, and Abe working half days on Sunday, quality time together gets cut in half... so it was nice catching up and doing some exploring. We stayed in West Yellowstone, which is four blocks from the park entrance, at a little hotel which I think is family run. We had a great stay minus the terrible restaurants in that little town.










Our adventures in the park included seeing three black bears (which was my first time seeing a bear in the park), tons of elk and bison, a porcupine sighting and a bald eagle propped in his nest, hiking around numerous geysers and waterfalls, waiting for Old Faithful to go off, a tour of Old Faithful Inn, smelling lots of sulfur and getting rained on. One thing I learned this trip is that Abe loves bison ... he had me take a ton of pictures of them and I kept telling him "what are you going to do w/ all these pictures of buffalo?"

We finished our trip off going to Jackson Lake and Jackson Hole and eating a Bubba's. I love BBQ and they have the best BBQ in the West. It was quite the feast for Abe's Birthday which was on Memorial Day.

Quite a Successful Evening!!

On Wed. May 13, Sutherland Institute (which is my place of employment) hosted their Legacy Awards Banquet at Rice-Eccles Stadium & Towers (Ute Land... sorry Cougar LaVell.)

That evening Sutherland presented three different awards to individuals who embody one or more of the institute’s governing principles.

The Legacy Award went to LaVell and Patti Edwards, for a lifetime of service in promoting faith, family, and freedom. The Family Award was given to Alan and Suzanne Osmond, for their work promoting the natural family. And the religion award went to The Most Reverend John C. Wester, for his work building bridges in Utah's faith communities.

The event was a big success with almost 250 people in attendance. My job before dinner started was to continue pressing the up button to the elevator so we could get people upstairs faster, but while I was doing this I had a chance to greet the guests as well.
So, the highlight of the night ... shaking hands and chatting with the Osmond's (including their sons), the Edwards, Bishop Wester, Elder Ballard and several legislators.

I love working at a place that truly believes and strives to make Utah a better place to live, work and to raise a family. It makes me want to go to work everyday!

My co-worker Lisa and I (yep her name is Lisa too... we have two David's and two Lisa's in the office) taking pictures before the volunteers arrived... I think we are looking mighty good.
And I even got new shoes for the event... a great purchase indeed!

My cute husband and me at the banquet...he even hurried up from working in American Fork to meet me. I love that he is such a good support in my political endeavors, he has been on my side from multiple galas to presidential debate watch parties to cottage meetings w/ Sutherland.

I love him tons!!!

Can't wait for this!!!

Lion House Rolls and Family!!!I just found out last week that the Brigham Young Granddaughters Luncheon is on June 6 (which is made possible by my kind Aunt Carole who treats us all to an amazing afternoon in Grandpa's old house).
I look forward to this Luncheon every year... it's like a kick-off to Summer for me. I love going with my sisters, meeting in the Lion House and catching up with my cousins. This year, my sister Heather can't come so i'm bummed about that... but maybe they'll let us take a roll home.

A Sunday Makeover

As of lately, it seems as if everytime I go over to the parentals home -- Nicole grabs a brush and re-styles my hair. I guess that should be flattering. Here's how the latest hairdo turned out (and mind you a three year old took this picture of me... quite impressive I think!).

Pretty sure I haven't rocked the plastic hair clips in over a decade (since the big bang era). So, after Nicole securily locked the clips into place she whispered to me, "You look fabulous, but don't take my clippies home with you." Oh, dang... I was going to rock them at work.

Here's Nem's loving her new hairdo too.

A wackey era for sure.

One thing I'm grateful for...

For living during a time when you can criticize the President of the United States and Congress and not get punished. Why should I say such a thing... well here's a bit of history... In 1918, a year after World War I began, Woodrow Wilson approved and Congress passed the Sedition Act which prohibited citizens from speaking out against the federal government or its political leadership ... and if someone did speak out they would be thrown into jail.

Sounds harsh huh... well it does to me because in this great land we have the right to freedom of speech. But under this law and the Espionage Act (which gave the federal government the power to censor printed material, including mail) many people were prosecuted. The most famous case was Eugene V. Debs... where a former Socialist Party candidate for President in 1912 was sentenced to ten years in prison for opposing the government's decision to enter World War I. If Bush had enacted this bill today there would be a whole lot of people in jail because of their opposition to the War on Terror (Cindy Sheehan comes to mind).

Anyway, I bring up this factoid because with Obama's 100 days gracing the news left and right I wanted to share an article which is titled: 100 Days, 100 Mistakes from the NY Post... Quite the interesting read....

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04252009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/100_days__100_mistakes_166177.htm

How was work today you ask??

Other than the big hole outside things are good. I thought when I left working at the Utah Republican Party, which is located on S. Temple, I wouldn't have to see orange cones and hear loud machines eating up the road anymore. It appears that I was wrong, those big eating machines followed me and our now positioned on 200 south. So, every so often the building shakes ... nope no earthquake just machines eating the road. What are they digging for??