Take Me Out to Utah

On Saturday, May 15, Greg took me down to St. Louis, and I headed home to Utah for a much-needed break from the Lincoln Home. But more important than having a break was seeing my family! Mom was brave to venture up to the airport after all of her radioactive iodine ordeals, and we had a delicious brunch at our favorite place (thank you for introducing us to it, Aunt Karalie!), the Left Fork Grill. Then we went to visit the Barretts. I can't believe how big these three girlies are getting!

It was very nice to go to the 8th Ward with Mom and Dad on Sunday. I was able to see and catch-up with many friends there. Then the Barretts came for dinner, which included some serious playing outside :-) Here are Sid and Grandpa taking a break and eating a tasty yogurt Creamie. Camden has become quite the excellent soccer and football player. I was very impressed with her mad skills.

On Monday Mom and I went to her eye appointment, then we ran a few errands and had a delicious lunch at Rumbi Grill. We took home an awesome fish wrap for Rich--Rumbi's food is de-lish! It was fun to watch "24" at home that evening, just like the good old days. Then on Tuesday we had lunch with our good friend Yevon. On Wednesday Mom and I ventured up to IKEA--probably the coolest store in the whole world! If only there was an IKEA in Springfield . . . . We had a fun lunch there, and then enjoyed looking at all of the neat stuff. We love IKEA!

Also on Wednesday was Miss Riley's preschool graduation! She is probably the smartest preschooler I have ever seen. Here is part of the fan club: Sid, Grandma, and Grandpa. The graduation program included some great singing and even some really big words like "marsupial."

There's our favorite graduate--front and center! She was given the "most artistic" award, which is very appropriate since she is indeed quite the artist. The kids were all cute, but Riley stood out as the cutest of all. On Thursday Mom and I went up to BYU so I could meet with my good friend Dr. Rugh. Then that evening Mom, Dad, and I celebrated Mom's bravery through all of her thyroid issues by eating a little Thai food! We had some Coney's Custard (the best in the world!) for dessert--what a great day and what a wonderful trip to Utah. It was hard to leave on Friday, but I'm glad that Mom is doing better and that I had the chance to spend time with my family.

Mom and Dad got up bright and early to take me to the airport on Friday. Greg was waiting for me in St. Louis, and then we went and had lunch at Pujols 5 Grill--our favorite Cardinals star's restaurant :-) The food was good, but probably the coolest thing about the place was seeing all of the memorabilia. Then it was off to the Cardinals game!

It was a perfect evening for baseball. Every Cardinals game Greg and I have been to in the past has either been too cold (and rainy) or too hot. But Friday night was perfect. Here's our favorite Albert Pujols up to bat. He is so dreamy (don't worry, Greg agrees) :-) The Cardinals were playing the Angels, and it was a pretty close game, until the 3rd inning . . .

. . . when the PITCHER hit a GRAND SLAM! It was soooooo cool. Brad Penny was pitching, and he was kind of having a rough time. At the bottom of the 3rd with two outs, the Angels walked Skip Schumaker to load the bases and bring up Brad Penny (who had a .111 batting average at that point--not very good). But what does he do? He hits it out of the park! Greg and I had never seen a Cardinal hit a home run at Busch Stadium, and it is quite the experience. There were fireworks (I tried to take a picture of them, but it was kind of tricky), and the crowd went absolutely insane. Then the next batter hit a home run too! The Cardinals ended up winning 9-5. It was a great game! The hardest part was getting up and going to work the next day. The first person I ran into was Laura :-( She said, "Oh, you're back. Have you had a chance to look at . . . and check on . . . and finish . . . and coordinate . . . . yet?" Nope--I just got here. Needless to say, it was a long day. Even though it was only one day of work, at the end of the day I felt ready for the weekend :-) Tomorrow I have a job interview at the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, Illinois--keep your fingers crossed for me!

Republican

This has been a week full of annoying, disrespectful school kids and annoying visitors! And I don't know what people have been reading this week, but more than ever before, this week included numerous visitors who acted totally surprised and even offended when I told them that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. As part of my house tour, I include that Lincoln was officially nominated as the Republican candidate for President right in his own back parlor--150 years ago this month. Some people pulled me aside after we finished our tour the other day, and the husband said, "You meant that he was a Democrat, right?" No, he was a Republican. "Are you sure???" Yes. He was the first Republican Presidential candidate. The wife said, "Well he freed the slaves right?" Yes. "That doesn't sound like something a Republican would do." It was all I could do to bite my tongue at this point. (As a government employee, I cannot talk politics with anyone while in uniform.) What I wish I could have said is that it was something a Republican would do because Republicans have always stood for whatever is moral. The very next day I had another lady grill me on the fact that Lincoln was a Republican.

Then, today I had a meeting with my supervisor Laura. She had reviewed a new program I developed to be presented this summer. I must say it's an awesome program--I talk about all of the photographs and paintings that were done of Lincoln in 1860, illustrating the Lincoln that was presented to the American people at the time of his election. I discuss how his image helped him become President. Anyway, Laura said that I should include a section about Obama in my program. NO!!! I said, "Well, Obama compares himself to Lincoln a lot, and some people [including myself--but I couldn't say that] don't agree with that comparison. Also, a lot of people, as I have found this week, are confused by whether Lincoln was Republican or Democrat. I think that talking about Obama in a Lincoln program would only increase that confusion. It would also make it appear as if the National Park Service agrees with the idea that Obama is similar to Lincoln." She did not agree with me, but after my continued refusal to include Obama in my program, she finally gave in. Politics were crazy then, and they're crazy now.

All I can say is that I am so excited for a break from everything when I head out to Utah tomorrow! I will really miss Greg and the animal children, but I am SO excited to see my family and to get away from the Lincoln Home for a few days :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Mother's Day is a great day. It's kind of like Christmas--it focuses on someone very important, and it would be nice if people remembered that someone all year like they do on that one special day. We should treat every day as Mother's Day! I know there are a lot of wonderful moms out there, but I think I have the best one in the whole world. She is so patient, loving, kind, and caring. I love you, Mom! I also have wonderful grandmas, and my sisters are great moms too. I'm so happy that Sarah got the best Mother's Day present ever--Baby Leo! He sounds like quite the snuggle bug. Speaking of babies, I think we are running a bird nursery out behind the condo. Greg and I could hear a lot of little chirps the other day, and he found the nest in the enclosure surrounding our air conditioning unit in the backyard. They are quite the boisterous baby birds. Then today when I was out in the backyard with the dogs, it was like I could hear surround sound chirping. I looked over and saw a mommy bird up on our neighbor's air conditioning enclosure, and I realized that they have a nest too! There is just something special about moms--whether they are mommy birds or people mommies. And I'm so grateful for my mom.

On a random note, remember the giant pink elephant with the martini glass I wrote about a couple of weeks ago? Well, I was on my way home from work yesterday when I saw the pink elephant driving down the road! It wasn't actually driving, but it was in someone's trailer. It was so funny and weird.

BIRTHday!

Early this morning I received the happiest text message ever--Sarah and Joel's cute little baby boy arrived healthy and happy! He is so adorable. Look at his big little hands holding on to Sarah's finger. He looks so cuddly. Today I went out and found some St. Louis Cardinals gear for the little guy, as he will soon be moving to St. Louis Cardinals country--and he must be prepared. We're so happy that Mommy and Baby are doing well! I wish I could snuggle with him!!

Weird Illinois

The other day I was driving, and I saw this--a ginormous pink elephant with big glasses holding a martini glass in its trunk. All I can say is Springfield is a strange place. The elephant was just sitting in a parking lot like it belonged there. I would have expected something like this in New Orleans or someplace like that, but I guess you never know what to expect in Illinois.

Greg would agree with that! Last night (actually this morning) at 2:00 a.m. he got a call that someone had died, and he and his boss Rich had to go pick the person up. As they were driving back to the funeral home, Rich slammed on the brakes. Greg thought Rich had seen a deer. But it wasn't a deer. It was a big pink pig. In the middle of the road. At 3:00 in the morning.

Then today we had a strange tornado experience. My past tornado experiences have been really scary, but today's wasn't very scary--probably because there ended up not really being a tornado. But anyway, when I got home from work this evening, we checked the weather and saw that there was a tornado warning headed in the direction of Springfield. Pretty soon Sangamon County was included in the warning, so we headed over to Wal Mart, where we figured we would be safer than at the condo (although we did set up a safe spot at home for the animal children). Once we reached the Wal Mart parking lot, we could see these funny bubbly clouds in the sky. It didn't look very threatening, so Greg and I went to Wendy's and got a hamburger. Never would I have imagined myself eating a hamburger in the middle of a tornado warning. It took a little while for the storm to reach us.

Once the storm came, we went inside Wal Mart, but I kept wanting to come outside and look at the sky. At the moment I took this picture, I was about ready for Abraham Lincoln or someone to be beamed down from the sky--it kind of looked like something like that was going to happen. But alas, no Abraham Lincoln and no tornado. We stayed at Wal Mart for about 45 minutes while the storm blew over. There was some serious rain, thunder, and lightning, but no storm damage. At one point we determined that the storm had passed over us, so we went out to the car. But at that moment it started to POUR. So we decided that would be a good time to go to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard. :-) It was a strange date night, but turned out to be a date night nonetheless!