Presidents' Week: Thoughts from the mother

Hope you enjoyed the last post. As you can see, Nate provides sufficient humor in our relationship...for the both of us . . . for which I am always grateful. Especially since I tend to get my head up in the clouds too often like a balloon, or down in the dumps and way too serious about life. He's good at keeping me right down the middle...or at least trying to :).

Here's our week (at least my perspective on it):

Monday February 20th: Presidents' Day. It was a beautiful day filled with lots of sunshine. Since it was Presidents' Day, Nate thought it the perfect idea to go to 'Welfare Square' . . . since that is what many of the recent presidents have done on their visits to Salt Lake City and the Church headquarters. Two sister missionaires (one from Sweden and one from Arizona) gave us a wonderful tour. Just last year was the 75th Anniversary of the Church Welfare Program.

In a brief video that they shared at the beginning, they showed how when a disaster happens, they are organized enough to have relief to those people within a week. Incredible! Thousands of pounds of food, clothing, and other supplies. One 90 year old woman made quilts for empoverished families in Guatemala, whose babies were being sent home in newspapers. I love being a member of this Church! I'm always so proud of what good leadership, and charitable hearts and willing hands are able to accomplish. As a recent editor of a famous newspaper said lately . . .  Mitt Romney should use the example of the Church Welfare program, as to how our Country should organize relief systems for others in the world.

When we got to the graineries, the sister missionaries told us when it was built, how, and then reminded us of the story of Joseph in Egypt. They also walked us through the Bishop's Storehouse, Deseret Industries sorting place and store (where they give away 95% of what they receive there to people around the world, the rest goes to the store). 100% of the employees there are recommended there by their Bishops. These are people who are given an opportunity to work and learn skills that could make them more marketable. Then they showed us huge machines that make butter, cheese, and purify milk. They also have a bakery, and the wonderful smell of fresh bread filled the air. The sister missionaries explained to us, that we all have gifts given to us from God that we can share with others. Sometimes it's even just a smile.

Amazingly those graineries were built in 1940 in only 9 Days!

Bishop's Storehouse

Nate if our food storage looked like that, then you might have something to defend! :)

I think the main reason Nate wanted to take Mason here, is because we have plans for Mason to become a future President of the United States. I think he wanted him to get a good idea as to how to give tours to other Presidents who come to our Country :).



They gave us a sample of the milk, cheese, and bread at the end of the tour. I had to take a picture of Nate eating cheese, since I almost never see him doing that (he doesn't usually like eating plain cheese).



That was our Family Home Afternoon, as he calls it, since we both had separate places to go that evening. Nate got to go to a special dinner with Elder Hinckley and Czech delegates, where a former mission president of the CR was given the highest honor the Czechs can give a foreigner. This was done for his work in building relations between the US and CR after the end of the 'Cold War'. I got to spend the evening with my family . . . which I loved. Dad made his famous 'fried chicken', and Mom made her famous biscuits. It was the quintessential Southern American Meal. Afterwards Mom shared some very touching remarks about how inspired our current President is (just kidding Mom!). Actually, she spoke about George Washington and what a great Leader he was. The nieces and nephews did a play about him, which was pretty cute! I got to ride with Jenet, Mike, and little LaDawn which was also so much fun for me.

This week, Mason has been rolling over a lot (a new trick he learned). He uses it when he protests having to go to bed early, while Mom and Dad get to stay up and have fun.

This is a picture of Mason rolled over in his crib. I confess I couldn't help but just love that he did that! Everything seems so adorable at this age.

He has also gotten quite close to the little lamb that we put in his crib

Mason also tried to whistle with me this week. I wish I knew how to upload the video here. Hmm. 

This is Mason so clean after his bath yesterday:

Another adventure this week was getting food poisoning. Thankfully, Nate is a picky eater, and didn't think he should eat those left overs that I just hate to throw away. I'm afraid I learned that skill from my Father. That was Wednesday through Saturday, and my stomach I think is still trying to recover. Fortunately I felt good enough to go to Orchestra rehearsal and perform in the Broadcast today.

On Saturday night we got to attend the Temple, thanks to our new and dear friends Greg and Shauna & their little Kate, who helped take such good care of Mason so we could go. Katie and Mason have become buddies. We also enjoyed having them over for dinner last night. Love having good friends!

Well, that's about all from me today.