Orientation

I am really blessed to be able to be part of BYU's Washington Seminar Program. Every day I realize even more what a fabulous opportunity this is. I have been surprised at the positive responses I have heard from people when they find out I am from Utah. One of the first things a couple people have asked when they find I am from Utah is if I go to BYU. Apparently we are well known in this city and people always have good things to say about others they have known from BYU. I am blessed to have a nice place to stay that is probably the cheapest housing in town. It is called "the Barlow Center" and it is owned by BYU specifically for the purpose of housing Washington Seminar interns. The building is also used for LDS Institute of Religion classes and for the LDS Church's government affairs offices. I have nice accomodations, even if it is a bit small, it has just enough storage and is certainly a well kept property. I am in a great location located conveniently close to a metro station, and I'm surrounded by other great interns from BYU. My roomate, Ruth, is great and we are getting along famously.

This was our first ride on the metro on our way to church.

If you would like to know more about the Washington Seminar program, check out this link:

http://washingtonseminar.byu.edu/ProspectiveStudents/information.aspx

I have had a busy first couple of days getting oriented to the city and learning more about my internship. I have learned a few interesting things about Washington DC. One humorous fact is that people here tend to freak out about the smallest chance of inclement winter weather. At my internship they said that if there is any threat of snow or ice, often the federal government will call a "delay" where they notify people coming into the city to delay their commute by 2 hours or more so people arent rushing to get through traffic, or if there really is a storm, they will shut down altogether. Now, for someone coming from Utah where we have heavy snow storms on a regular basis, this all seems a little silly, but I guess people here consider themselves more important than the weather.

Anyway, yesterday we spent the day becoming familiar with the metro system and finding our internships. I saw my first motorcade parading down Pennsylvania avenue. I'm not sure who was in the big black suburban, but they must have been pretty important because they shut down all the side streets and the suburban was accompanied by a parade of motorcycle police, an ambulance, a firetruck, and several other big black suburbans with serious looking dudes with guns looking out the windows. It might even have been the President!!

I walked by the Capitol building, bought a metro card with a commemorative photo of Barack Obama, and almost got stuck in the metro doors because they don't wait for you to move before they close. :-\

I found the place where I will be interning which is in an office 3 floors underground beneath the Smithsonian Castle. The entrance to the building is a little structure that has a roof that looks like an upside down tulip. The great thing about my location is that its one of the safest places to be if there was any kind of attack or anything. The bad thing is, that if there was an attack, I would likely be stuck underground for 3-4 days with the rest of my co-workers. So they advise us to pack an emergency bag to keep at our desks with food and water to last for a few days. Also, since I am so far underground, I get absolutely no cell phone reception, so if anyone wants to contact me while I'm working, sending me an email is probably the best way to get in touch. I am located right on the national mall, so sight-seeing after work or during lunch will be quite convenient for me.

This is the inside entrance to my office at "The Smithsonian Associates." The entrance is nice, my cubicle is okay, but my computer makes a strange sound that makes me think it is going to self-destruct in 4.5 seconds. ;-)

I learned a little bit about what I'm going to be doing, but didn't have much time to do a lot today, so I'll save the details for another post!

Visit with Family and the Battlefields at Antietam

Before beginning my internship in Washington DC, I decided to visit my family members that live in the DC area. Just before New Year's I flew in and spent some time with my in-laws who live in Virginia and West Virginia. I love this area of the country! It is so beautiful with the gentle rolling hills and trees everywhere. Right now everything is kind of brown and icky, but it is still a beautiful landscape. My father-in-law and I have an ongoing debate about whether or not the "mountains" out here on the east coast are "better" than the rocky mountains back home in Utah. I think we have agreed that though both landscapes are very different, they both have very admirable qualities that make them beautiful in their own right.

My father-in-law lives on a beautiful farm in Delaplane, Virginia. He recently acquired a flock of turkeys, chickens, and guinea hens that make all sorts of noises. Our favorite thing was to interpret what they were saying like "Who's that?! Who's That?! Who's That?!" or "Hi, Val! Hi, Val! Hi, Val!" or "Hey Frank! Hey Frank! Hey Frank!"

I love visiting this farm for many reasons. The first reason is because it is absolutely beautiful. The quaint farmhouse is so unique and has all the charm you would expect of a century-old Virginia homestead. The rolling hills are covered with trees and everywhere you look is as picturesque as a postcard. The second reason is because I love the people there. My father-in-law, John, is a great man. He always tells entertaining stories that make us laugh. Sometimes he doesn't say a lot, but what he does say is always either packed with a punch line, or very meaningful in other ways. Uncle Robert and Aunt Sally and Cousin Megan live just up the lane on the farm and I like to catch up with them whenever I stop by. I am very blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. And the third reason why I love this place so much is because it reminds me of my husband. I remember the first time he brought me to the farm and he showed me all his favorite places. I knew I was in love with him before he brought me there, but I quickly fell even more in love with him and in love with the landscape after being here a short time with him.

They say Virginia is for Lovers, and I agree. Even though Lucien is no longer here with me physically, I sense his presence here in these places that he loved so much. With that being said, though I will always love Lucien and know that he loves me, I also recognize that I need to move forward with my life and allow myself to love again. So one of the hopes that many of my family have mentioned to me is that I can find another wonderful young man who I can continue to build dreams and make memories with. Who knows... maybe he will be here in Washington DC! ;-)


Antietam, Maryland:

I found out that my mother-in-law lives just a few miles from the Antietam battlefields in Maryland, so we decided to make a little visit. If I had realized sooner that she lived so close, I would have visited before! Oh well, now I know where it is and can visit again.

For those of you who aren't U.S. History buffs, Antietam is where one of the worst battles of the Civil War was fought. It is the place where the bloodiest single day of the war took place. There were over 23,000 soldiers killed there. Other battles had more deaths, but those battles were longer in duration. The majority of these soldiers were killed in less than 12 hours. It is very sobering to see so many graves and think about what these people died for. There are a lot of graves for unknown soldiers.

To learn more about what happened here, visit the official website:

http://www.nps.gov/anti/

Christmas 2008

This year was a fabulous Christmas. On the morning of Christmas Eve, my sister-in-law, Rebecca gave birth to her first baby, a sweet little 7 lb 6 oz girl named Marleigh Jane Fuga. Since I am leaving to go to Washington DC for my internship on Monday, I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to meet my new niece before I left because she actually wasn't due until after January 1st. But luckily, she gave me my first gift of the season by coming early enough for me to meet her.

This year for Christmas my parents, my brother Ammon, and I went to our sister Marian's house in Lewiston, Utah. We left on Christmas Eve and arrived at Marian's right before a huge blizzard pounded the whole state of Utah. We spent Christmas Eve playing Cranium and eating lots of yummy food.

On Christmas morning we drove a treacherous 2 blocks to my other sister Rachael's house to eat a delicious breakfast and to open presents. We had a lot of fun with my neice, Taylor, and nephew, Johnathan. Christmas is just so much more fun with little kids around. Mom and Dad got a digital camera (yes, we are forcing them to become part of the 21st century digital world) Marian and Rachael got new Bosch kitchen mixers, I got a pizza baking stone and some drinking glasses, Ammon got some new shirts, and Taylor and Johnathon got loads of toys, including a John Deere tractor set that both Johnny and Grandpa were pretty excited about.

After breakfast we went back to Marian's house where her step-children had arrived to open their presents. With six kids ages 17 to 7, and with Taylor wanting to "help" EVERYONE open their presents, it was chaos for a while.

After all the commotion, Marian and Vern and their kids left to go to Idaho to have dinner with Vern's family, we went back to Rachael and Clay's house, and then we watched movies and took a nap. It was a great day. The kids had lots of fun chasing and being chased by the "Grandpa Monster."

Rachael and Clay then argued about who knew how to make dinner better, but eventually dinner got made and we had delicious pork roast, ribs, rolls and green beans. Clay's sister, Tarin and her son Treyson came over to join in on the fun.

In all it was a fantastic Christmas. We were all glad we could be here to spend time with the kids.

Merry Christmas to all!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I made a batch of Chocolate Chip cookies that I had originally intended to bring to some of my friends. Well, I got busy and wasn't able to bring them to my friends when I had planned, so I had all these cookies just sitting out looking really delicious.

So, as I was rushing out to school, I would eat a couple for breakfast. When I came home for lunch I had a couple more. And then dinner time came and I just had to have another.

So the next day as I was driving to school (while eating a chocolate chip cookie, of course) I started thinking about how often I had eaten chocolate chip cookies, and my thoughts ended up in a rhyme. (They do that sometimes. I often think in rhymed couplets. It must be attributed to too much Dr. Suess as a child or something.) And then I even added a tune, but I don't now how to include the tune on my blog. Anyway, this was the by product of a bored mind with chocolate chip cookies on the brain:

I like chocolate chip cookies for breakfast,
I like chocolate chip cookies for lunch,
I like chocolate chip cookies for dinner,
and I eat 'em on Sunday for brunch.

I like chocolate chip cookies at midnight
I like chocolate chip cookies at noon
I like chocolate chip cookies in broad daylight
or under the light of the moon.

I like chocolate chip cookies with ice cream
I like chocolate chip cookies with milk
I like chocolate chip cookies in my flannel pajamas
or a nightgown made of silk!

Chocolate chip cookies! Chocolate chip cookies!
Chocolate chip cookies! I love you so! Yes I do!
Chocolate chip cookies! Chocolate chip cookies!
Oh chocolate chip cookies! To you I'm true!

Ode To Donut

So, for my ward Family Home Evening tonight we made donuts and wrote donut poetry. These two poems were my contributions:

Ode to Donut

O Donut, Dear donut
ring of goodness with a hole
with sprinkles or with nuts
your yummy goodness fills my soul

Filled with creme or frosted
or sugared powd'ry white
from Krispie Kreme or Albertsons,
You fill me with delight.



The Paradox of Donut

Though you are empty
in the center
I do not find you
hollow

Favorite Quotes of the Week

One of the best things about being a humanities major is being "assigned" to read some of the most wonderful works of literature ever written. I often come across certain quotes in my reading that are so beautiful or so thought-provoking that I want to share them with everyone and exclaim, "Isn't that amazing!" Well, the beautiful thing about having a blog is that I can talk about whatever I want to, and then if people want to read it, they can. If not, then I don't have to bore them with my passion that might not be as interesting to them.

Anyway, so these are my quotes for the week:

This one is from My Antonia, by Willa Cather. I thought this was just a beautiful passage particularly appropriate for this time of year:

"All those fall afternoons were the same, but I never got used to them. As far as we could see, the miles of copper-red grass were drenched in sunlight that was stronger and fiercer than at any other time of the day. The blond cornfields were red gold, the haystacks turned rosy and threw long shadows. The whole prairie was like the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed. That hour always had the exultation of victory, of triumphant ending, like a hero's death-heroes who died young and gloriously. It was a sudden transfiguration, a lifting-up of day."

My next quote comes from Mark Twain's "The War Prayer." I thought this was particularly thought provoking during this time of economic and political unrest because it requires us to really think about what we pray for and why. The story is about a congregation that meets to pray for their soldiers who are going off to war. The minister prays for the safety and success of the soldiers. Then an old man in the congregation walks to the front and tells everyone that he is a messenger from God and that God has heard the minister's prayer. This is what the messenger tells the people:

" He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I[...]have explained its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of-except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can by injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer-The uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it-that part which the pastor-and also you in your hearts- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. [...]When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory.... Upon the listening spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

'O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them-in spirit-we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.'

(After a pause) 'Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits."

Now, I'm not really trying to make a political statement about the war in Iraq. Despite its cynicism, I like this quote because it really makes us think about what consequences others must suffer if we recieve all the things we pray for. So when you pray, be careful what you pray for because you just might get it-all of it, whether you really wanted it or not. (by the way, these images are courtesy of http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/)

My third favorite quote of the week is also attributed to Mark Twain, but I haven't been able to find an actual verifiable source that guarantees that he really said it. But whoever said or wrote it was very inspiring:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”


This quote has had quite an impact on me. I have been thinking for a long while now about going to Washington DC to do an internship. Since I will be graduating soon, I thought now would be a great time to try to do it. So taking that Mark Twain quote to heart, I applied to BYU's Washington Seminar knowing that it was something I would regret not taking advantage of if I let it pass me by without even trying to get accepted. So I filled out the application, completed the interview, and what do you know?! I got accepted! Now I just need to finish my applications for internships. I am really interested in doing something at the Smithsonian in one of their MANY museums in DC. So keep your fingers crossed for me and I'll keep everyone posted on what I hear back from them. As it is right now, it looks like I'll be leaving for DC in January, and I won't be back until April. That means I have to find someone to rent my condo for a few months and figure out what to do with Buster.

Well, thats all for now, folks! Until next time, au revoir!

Fall Fun

I love Fall! There's nothing quite like those fresh, crisp fall mornings, hazy afternoons when the leaves are ablaze with color, cheering at a football game, or biting into a sweet crunchy apple. These are the things I love about this season.

Ammon has been kind enough to share his friends with me, and we've all had a lot of fun going on hikes together and watching the football games (GO COUGARS). In the midst of the research papers and essays I am working on for my classes, these diversions have been quite welcome.

A couple of weeks ago we hiked all the way from Rock Canyon, behind Y mountain through some beautiful meadows, and then came out at the Y. It ended up being about a 6 hour hike because the trail forked several times and sometimes we chose the wrong path and ended up having to back track. One of the detours we took was well worth it, however, because we got to see a beautiful valley with gorgeous fall colored leaves all around that we would have missed if we had taken the other route.