When my parents decide to do something, they don't let any grass grow under their feet. The day after they'd decided to serve another mission, it was in the newspaper that my dad was stepping down from the city council. They had their entire household goods divvied up between their children and shipped out to our houses before their papers were even in. They were ready to go!
So, when dad called me on Friday to tell me they had their call, but that they were going to wait to open it until that night so we could be there for it, I was impressed at their patience.
We all descended on the house en masse (the out-of-staters were present via cell phone) and took turns guessing where they had been called to. We had everything from Sweden to Ghana to Hong Kong--but my brother-in-law Jon actually guessed it. They will be serving in Mexico City, Mexico. They are currently assigned to the visitor's center there (which is the center of a church college and MTC) but their call is under the mission president's direction to reassign.
I'll miss them so much, but I love that they are so willing to serve the Lord. They are amazing people!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Reba, Kelly, Rachael, Kelsey and Me
Adding events to my job has been stressful, but has also has great perks. For instance, our Jazz Suite sponsors get one concert a year included in their package and as the event director I had to go! I took my niece Rachael for her birthday and when we ended up with one extra ticket, my co-worker Kelsey came along to help out.
The concert featured Reba McIntire and Kelly Clarkson. A strange combination of styles, I know, but it ended up being a very cool mix. I know Reba from my Rick's days (I had a house cleaning job with a friend who was a big country fan, so that's what we listened to)and I know Kelly's most famous hits, but there's nothing like hearing people with "real deal" voices perform live. The best part was that they didn't just take turns but both sang each other's songs.
I sat on a broken chair, messed up the seating chart and about died when Reba ended the concert with "Fancy" (that is such a terrible song) but we had a tremendously fun time!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Mistakes
"In order to do something well, we must be first willing to do it badly."
I've never seen myself as a perfectionist, but I guess in some ways I am--especially with work. This came to my attention as I recently took over our statewide events. I took it on willingly because I'd been craving a new challenge and it sounded like fun.
The first Summit went smoothly and my confidence was high. The second Summit was private labeled for the Utah Jazz to host all their sponsors. I spent many late nights and weekends unraveling all the details--thinking if I just worked hard enough, I could make it run perfectly.
It was all coming together, (well except for a near disaster a few days before when we realized I had 25 people all scheduled to golf at 3:30. Tee times? What are those?) then at 6:00 the night before the "bewitching hour" struck. I realized I'd scheduled our two speakers for the same day! I was so focused on the details, I didn't see a major error. I went to my co-worker's office and started to hyperventilate, "What do I do???"
She calmed me down and I finally got a hold of the speaker in the airport and my boss and I were able to arrange a different flight and rearrange his speaking time. Then the Jazz wanted a room to watch the game. . .Then the speaker needed to have extra av. . .Then I lost the $2,000 camera. It was just one costly problem or mistake after another.
Thankfully everyone ended up having a fantastic experience,and I learned some important lessons.
1. No matter how hard I try, I'm going to make mistakes. I need to judge the success of things by the number of good things that happened instead of the number of things that went wrong.
2. I need to be okay with depending on other people and letting them help me when I need it (my event staff, bosses, and the hotel staff saved me over and over again--they were an answer to the urgent SOS messages I kept sending to heaven.)
3. Things don't have to be perfect for me to be happy. Walking around the golf course in Park City enjoying the stunning fall colors, talking to my phenomenal co-workers, sitting in the most amazing jacuzzi ever--looking up at the stars between the clouds of rising steam--there is a lot to enjoy and be grateful for in life.
I've never seen myself as a perfectionist, but I guess in some ways I am--especially with work. This came to my attention as I recently took over our statewide events. I took it on willingly because I'd been craving a new challenge and it sounded like fun.
The first Summit went smoothly and my confidence was high. The second Summit was private labeled for the Utah Jazz to host all their sponsors. I spent many late nights and weekends unraveling all the details--thinking if I just worked hard enough, I could make it run perfectly.
It was all coming together, (well except for a near disaster a few days before when we realized I had 25 people all scheduled to golf at 3:30. Tee times? What are those?) then at 6:00 the night before the "bewitching hour" struck. I realized I'd scheduled our two speakers for the same day! I was so focused on the details, I didn't see a major error. I went to my co-worker's office and started to hyperventilate, "What do I do???"
She calmed me down and I finally got a hold of the speaker in the airport and my boss and I were able to arrange a different flight and rearrange his speaking time. Then the Jazz wanted a room to watch the game. . .Then the speaker needed to have extra av. . .Then I lost the $2,000 camera. It was just one costly problem or mistake after another.
Thankfully everyone ended up having a fantastic experience,and I learned some important lessons.
1. No matter how hard I try, I'm going to make mistakes. I need to judge the success of things by the number of good things that happened instead of the number of things that went wrong.
2. I need to be okay with depending on other people and letting them help me when I need it (my event staff, bosses, and the hotel staff saved me over and over again--they were an answer to the urgent SOS messages I kept sending to heaven.)
3. Things don't have to be perfect for me to be happy. Walking around the golf course in Park City enjoying the stunning fall colors, talking to my phenomenal co-workers, sitting in the most amazing jacuzzi ever--looking up at the stars between the clouds of rising steam--there is a lot to enjoy and be grateful for in life.
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