Farewell President Hinckley

Like many of you I am saddened at the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley earlier this week. Even though he was showing the signs of his 97 years it always seemed that President Hinckley would live forever. For much of my life prophets were always so frail and worn down that President Hinckley's energy and zeal were inspiring. You thought he would never run down or take a break.

Even though I've lived through many different prophets (including three on my mission) I have always felt that President Hinckley was my prophet. He was always there, either as a counselor or as the prophet. His voice has been such a comfort and his sermons have touched me heart; changed my life. I never met President Hinckley, but I know I'll never forget him.

I was really touched today to watch a tribute to President Hinckley by talk show host, Glenn Beck. I may not like his program much, but his remarks about our beloved prophet spoke to my spirit. President Hinckley inspired us with simple messages: Be kind to one another, love each other, treat others as you would be treated. Farewell President Hinckley...

U23D 4 US

I have seen U2 in concert twice and each time it's been an amazing experience. U2's show is one to be witnessed live, complete with hard rocking tunes and inspiring commentary. All of things may be true, but a live concert also has it's draw back - bad sound, annoying concert goers, and cost. This leads us to U23D, a look back at U2's Vertigo tour in Central and South America. What an experience! I thought that the 3D could be a big miss, but I was wrong. I felt like I was actually at the concert. Every time that Bono and the boys moved or the crowd raised their arms in approval I thought I was actually there. The movie was a 15 song set which spanned U2's career, from New Year's Day to Vertigo. It was fun to see the band recapture their political edge, as the show had plenty of ideology to go along with the music. All that in 30 minutes, along with the chance to wear some pretty cool glasses.

After the movie, our group of six headed over to Spaghetti Mama's for dinner. Being the first time any of us had ever been there, we didn't quite know what to expect. I hadn't eaten lunch that day, so I was ready for some food. Upon reading the description of the Baked Lasagna it was time to eat. I quote: "You've heard of the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Wait 'til you've seen Mama's lasagna!" When my plate finally arrived, I thought it contained a grocery style sample of my dinner. Needless to say, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is safe and sound as the largest item in Italy.

Exploring Columbus

Since I returned home from Columbus a couple hours ago, I thought I better highlight the rest of the trip. No, the weather didn't improve - I think it actually got colder, and started to snow this morning. Yes, we still found things to do (especially since this is a TV conference and Tim and I don't really do much with KUEN).

After our workshop, I attended a session in which Autumn presented her work with NetSafe Utah. She did a great job, but I couldn't handle much more time with the outreach specialists - they were reaching out a bit far for me. So, Bryan came to our hotel and took us around his town. We saw German Town, with tons of great houses and a lot of neat old brick streets. Then we headed to The Ohio State University to see campus.



OSU was great. I can't believe how old everything on campus still feels. The U has been around about the same length of time, but it certainly doesn't have the nostalgia that came with Ohio St. We saw Bryan's office, and then headed towards the center of campus to check out Orton Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus. Fortunately, there was a geocache at the hall, which helped me accomplish my goal of claiming a cache in Ohio. Bryan wasn't very impressed with the idea of caching in the cold.

After dropping Tim off at the hotel, Bryan and I headed out to his house for dinner. Along the way we stopped by the Columbus Temple (it's a pretty cool little temple, nestled on the end of a small street), and a candy store to pick up some Buckeyes for Tara. It was a lot of fun to spend time with Bryan, Ellie, Nora, and Andrew. The kids warmed right up to me - which was great since I was missing my little ones at home. I probably spent too much time at the Warnicks' since we talked until after 11 PM. It's so good to have friends to talk with, no matter where you are. After a long evening, Bryan dropped me back at the hotel around 11:30. Thanks for being my chauffeur (nothing's changed) and for showing me some good Midwest hospitality Bryan and family. It made my trip.

This morning Tim and I attended another session at the conference and then we decided to take an historic tour of the capital. What a cool building. With all the attention being paid to the renovation of the Utah capitol, it was fun to see how someone built their government center. Our guide answered all of our questions, but one: Why was this town named after Columbus? He only said it was because Columbus found our country - really?! There's got to be a better story than that. Still, it was fun to learn about the history of Ohio and see an incredible building.

After the tour, we took in a couple of local entertainment locations, and headed to the airport. Our trip was officially over. In the end, it was fun. Cold, certainly, but fun to enjoy another town and participate in a national conference. I'm glad I went, but next time let's do it in June.

A Vision for the Class of 2020

We finished our presentation at NETA this morning and I think it went pretty well. We planned to have about 60 people in the session and by the time we finished there were people standing along the walls to hear our content. It was great! Since this is conference for people involved in public television, we tried to show technology tools that they could use to reach their audience. Still, who doesn't want to know more about Google Tools, Internet resources, and other cool technology gadgets.

It was fun to present on a national stage. I think we do some great things at UEN and it's important to let people know about it. I'm really glad that Laura gave Tim and me the chance to get out of the office and share some of the great resources we've studied and the incredible programs we've created at UEN. I think our session was very valuable and it was cool to get the positive feedback from the audience at our session. If you want to hear some of the comments check out our presentation blog:

http://neta2008.blogspot.com

Introducing Kylie Ann

Yesterday Kennedy introduced me to her friend, Kylie Ann.

"She's standing next to me, mom," Kennedy said.

Oh, I see. Now we have pretend friend. Right now she's standing in the corner, according to Kennedy. Kind of freaky if you ask me.

Kennedy tells me she has black hair and is 3 years old. I guess this is normal for her age-I hope.

Anyway, introducing the newest member of our family-Kylie Ann.


Since I don't have a picture of Kylie Ann, I decided to include a picture of some of Kennedy's real friends, Saydi and Liam. They had fun playing today, even if they did have to compete with Kylie Ann.