Brock's First Day & Some Time to Myself...

Well, we drove back from St. Paul, Minnesota today. Now a five hour drive is no big deal to Brock and I, it's like a walk in the park. Ha, we've been driving so much lately. I'm glad we're finally "home" for a bit.

So Brock had orientation at 3M headquarters yesterday. It went really well. Really, really well. Apparently quite a few of the other interns are "jealous" of Brock because he's the "lucky one that got the Dekalb, IL location". Sounds like Brock is definitely with the best team (Nora and Mike) and the more we learn about 3M the more we like it. They are constantly innovating and have a great company culture. Some cool things Brock learned/saw yesterday:

• 3M designed the rubber on the bottom of Neil Armstrong's moon boots. They said the only mistake they made was not putting the 3M logo on the boot so that it would be imprinted on the moon. 
• 3M has designed a tape to be used when a patient gets an IV that doesn't pull your or skin when it comes off, and it will stick for days
• the story of how scotch tape came to be 
• 3M is like Google, in the fact that they require their employee's to work 15% in another department/something creative/do something they don't typically do 
• a lot of other cool and innovative stuff

I'm excited for Brock. I think he will do really well and I hope he's found something he is passionate about and can see himself being happy doing. 

Now that we're "home" I think this is the first time i've found myself with time alone. Blakely went to bed at about 9PM and Brock took a bath. It was SO nice to just be able to think for a second. I got caught up on some work (yes, i'm still working full time while i'm out here... lots to do... I get all my planning done in the summer, I love it. The more I do in the summer, the easier my life is during the school year), and just had time to relax, eat without worry about feeding another human, or keeping her out of trouble haha. 

It'll be a good summer.

Thanks for reading. Hope you like the updates.

The Mall of America

OK. Seriously.

I love shopping.

You'll be proud (you Brock, if you're reading this). I didn't buy anything except food, an aquarium pass which I got for $5 off, and a pony for Blakely from Build-A-Bear.

The first 15 min or so of being in the mall I was seriously giddy. This was a moment in history. A "first" in my life. I have now visited THE Mall of America. Well, at least I visited 1/2 the shops on first floor... so more like I've visited 1/16 of mall but ya know :-)

Today was fun. We walked though Nickelodeon World where all the rides and roller coasters are, saw giant Lego's at the Lego store, saw the Peeps Candy store, American Girl Doll store, lots of new restaurants, and went to the aquarium. The aquarium was SO cool. I think that was mine and Blakely's favorite part. Here... why don't I show ya some pictures from the day:

Oh, and of course! Today was Brock's official first day as a 3M intern (yes, we do get a discount on sticky notes now!). It went really well. Apparently everyone is jealous that he got the Dekalb location because his boss is the best and is known for really accelerating people's careers. Everything he learned about made this experience just seem that much cooler!

Well, I better head to bed. I drove us all the way here (5.5 hours) and I'm thinking Brock will want me to drive us all the way back :-)

Love and hugs from St Paul, Minnesota!

We've decided not to be "Mormons" any more...

Well, it only took one Sunday for us outside of Utah for us to decide that we don't want to be "Mormons" anymore. Yep. You read that correctly. We've decided we're going to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Okay, okay.... I know. That was mean.

Let me clarify. No, no we are not changing religions. But we did learn a lesson in the importance of using the full name of the Church as we've been asked by apostles including Boyd K. Packer in a 2011 General Conference talk:

SKIP TO GREEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THE QUOTE FROM ELDER PACKER'S TALK:

Obedient to revelation, we call ourselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rather than the Mormon Church. It is one thing for others to refer to the Church as the Mormon Church or to us as Mormons; it is quite another for us to do so.

The First Presidency stated:

“The use of the revealed name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (D&C 115:4), is increasingly important in our responsibility to proclaim the name of the Savior throughout all the world. Accordingly, we ask that when we refer to the Church we use its full name wherever possible."

“When referring to Church members, we suggest ‘members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’ As a shortened reference, ‘Latter-day Saints’ is preferred.”"

THE STORY STARTS HERE

So here's what happened that provoked this blog post:

Saturday (May 24) we took a drive with Brock's boss, Nora. She showed us all the 3M buildings as well as downtown Dekalb and Sycamore. She helping us find things to do and get somewhat settled/welcomed and the topic of religion came up. We told her we were "LDS" or "Mormons"which (to me) she seemed to politely nod and tried to discretely hide the fact she didn't understand what we just said.

We then went to lunch where we met up with another "3M'er" and Nora's husband. While at lunch her husband (Mike Vanploeg otherwise known as Ploegger... pronounced like plug) saw a friend (Mark Aug) walk by and he stopped by the table to say hi and chat. Well guess what? Mark was a member!! When Nora asked Mark what religion he was he said, "I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and she looked at Brock and said, "Is that the same as you?".

Well, it was at that moment that my heart kind of sank and I thought, "there should have been no doubt in her mind that we were members of the same religion". I feel like I learned a valuable lesson, which is:

Always use the full name of the Church. Do what the apostles ask, because they receive direction from the Lord and the Lord knows all things. 

It's been a good Sunday. I'm guessing a lot of you (well, OK at least the ones of you that know) are wondering how my Sunday School lesson went today. I taught nine 12-15 year old's today. Haha. I already love those kids. We'll leave that for a separate blog post so this one doesn't get too much longer. Let's just say it was energetic, yet perfect.

Life is good. The Lord is in control and thank goodness for faith, prayer and family relationships.

XOXOXO

Thanks for reading!

Dinner with the Bishop

Well it's already been such a ride so far.  Not necessary a [wild] ride or a [crazy] ride but more of a fun, exciting, whoa this is gonna be new and different but fun and challenging kind of ride.

Ever since Brock made the decision to go back to school and get his MSHR / MBA degrees I look back to the point in time where I received the prompting that this was the right choice. I remember sitting in the car with Brock after a drive home from Smithfield. I don't remember exactly what the thought I had was, but I do remember feeling "This is the right thing for your family to do. We will take care of you as you embark on this journey".

Well. It's still true.

I truly feel that all things happen for a reason. That we are given opportunities and we must stay in tuned with the Holy Ghost in order to continually course correct, and keep the lines of communication open with the Lord. When we found out we were going to Dekalb, Illinois... [which was #6 out of 10 on Brock's "Internship Location Wish List"] I was bummed. I felt bad he didn't get any of his top 5 location requests. But then things changed, and Brock and I both felt excited for this opportunity. And then we started feeling like, we wouldn't want it any other way.

Then about two weeks before we left, we called the Bishop here to 1) let him know we were willing to serve in callings during our 12-week stay and 2) to see if he knew of a place to stay other than a hotel.

Well, one week later we got a call back from Bishop Malley saying he OK'd it with our current bishop and our church records were transferred. He said, "I've never done this over the phone before, but I'd like to extend callings to you". The Lord needs us to serve, and we are definitely willing to do so.

So tonight, in about 30 minutes, we are heading over to Bishop Malley's house to have dinner with him and his family. (Nom, nom, nom).

And oh by the way he lives two minutes away...
And oh by the way the church is three minutes away...
And oh by the way I just finished the final touches on my sunday school lesson I'm teaching tomorrow...

Ha. I'm so excited for this summer. I think I nailed it when on January 1, 2014 I posted my theme for the year:

#bringiton2014
#mentallystrong

If you want to join me and my hashtag themes, please do. Life is wonderful. Live it for others and you'll find you'll live the best life for yourself. I am so happy because of the choice I have made to live my life in tune with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no other substitute for true happiness.

#champsummer14

Well we made it last night to Dekalb. We left about 7AM Thursday morning, and arrived about 7PM Friday night. It was a long two days of driving. Here's some highlights from the drive:

• About 30 minutes into Thursday's drive, Blakely threw up all over herself and the carseat. It stunk the whole way.
• We saw lots of trains
• Went through Blakely's first tunnel
• Decided we never want to live in Wyoming
• Stopped at a cool rest stop in Sydney, NE... stopped in an even cooler rest stop in Iowa (it was up on a little hill and had really nice facilities and WIFI!)
• Saw hundreds of wind mills
• Ate lots of yummy snacks (thanks Grandma Lenis, Allen's and Champlin's!)
• Watched Frozen, played with stickers, dolls, Daniel Tiger and more
• Slept a bunch, drove about 20 hours 
• Brock drove the whole way except about four hours Thursday and two hours Friday
• and of course the first thing we did after getting to the hotel and unpacking... went to Target. 

I've decided to use Evernote to keep all of our receipts from the trip in a digital (searchable) format. I'm really glad i'm doing that. It'll be helpful. 

I'll make a video of the place we're staying. Sadly, it's about half as big as I thought because I was mistaken. I thought we were getting the VIP Suite (which is two rooms, a mini bar area, couch and dining table area, bathroom and separate king bedroom) but we are in the King Suite which is a separate bedroom, with a front room. We have a VERY SMALL mini fridge and microwave which happens to be the perfect height for Blakely to touch, push button, open the fridge door (oh dear...). I'll have to get creative with storage. No drawers in the bathrooms so everything looks cluttered on the countertops (I'm definitely the kind of person that needs things to look nice and clean) so we'll see what we can do. 

I told Brock we'll just get used to living in +/- 400 sq ft so we can live in some really cool big city like London or NYC. 

Well. One really cool things is I never have to "make" breakfast this summer. :) Yay! We're headed down to eat right now. More updates to come. I'll definitely be blogging more this summer than I usually do. 

PS. More PICTURES to come too... yay!

PPS. The hashtag we are using for this summer is #champsummer14 so feel free to follow me on Instagram if you want "live" updates of our summer. 

Love, hugs and kisses,

Brock, Natalee and Blakely

North Platte, Nebraska

Hi all,

I thought i'd give a quick update. Brock, Blakely and I left yesterday (May 22) for Dekalb, Illinois where Brock has a summer-long internship with 3M (ya know, sticky notes!!). We got to North Platte, Nebraska yesterday in about 11 hours. About 30 minutes in, Blakely threw up (we went through Logan Canyon which is very twisty-turney) and our car kinda smelled gross for a while, but either we got used to it or I cleaned it up pretty good.

We are headed to Nauvoo, Illinois tonight and will get to our final destination tomorrow afternoon. I'm posting pictures on Instagram so feel free to follow me. I'm also going to try and keep this blog updated.

Life is good. We love our little family.

Natalee