Good news and a visit from the Frosts!

Good news of today: Dave received his mission call! He is going to the Quezon City mission in the Phillipines! He goes into the MTC on July 14th. Congratulations bro!Jason's parents came down today; it was so nice to see them! We had a rough time in traffic, but it was nice to have some time to talk. We had fried chicken for dinner. When Mom and I picked up the food, the cashier asked if we would like it to stay or to go. "Yes, the two of us plan to eat 14 pieces of chicken, 7 biscuits, french fries, coleslaw, and a gallon of soda." Yes, a gallon of soda. This is what a gallon of soda looks like:
I got to fill up the bag myself at the soda fountain and got some strange looks from other customers. I've never seen soda in a pouch before.

Here are some other pictures that I've been meaning to post.

Me with the cherry blossoms!

The Jefferson Memorial with the cherry blossoms.

The Washington Monument with the cherry blossoms.

The lovely flowers I received for giving a stellar tour. It's been a good day.

I almost forgot to write about our briefings! We heard from a really interesting guy in the morning; he is an Iranian blogger who talked about why the United States should care about democracy in Iran. He was engaging and interesting. Our second briefer was Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform. He was really sarcastic/irritating/dismissive. I expected him to be at least semi-reasonable...not so. One of the other employees there spoke for a few minutes after Mr. Norquist left, and he was more polite and logical (for the most part). It was kind of a frustrating experience.

Well, it's been a bit of a long day, so we are turning in. Tomorrow is just one week until we are back in Utah!

Sundry Happenings

Today was a really great day. I have the best husband in the whole world.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Here's what happened today.

1. Jason received an advance copy of the IAF publication that he edited and it looks awesome.

2. I was asked to stay after at work today to screen calls for a tele-townhall meeting. Here's how such a thing works: a third-party company who designed the tele-townhall software dials the numbers of constituents in Utah. The constituents answer the phone and hear a recording inviting them to the town hall meeting. If they want to ask a question, they push 1 (or something). Then, I would answer the call using my computer hooked up to my telephone (all very technical). After hearing their questions, I would send them through to the Senator. It was really a neat experience! A woman I work with drove me home so I wouldn't have to take the Metro at 8:30 p.m., which was very kind.

3. I got through the first/second stage of the Teach For America application process. FYI: Teach for America is a program where college graduates teach school in low-income areas for two years and then emerge licensed educators. Today I learned that I won't have to have a phone interview (thank goodness!), but will go straight to the in-person interview. Hurray!

4. At the tele-townhall meeting, we had dinner, which included Cape Cod brand chips: Jason's favorite. I had to bring some home for him.

5. Free bagels at work today!

6. On Thursday, Jason will be on the Hill delivering the publication he helped edit to the House offices and we'll probably get to have lunch together!

7. Best part of the whole day: I arrived home and Jason had bought me some very pretty flowers. It was a very good day.