Seattle

Right now I'm in Washington with Jenni.

She told me she was going to cover a scrapbooking conference for her marketing company. Wahoo! I would definitely come!

We left sunny Salt Lake City.....

On the plane I met a woman from Korea....this is her story.....

She grew up in South Korea playing the flute.

At the age of 16, her parents sent her away to America where she would study the flute, learn English, and learn American culture....all in the hopes of a better future.

I asked her how she felt during that time. She said she was so lonely, she had no family and no friends. So she said she turned all of her attention to her studies. She would go to school and come home to study really hard. She said she cried herself to sleep the first 6 months. During her high school years she continued to have no friends. She then went to get her bachelors and master degree in flute performance and then in music therapy. She met and married a Korean man and now they have two kids. I asked how her experience changed how she was going to raise her family.

She says.....Korea is crazy. Kids at the age of 4 are already learning English and are enrolled in at least 5 extra curricular activities. They are not naive. They have no childhood. But if you don't raise your kids that way, then they are social outcasts. Parents will send their kids to America while they are still kids. Asia feels that they must become like America. They do not accept their individuality as a culture. But Americans as a culture are self-interested, independent, isolated from each other. Koreans, however, are in large a part of each other, very group oriented. Koreans are becoming more and more Americanized and our economy now keeps up with the world economy. I'm going to give my children a childhood, though. They are each enrolled in 2 extra curricular activities. They play, they get into some trouble, they will not know about the world so early on.

This woman had a strength and courage about her. Despite her difficult past, she held herself with poise and quiet confidence. She spoke with eloquence and considered her words. She had a rare beauty about her. I'm grateful to have met her....always puts life into perspective...the trials and struggles that some people endure and overcome.

We began our flight descent and my sinus infection took a turn for the worse. The pressure in the cabin was putting intense pressure on my head because it couldn't pressurize with the plane. I felt pins and needles in my head, and then I began feeling this popping sensation in my sinuses. For a second i thought....my word, my brains are going to blow out of my eyeballs or my ears, don't know which is going to happen first. I turned to the guy sitting on the other side of me and asked if he had experienced that before. He reassured me he had and that in fact, my brains would still be in place when we landed!!

So Jenni and I made it to Seattle! We found our rental car and Jenni informed me that we had to go to a city called Grand Mounds an hour and a half away where the hotel was located. We took the Grand Mounds exit and landed ourselves in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!

We saw a gas station.

We saw a few houses.

No hotel.

Where were we??

We keep driving down the main bumpy road to hopefully find it.

Nothing.

A few more house.

Trees.

We turn a corner and there before us is the largest hotel monstrosity I've seen outside of Vegas. The Great Wolf Lodge! We made it! And in front of the hotel are 40 foot wolf statues....sentinels, beacons of welcome to the great Northwest!

This place is great!

Indoor waterpark

Log cabin beds

A Starbucks....for hot apple cider of course, perfect for rainy days

Free wi-fi

Scrapbooking ladies!

Unfortunately my sinus infection has kept me bedridden while Jenni scraps away. But it is a blessing in disguise really that I'm in a place where my only options are a waterpark or my hotel bed. I opted for the bed and am now finally giving my body some much needed rest.

A relay race and a bunch of work shifts with little sleep in between....it was only a matter of time before my body finally gave out. I hate relaxing. I don't know how to do it. It is one of my goals to learn how.

So far in my little hotel bed I have.....

Watched the season finale of Lost....so good, I loved the little Lost moral of the story at the end

Gone out to McDonald's twice....that is the only restaurant in town

Found out my current IQ score...132. Wahoo!

Texted Heather Johnson...she has a sinus infection too

And video chatted with my brother Luke

Great day!