Planet Utah

So I left the house yesterday at 7:30 a.m. and got home about 9:30 p.m. last night, which threw me for a loop. Jake was barely awake when I left, and both he and Rob were asleep when I got home, Jake even woke up about 3:00 a.m. to make sure I didn’t skip town. I’m not a very good working parent really, I figure I worked the 10 hour shifts in the early days of my career to earn the nice middle management job where I’m required to work 40 hours a week, whenever I feel like showing up (which totally makes up for the “middle” range salary that goes with the job), and just have to get the job done. I feel very blessed to have this kind of job, with great benefits (both travel and other), lots of flexibility and bosses that really understand that there are times in our lives when career isn’t the main focus, and truly you are there everyday not for the job, but to do what you need to do for your family. I do think Marriott has a unique company culture that way, it may be because the founders and CEO of the company are LDS, I’m not sure, but family and “work life balance” (which is the catch phrase around here), are really emphasized, it’s associate appreciation week this week, and something we discuss a lot is how to feel like a family in the office, and how to successfully balance work and family outside of it. It is a tough one for almost everyone, and honestly it is one of the areas I think I really hit the jackpot, I’ll never be rich working here, but really the balance between time at work, and time with my family is an amazing blessing, and something I know not everyone is blessed to be able to do.

I’ve mentioned many times that I truly do feel after all these years that I’m with my second family when I walk in the door to work everyday, and the reason I had such a long day yesterday was to go to Provo with my friend Jeff to watch him receive what we call the “Planet Utah Award” which recognizes outstanding Marriott associates throughout the state. There are people that come into all our lives, that are just special, people that you are friends with almost instantaneously, and that stay friends through all kinds of life’s twists and turns. Jeff has been one of those people for me, he has been one of the people that has been my friend no matter what, listened for hours to me many times, made me laugh a lot, and never judged me. We are blessed if we get a couple of those kind of people in our lives, I’ve actually been blessed with quite a few (including the one I married), but it was nice to see him recognized last night for the great person he is, he’s a hard worker, with a huge heart (even though he wouldn’t admit it). As much as I hated being away from my family all day, I wouldn’t have missed that night watching him in the spotlight, and it was really nice. It’s great to be reminded of the many permutations that the word “family” can take.

This week both of the older boys will be staying with us for a few days as well, Aaron flew in Wednesday night from China to be immersed in our endless discussions of the American Idol results (which was a bit of culture shock to say the least). I admit that this was the first final 2 where I really didn’t care who won, I think both David’s are class acts, and will have great careers (and David Cook’s brother mouthing “that’s my brother” to the camera at the end of the show still makes me tear up, it’s too bad his other brother was too sick to be there). I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to Aaron about his experience in China, but his little brother Jake has told me all about all the awesome things he learned how to do there while Aaron slept this morning. It’s nice having the boys with us, they are great young men, and Jake just adores them, and they are really nice about having a 5 year old tagging all over with them.

Aaron, Rob and Jake got up this morning to catch the first showing of the new Indiana Jones movie at 10:00 a.m., and go to lunch (I think they were going to do Asian Buffer which I’m, sure Aaron will be less than impressed with after eating real Chinese food in Beijing for the last 10 months). Josh comes in later this afternoon, and then Rob’s dad is coming in on Saturday to see everyone. With all that plus all the activities surrounding Memorial Day and Lagoon Day, we have a busy weekend of fun planned. Jake even picked out his own new outfit for Lagoon this year, which is a “Troy outfit” from High School Musical II, yep, Jake will be showing up to Lagoon, in black slacks and a blue polo shirt. I’m thinking he might be a bit overdressed, but he’s really excited, and thinks (in his words) he looks "sweet" (said Napolean Dynamite style, no "puppies, kittens and rainbows" style). I love Memorial Day, it's one of my favorite holidays all year long, although I'm not officially old because I'm really excited to go to Lagoon for, well the same thing I'm always excited about, the food.