Graduation

Kaitlin graduated high school on a beautiful spring afternoon. We took pictures in the morning and in then drove downtown for the big event.

We took Kaitlin's senior pictures on the Oquirrh Mountain Temple grounds.

The medal is for getting the Regent's Scholarship,  the green cord is for World Languages, and the brown is for Fine Arts.

One graduation group was coming out as we were going in, and another was coming in as we were going out. It was crazy downtown.

640 graduates! The ceremony was 2 1/2 hours long.

Kaitlin on the jumbotron.  Her choir sang four numbers.

Jared.

Kaitlin struggled with her mortarboard the whole time.  I didn't pin it on very well. Sorry Kaitlin. (Kaitlin thought the hats were ridiculous.)

Proud family!

We were excited to have Grandma and Aunt Kathy come. After graduation we had a yummy dinner at Zupas.

  

Seminary Graduation

 The Sunday before high school graduation  Kaitlin graduated from seminary.  Seminary is a release time religion class.  To graduate Kaitlin had to take a full class each year she was in high school. This included reading the Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants.  It was a sacrifice to fit seminary into her schedule, but Kaitlin loved it.  She really loved taking a break during the school day to learn about and talk about Jesus. 

Happy Anniversary

Vanilla Root Beer. Yum.

In anticipation of our 16th anniversary falling on the same day as graduation, we celebrated early. Chuck took a day off work and we spent it together, walking around the lake and hanging out at home playing games. We went out to lunch to a new place in town that had one of those soda machines that you can choose 100 different flavors.  It brought back good memories of our time in Nauvoo last summer. 

Memorial Day 

We went up to my mom's farm for Memorial day, stopping along the way to get Kaitlin, who had spent most of the weekend with her dad, but got to spend Memorial Day with us. We got to see my dad's headstone which had just been installed the week before. My mother designed it, and it turned out really nice. The Logan temple is on the front (not only were my parents married there, but they also worked there for many years), and their mountain is on the back. Also on the back is a listing of all my siblings. I teased my mother that it was weird to see my name on a headstone, and she teased me back saying "How do you think I feel?"

After visiting the graves (several generations of my family are buried there) we went back to Snow park for a picnic and visiting. My brother in law brought his new ATV and I got to take Jared for a ride in it.

Last Concert 

Thursday was Kaitlin's last concert with her Chamber Singers. They performed for and hour and forty-five minutes, in three different languages, and Kaitlin said there were another 15 songs or so that didn't make it into the program. I'm amazed at the volume of music that they had all learned and memorized. The skill level of the choir was amazing. I'm so glad that Kaitlin has had the opportunity to participate in making music at this level. This year she has struggled with the director, and she's struggled with lots of the kids in the class, but she has loved the music, and she has kept going back just for the love of making music.  I've uploaded their last song to YouTube (the file was too large for the blog) and embedded it below.


States Parade 

 Jared represented the great state of Minnesota in the 5th grade state parade this week. They also put on a very good program about the United States, including singing songs that name all of the states and capitals and all the presidents in order - all memorized. The power of learning through music is truly amazing!  (If you get this via email, there is a clip of him singing on the blog)

  
A New Passion? 

Ruth was very excited this week to be made a lawyer in a class court case. Her science class did a CSI activity and then they had a court case to prosecute who they thought did it. Ruth was assigned to defend, and was discourage at first because from her CSI investigations she thought he was guilty. We sat down and looked at the evidence together (it helps that my emphasis in college degree was forensics) and she started to see the holes in the case and that her client was truly innocent. She went to court and in the end was able to get her client off. This experience has started her thinking about trying out debate in the future. Maybe her acting skills have more applications than just drama.

Approaching the Finish Line

We are on the countdown now to the end of the school year.  Kaitlin graduates on the 5th, Ruth finishes on the 6th and Jared's last day is the 13th.   We still have a couple of things happening.  Jared's end of the year program and state parade is next week. So some time between now and Friday we will be decorating our wagon to represent the great state of Minnesota for the 3rd and last time.  Kaitlin's final Chamber Concert is also this Thursday.  This is a small concert of just their choir, and it should be excellent. Kaitlin's choir is also singing for graduation.

This week both Kaitlin and Ruth had final concerts.  Ruth got to sing her solo and did very well. There is a video posted below. If you get my blog by email you'll have to visit the site to see it.  Kaitlin's big choir concert, and banquet was also this past week. This was the last time singing with A'cappella choir. She was sad, but I think also happy to be finishing this chapter and moving on to the next.

Dressing Up

Hanging out with Matthew and Mary.

This week I went with my friend Julia, to a Downton Abbey (a tv show on BBC) tea sponsored by out local library.  It was pretty fun and free.  Really, public libraries are an amazing thing. Of all the good thing government has done, I would put public libraries in the top 10.

Also, this week I finished up a project I've been working on for a couple of weeks now.  I made an elvish archers vest out of craft foam.   Why, you ask.  Because I saw this blog on the internet where they showed how to make brown craft foam look like leather, and it got my brain turning on the idea.  I learned that you can shape craft foam with heat. Heat and stretch. Repeat. So I thought, "I wonder if I can make a leather like vest with this technique."  And the answer was yes. It's made from 5mm foam and is very sturdy.  All and all it cost me less than $20. I think it turned out pretty cool.

I took more pictures of the process. Maybe I'll make a post about it on my craft blog.

Happy Birthday!

Kaitlin wanted to take a birthday selfie with me.

I had a happy birthday this week.  I went out to lunch with friends, and Chuck took me out to lunch as well.  I received a lot of thoughtful birthday wishes and a new frying pan (who knew?). Kaitlin made me home made cinnamon rolls and I ended the evening by singing a solo at a Relief Society dinner. It was a good day.


Senior Awards

This week was also Kaitlin's senior awards dinner.  Kaitlin got a medal for being a Regent Scholar. She also got the Principals Pin for her academics, and two enhanced diploma awards (cords that she'll wear wear at graduation) one for Fine Arts and one for World Languages.

 We got half of Kaitlin's graduation announcements out this week. We noticed when we got them that there is an error in the printing. Kaitlin will actually graduate on June 5th at 2pm.

The Top Ten Things I've Learned From My Mom
by Jared

1. Don't get food poisoning
2. How to basically cook
3. How to read
4. How to take a shower
5. How to get to the high cabinates
6. Don't throw tacos at the taco man
7. Don't get addicted to drugs
8. Don't eat too much junk food
9.  Don't be dumb
10. How to make chicken nuggets


For mother's day this morning I got a nice breakfast made by Chuck and Jared, an original poem from Kaitlin, Jared also wrote me the nice note above, read me some poetry and showed me some of his favorite youtube videos.

 I have some Christmas plates that I use for the holidays to replace my normal white ones. Every year when I put them away and we go back to my white ones I'm a little disappointed. Food looks so much yummier on colored plates! So this year I just didn't put them away.  So here it's May and we are still eating off of Christmas trees. For mother's day this year I got a dinnerwear service for 12 that I've been admiring for awhile.  We figured out this morning, because they are an inch bigger than our other ones, that they don't fit in our dishwasher.  But being the handy guy that he is, Chuck figured out if he bent this and that, so we could lay the plates at more of an angle, they would fit. 


Student of the Month

Kaitlin was made the "World Languages Student of the Month" this week.  This means that she gets her photo hung in the hallway and she receives a snazzy certificate.  She also took her AP English lit test this week, which she said was easy.


Competitions

I think this was our last week of competitions.  Ruth went to regional drama competition. She sang and danced in a musical number from her show Honk! Jr.  Kaitlin went back to State Choir competition.  Last week she went to state with her Chamber Choir and this week she went to state with her Acapella Choir.


My New Job

I interviewed and was offered a new job this week.  I'll be teaching one day a week starting in August at Jared's new school.  I'll be teaching "The Leader In Me", which is a school leadership program from the Covey people.  I'll rotate around the classrooms teaching the provided curriculum.  It doesn't pay much, but it seems like something I'll enjoy and be good at.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Kaitlin's choir went to state competition last weekend and came away with top scores.  They were told that they were one of the best choirs in the state, and I believe that is true.  They are the best high school choir I've ever heard.

This weekend Kaitlin went to compete at state American Sign Language competition. She is a fist year sign language student and she was competing on a team in the category of deaf history.  They were down a team member, but still after the first round she felt confident that they had done a pretty good job.  When the judge came into the room to say who was advancing, they were one of the first groups dismissed.  So what was supposed to be a 3 hour competition turned was only a 20 minute competition for Kaitlin.  At the end of the day her ASL teacher loaded all the students on the bus early, even before the awards ceremony.  Kaitlin said they protested, but eventually learned that no one from her school had earned any awards at all that day.  All in all she said that they had a good time and she is glad she went.

I wish I had had a video recorder when Kaitlin came home and told me of her experiences. For over a half hour she talked and the whole time she signed as she spoke. I don't even know if she knew that she was doing it.

 Women's Conference

My annual trip to BYU Women's Conference was this weekend.  It's my one weekend away with girl friends, and we had a great time.  It was an extra good year for me because for the first time in a long time I went to the conference with specific questions and needs, and by the end felt that I had been taught a lot.   We went to the conference classes, made some crafts *cough* I mean, participated in some service projects, ate some good food and overall had a great time enjoying each others company.  I don't have a lot of pictures yet, but here is one with me and a rabbit I made out of a sock.

Here we all are with our rabbits. 
Leslie, Jill, Becky, Amy, Annette and Lisa

Ruth's Solo

Ruth agonized over auditioning for a solo for her choir concert coming up in a few weeks.  She finally auditioned, and got the solo she wanted.  She is really excited. 

Goodbye Diving

We forced Jared to take diving for a month, in the hopes that after getting over his initial fear that he would like it and want to continue.   While he bravely did the class and did all the dives the teacher required of him, including rolling backwards off the diving board and diving head first of the high dive, Jared didn't like it and is glad that his required month is now over and he can go back to playing computer games and watching YouTube videos.

Jared playing minecraft with a friend while wearing superman suit and a bowler hat. Your argument is invalid.

Young Womanhood Recognition

Kaitlin was awarded her YW Medallion today in church. This is an award that girls start working on in our church when they turn 12 and have until 18 to finish. It included 70 hours of projects as well as scripture reading and other self improvement goals.  She is happy to finally have it finished, and I'm pretty dang proud of her.  Earlier in the day she finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish, something she'd been working on for the past six months. 

Kaitlin also started her new job at Baskin Robbins. Kaitlin says her new job is good because she gets to help old people (butter pecan icecream) and little kids (spiderman icecream).