Graduation

My beautiful, amazing, talented, (not so) little girl graduated from high school. I'm so proud of her and for all she accomplished. She worked really hard and did amazing things her high school career. She kept her grades up including with advanced classes. I already mentioned that she composed two pieces of music that the orchestras played and she conducted. She and Jr. both played in the orchestra at graduation.

When we got home that night, she got to open up presents. Art stuff, of course, and gummi bears. Then she went off like such a big kid to her senior grad night with all the other big kids.*Sniff.*

 

She has also kept up with her scripture study and gospel learning. She is such a good example to us. This is basically what I shared with her Young Women class about Nichole:

We've always said she is the best oldest child for our family. From the time she was little, when she helped, she would tell us, "I'm a heper."

She continues to help (with four younger brothers including one rambunctious three year old, we definitely need the help) and has always been a good example to her brothers and us.

One time when she was little, I was frustrated with her and didn't know what to do and told her so. "I just don't know what to do." She told me, "Then pray, Mom." You can imagine she got a big hug for that.

She continues to be a good example to us with her daily scripture study, has a strong testimony, and really is an asset in our gospel discussions at home.

I will miss her when she does off to college but am grateful she will always be a part of our family.

She graduated from seminary as well as high school and I'm happy to see her testimony grow.

End of School Days

Some school things that happened in May:

Lucky did a report and project on the Arctic. He made a diorama showing animals and plants with the Northern Lights in the background.

I took Jr. Jr. and Lucky to say Goodbye to their principal who retired. Coincidence that they all matched the decorations?

 

Jr. and Nichole had their last concert at the school. Nichole composed two pieces that the combined orchestras performed and she conducted. She got a paper plate award for it.

The weather was gorgeous when we got out of the concert.

 

Jr. went to his last official day of classes. It's hard to know when school ends at the high school because it kind of fizzles out every year. But I got a picture of Jr. on his last day of classes.

Nichole had another orchestra festival that day. Busy busy.

 

Nichole had an awards night at the high school.

I went to see Jr. Jr. and Lucky at their dance festival. Good job boys.

 

Because, like I said, chaos, the last day of school came up for the elementary schoolers and I had completely forgotten to help them do anything for their teachers. So last minute, they wrote cards and took apples to their teachers. Sigh.

 The end of school was crazy but we all survived.

To Tide You Over

 

Mother's Day Flowers

For Mother's Day, Lucky brought me a flower from school. Jeremy brought me a flower from work. 

I am loved.

On Mother's Day day, Jet gave me tickles, Lucky gave me a card, and Jeremy made me dinner.

I am loved.

The Anniversary That Wasn't Really

You know how sometimes people will celebrate their anniversary by running off to a hotel or an airbnb? That's what Jeremy and I did this year... with our kids. Repairs and renovations were being made on the house we live in and we stayed a few days at an airbnb. I keep telling you- chaos.

 

Jeremy worked on our anniversary but had the next day off so we were going to have our traditional anniversary dinner with the kids the evening of our anniversary then go out and celebrate with just the two of us the next day. 

But... plans don't always work out. A couple of the kids had important assignments to work on so Jeremy and I couldn't leave Jet so we took him to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. He loved it and loved riding on the horses and feeding the animals. He especially liked playing on the slide and would not stop. I had to carry him out because we had to go back in time for the boys getting done with school.

Life may be chaos and we weren't able to celebrate our anniversary how we would have liked but we sure are glad we married each other and that our relationship is still strong.

Why?

OK. Life has been chaos. Let's try to do some catching up but remember, when you're trying to catch up two months after something happened, it's not always efficient.

For example, I took a picture of pizza I made on May 5. What for? I don't know. May 5 was Cinco de Mayo, National Ferret Day, and Children's Day in Korea. What does that have to do with pizza? I have no idea. Do you know?

 

I do know why I have this picture:

Nichole and I went to see the play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," at the high school. Ah. Mother-daughter bonding time. 

Here's another picture of food with the same question. Why? May 8 was No Sock Day and Have a Coke Day. What does that have to do with this?

 

There was not as much actual celebrating in May as I would normally like. Chaos. I'll talk more later on how we did celebrate things.

When Packaging Goes Wrong

Jr.: This is my all time favorite bag of chips.