I gave up

Back in Feb when I had just sent EJ off to get some Spanish learnin' for to prepare him to live in Tijuana for 2 years, we were also dealing with Paul's last few months in high school and in the Scouting program. We wanted Paul to get his Eagle rank, but after two years of lackluster nagging on our part, and a few project ideas on Paul's part, nothing had happened yet. I decided that I would leave off the nagging (because it is quite tiring and it makes me angry) about the Eagle project until Paul graduated.

And then we got the letter of acceptance from BYU Provo, which said he was to report to school June 15, a week after he graduated.

I gave up. I said, "Fine. I'm ok with him not achieving Eagle rank. He's done well in sports, he's been a leader, he's a good kid, blahblahblahblah... rationalize... make excuses..." and let it go.

His Scout leader did not let him off so easily.

Br G pestered and reminded and met with Paul...

And last night, Paul led an Eagle project. He organized a blanket drive for Project Linus. Yes, he did a lot of it from Utah too, although the approval was given while he was still in MN (but I did not pay much attention because I was too busy doing other things).

His goal was to collect material for 60 fleece blankets (although he thought realistically 40), then some volunteers would cut a fringe around the edge of each piece of material, and then a big group of teenagers from church would tie the fringe.

He would organize a smaller group in Utah and work on it the same time the MN group worked on it.

And we got 78 blankets done last night. And four more pieces were offered, so that brings the total to 84. Twice as many as his realistic expectation.

Now Paul has to do the write-up. 

Some pictures:

5 completed

Matt ties an owl blanket

Hayley and some friends tying blankets

the goal is met!

piles of blankets

And a couple from the Utah side of the project:

Paul and some helpers with some of the blankets they made

 
I gave up, but it was ok. It's not supposed to be my Eagle project.

Name that tune (some words have been changed to fit my situation)

I've been walkin' these streets so long
Singing the same old song,
I know every crack in the dirty sidewalks of Savage.
Where "suburb" is the name of the game,
And fat girls gotta walk their way in the snow and the rain.
I got a load of exercisin'
on the road to my horizon.
But I wanna be where the lakes are all around me...

OK enough of that. I took a walk this morning in very pleasant weather and surroundings. The picture about is at a local park where I sat and rested.

There and back again

Paul is now gone. He's in his own apartment with three other guys. His cupboards are stocked with hand-me-down pots and pans, silverware, and plates. He has a new cheese grater to call his very own. He has college books and some obstacles to meet and clear (getting a job, and proving he has health insurance) on his own.

On our way out to Provo, we stopped at Mt Rushmore. It's one of my favorite places in one of my favorite areas (the Black Hills). The last time Paul was at Mt Rushmore (which was about 10 years ago), it was fogged in, but this time, the clouds were kind enough to stay up in the sky and let Paul see the Presidents in stone.

Paul didn't say much the entire ride out to UT, and we aren't sure if his reticence was nerves or just Paul being Paul-with-his-parents. Mostly he slept. I don't get how he can sleep so much.

Most of the time while we were in Provo, Paul was at orientation activities. They were scheduled from 8:30 to 5 both days and some optional evening activities available for good measure. He wanted to attend everything, but did allow time for us to help him move into his new apartment, buy groceries, and to have dinner with us one night. Moving a teenager into an apartment is not that hard. We just plopped his suitcases into the room he picked and that was it. He said later at dinner that night that it was hard to be at dinner knowing that he had stuff to put away in his apartment. Oh Paul!

We hung out with Katie while Paul was at his orientation. She showed us her apartment--they have vinyl circles on the wall in their kitchen--and her school--UVU, which has super duper wide hallways and lots of the buildings are connected to each other. We met her boyfriend and his family, all of them very nice and funny.

I did take pictures of some of the activities, but since we got back last night, I haven't uploaded them.

So this will have to do for now.

Lepidopteran visitor

Last week I came home from shopping one weeknight and Jim told me that there had been a huge moth on the deck. He added that it might be there still. I dropped everything and went out to have a look. Lucky for me, the moth was still on our deck. I sat and looked at it for a while, and then went for my camera.

Look at the legs on that thing. The legs seem tarantula-like

The undercarriage, or as close as I dared to get to underneath it without scaring it

It's a polyphemus moth.

That's Paul's hand as a comparison. Paul got close enough to pet the furry patch on the body, although the moth didn't like that very much and jumped back a few inches--but didn't fly away.

What a pretty insect!

The moth just sat there for a few hours. It was gone the next morning. I wonder where it went. I would have liked to see it fly.

And then there was cake

Cake. It was my week.

I baked two cakes and many cupcakes. It ended up being about 1 1/2 cakes too many, but having leftover cake is certainly not a BAD thing. It's not like having leftover okra or leftover roadkill souffle.

Anyway, yes, I like to make cakes and decorate them. It may even be a hobby. Or at least a time waster when I have more important things that I really should be doing but don't want to do. I don't decorate my house, but if there is a flour/egg/sugar baked good, you can be sure I'll be right there with my homemade buttercream frosting, Wilton decorating tips and pastry bags, and the appropriate colors of Wilton food coloring paste to fit the occasion, and I will decorate the heck out of that baked good.

This was one of the results of my efforts this week:

The cross country running cake

Normally I hate the word "Congrats," but I had to use it because I started the word "Congratulations" too far to the right. So I had to bite my tongue at myself and settle for "Congrats." Fortunately "Congrats" tastes the same as "Congratulations."

Now for the other cake, which I will bore you with a step by step process:

Nearly nude cake

the track oval has been added

lines painted on the asphalt

the logo painted onto the field

cake tattoos

one tattoo placed on the track

the second tattoo and the grass infield filled in

the nearly completed track oval cake.

The only thing missing is Paul running on it.

There.

 I had a helper for cupcake decorating (and for the CC running cake):

Kate came to town and went to town on the cupcakes

a blue-tongued skink

Guess what she did with the frosting besides decorate? I like the look on Jim's face. I wish I could come up with a really funny thought bubble to paste next to his head.

Three out of five

of my children have graduated high school.

It was hot on graduation day. I pitied Paul for having to wear dress pants, a tie, and a heavy graduation robe. But he survived without much complaint.

It's quite a sight to see all these young people marching into the stadium wearing the uniform of graduation.

During the speech given by the Superintendent of the school district, three industrial-type trucks drove by and honked long and loud. The audience, somewhat grateful for the interruption to the speechifying, clapped and laughed.

A little later, during a student speech, a car drove by and made some noise designed to interrupt the proceedings. As he passed by, we watched as a cop car drove out of his assigned position at the entrance of the school with his lights flashing. Again the audience laughed as we watched the noisemaker get pulled over. The student speaker had no idea what was so funny.

Lesson learned: don't make noise with your vehicle while a student is speaking at graduation.

No, I swear I did not cry when I heard Paul's name called and he received his diploma

After the ceremony, we hunted around for Paul in the huge mass of people milling around on the field. He was hard to find.

The family, minus our missionary

Just for kicks, I found the family picture from Katie's graduation to see how much Matt has grown

Matt has been busy these last four years adding several feet of stature and a moustache (although it's not visible in the picture). Look at that height difference. Matt was 9 at Katie's graduation, but he looks 6. Now he's 13 and looks it. Hayley looks much different too, but her change is mostly attitude. She's not the shy Cheeky she was when she was 11. She is much more confident, sarcastic, and arty. Paul has grown up too. Katie looks a little older, but not by much. And OJ is now EJ, and not pictured.  And I swear I have not shrunk, but it looks like it, doesn't it?

Last day of school for the senior and the end of track

This boy

is now this boy

who is now done with high school.

This boy also was voted Mr 101% by his track team, meaning he gave each race his full effort and all his energy, and his teammates recognized that in him.  It was one of three awards given.  Other mentions Paul received during the track banquet: 3rd all time fastest on the PLHS Millennial Team in the 1600m, 2nd all time fastest on the PLHS Millennial Team in the 3200m, lettered all four years, member of the Sub-5 team since his freshman year, and finally, the track coach said he hasn't planned a meet in the last four years where Paul wasn't listed in either the 1600m or the 3200m.  We are proud of our runner.

(photo taken by Julie B because she takes awesome track meet pictures)

I will miss watching him run.

Graduation is Friday at 7 p.m. 

Last day of seminary

And another year of seminary is finished. Paul is done with early morning seminary, and Hayley has finished her first year.

I did something I don't usually like to do, which is give out rewards for achievement. I made one slip of the tongue, promising whoever memorized all 25 scripture mastery verses would get a pair of "ugly pants" (mismatched pajama pants). I made good on my hasty promise though.

The promise came about when Katie was here for Christmas and she wanted to make pj pants but didn't have enough of either kind of fabric she liked to make a pair of pants. I suggested she make a leg out of each kind of fabric. She liked the idea, and so did Paul, who had to find something to give as a white elephant gift the next day in seminary. He ended up sewing a lovely pair of capri pants out of Star Wars villains on one leg and Disney Princess heads on another. The girl who ended up with the capri pants LOVED them and several others in the class coveted them.

My bleeding communist heart thought to itself "Ugly pajama pants for everyone!" and then my tight-fisted capitalist brain said, "only for those who EARN them."

Anyway, I made the promise and five kids took me up on it, including two of my own children.

I suggested to the ugly pants earners that they wear their ugly pants to seminary this morning (guess who forgot---Paul) so I could be in a picture with them.

Behold--the ugly pants club!

Hayley's pants feature multicolored Beatles heads and fortune cookies, Dorothy has Wizard of Oz heads and Tweety bird, Janelle has chinese lanterns and telephones, Paul's (who isn't wearing his) features something Beatles-ish too (whose children are these?) and knights with armor and swords, and Nathan's have fish skeletons and planets.Congratulations scriptorians!

Matt can't wait to go to seminary so he can earn ugly pants too.

And one more pic from the last day of seminary:

good buddies

Last track meet ever, and celebrating bad pictures

In order for me not to dwell too much on THE LAST TRACK MEET OF PAUL'S HIGH SCHOOL CAREER, I will share some bad pictures I took last night at PAUL'S LAST HIGH SCHOOL TRACK MEET EVER.

(Very few of my pictures are posed. Not that posed pics are bad, but I prefer action or candid shots. However, with action or candid shots, there is a greater risk of getting awful shots. Of course, one could argue that I hardly ever take really good pictures, but I will let those people who think like that have their way because I'd rather look at pictures than argue. Even bad pictures.)

Keep in mind, these were all taken in one evening--actually within 4 minutes and 41 seconds, because that's how fast  PAUL RAN HIS LAST MILE IN A HIGH SCHOOL TRACK MEET EVER.

It looks like Paul only has one leg, and he's kneeling on it

Even more of Paul's legs are gone, and the awarding of medals is in the center of the picture instead of Paul

Premature clickage--I cut Paul in half. Not nice at all.

Now half his head is gone. 

Some guy's HUGE HEAD got in the way of me taking a picture of PAUL RUNNING IN HIS LAST HIGH SCHOOL TRACK EVENT EVER. Not cool, man.

There. I've posted about PAUL'S VERY LAST HIGH SCHOOL TRACK MEET EVER in a way that won't cause me to say "Boohoo! That was PAUL'S LAST RUNNING OF THE MILE IN AN ORGANIZED HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS COMPETITION EVER!"

Did I get any good pictures? No. I leave the good picture taking of high school sporting events to Julie B, who incidentally was crying all over her camera last night because it was HER TWINS LAST TRACK MEET EVER as well as PAUL'S. LAST......HIGH SCHOOL.......TRACK MEET...............


EVER.