Tales of a Shoebox Princess

Ah, Jimmy! Who now is known as James to his friends in Spokane, but whatever, I'm still calling him Jimmy, because even when I was mad at him when he was a little kid, I rarely, if ever, yelled out for James Warner Evans! because that was his dad's name too, and I was never mad at the both of them at the same time. Jimmy, who had difficulties in elementary school. Was he ever going to learn to read? Would he settle down and learn how to take turns? Would he ever stop dawdling and almost missing the bus? Would he ever stop being wacky and goofy? Yes to all except maybe the last one. Now he's almost done with his MASTER'S degree. He went through the graduation ceremony last weekend to appease his parents who NEEDED to see Jimmy attain academic heights such as this. If I could go back in time and tell my young mother with a sort of difficult second child and whisper some encouragement, this is what I would tell her: Don't worry to much about if he'll do ok i...

Jimmy, who hasn't been blogged about much for a while, is getting his Masters in Biz Admin at Gonzaga in Spokane. Who knew Gonzaga was in Spokane? Not me. I would have guessed it was a southern US school. Graduation ceremonies were last weekend and Jim and I took the opportunity to see Jimmy don special weird robes (Jimmy fussed about the sleeves in the gown. Yes, they are weird and long and we don't know why they look the way they do. Just put it on and wear it without fiddling with it too much, please?) and have his name read out loud in the same space that Gonzaga basketball games are played. Jim and I were there for two full days and Jimmy showed us around. The following picture dump is only from Friday (and possibly from Thursday? We'll see what pictures I post). I'll post the actual graduation another time. Thursday lunch on the river Footbridge across the Spokane river the river the Catholic cathedral on campus. I did not know Gonzaga was...

I'm just going to do a picture dump. The trip was not just to climb Independence Rock and Y mountain, it was really to pick Matt up from college and bring him home. But bonus parts were seeing Austin and Morgan graduate, and seeing my three Utah babies, and seeing Jim's family. at the graduation ceremony Maddie, Jenni, and me Paul, Maddie, Matt, Morgan, Hayley, Austin Hayley and her graduate husband Paul, Wil, Matt, Spencer, Sadie, Hayley (Wil, Spencer, and Sadie are the kids' cousins on Jim's side) Jim and his sisters, Tammy on the left, Michelle on the right Us'ns kids plus Bethany, Paul's girlfriend We plan to go back out to BYU next spring for Paul's graduation! I'm going to hike to the top of the Y next time.

Another bucket list item achieved. I went to BYU for 3 years and not once did I hike up to the Y. My children have been going to the Y for several years and I have encouraged each one of them to hike up just so they can say they've done it. I've always wanted to do it, and finally did. We went out to Provo to pick up Matt from his first year in college and when we dropped him off, I told Jim that when we picked him up, I was taking a morning to hike the Y. I finally felt in shape enough to do it.  So Saturday morning while Matt was packing up his stuff, Jim and I hiked to the Y. It was harder than I thought going up! I'm not in shape as I thought I was, but I was in just enough shape to do it. I stopped at every switchback for several minutes, which is why it took us nearly an hour to get up (also we spent nearly 10 minutes on the wrong trail at the very beginning. Oops). The view was beautiful, the sun was shining on an unsmoggy Utah valley. The trail was heavily use...

Jim doesn't have a bucket list that I know of, but I do, which is why we end up doing so many things that I want to do. Jim does like to do things, but most of them involve dishwashing liquid, baseball, music, or hot sauce (usually not all together). He seems to be fine with my constant cries of "WE HAVE TO DO THAT SOMEDAY!!!" and the detours in life that these goals create. Detours that cost an hour or so in a cross country road trip to pick up a college freshman for summer break. I've walked around Independence Rock in Wyoming half a dozen times (every time we drive past it) and I've always wanted to climb up it. What kept me from doing it? My weight and inability to handle climbing several flights of stairs without getting inordinately out of breath. But this time: Jim and I made the climb! It looks scary at first, there's always that nagging fear that I'm going to slip and roll down the rock face and kill myself. I made sure I...