Graduation Day!

Today I received my bachelor's degree! It was a GREAT day!

We rode to Flagstaff with my in laws. Each of the girls coped differently with several hours in the car.

Heather read on her Nook and then watched scenery while listening to her mp3

Emily read half of Pride and Prejudice while listening to her mp3

Megan took a nap most of the way north, but she deleted the picture so I took this staged photo. She also listened to her mp3 and stared out the window.

 

Not many students from our program graduate in December.  Here is the gang I graduated with.  I will miss them and everyone else in the program.

 

Emily, me, Megan, Heather

Me with Mom and Dad

 

As we were leaving the Skydome it began to snow. I told Heather it would be fun to have a picture with snow in my hair.  THIS is the photo she took -- of nothing but snow in my hair! I DO have a face, honey!

This is the make up photo.  Please note the snow in my hair!
(Only someone from the desert would even care about snow.)

Emily and Megan were freezing. I had them pose for a photo of being cold and Grandpa photobombed them. This is my very favorite photo from the entire day!

 

Grandma and Grandpa brought us a plate of Christmas cookies! Yum!  Papa wouldn't let us eat them in his new car.  :-(

 

Heather fell asleep in Megan's lap on the  ride home. Megan got quiet so I looked back and saw her asleep on Heather's shoulder. Too funny! 

(Please note they both have their mp3 headphones in, even in sleep!)

 

We returned home to this!

 

And this....

 

YES, I DID!

 

Yeah. There is NO WAY I will ever wear this!

Favorite Authors

Two of my favorite authors were in Phoenix yesterday to autograph books and visit with their fans.  I went with my friend Sandi and her daughter, Clarcy. 

The authors are Sarah M. Eden and Julianne Donaldson. What gracious and entertaining ladies! It was great fun to discuss books we love and get the scoop on upcoming stories. The characters in Sarah's books intertwine and know each other. Sometimes characters for future books are mentioned or make an appearance in an earlier book as a clue to what is coming. In addition to writing stories about all the siblings in a family, Sarah writes about many of their friends' stories, as well. Hearing which characters have their own stories coming up was exciting! We also talked about the motivations of some of the characters, when family secrets will be revealed (hint: It wasn't last night, darn it!), and whose stories are next in line. It was fun to do more than speculate about what could happen next.

Julianne (Julie), Clarcy, Sarah

I used to work with Sarah's husband when they lived in the Valley. Her parents have been seminary teachers to my two older daughters.  The added bonus is that her parents were at the book signing so we got to visit with them for a while, too.  They are some of the nicest people on the planet!

Ginny and Steve

 

Our stake had youth conference this weekend so although Clarcy's younger sister is a huge fan she was unable to attend.  We knew that Abby would be sad to have missed a photo opportunity with the authors.  The authors jokingly expressed shock that Abby chose youth conference over them. Julie grabbed a pen and paper and wrote a note to Abby:

Doesn't she look sad?

"Abby, how could you?"

 

Sarah also wrote a note.

 

"Priorities, Abby. Priorities!"

Favorite authors vs. youth conference. Tough choices! ha ha

 

After the authors left, we browsed through the Barnes and Noble store. It is HUGE! It must be three times the size of the one near our house. I could easily spend a lot of money in that store!  I love books and in five more weeks I will be free to read anything I want (instead of textbooks!). Yahoo!!

 

It was a fun girls' night out and a nice break from studying.

Russian Missionaries

My niece Taralee entered the Provo MTC earlier this month.  She is heading to Russia.

Tara is the redhead on the right.

Her companion is from Sweden.

 

Emily's good friend Ross is also heading to Russia next month.  He had an open house on Sunday and looked so awesome in his Russian attire (and Soviet hat!) that I had to post some pictures. (No one ever explained how his dad comes to own a Soviet hat....)  His grandparents just got home from a mission to Moscow and were in town on Sunday to say goodbye.

 

He looks Russian already, doesn't he?

Hamming for the camera

It will be fun to read their letters and see how they experience Russian culture.  Taralee will be on the western border of Russia and Ross will be on the far eastern border just above North Korea.  Will it be like comparing New Jersey and California--very different cultures within the same country?  It will be interesting to find out!

Ross's grandmother made Russian celebration foods: borscht, plov, and Olivier salad.  The plov was AMAZING!  It looked and tasted like Thanksgiving dressing, but had pork in it instead of turkey.  Yum!

Megan, Ross, Emily, Heather

She looks so short!

In addition to our new Russian missionaries, Taralee's sister is currently serving in Bolivia and the girls' stepbrother is going to Tacoma Washington starting the end of October.  It will be very exciting to see them all grow.

And Heather is counting the days until she can leave in 2016!

Randomness

Earlier this year my camera died.  It was about 7 years old, so it had probably outlived its life expectancy, anyway.  We have found, though, that the camera on my cell phone is actually better than my old camera.  As a result, I find all kinds of random photos on my phone.  Or, like today, my children will pull out the phone while we are our and about. 

Here are the latest random photos:

The cat had been outside and came in looking like this. 

At the mall - no desire to go in here!

In my class last week on Diversity we learned about Afghanistan culture. The women in class got to use henna to decorate their arms, hands, and feet. This was my henna "tattoo."  The mark can last up to 3 weeks, but mine faded after about 5 days.

 We get a lot of Daddy pictures!

 

Sleepover with our friend Mercedes before she left for college

 

 Emily called this "James Bond's license plate"

 

This one says "RUBBISH", which is a phrase The Doctor uses on Doctor Who, a favorite British TV show.  The bumper sticker on the right is a British flag.

 

Heather's chemistry class learned how to change the color of pennies yesterday. One was changed by chemicals; the other by fire exposure.

 

She Graduated!!

She did it.  Emily graduated from high school and is heading off to college in the fall. 

Emily waiting for her turn to get her diploma.

If you look close, you can see her right above the teacher's head.

 

She looks a bit happy to be graduating, doesn't she?  Ha Ha

Such a lovely young lady

 

With Dad

 

With Dad and stepmom Charmaine

Grandma and Papa

 

 Grandpa and Grandma

 

Grandpa grew a beard while working on his farm this winter.  He has never in his life had a beard until now.  Emily begged Grandpa not to shave off his winter beard until after her graduation pictures. 

 

She looks so much better than me.  Ha Ha

 

Heather, Emily and Megan -- right before Emily clunked their heads together.

 I was asking Megan to stop pouting and Pat snapped the picture.  The same thing happened at my nephew's graduation last year.  I need to stop talking during picture taking.

 

Emily and Ross (Roscoe)

He just got his mission call to Russia!

 

Mercedes, Emily and Ross

Mercedes graduated a week before Emily.  The world won't know what hit them. 

Three Amigos

Megan changed schools last year but ended up having two great friends, among others, that she spent much of her time with.  We are going to miss that camaraderie.

7th grade basketball teammates

8th grade volleyball championship game

 

Shopping for 8th grade promotion dresses

School talent show - 8th grade 

Talent show curtain call

They all wanted to have matching hair styles.

8th grade promotion

Thank you, Alyssa and Abby, for being so good to my girl.