Signs of Summer

It seems that summer/spring has finally decided to come to Salt Lake City. It took long enough to get here but in typical Salt Lake weather manner it doesn't just get warmer and nice, no, it has to get in the 90's when last week we got snow. On a happy note, I was finally able to pull out my hammock and enjoy my beautiful backyard, my favorite thing about the house we are currently renting. Of course, by mid-week this week we are supposed to drop 30 degrees and be 60 but at least we were able to enjoy the warm weather this weekend.

Graduation at Last!

Last weekend I finally graduated! If you look closely at the slide show I am the one in black with the funny hat on. My dad and sisters Jordanne and Jillian traveled up and Colby's parents came up for the day. Kim and Bentley joined the family and kept everyone entertained. Jordanne and Jillian found the ceremony so thrilling that Jordanne pulled out a book to read and Jillian started reading over her shoulder. At one point, I looked across the stadium and saw both my dad and Colby's dad sound asleep with their heads resting on their chests in the exact same way.

After the ceremony we were joined by Wendy, Rob and the kids, Shawn and his wife Hailey, and my friend Emlyn with her cute little girl, Millie. The day was beautiful and Colby was king of the grill. We were able to enjoy the sunshine (of course I ended up sunburned).

I will admit I am looking forward to having some time off before I start law school. I am hoping to get some of my U.F.Os completed (unfinished objects) from my craft basket and read books that I want to read and not that I have to read.

Plan B

After months of waiting, I have received official word that I have not been accepted to any of the law schools that I have applied to. So it is on to Plan B, I will revamp everything, most likely retake the LSAT, and reapply next year. On the positive side, I will now get a year off from going to school before hopefully starting law school in fall 2009. Since I have been working full time and going to school full time for the last four years I am actually looking forward to having a break to just work.

Scoped!

While cleaning out the house after Mom's passing, we found some bottled cherries and raspberries that came from Grandpa and Grandma McArthur's house that were older than Colby (they were bottled while Dad was still in High School). We took them out to appropriately dispose of the really old fruit (by blowing them up of course). Dad, Colby, Jordanne, Jillian and I enjoyed hitting the bottles with various guns. Jillian, using her new .270, aimed at the last remaining bottle and hit it square on but in the process forgot to remove her head and the recoil caused the scope to hit her. As you can see from the photos, she will have a nice little scar in between her eyes to help remind her in future to keep her head out of the way. Luckily she was okay.

Senior Ball 2008

Jordanne went to Senior Ball with Spencer Finch. Since we had used a flower in her hair for the last formal dance, we decided we wanted to do something different so we used feathers this time. Jordanne said that at least 10 girls had flowers in their hair at the dance, she is such a trend setter, and I anticipate that the same thing will happen at Dixie because of Lachelle looking great at her last dance.

Jordanne started the day out by taking the ACT test for several hours (the college placement exam) followed by a day date of skim boarding on the Virgin River. I keep hoping that one of these dances she will not be sunburnt, but so far that hasn't happened. This time she wanted a before and after photo so everyone could see how well she cleans up. She looked beautiful, as usual.

Softball

We traveled to St. George again this weekend. (For those of you keeping track we have been going to SG every other weekend since January) We were able to arrive in St. George in time to watch both Jordanne and Jillian play in softball games. Jordanne is on the JV/Varsity team and Jillian is on the Freshman team. Both girls had a game at 6:00 at the same ball park so Jocee, her two kids Brejden and Milly, Dad, Colby, Doug (a family friend) and I spent the entire game standing between the fields facing one field for awhile and then turning around to face the other field. We must have looked funny constantly bobbing back and forth between the fields. Both of the girls did a great job!

Saturday Jillian was in a tournament and played three games in a row. I was able to watch all three games and was very happy to be out of the cold of Salt Lake and sitting in the warmth of St. George (with five layers of sunscreen on). Jillian played as catcher and hustled the entire tournament.

People are Interesting

This evening I attended an "Evening of Hope and Healing" in honor of Hser Nay Moo, the little girl that was murdered last week. Many of you are aware that she was a member of my stake and her body was found in an apartment about two blocks from my house. I got there a little late so I sat on the back row by the door and realized that I was sitting near Hser Nay Moo's family. I was a little surprised to see her family sitting on the back row at a program that was supposed to be about them but decided that they must have wanted to sit there. Shortly after I sat down I realized that the emcee of the program kept referring to Hser Nay as "that sweet girl that was taken from us" but never actually said her name. Then the International Children's Choir came and started singing. Midway through their second song Hser Nay Moo's family starting talking to each other, after about a minute a man on the row in front of me turned around and said to Hser Nay's family "I am trying to enjoy an evening of hope and healing, can't you people be quiet?!" Obviously this man didn't realize that he was just telling the family of the child he was there to support to be quiet.

After the program was over I was informed that the reason the family was speaking was because they were under the impression that they were going to perform music from Burma for the community. They were not invited to be part of the program so after the "official" program was over they decided to hold their own program to share their culture with the community. Unfortunately, less than half of the people who were there to support the family stayed to actually hear what they had to say.

People never cease to amaze me. Everyone was here to support the family but it appeared to me that they were supporting the idea of the loss of Hser Nay Moo but not there to actually support her family. I have to admit when I decided to attend the performance I was not expecting what I saw happening.