She's Graduated!

Well the start of Summer officially arrived for us on Friday when Carter was picked up from his last day of school at noon. The night before was the big hurrah for Laurel as our family attended her commencement exercises on the University of Utah campus in the Huntsman Center. Fitting as that is where she will begin her journey as an adult this fall as a student there. We are very proud of her growth in the last few years and know that she is on the path to experiencing more at that great institution.

After such an exciting evening on Thursday and a short day on Friday, I managed to get a little work done. I feel very blessed to work with such a wonderful team of people and Richard and Liz are the best kind of people to work for. Saturday was my cousin's wedding shower and then an afternoon with Kim crafting, or as she says "scrappin' and yappin'"

hehehe!

We hear from Tyler in an email once a week, it is very expensive for him to send that as he has to go to an internet cafe type of business and pay by the minute so we encourage him to type fast and save his money for his meals. We send him a letter every week from all of us, but he is only able to get his mail about every 6 weeks right now because of where he is located in a town called Sinop that is 8-9 hours north of Cuiaba. Every day the weather is between 30-35 celcius and he walks about 20 miles a day. he has to buy filtered water, and is eating an apple a day as his evening snack. He is so healthy now, wonder how long that will last when he gets home and has all the temptations of fast and junk food in front of him again, LOL!

Chloe is so impressive, she almost pulled off a 4.0 at AMES and just missed by getting a B+ in her Algebra II class. She is attending a Bio-Tech camp on a full scholarship this summer, and is working on her internship plans for next year with the hopes of having it with a medical clinic. She really wants to get into medical school to possibly become an anthesiaologist. She is such a commited student and hard worker that I have no doubt that she will be able to achieve her dreams.
Carter is learning the value of preparing himself for the future and has some great summer experiences scheduled as well. Boy Scout camp is a week long adventure, and he also gets to attend youth conference for the first time, he is really excited about all of it.

The last week has been a little tough on me as I am having reality shoved into my face that my little sweet family is really ready to start on their own paths, and I am not ready for that, gets me really teary and choked up. I know that Dave and I have spent everyday doing the very best with what resources we have had available to develop the talents of these wonderful people we have in our lives. We have had to leave a lot in the Lord's hands and we have had to let a lot of differences pass between us. But as I see our family coming into another chapter, I am happy for their successes and hope that we can help them when and where they may need it. Change isn't necessarily hard, just different, and I am going to try to meet it with enthusiasm and enery if I can.

B-