June 15, 2006

According to the schedule, this newsletter is a full month late. I was confident that Scott had once again written the newsletter and forwarded it to Chuck, but he is at youth conference, and I can’t get into his laptop to find it, so I’m starting over from scratch. I apologize for our lateness, and thank Chuck for understanding.

As all parents know, the last few months of school are busy ones, and so our kids have been keeping us going with year end concerts, awards programs, recitals, etc. Lauren prepared for weeks for Dance Company concerts, every day after school. She choreographed a clogging number by herself, and it was to a “Queen” tune—very cute. Dance prevented her from going to track practice every day at the high school (she waved eligibility at the Junior High to go participate at the high school team), but made it to enough practices to improve her jumping height by 3 to 4 inches this year. She was one of three Taylorsville H.S. students that qualified to go to the state meet. She ended up taking 3^rd in region, and I believe 13^th at the 5A State competition, which she was disappointed in (she jumped 3 inches less than her PR that day) but I think it’s not bad for a skinny little freshman. She had college coaches from USU and Weber there watching her. Lauren was one of 12 students in 9^th grade to receive the Kiwanis Leadership Award. She and several of her friends had fun dressing up for promotion, then went to dinner and the dance together. I have pics attached. Lauren is volunteering again this year at LDS hospital, and will be working in the Courtyard Café. Her summer activities include youth conference, BYU Track Camp, Girls Camp, and EFY. She will also be working for me at home and Heatizon.

Landon’s best buddies all graduated this year, so he got “senioritis” along with them. I think he only went to half of his classes in May, especially after all the AP exams were over with, yet he still managed to maintain his 4.0 GPA. I don’t know how that kid pulls it off. He is anxiously awaiting scores on AP Psych, AP English, and AP Calculus. He also took the SAT this spring, and got great scores. He tried out for (and made) Madrigals (huge shock—this is so unlike him) and did a really funny piece called “I Hold Your Hand In Mine.” What it may have lacked in skill made up for in presentation—the whole group laughed at the clever words and gave him a standing ovation. He’s actually turned into quite a good little singer, and there are some absolutely darling girls in Madrigals next year, so that will be a plus. We’re excited to see him involved with kids in his own grade. Landon was gone all week last week serving as a counselor at MDA camp. His “camper” was and 11-year old boy that is severely disabled. Landon was up every three hours changing his diaper, and had to lift the boy from bed to wheelchair etc. He came home exhausted, and appreciative of the blessings of health that we all enjoy. He is at Youth Conference for the rest of the week, then leaves on Monday to go with all of his friends on their senior graduation trip to California. Nine of them are driving down and will go to Disneyland, California Adventure, the beach, etc. Landon is also volunteering at the hospital this year in the Materials Management department, which is a fancy way to say he’ll drive a cart around the hospital delivering materials to different floors and departments. When he’s done playing, he will work for Papa this summer again.

Tyler finished at USU and moved back home for the summer. He got good grades, including 16 additional hours of A for passing Spanish tests. Jim saw an internship posted at his work that he told tyler about, and Ty interviewed and got the position for the summer. He is working in the quality department in document control. He and Amy have been going back and forth every couple of weeks. Things seem to be developing further with the two of them, but they still need to spend time together before they’re ready to “commit.” He just spent last weekend down there, and Amy’s mom wrote me an email calling them the two “lovebirds.” The original plan was for him to go work there this summer, but Amy was moving here in the fall anyway, so they’ve decided she’ll just come up here instead. I think the current plan is for her to move to SL sometime in July. Tyler is attending the student ward this summer, read all the Harry Potter books, and is now hooked on the series “24.”

Jim is working full time at Cephalon, and still seems to love it there. Originally, his plan was to take online classes in the summer, then have one more semester before graduation in December. However, his graduate school plans and receiving some additional scholarships have forced him to postpone graduation until next spring. He received a national scholarship from Tau Beta Pi and was also awarded the Kennecott Scholarship from UofU. Both of these require the student to attend the full year, so in order to accept the $$, he had to withdraw his application to graduate, which is fine. He needs the summer to relax, travel, and socialize, and put school aside for a while. We are going with him to Phoenix in August to tour the ASU campus and see the BioEngineering facilities there. Evidently, they have one of the best programs in the nation, and he is interested in applying there to see if there is any chance he could get accepted into their PhD program which he will start a year from this fall. Other choices are still San Diego, Utah, and Ohio. He went to Lake Mead for a week in May with his best buddy since diapers, Rob, and several other “men.” Make sure when you see him next that you ask Jim to tell you about the boat that almost sank—it’s quite a story.

Since the last newsletter, Scott has been to London a few times, Seattle, Las Vegas, Orlando, Atlanta, New York, and Sweden. Next week, he’s scheduled to go back to Israel. He does come home on weekends so that he can take care of Bishopric duties. He leads a hectic life, kids!!! He’s taken a few days off the get some projects done at home like cleaning out and reorganizing the shop and garage, replanting the putting green etc.

My project this spring was to get the yard replanted after ripping all the bushes out last fall. I had someone come and design what should be planted where, which really helped know what to do. Everything looks nice, but will take a few years to grow and fill in the way it will eventually look. I went on my annual “Mom’s” trip to Seattle this year, and we also ferried over the Victoria for a few days—that was beautiful up there. Scott and I just celebrated our 25^th anniversary last week, and he surprised me by buying tickets to go to Copenhagen for a few days. He was already in Sweden, so I just met him over there, and we had a nice time, and were actually able to see quite a few things for the short time we had. It was a sweet thing for him to do, since Denmark is where my mother’s ancestors came from, and thoughts of her are still so tender. It has been very difficult, and continues to be each time I think about her. I guess being the first one in our family to lose my mother, it’s hard to explain the loss I feel, but I wanted to thank all of you who came to her funeral, sent planters and fruit baskets and notes—I really appreciated your support at that difficult time. I am told that each day gets better.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone next month at the family reunion. Trudy is doing a great job keeping all of us informed about what we need to be doing. See you all soon…

Heather, Scott, and Kids