The "White" Before Christmas.........

I was going to tell about our harrowing ride home from Rexburg last weekend, but that was so long ago. Let's just say that it was a white knuckle drive with overturned cars and closed passes and blizzard like conditions. We are home safe and sound and we brought the weather home with us.It's basically been snowing since last week here, though Vancouver didn't get much the first time around. We did miss 2 days of school, but only because they didn't want to chance people sliding off the road. Yesterday we couldn't escape it. Yesterday it was fun snow....today it is ICE.. Here, Josh broke off a chunk and is holding it.It snowed all day....mostly a very fine snow, but it was very windy. It caused the snow to come up onto our porch, which looked very pretty.
Here it is on our porch railing...I thought it was so beautiful mixed in with the garland I have wrapped around it.
This morning church was cancelled because it was solid ice outside. Isn't this bush pretty with the ice formed on it's branches???
We have icicle lights on our house....look at the REAL icicles formed on the gutters inbetween them.
This is in our back yard. The snow drifted on the back roof and here it is hanging frozen OVER the gutter. It's in midair....really cool!!
Not much shopping is happening here. Not good for the economy....but we are enjoying the white "before" Christmas.

Jenny The Graduate

It was with much perserverence that Jenny attained her Bachelor of Science in History last Friday night. She worked very hard, went through fun times and trials, her marriage to Logan and now....the payoff.

Richard, Josh and I drove to Rexburg and met up with Jenny, Logan and Jessell last Thursday. We had a fun time visiting, picking up Jon at his dorm and eating Jack in the Box from the drive through. The weather was very windy and cold. Before graduation on Friday we took everyone to Applebees for lunch.

Commencement was Friday night. Jenny was on the very front row and could almost touch the speakers...President Clark of BYUI....and President Uchtdorf of the First Presidency of the Church, who was the keynote speaker. The talks were WONDERFUL!!


There were nearly 1100 graduates. Here she is as they filed out after commencement. Since she was on the first row, she was the last to leave. The graduates then broke into their different colleges...she was in The College of Language and Letters, where she received her diploma cover (the diploma is mailed to them).
Here she is with Jessell....her lifelong friend who had flown to Salt Lake and drove with them to Rexburg. CONGRATULATIONS JENNIFER THE GRADUATE!!!!!!

p.s.......stay tuned for the story of the harrowing drive back home:)

More Excitment Than I Can Take............

Rarely do I get so wound up....but this has been a red letter week:) My heart is racing and I'm very giddy with happiness. With so many things in the world going wrong, it's good to get some good news.

FIRST: Yesterday Joshua participated in a DECA mini conference at school. All of the marketing classes took a written test and did a role play where they were judged. Jon also participated in this last year. Josh was hoping to win an award, but I knew that being a Freshman, the chances were slim. Today were the awards and he didn't go because he didn't want to miss any classes (it was during school). People were coming up to him all day congratulating him, and he wasn't sure why. WELL.....he won 1st place in the role play with a score of 99/100. He placed 2nd overall from all the classes. Now he will go on to the area conference with hopes of going to state from there. He was so excited with his ribbons and awards. It just makes me happy to know he is finding his way in high school and having experiences that will help raise his self esteem.

SECOND: We got word today that the Evergreen Marching Band has been chosen out of 1400 bands to march in the Inagural Parade in Washington DC!!!!!!!!!! We have been planning this since last year. Even though I didn't vote for the President elect, this is a most exciting (and a bit scary) event. I will be chaperoning and we will be seeing ALOT of sights. The media from all over Washington and Oregon have been calling our band director for the past month wanting exclusive rights to our story should we be selected. Papparazi here we come!!!

THIRD: Jenny is graduating from college next week and we will be bring Jon home from Rexburg.

Like I said.....a great week:)