Welcome to Sunburn - I mean Summer.....

An annual event in our family seems to be the first "big burn" of the summer. In the past this ritual belonged to Preston - but since Preston is actually experiencing "winter" in Rio Gallegos - Parker stepped in to take over the tradition.

A swimming barbeque party with his baseball team on Saturday - turned into a massive "blister fest" on Sunday. He had one so big on his shoulder, in Parker's own words said "Mom, I think I'm growing another head"......

Needless to say- he has been miserable - and the entire house has been reminded more than once - just how miserable he is.

I told him I totally relate! In fact, in my teenage years, we would lather ourselves in Baby Oil and sit in the sun to "bake". I had many great sunburns - which I thought made me look really cool and healthy. Imagine that!!!!!

I knew he would survive (just like I did) and today he is off to Mill Hollow - still with blisters - but at least he can move his arms now!!! I can only wait for the peeling and itching to start.......

Counting down 343, 342, 341, 340......

Preston is now on the downward climb - only 343 official days left. HOWEVER, his tentative release date is May 21st, 2009 - which would mean he will serve more that the two years - by a few days.

The first year has gone extremely fast... We miss him some days more than others - especially when we want to know that certain "fact" that we know Preston would know.

He is a great missionary!!!!

On to 6th Grade - YEAH!!!

Parker survived the year with Ms. Diefenderfer and is an official 6th grader. It has been a challenging year - not only because he had a teacher with a really long name - but because he survived the "Mean Girls" in his class, the girl with the "Wig" and the "bully" on the playground. He is a great kid and we are proud of him. His goal was to get Perfect Attendance but only missed one day. That is one award that he knows he can always get on his own and this is a picture of him standing to be recognized at the year end awards assembly. Maybe perfect attendance next year......

Four Cousins....

This year we had four cousins graduate in the Class of 2008 -

Maddie........ Utah State University
Meranda..... Hunter High School
Natalie........ Kearns High School
Rubie.......... Cyprus High School


Way to go!!!!!!!

Happy Graduation

Meranda Kay Wood is now officialy an alumni of Hunter High School. She graduated Thursday, June 5, 2008 with 600 of her classmates - yes there were 601 that graduated. Meranda had a great career at HHS and is now moving onto the rest of her life.

Some of her accomplishments while at Hunter High:

Graduated with High Honors

Member of National Honor Society

Graduated in Top 10% of her class

Awarded Diploma of Merit in English, Mathmatics and Athletics

Awarded "Athlete of the Year" 2008

Awarded Four varsity letters in both swimming and softball - a total of 8

Named to the SL Tribune/DNews All State Softball team as a Junior and Senior

Awarded scholarships to Snow College, SUU and SLCC

Qualified/Participated in 5A State Swim Championships all four years

Participated in 5A State Softball Tournament 3 years (Fr, Jr, Sr)

Graduated from Seminary (and even spoke at graduation)

She is a great young lady and we are very proud of her....... Great things are in store for her and we know she will do well in whatever she chooses.

Bad Day - Good Day

Somedays just don't go the exactly the way you would like them to....

First - the bad - Meranda's softball team played in the quarterfinals of the State 5A playoffs today! She was excited to play the Fremont Silverpuppies and hoped to pull off the upset - but - it didn't happen. Hunter played a tough game until the bottom of the sixth inning when we gave up a couple of big hits. Meranda doesn't think she had the best game - but she did the best she could - had some great at bats and made some great plays. So now they play Viewmont on Tuesday 3:15 at the Valley Complex. It's one game at a time for now.....

Now the Good - after the game we raced to the Hunter High Senior Awards Banquet. Now when I went to school way back in the 70's, you were invited to attend based on GPA, school involvement, etc., and a lot of kids went. Well, at HHS, you get to "apply" to be invited and have to go around and get signatures from teachers, coaches, counselors, etc. and get enough points so that they can then invite you - STUPID........ I think there were probably 50-75 seniors out of a class of 661 - I'm guessing most kids didn't have a mom that made them go through the process!!! Meranda received the "Outstanding Female Athlete Award". This award is based on athletic letters earned, GPA, level of classes taken (AP/Honors/CC) and community service. They introduced her by reading all of her accomplishments - which are many!!! Her coaches praised her and said that she is hardworking and fun to coach. She had kids come up to her after that said they had no idea what she had done! I was definitely a PROUD MOTHER!!!! This was a great payday for me.

So - some days are good and bad - and I would rather have my kids try their best - sometimes failing - but in the end having good things happen. If you don't try, you'll never experience success and disappointment. I love my kids - they are awesome!!!!!!!

Happy Late Birthday Preston!!

Wow - I am feel like a slacker Mom - didn't even post on Preston's birthday. Oh well - it sounds like he had a great day - with two meals provided by members and a birthday cake baked by one of the sister missionaries.

Twenty years ago, Preston was born on April 29th - a beautiful spring day. Two days later - May 1st - we came home from the hospital in a BLIZZARD!!!

Somethings never change - two days ago - April 29th - was a pretty nice spring day (until the wind started) and today - May 1st - I drove to work in a snowstorm.

Crazy!!!