This Just In!

Nicky has officially graduated high school, and Zoe has officially broken her arm.

Let’s do this!

Today is the day!

 

Happy It Happened - Week 5

This week flew by! 

Nicky had two free ticket vouchers for Hale theatre. He tried booking a date for him and his current love interest, but he accidentally selected the wrong day and ended up having to take his sister instead. 

Nicky & Daisy at Finding Neverland at Hale Theatre

I’m grateful for every moment these two spend together. They have a very special relationship (and still want to kill each other often).

Nicky had an end of year celebration for Unified Sports. They went bowling. 

Bowling with Jesus

That same day he also went with a bunch of seniors to do the “Senior Clap Out” which is where they put on their caps and gowns and go parade through the junior highs and elementaries in our network. 

Addie had her last Madrigals concert on Tuesday night. 

Lala, Addie, & me

Oh, wait. Addie is not my child. But she loves me, so I guess that counts for something. I’m happy it happened. 

On Wednesday, Nicky went to Lagoon with the Unified team. He spoiled Jesus and bought him everything he wanted. 

Jesus + sugar

Jesus running amok with more sugar 

Nicky said Jesus was “kind of on a sugar high and got a little wild.”

Jesus’ favorite ride was the carousel. 

They got Jesus to ride Cannibal.

Jesus squeezed Nicky’s arm the entire ride, and at the end when Nicky asked if he wanted to go again, he immediately said, “No!” (But when asked if he had fun, he said yes).

Nicky loves Jesus so much, and that’s one of the things he will miss most about high school - getting to spend time with Jesus everyday. The exciting thing is that Nicky’s mission is Spanish speaking, and Jesus’ parents only speak Spanish, so if Nicky can get in touch with them when he gets back, he’ll actually be able to communicate with them!

On Thursday, Nicky went to visit his teacher from 6th grade. She was such a blessing to him and has had a big impact on his life. 

The kids with the awesome Mrs. Parry

That night was Nicky’s Senior Awards Banquet. 

Some of Nicky’s friends at the awards banquet

Nicky didn’t get recognized for much at the awards banquet, but the next day, during the end-of-year assembly, he was recognized as a “triple threat” (playing three or more sports) and an “all around athlete” which is for students who play a sport, participate in performing arts, and have a high GPA. And then Nicky got special recognition for being the only student to earn both. 

Friday was Nicky’s last day at school with Jesus, and it broke his heart to say goodbye. 

On Friday night, Nicky had Senior Sunset. The seniors started off the year with Senior Sunrise, and they all wrote letters to themselves. Then they opened them and read them at Senior Sunset.

Scotty & me chaperoning one of the senior events

(to Nicky’s dismay)

On Saturday, Nicky took the Love Interest to the lantern festival, which he scheduled not knowing that was the night of his Senior Gala.

Lanterns released

I can’t believe how many senior activities there have been, and I feel like it was just fine for him to miss the Senior Gala, but he ended up making an appearance anyway (from 12-1:30 a.m.) 

Today (Sunday), Scotty and I made the spontaneous decision to get a hotel and take the family on a little “staycation” for the night. We packed some food (leftover chili mac, nacho fixings, and sandwiches) and headed 35-ish minutes to the exotic land of Layton, Utah (which is where I’m blogging from now). We’ve been joking that this is Nicky’s senior trip, and everywhere we go, he happily exclaims, “I’m so glad I’m here on my senior trip to Layton, Utah!” We hung out at the pool, ate our food, watched Lego Masters, and played some card games. Then Daisy had some sort of emotional freak out, so I took her to Target and let her pick out some snacks (Pizza Rolls and Chips Ahoy), and that fixed her right up.

It’s been pretty fun taking Nicky away from his social life (although I really want to send some photos to the Love Interest to show her what he’s really like):

Two more days til graduation! Let’s get this boy the heck out of high school!

Happy It Happened: Week 4

Another week has come and gone, and here I am to gush about Nicky again. I know things have been very “Nicky heavy” around here lately, but it suits my current life phase, and I don’t think I’ll ever regret documenting these memories. Hang tight. Someday I’ll have something new to write about. In the meantime, here are our “happy it happened” moments from this week:

We had our traditional “familyversary”’dinner. We have been married for 22 years! 

Right as we were sitting down to eat, I opened the fridge and can of Coke Zero rolled out, fell to the floor, burst open, and started spraying the entire kitchen as well as my face. It was like a hose. I couldn’t open my eyes! 

Needless to say, we will be finding Coke splatters for the next two years, I’m sure.

On Wednesday, Nicky’s friend Addie opened her mission call (she’s the first of the girls in Nicky’s group to get her call).

Last week at the high school was senior week, so each day there was a senior activity. On Thursday the seniors played kick ball against the teachers and lost, so the teachers got to chalk them.

Scotty and I were at the school for another event, so we popped in to watch kick ball for a while. 

On Thursday, we reserved Nicky so we could take him on his (possibly) last “kid date” before his mission. We went to dinner at Red Iguana and then we went to the Conference Center. We wanted to go to the Tabernacle Choir rehearsal, which started at 7:30, but we got there early, so we asked the missionaries if we could go to the roof.

We chatted with some Sister missionaries and got some photos. Then we went back inside for the rehearsal. Nicky slept through a lot of it, but I didn’t wake him up because I knew he was still somehow enjoying it. When I eventually woke him to tell him it was time to go, he was a little disappointed. He wanted to stay, but it was 9:00, and we needed to head home to get the girls in bed. 

Nicky asked if we could go see the Come Unto Christ mural first, so we stoped by the painting for a few minutes and read some of its history online together.

Thursday was a busy day. We had the drama awards night at the high school. Nicky earned a gold letter in theatre, and he was acknowledged as a theatre all-star (by peer nomination and voting). 

We had to leave the drama award early to get to our dance concert. All four of our kids performed in the dance concert, which was so fun! Nicky was asked by one of his friends to be her partner in a dance.

On Saturday, we had a matinee performance of the dance concert. Then we all went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.

One week til graduation. So far I haven’t really felt sad about it. I’m not sure what I’ll feel when it’s actually here, but currently I feel ready for it to end. It’s time for this boy to move on. 

Secrets

A couple of weeks ago, someone came up to me and said, “Can you keep a secret?” 

I knew exactly what “secret” this person wanted to tell me, and I wanted to know!!! It was Nicky’s theatre teacher, and she wanted to tell me what musical the high school will be doing next year. 

This made me wonder, can I keep a secret? Of course my immediate response is, “Yes! Tell me!” But really, can I keep a secret? 

A few days later, whilst keeping the secret that the musical for next year will be The Wizard of Oz (it has now been announced, and I can socialize again), I was tasked with keeping the biggest secret of my life. If you’re good at math, you can figure that I was then keeping two big secrets and wanted to burst! 

Coping mechanism while keeping secrets: buy stuff

Nicky’s really good friend Addie (who played Marian to his Harold Hill in The Music Man) submitted her mission papers and got her mission call unusually fast (a week later). That was on Monday, and she planned to open her call on Wednesday night with a gathering of friends and family. Addie’s mom is LaLa, one of my best friends. 

(Side note: if you want to hear about a complicated and beautiful friendship, this one’s it. At one point, my two kids were dating her two kids, and that makes for a wonderful and horrible experience all at once. So far we’ve survived the breakups, but we both need serious therapy).

Anyway, Addie and LaLa decided they’d like to have a paper copy of Addie’s call for her to open, so LaLa asked me if I would open Addie’s mission call and print it, then put it in an envelope and bring it to the house that night for her Opening. I did this on Wednesday afternoon, and I tried to do so without looking at the call myself, but in my peripheral vision, I caught it!

Brazil!!!

I was doing this at Lala’s house, so she was watching me retrieve the paper from the printer, and I confessed, “I saw it! I saw it!!!”

Then I had to live through the longest seven hours of my life. 

Trying not to burst!

I almost blew it unintentionally several times while talking to LaLa. LaLa had mentioned to me once that she thought it would be fun to get Addie a flag for her mission and maybe she would have someone look at the mission call and buy a flag to bring to the Opening. LaLa didn’t ask me to get a flag, but since I knew Addie was going to Brazil, I called Colonial Flag and asked if they had a Brazilian flag. They did! And they only had one! So I sped down to their storefront and got it. 

Getting ready to steam the flag

Meanwhile, I wanted to burst! This bit of information was just too exciting and too good! I kept texting Addie and LaLa and various times of the day “5 more hours!” “Is it 9:00 yet?” “2 more hours!”

LaLa analyzed everything I said during my secret keeping hours. We probably should have ceased all communications until the Opening, but that’s not how we roll. I was so careful to not give any clues. I think LaLa was expecting a state-side mission call, and I had to just let her speculate and not react. It was so much fun, and yet, so painful. I just wanted to climb on the roof and shout, “Addie is going to Brazil!” 

It was so fun to gather at Addie’s house and finally see her open her call and be relieved of my secret keeping obligations. The event was well attended, and we stood shoulder to shoulder. Addie was so sweet and emotional. It was so great to share the moment with her.

Addie with her envelope 

A small portion of the crowd

No one guessed Brazil

It’s been very exciting to have my son receive his own mission call and to see many of his friends opening theirs. So far we have missionaries going to Hungary, Puerto Rico, Cancun, Philippines, Paraguay, California, Dominican Republic, Tennessee, and Australia (and I’m sure I’m missing a few). How cool is it that this little group of friends is going to disperse all over the world?

Now… does anyone else need me to keep a secret?