graduates

What a great week we had. The most exciting event of the week was Wilda's graduation. My mother-in-law graduated with a bachelor's degree from BYU at the age of 64 this week. It took her 8 years this time, plus two years before she quit back in 1973. It was amazing to watch her work her way through all the challenges that came from going back to school and actually complete her goal. We realized as we were pondering on this amazing accomplishment of hers, that all of her children and all of her children's spouses have college degrees (and all of them from BYU!) (I'm counting Ryan here Heather--I hope that's okay--I didn't understand what Steve was saying about the Army.) All of her girls made the trip to Orem for the convocation and then we had a nice dinner at The Harvest afterward. On Saturday, we all went bowling together at BYU and did a quick tour of campus to see all of the improvements that BYU has done, even since I was there 9 years ago.

I also got to get another pedicure on Saturday. This one was with my mom who'd never had one before. And the girls got haircuts in preparation for school starting on Tuesday. Steve and I went to the adult session of our Stake Conference last night and then watched The Arrival after the kids were in bed. We both really enjoyed it. The ideas it puts forth about communication and about vulnerability were profound and intriguing. I would recommend it to anyone. (There was 1 f-word, put in solely to make the movie PG-13 instead of PG. There was nothing else questionable that I can remember.)

I haven't done gymnastics for a couple of weeks now, sadly. I hurt my wrist the last time I went and it hadn't healed by the next week (yes, that's an injury for each time I went), so I skipped that week. Then the next week, they'd cancelled the class because the schedule for the entire gym was changing. They hadn't started the adult class back up again this week, so we'll see if I get to go anymore. I'm sure glad I went when I could!

I also took my girls shopping for new school tennis shoes, which was a humorous endeavor, since they wanted every shoe they tried on.

Last week, we go a flyer on our door from some girls in the ward putting on a "Princess Training Camp." They wanted $7 per child. Emilia was too old for the camp, but she REALLY wanted her sisters to be able to go. Perhaps I'm just a scrooge, but I thought, "What in the world are they going train them to do? Sip drinks with their pinky up? Walk with books on their heads?" Needless to say, I didn't send them. And Emilia was so-o-o disappointed in me. So disappointed, in fact, that she asked if she could do her own princess camp for the younger neighborhood girls who were too young to go to the other camp (or whose moms were too mean to send them). She entertained seven or eight girls for like 6 hours (some of them were her helpers, but still). They did nails and makeup, talked about etiquette, learned to walk properly, eat and drink properly, colored princess pictures, dressed up in princess dresses and more. At the end, Emilia made them diplomas and gave them treat bags that she decorated herself from the girls' stash of art supplies. It was truly impressive. I was proud of her creativity and drive.

I also roped Steve into talking with a financial planner that found me at the splash pad. Steve was super hesitant, but we needed someone to help us with investing for retirement past Steve's 401k and I really liked her. I thought it went well. I realized I have quite a passion for helping families make finances a priority. We'll see what happens with that.

I'm excited that this coming week the family gets to go to Colorado for my cousin Doug's wedding and EVERYONE from my mom's side will be there. We haven't all been together in almost 10 years. More about that in probably 2 weeks, since we'll be traveling home next Sunday.