Lindsey

So Lindsey is graduating this weekend! Yay!

So last weekend we went to Temple Square and took pictures of her (because she wanted to put them in her graduation announcements).

Lindsey's hair doesn't like to hold a curl, so I made her keep the hot rollers in for the whole ride up there.

Once there, we took the curlers out, ran our fingers through her hair, and set off to do some shooting.

So here are some of my favorite pics:

We wandered around looking for good picture-taking spots, and then snapped a photo (or a dozen) at every place.

Michael took our camera away from us early on (so he could take the picures), so Bruce had to get in on the action another way:

And then I decided that all of us had to pose in that spot. Everyone  was supposed to pose just like Lindsey (although not all did). Here are our renditions:

Ryan wasn't going to do it at all, so Brandon tried to drag him over to the bench.

And Michael wouldn't relinquish the camera, so he took a selfie. 

So we had fun, and got some pictures of the family (although not a family picture), and . . .
Lindsey is graduating this Friday!! :-)

Yay Lindsey!

Yard Day

Well, I am gradually returning to my normal life. Two weeks after graduation I've finally got the kitchen, living room, bathroom and my sewing room looking like a mom lives in this house again. :-)
I still have to get to my bedroom and the laundry room (which includes lots of laundry Ugh!).

Saturday morning Jessica shows us the height of the—crabgrass?—that didn't get mowed Friday night
(because it was under the swing).

Last Saturday the whole family worked on the yard. We are never the greatest gardeners or care-takers of the yard, but now our place is also showing the effects of us all being gone at scout camp for the last two summers. We are not going to camp this summer, so the yard is a priority. Which, for us, means we will at least try to mow and water the lawn. ;-)  OK. And we also want to grow a garden which, I suppose, means we will have to do weeding all summer too. We'll see how this plays out.

Rachel and Jessica are showing us how tall the garden weeds are. I actually did do some weeding earlier in the week, so you can see a little bare dirt there. A very little.

Well anyway, we all worked on the yard last Saturday, trying to reclaim it from the wild nightshade, milkweed, thistles, and other various weeds that have completely taken over. Seriously our back yard has about a 100-square-foot patch of yarrow growing in it where there should be lawn; it's quite pretty, but not what we really want.

Rachel rakes the weeds over to the edge of the garden. 

Bruce uses his manly strength to dig up more and more and more weeds.

And I am incredibly helpful—I bring them a box to put weeds in.
See how many bags and boxes they've already filled?

Besides the weeding of the yard, we also needed to clean out the shed. You remember the shed was built in December, and we had only one day to transfer stuff from the garage to the shed, so it was pretty disastrous in there.

looking in at the shed door
We couldn't open it enough to get a broader view—too much stuff piled behind the door.

We had some cans of wheat out in the shed which we decided should probably not be further exposed to the whims of Utah weather (especially in a non-insulated shed). So that morning Lindsey worked on cleaning up a space in our new indoor storage area where we could transfer the wheat.

It was also Kaylie's 13th birthday last Saturday. Yay! So in the morning while the family slaved away outside, I stayed in and baked her a couple of lemon meringue pies (her requested birthday treat—we almost never do cake around here). By the time the pies were out of the oven everyone was asking for lunch. (I had bribed them all with a hamburger lunch.) So I worked on burgers & all the fixin's, coleslaw, and cutting up watermelon, and never really made it outside to help until after lunch.

Ryan happily awaits lunch.

I confess, after lunch Bruce and I took a nap.

Then, around 3:00 or so, we all went back to work outside.

I worked inside the shed and everyone else worked on painting the outside of it.

And it made the shed happy.

Well, we paused for Kaylie's requested birthday dinner (pasta primavera—yum!), and then the kids were off the hook for the day.

Brad and his family came to visit that evening, so we all watched Bruce finish up the painting while we visited. And then we sang ♫ Happy Birthday Dear Kaylie ♪♫, and had lemon pie and ice cream. :-)

There's still a lot to do. We're hoping to finish weeding and tilling the garden over the next two days so we can plant seeds this Saturday.

Is it possible for the Norths to have a decent yard? I'll keep you posted.

Oh, And By The Way . . .

She did it again!

Straight A's! :-)

Which means I graduated with a . . .

. . . 3.98 GPA!
(Darn algebra class! Although, in all fairness, I actually earned a high B+ in that class; the teacher, who knew I really, really  wanted an A, bumped my grade up to an A-. So I guess I can't complain.)

So hooray! Hooray for four years completed well! Hooray for moving forward! Hooray for me!!

Free At Last! Free At Last!

Well yeah, it was a self-imposed slavery; I admit it. But school is finished and I am free to move on to new and exciting self-imposed enslavements. (Auto-correct says, " 'Enslavements' is not a real word.")

You would think that after all the stuff I did for the fashion show I would get to relax and cruise right on in to graduation.

Not so.

No, I had pretty much quit working on my portfolio throughout the month of April (in fact, I quit going to the class, too) and so I had to create and illustrate two more designs, and make flats for my new line, The Dagged Edge (say it like "dag - id"), and finish the flats for my Pianoforte line. I also had to collect swatches for Pianoforte (which meant digging through the disastrous sewing room to find bits of every fabric I used) and build the color page, and then just put the whole portfolio together. This was due on Thursday, May 2—the same day as graduation. (What was administration thinking scheduling commencement on the last day of finals? Duh.)

I slept pretty much the entire weekend after the show—Saturday through Monday. Monday evening I started drawing my last two "Dagged" designs. I worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday, stayed up all night again on Wednesday night, and finished building my portfolio pages on the computer by 9:30 a.m. Thursday. A quick shower, then off to the print-shop to print and trim the pages. Fortunately Bruce was home that day, so he played chauffeur for me.  That meant I could put the portfolio together on the way to school—including sticking my swatches to the Pianoforte color-page. (It also meant I didn't fall asleep at the wheel.) I was ready to present to the class by 11:00 a.m., and I got to see everyone else's portfolio too. (If you want to see my portfolio click HERE.)

We left the school just before 1:00, stopped to get lunch, then . . . off home to get ready for the graduation ceremony.

Well, I slept on the way home and when I got there I took a one-hour nap while Bruce went to pick up the kids from their various schools. I was supposed to be at the Maverik Center by 3:30, but it was closer to 4:30 when I got there. That stressed me out—a lot— but, in hindsight, that was actually nice because it meant I had less standing around and waiting to do.

Now, the stupid thing is that I didn't give out any of my graduation announcements. I was just so dang busy with the show and then with my portfolio (which actually I didn't convert to electronic form until Friday—after graduation) that the announcements slipped my mind altogether. So family members can still expect to get one in the mail. Just think of it as an announcement and not an invitation, and then all will be well. ;-)

Anyway, when I walked into the Maverik Center I kept looking around for Bruce and my kids. At first I couldn't find them, among the families and friends of the 4200+ graduates, but then Ryan and I caught each other's eyes and I waved at him. Then the other kids and Bruce waved at me too. Yay! It made me happy to know where they were (and they weren't far from me, actually).  :-)

Where's Waldo? I can see me . . . can you?

The actual ceremony wasn't nearly as boring as I'd anticipated (although I did yawn through the whole thing. But not because it was dull.) The administration didn't spend too much time patting themselves on the back. "This graduation ceremony is all for You," they said. The keynote speaker, Sekou Andrews is a "Poetic Voice" and the CEO and founder of Sekou World, Inc. His speech was actually like a poetry slam; good and interesting (although maybe just a little too long. "Trim a few notes . . ."). And when I finally got to walk I was awake and excited and smiling and everything! Yay!

Mojdeh and Maria handing flowers to me and my cohorts
(left to right): Ellen Young, Mindy Batt, Anna Graetz, Me, Cherylene Rosenvall and the blond girl I never had a class with, so I don't know her name. :-/

I get my roses and a hug from Maria.

Mojdeh, the head of the Fashion Institute, and Maria, one of my instructors, were both there handing roses to all the fashion graduates as we went up to the stage. Stop to have a picture taken. Stop to hand them the card with my name on it.

When I handed them my card they made a big, big fuss that I should step right into the place of the person ahead of me (it was Cherylene) and not let any time lapse between us.  I was almost paranoid about doing it right.

Stop to get my diploma cover (the two diplomas will arrive in the mail in a few weeks.) Shake hands with the president.

So I hurry forward so that I won't be in the way, or slowing up the works, and this guy from administration steps in front of me to have a conversation with the president. You can see she's sending the guy on the left on his way; in the bottom right corner is the next graduate waiting to hurry and take my place, and I'm just standing there wondering what's going on.
("This graduation is all for You!")

But he did sit back down (and probably in less time than it felt like I was standing there for), and I did shake the president's hand.

It's official—I am a graduate! Yay!!

After the whole "awarding of degrees" we went back to our seats, moved our tassels from one side to the other, and then they shot big, long, metallic blue and gold streamers out of confetti cannons at us.  So of course I had to gather one up and drape it around my neck. :-) Then my family came down to hug me, we took some pictures, and it was all over. Maybe that was the official thing that made me a graduate . . .

Cherylene and me: We started and finished together.

Well naturally there was no dinner planned that day. So we stopped at the store on the way home again; I wore all my graduation stuff—except for the hat—into the store. Why not?

And now, one week later, I am mostly recovered from all the sleepless nights; I can look back on my school work and think it was pretty good; I have learned a lot—I'm pleased with what I've gained (except for the extra 25 pounds); I'm working on getting back into the swing of being a mom. But the question remains . . .

We'll see.  We'll see.