Another Graduation!

On April 29, just last month, we had one graduate.

And just last Friday (May 26) we had another: Ryan graduated from Uintah High School. Yaaayyy!

Now, Ryan is smart enough to just cruise through school with very little effort. Unfortunately this means school can be boring and might not seem worthwhile to him... As was evidenced by the horribly huge number of F's and D's on his ninth and tenth grade report cards. It was enough to make a mom wonder if there was even a possibility of her son graduating high school.

But in eleventh and twelfth grades Ryan made up for all of his previous poor grades (re-taking several classes, and even testing out of one), and passed with flying colors—no scores below a C. He even joined Hi-Lites (Uintah's madrigals group) this year. And he finished school with a GPA of 3.389 for this year.

the obligatory "getting ready" photo

The Uintah High School graduating class of 2017.

Brant Johnson, a friend of ours (and the student-body president),
giving the welcome speech.
And there's Ryan, in the second row. :-)

It was a windy day at the stadium.

And here he is, being amazing.

I am really proud of the hard work and determination Ryan showed to get to graduation.

Congratulations, Ryan! You did it!!!

Suave and Debonair

Ryan is graduating from Uintah High School in a couple of days. (Yaaaaayyy!)
Because he is awesome! (Yaaaaayyy!)

I hope Ryan is actually more excited than this—he should be,
because he worked hard to get here!

We went to Remember the Maine (a local park) and took pictures of him, of course. He opted to wear his choir tuxedo for the photo-shoot.

 Very suave.

Bruce went with us, to help take some pictures,
to photo-bomb some of them, and to pose in some of them.

OK. Here are the real-deal, good pics:

Very debonair.

Graduation is in two days—Friday, May 26. Yaaaaayyy, Ryan!!

Graduation!

Lindsey graduated from Snow College this past Saturday! Yaaaaayyy for her!!

So here are some photos:

Unfortunately Bruce and I were in the nosebleed seats, literally as far away from the podium as we could get. And we didn't have a tripod, or anything to steady the camera.
But there's our grad, walking toward a diploma and a handshake.

Lindsey, the college graduate, with her proud parents.

Lindsey, the college grad, with her brother Jason
(who, we anticipate, will also graduate
from Snow College in a couple of years).

Lindsey worked hard for three years at Snow College. She got good grades, she made friends, and she learned to live on her own. I am very proud of my beautiful,  warm-hearted, hard-working, and bright daughter!

Second Chance

All right. I have had a few people say they'd be interested in entering my (sort of) annual Poetry Contest. So, even though it's not my birthday any more (which was pretty fabulous, by the way), it is still National Poetry Month. So here is your second chance to enter Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest. Yaaaaayyy!!

This year's challenge, as you may recall from my April 1 post, is to write your very own nursery rhyme. You are probably familiar with nursery rhymes, but here are a couple of examples:

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider and sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.




I'm sure you recognize that rhyme about the very scary spider as a nursery rhyme. But how about this one?

Eeny-meeny-miney-moe
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go.
Eeny-meeny-miney-moe.

(Or this variation:
...If he hollers make him pay
Fifty dollars every day.)

Yes. While you may have thought that "Eeny-Meeny..." was just a rhyme to choose who was IT when you played tag, it is actually a nursery rhyme! Because it meets these criteria:

1. it rhymes
2. it tells a very short story

(You can learn more about that here: How to write a nursery rhyme)

So, your second-chance, 2017 Poetry Challenge is to
write a clever nursery rhyme.

Here's what you need to know:

* Your poem must have a clear, simple story to tell
(like a girl sat down to eat and was scared off by a spider).
* It must be between four and eight lines long.
* It must rhyme and be in good meter
* I won't ask for poems about cute little animals, but it should be something a child would understand. ;-)
* POST YOUR WONDERFUL RHYME AS A COMMENT ON THIS VERY BLOG POST. (Just click on "Comments" and type your way to poetic perfection. Make sure your name shows up with it.)
* You may enter (and are encouraged to enter) as many poems as you want.
* All entries are due on Sunday, April 30, by 7:30 p.m.
* Winners will be announced on May 1 (or May 2, depending on how crazy my weekend is).

The contest will have two divisions:

The Children's Division is for anyone up to twelve years old. The winner of the Children's Division will receive a lovely certificate and a large-size candy of their choice.

The Everyone Else Division is for everyone older than twelve years old. The winner of the Everyone Else Division will receive a lovely certificate and a delicious home-made dessert, prepared by my own lily hands.

So here's your big chance at literary fame and fabulous prizes!!! Ready... Set... Go!

Ding-Dong-Dell, The Contest's Death Knell

Well, today is the long anticipated day! Or, maybe not.

It is time to judge the 2017 Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest. 

This year's contest was to write a nursery rhyme, but only one person entered, and that was Jason. (Yay, Jason!) He did enter two poems, so I guess there is a tiny amount of judging to do here.

Anyway, as per tradition, before we look at the new poetry or announce the winner, here is my token rhyme:

Mom thought it was time

To see a new rhyme.

A poetry contest? A must!

But only one son

Entered…and won.
As a contest it turned out a bust.

And now for the actual entries (which might be considered "College Rhymes" instead of "Nursery Rhymes," but maybe that's the same thing...)

First, from Jason North we have:

A young college student

did know it was prudent

To study by day and sleep by night.

But he met a nice girl,

in a dress she would twirl,

and together they dine each night.

Also from Jason:

Blaine the prankster

And Jason the jokester

Once got together to plot.

When their results they found pleasing

They both were laughing and wheezing;

Their victim, of course, was not.

I might remove the words "When" and "They" from lines four and five—my ear likes that meter a little better. But the poem is pretty great. 

And now for the big moment...

The winner of the 2017 Loralee's Fancy Poetry Contest is... Jason North with his "Prankster" rhyme.  Yaayyy! 

So, Jason, let me know what dessert you prefer, and I'll make it when we bring you home from school. And I'll throw in a copy of  Loralee's Fancy Book of Poetry, which features all the poems from the first five years of my poetry contest.

Thanks for playing! :-)