Cinnamon Rolls!

My first solo flight at making cinnamon rolls.

Not bad, for the first time.  I intend to get lots and lots of practice.

Cinnamon rolls were one of the cooking items I had a desire to perfect

while serving.  What's not to like about a warm gooey cinnamon roll?

At least I thought that's what the missionaires would say.

So, my personal evaluation, the roll up was a little loose,

they were not even close to uniform, but I did remember the raisins.

They raised beautifully,

and baked up pretty nice.

All in all, I'd give them a C+, B-

There's always room for improvement, that's why I'm going to

keep working on my method.  They might not look pretty, but they

tasted awesome.  Thanks Bart, for the perfect recipe.

I made a few too many, but it worked out, I took some to our

neighbors to the south and a plate or two to some other friends.

They were a hit!

The Party's Over!

Well I knew it wouldn't last forever, but I was hoping.

It's time to go back, leave my home and children again and get

back to work, the mission needs me, at least I hope so.

I spent Thursday with Heather, taking things back and running

errands.  Friday morning I packed my things, picked up the house,

said goodbye to Mom and Jo and Patti.  I cried, I really wanted

to stay.  There are so many projects I'd like to get started on.

But, I know those projects will wait for me and be here when I 

get home next year.

Courtney and I stopped to get lunch, dropped Bart's Jeep off at Mom's,

forgot to fill it with gas, ran to a gas station, ended up at two different

stations before it would take my card, no clue why, got back to Mom's,

said goodbye to her again, Heather picked me and Courtney up and

we headed to the airport.  That's when we hit this. (pictured above)

We hit bumper to bumper traffic around Riverdale and it did not look

good.  We turned on the radio and found out that there was a serious

accident in Roy and the way it was looking, I was going to miss my flight.

I called the airport and they said I had to be checked in 90 minutes 

before the flight or no go.  It was going to be close.  

We chose to get off the freeway, which took forever, and take the old

highway, that's when we came across the accident.  A family was on their

way out of town with a trailer and it had rolled.  They were actually putting

the rolled truck on the tow truck and pulled away from the accident,

ambulances and police cars right in front of us.

Long story short, we made it to the airport 5 minutes late, the girls dropped 

my off at the curb, I ran in, the lady sent me through, I ran back to the

car, grabbed my bags, hugged the girls and I was off.

I guess it was all for the best, I couldn't have taken a long tearful

goodbye, I might not have gotten on the plane.  Tender mercies.

Tender mercies, all the way along.  Thank you to everyone, for

all you did and for the love and support of Courtney's graduation

and for my little visit back home.  Love to you all.

Girls Night Out

Courtney surprised me with a girls night.  She's been planning it 

for weeks and worked with her Dad to earn some extra money.

She had it all thought out and told me to save a little time for her.

I was thrilled, I figured she'd be busy with graduation and friends,

I didn't want to take away from that, but she thought this up all

by herself.  And it meant the world to me.

She'd made appointments for us at Expo Nails for pedicures.

I've never had a pedicure, believe it or not, and I enjoyed being

pampered.  I even put polish on my toenails, another first.

It was wonderful to be together with my girls.

Courtney!

Courtney let me take a picture of her with her cake.

I'm very grateful that I was able to come home and share

this special time with her.  I love her sooo much.

Ok, who is it that thinks up this stuff . . . 

Look at Courtney's t-shirt.  The spelling of Weber is 

made up of the three classes, look closely,

the W is a 12 on an angle, the B is 13 and the R is a 1 and a 

backward 4.  So clever, I just loved it.

Ahhhh, look at our house in the background.

I agree Dorothy, there's no place like home.

Weber High School Graduation

The time has finally arrived.  Weber High School graduation.

Courtney is checking herself out on the jumbo-tron.  The entire proceedings

were filmed and shown on the jumbo-tron in the Dee Events Center.

The wonderful thing about that, Chris was able to pick up the 

live feed from Weber State and watch the entire event.  Everything

we saw, he saw.

The choir began the program with a song, sing Courtney,

sing.  Sing your heart out, one last time.

I took these pictures with my camera from a distance,

so the quality leaves a bit to be desired.  But I was so thrilled

to have been there, in person.

Another song, it was so wonderful to hear the choir sing,

and of course they sing all of those sad "goodbye" songs.

The way they do the procession is fascinating.  They march the entire

(huge) class in, to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance".  When

they are all in, they are lined up like so.  Rows of red, girls

and rows of black, boys, it looked amazing.

Courtney and Heather took these pictures outside

before the graduation started and before the class

came in through the tunnel.

Here is Courtney and Melissa,

Courtney and Heidi,

and this is Courtney, Courtney, Heidi and Kellie.

Rudi and Courtney, together one last time as

classmates.  They look so grown up.

See, Courtney's on the jumbo-tron, smile Courtney smile.

"isn't she lovely"

The choir, along with Courtney, are heading to the choir seats,

back behind the stage.

Oh no, that's not where she's supposed to sit, we are sitting on the

opposite side.

By the time she was settled and everyone was in their

place, she was on the very end, closest to us.

See!

Let the proceedings begin.

Weber Warriors!

"How does it feel to be a Warrior?"

Courtney's turn, she was one of the last to graduate because they have

the choir come down from their seats last.
Because of the filming that they did, each graduate was shown on the
jumbo-tron when they received their diploma.  When it was Courtney's
turn she accepted her diploma and faced the camera and said,
"Hi, Dad"!  (He saw it on the live feed)

And when it's all said and done,

the girls are all on one side, and the boys are all on the other.

Again, so amazingly cool.

Here are all the girls with their little fake diplomas.

Courtney's on the back row, in the middle.

Heather and Brad came to support,

and Grandma Murray, she hasn't missed a graduation of any

of her grandchildren, bless her heart.

Tyler and Heather, thanks for coming and standing beside 

your little sis!

Give your mom a hug!

Courtney and Grandma Murray

Three generations, and all babies,  we were

all born the babies of our families.  Mom's the

baby, I'm her baby and Courtney's my baby.

Brad, Courtney and Heather

Brad and Heather, Courtney, Heather and Tyler.

(Heather's going to a Zumba clinic, that's why she's dressed up)

Add Mom and we are all a happy family.

Tyler, baby sis and Heather

"W" stands for Weber

Oh my goodness, all our stuff!

My graduation gift to Courtney, didn't have time to wrap it,

I hope she doesn't mind.

I think she likes it, it's a graduation bear,

complete with cap and gown,

and embroidered with her name, graduation date

and Weber High School.  I thought it was cute.

I also had her senior pictures enlarged, printed and

put in red photo albums.

Congratulations baby girl, we love you sooo much

and are very, very proud of all you've accomplished.