One crazy graduation day (and a little bragging)!

We had three graduations and an awards assembly (all in one day!)

At 9am Emily graduated from Kindergarten. Her line in the graduation ceremony was "F is for the fun we've had as we have gone along" said to perfection.

At 10am Mckenzie won a trophy for Outstanding Choir Student and the 8th grade Outstanding Math Student Award. And as a side note she was elected the 9th grade class president.

At 11am Zane was promoted from the 6th grade. He also earned an outstanding attendance award, outstanding attendance award for KSDO (O'connor broadcasting channel), Citizenship Award, Scholastic Achievement Award, The Golden Presidential Award, and the Scott Pendalten music award for band (he plays the trumpet). Talk about an over achiever--gotta love this kid!!

At 1pm Quest came to hook up our phone at our new temporary home (thanks Sister Lowther!), and at 2:30pm Rent-A-Center delivered our beds, TV and furniture just in time for our graduation party.

At 7:30 Zachary graduated with Honors and a Service Learning designation from Red Mountain High School. He also graduated the night before from four years of seminary.

We made it home by 10 and enjoyed the good company of family and friends.

What an amazing exhausting day...I'm getting old.

Mother's Day call from Elder Huston

Sunday was Mother's Day, the day all missionary moms await so they can talk to their little boys. My kitchen had burned the previous Friday and I had no electricity or phone service so I emailed Tres to let him know to call me on my cell phone (his P-day is Saturday), but didn't tell him why so he didn't have to hear about the fire by email. He emailed back saying he'd call at 8am (Dan checked our email at Krispy Kreme). Sunday came and no call. I even took my phone to church, which I never do. I kept checking my home phone messages to see if he'd called there (Qwest kept the service on until it was tranfered the following week). Sure enough about 4 oclock he left a message saying he'd been calling all day and that he couldn't remember my cell number. I took the kids back to our temporary home, then went back to our stinky smokey house and ran 5 extention cords from my neighbors outside electical box to an old phone I found in our closet. Then I waited. I cleaned a little, went through some important papers I needed to take, I even tried calling his mission president who was, of course, out of the office. Finally... finally he called. He asked where we'd been all day. I told him about the fire, and he was shocked, but ok. He told me how great his mission was. He told me about the homeless people he spoke to outside of Temple Square and how he had encourged one young man to return to his family and to church. He told me some of the "legends" of his mission, and what an awesome companion

he had. He told me how amazingly hard it was but that it was the difficulties that made it so great. And he told me he felt our prayers and knew the Lord was blessing him and us. We said our goodbyes so he'd have enough time to talk to dad.

(he was at the family party with all the kids). After I hung up, I sat for a while and pondered on the last three months of our lives. The trials came one after the other first with Bekkah and Jackson's illnesses, then Emily's hospitalization and now the fire. Through it all the Lord has

blessed us. Rebekkah remains stable, Jackson is tolerating the battery of ongoing testing better than any grown up could, we caught Emily's infection before it became life threatening and her surgery went well, and we were all able to escape our little inferno without even a scratch. The adversary will proably continue to work hard as we prepare our next missionary to leave in the coming year, but our faith will not be shaken. Heavenly Father will continue to bless us as long as we are doing are best to keep his commandments and do our part. So bring it on!

Ten things I've learned about house fires:

1. Don't try making Panda Express Orange Chicken at home.

2. Don't trust your cooking thermometer when testing hot oil.

3. Don't store your fire extinguisher above your stove.

4. If the salt, baking soda and lid fail to control the flames...get out!

5. Smoke spreads quickly throughout your house when the air conditioner is on.

6. Your phone call to 911 only works until the phone burns.

7. When firemen find a hot spot, they make a hole.

8. There is a lot of laundry to wash after a fire when there are 10 people in your home.

9. 2 months is a long time to live in a small condo...it's only been 6 days!

10. Your "stuff" is replaceable, your family is not...we are so blessed we are all safe.

Looks a little bit like a Red Cross commercial doesn't it?! (complete with the little bears they gave the kids)