Karen's Keepers

Karen's Keepers

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Have you really graduated if....?

Things have been pretty busy, so I'm getting this posted a little late. Randy leaves tomorrow for Philadelphia for a couple days. He had the inspection last week from the insurance company at work. He felt like everything went really well. So, we should find out the results within a week or so, and if they passed with over an 85, we will get our "incentive" money. We are hoping to get sprinklers, finish our fence and get a shed. Randy also had a foreman from some Idaho jobs call him and tell him that because of Randy's safety efforts up there, they had an OSHA inspection where they were praised for going above and beyond what was expected. This foreman was going to let Randy's bosses know - YEA.

We are sending a CD for an audition to sing the National Anthem for Mormon night at the Los Angeles Dodger game on August 6. We have no expectations of winning it, but at least we will have tried! We also attended the temple to see our niece Shiloh and her family get sealed. They ended up having to push everything back an hour, so I missed it, but Randy got to stay and see their ceremony. I hear that it was precious with their two small children joining them for the sealing. This week I got to help serve lunch at a missionary zone conference in Sandy. That was fun, and I even met one missionary that thinks he knows Dylan from Riverton High School. He actually was assigned to a New York mission, but has to finish serving here because of a brain tumor. He had it operated on, but it may be growing back.

Jesse is doing about the same. We will get to visit with him when we are in Topeka this month and celebrate his 28th birthday. Tyler is also doing about the same. He had a really fun trip to California last month. He has posted pictures on Facebook. We are celebrating his 26th birthday tonight. Heidi ran 1 1/2 miles in the Law Enforcement Torch Run that benefitted Special Olympics and was briefly on TV. She had fun in Louisiana visiting her friend and has played in one softball game - the other one got cancelled because of lightning. She and Dylan are signed up to play on the same Ultimate Frisbee team starting in a couple of weeks. We are traveling to Colorado in a couple of weeks to join Ingrid and Jeff at their Open House and meet all of Jeff's family. Ingrid says she saw a friend of our family that has moved to Colorado from Kansas, Libby Hendry, at the temple yesterday and that it was fun to talk to her.

Dylan has probably had the most eventful month. He finally got the last of his braces (the bottoms) off yesterday - hurray for NO more ortho visits! His teeth look great. He attended a special fireside for graduating seminary students 2 weeks ago and had his seminary graduation last Sunday evening. Imagine our surprise when we looked at the list of graduates and his name was listed as "Dill Mundy"! And that's how his name is listed on his seminary graduation diploma. So, we should not have been surprised when, at his high school graduation, the announcer read his name differently than we were expecting. The graduates are not in any particular order (weird, huh?) so we didn't know exactly when his name would be read. And because there wasn't stadium seating, but all the seats were on one level, we couldn't see him. The graduates were quite far away from us and when they went to the stage they looked small, but there were 2 big screen TV's set up on either side of the stage, (although the one in front of us had a pillar smack in the middle of our view). Finally we heard the announcer say "Dylan" and we got our cameras ready to snap a shot. Then he said a middle name that wasn't his, so we put our cameras down. Then he said the last name of "Mundy". We were in total shock and kept looking at each other (Randy, Tyler, Heidi and I) in disbelief. Did he say "Voltron" as the middle name??!! Yes, he said Dylan Voltron Mundy. So, we missed taking pictures, missed seeing him on stage, and missed seeing him on the big screen TVs. At least his High School diploma has his middle name correct. He is flying to Kansas on Tuesday for their Stake trek, and will be gone until we pick him up on June 23. Then, he goes on a trek with our Stake. I will let you know how all that goes next month.

I guess the big news for me is that I won't be teaching seminary. After 2 semester classes and my 10-day teaching stint, they have decided they don't want me. So, I will have to explore other avenues. But, I had an experience just one day before I learned this news that reminded me that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us and what we are going through, and that He cares about our experiences and our feelings. I had been a real jerk in 7th grade and made fun of a really backwards boy - just to make my friends laugh. After I graduated from high school I felt bad about my behavior, but when I saw this young man at my 10-year high school reunion, I still didn't apologize. So, this has bothered me ever since. I have wondered how I could ever tell him how sorry I am when it's been 40 years and I live in Utah. Well, I had a "friend request" on Facebook from a woman that I couldn't remember. I finally looked through her friend list to see if I recognized anyone. Imagine my surprise at seeing this man there - the same boy I had ridiculed! So, I sent him a note telling him how sorry I feel for my junior high behavior and that I hope he has a good life now. Within 30 minutes I had received a reply. He ALSO couldn't remember this woman (I found out that we had gone to high school with her), but had accepted her friend request anyway. He has 2 children and 3 grand children and he says his life is good. We are now friends on Facebook! Heavenly Father knows us personally and is involved in our lives!

Mom is doing so much better since getting her bladder infection cleared up. She even let me give her a hair-permanent this week. She looks great! She really enjoyed a visit by Wendy, Jerry and Courtney a few weeks ago, and one from Becky and Dave this weekend. Connie is looking forward to visiting with friends at the Provo Deseret Industries in a few weeks after I take her to a periodontist appointment in Orem. She has been tutoring some foreign-speaking people at work in English and will receive a gift certificate for Tucano's restaurant for her efforts.

Happy Birthday to Jacqui, Dave, Tyler, Amber, Rita, Michael, and Jesse! I hope all the fathers have a great Father's Day!