Sevark Central

With the family festivities at the cabin this weekend, we didn't get a chance to break away to the cemetery to remember two of the most important people in our our lives...Cindy & Rod.  With it being summer and the kids a hundred different directions from friends houses to work, Lexine and I just decided to make our own visit to the cemetery to reminisce of the past.  It was perfect timing since Lexine was on her way home from her day of Mayo Clinic appointments and work is nearby the cemetery.  It was a nice little visit to refresh the flowers at their graves and remember those wonderful times of our lives.

With the various schools the youth of our stake attends, the school year ended at different times, so this evening was finally Garrett & Maizey's seminary graduation.  It was a very nice ceremony with both Stake President Murcet & Zemp speaking to the youth since our stake recently split.  Both Garrett & Maizey's names were read, although only Maizey got to take the walk and shake hands since Garrett's been on his mission for 2 months now.  Garrett's seminary teach commented when they called his name that he was already out on his mission.  We are sure proud of these seminary graduates in our home...so far we're 5 for 5!  Great job Garrett & Maizey!  We sure love you!

What a great Memorial Day weekend to escape the heat and spend some time at the cabin.  This trip was even more special since we had Grandma Glasgow with us and had our good friends the Cluff's come up to spend Saturday with us at Box Canyon and then an afternoon lunch & visiting.  We had about a mile hike down to the opening of the canyon which isn't too bad.   The water at Box Canyon was absolutely the coldest water I have ever gotten in -- I suspect a person could get Hypothermia within minutes of staying in it, but we didn't let that stop us all from having fun climbing through the rocks and a couple of us crazier ones (Colton & I) cliff jumping into the fridgid water.  Afterwards it was back to the cabin for sandwiches, ping pong and talking (while several of us fell asleep and took naps).  What a wonderful Memorial Day weekend...

I finally had my spring piano recital. It was a lot later in the month which I really don't like, but so much has happened this month that it kept getting pushed back. Plus my travels to China didn't help either. Then I was scheduled to have surgery the day before! But the show must go on! Haha! So I had surgery to repair a hernia. I was hoping to come home that same day but they kept me over night and I was finally released at 2 the next day. I had 4 hours to get everything ready for the recital! Everyone jumped in and helped out a lot! The girls made treats and boys helped move furniture. We started right on time! The kids did a wonderful job! Recitals make all the hard work worth it! I'm so proud of everyone! I had 16 kids this time. The 3 Campbell kids are not pictured. They had to leave early.

Not long after Lexine's intestinal blockage surgery she started noticing a hole in her tummy where her stomach muscles had separated at the surgical spot.  The hernia kept getting larger and larger until she could actually fell her insides popping through it - yuck!  So after talking to Mayo, it was back for another surgery to put some mesh in her tummy.  We got up at 4am to get her to the hospital only to wait which seems to always be the case.  She finally went back for her surgery at around 8am, but it wasn't long after that the nurses came into the waiting room to let everyone know that all surgeries had been delayed until 9am.  At around 10:45am, her surgeon came in and told me that she did great but that she was really sore and that I would be able to see her for a couple hours until she was either ready to go home (since this was supposed to be an out patient surgery) or until she got moved into a room.  Having been through this a number of times with both Cindy and Lexine, I knew that couple hours could turn into very many, so I headed into work.  It was a good thing I did because I didn't hear from her until about 2:30pm just to let me know that she was okay and that they were going to keep her.  Then not again until 6:30pm when she finally got into a room.  It was a good thing I decided to go into work or I would have just sat there all day long.  By that time at night, I needed to get home to make sure the kids had dinner and to help Kami & Tim move a table & chairs that our good friends the Hauserman's gave to them.  Hopefully she'll be feeling good enough tomorrow and come home early enough since she has her piano recital in the evening!  Now I better get to bed, its been a long day for both of us!  :-)

Bentley got up nice and early this Saturday morning and headed out to the Salt River with the Cluff's. I thought they were crazy for going on a Saturday with all the crazies! Haha! I thought they were going tubing, but when she got home and showed me the pictures I was surprised! They went surfing! They had made plywood surfboards and attached a rope to them. The hike a little bit to find a place where the water was moving fast and tied the surfboards to the trees. Pretty ingenious! They had a blast!

After Maizey graduated, Bentley asked her what she was going to do now... "I'm going to Disneyland!" And that is what she did! Lucky girl! Maizey has become very good friends with Ivy Siltala in our ward. Even though there's a couple years different in age, these 2 hit off! Maizey is like a big sister to her. She got Ivy to join the badminton team and help finish her young woman's project. They've gone to concerts and movies together and just hung out. So for graduation, the Siltalas paid for Maizey's way to go to Disneyland with Ivy and her mom. They left Friday morning after graduations and went to the parks when they got there until it closed. Then they went to both parks all day Saturday, slept in on Sunday and drove back home. I'm glad Maizey has such good friends.

I wish I could have taken a picture in the chapel today, because it was quite the scene seeing our bishopric on the stand, with Bishop, his first counselor to his right and Caleb on his left.  One of the counselors wasn't able to be there today, so Bishop asked Caleb to be seated on the stand with him since he is the president of the Teacher's quorum.  Caleb sat up there on the stand all diplomatic like he was one of them.  The bishopric joked about trying to get him to come up and give some of the announcements, but I'm not sure the really invited him to, just tried to embarrass him some.  He did a great job sitting up there...I suspect we'll be seeing him up on the stand again some time in his future! :-)  Way to go Caleb!

Fathers and son happen to be far away again this year. The boys aren't too fond of getting to the camp site at 8:30 and setting up and then taking down and heading home. So they opted not to go this year. But Jonah got adopted into the Alleman family and was able to go up with his friend Porter Friday morning. They had a great time. Bro. Siltala got some great shots of Jonah. He got a bullseye with a twenty-two and had fun hanging out with his friends.

Well, tonight's the night! Maizey's big high school graduation is finally here! Can't believe this day has finally arrived. Wasn't she just in kindergarten?!? Haha! She has come so far and has accomplished so much more than I thought she could! She has worked so hard and stretched and blossomed into an incredible talented young woman. She has been apart of so many clubs and has  loved to serve her fellow class mates. She's was inducted into the National Honors society her junior year and served in student council junior and senior years.  She received a full ride scholarship to NAU for her academics. I'm so proud of our Maizey mouse and all her hard work. I was so proud to see her walk out in her purple and gold (GoMHS) gown with her student council sash and NHS cords!

Jonah came home from school with a certificate stating that he had made honor roll the last 3 quarters! I had got an email saying there was going to be an assembly if your kids were chosen and that a letter would come home. I never got a letter and Jonah had heard that maybe he made it but wasn't for sure. So I was surprised when I saw that he made honor roll and then I was sad that I didn't get to go to the assembly! I'm so proud of Jonah! He's done very well in school and I never have to push him to get stuff done. Sometimes he'll wait last minute to get projects finished but he always does them. If he really wanted to he could probably do some honor classes. Good job Jonah!

It took awhile for Bentley to give her homecoming talk in church. When she got home, we had general conference. Then the next weekend we had stake conference. The weekend after we had fast Sunday and then the next weekend Toby and I were in China! Then the next Sunday was fast Sunday again. Then there was Mother's Day! Haha! So today she was able to give it. There was another girl giving her homecoming too. So the chapel and cultural hall was packed! There was people I. The foyers and even in the choir loft. Noah had the opportunity to speak too! Bro. Larsen called him last minute on Saturday right in the middle Kami's wedding because another youth declined. Ive been taught to never turn down a calling or speaking. So, I've taught my children the same. So he wrote his talk on Sunday morning. He did a great job for last minute. I had asked Bro. Shipp if he could do a piano musical number. He has a beautiful gift of playing by ear and is amazing! I told him I wanted either "Come Thou Fount" or "Savorior Redeemer". He surprised me and did a beautiful rendition of both songs! It bought me to tears. Bentley did a great job on her talk also. She spoke for quite some time and went over. Haha! After sacrament we had family come over for lunch to celebrated Bentley and also maizey's graduation. It was a great day! 

What an absolutely amazing day!  In some ways I've dreaded this day to see my Kami leave home to begin her own family, but in another way I couldn't be more happy to see Kami so happy on this special day.  We got up this morning just like any other day and did jobs and stuff.  But as the time approached to go to the temple, we called everyone together and I gave Kami one last father's blessing while she lives in our home here.  It was a very special moment for me and one that I was very emotional for.  So many special memories came rushing back to me seeing my daughter heading off to be married; especially in our situation and all that Kami has done to help when Cindy was so sick and then even more after she died.  But it was my privilege and honor to give her a blessing as she takes this giant step in life and eternity.  Then Lexine and I ran to a couple stores to find gray pants for Jonah and get to the temple for the sealing by noon.  

Here we are, the last day before Kami's wedding tomorrow!  And it was one of those days if you know what I mean.  I had to get some things done for work, so I was working most of the day.  But wouldn't you know it, not 30 min into work I got a call from Lexine telling me that our Nissan Altima blew up on the freeway and would only drive 10 mph maximum speed now.  Luckily she was able to drive it off the freeway and to a nearby friends house to park it for the weekend, so we could focus on all the wedding activities of the weekend.  Lexine and Kami spent most of their day setting up the cultural hall of the Cloud building / stake center, painting the dresser and making cotton candy.  I came home around 3pm and started helping, then ran down to the church building to setup the slide show.  When I got there, I was amazed at home great everything looked.  It was amazing!  It looked perfect for my Kami!  I managed to get the slideshow setup, then came home and changed real quick to get back down there for the wedding dinner Tim's family was putting on that evening.

The wedding dinner was awesome.  Bro Kasper, Tim's dad opened the dinner then invited me up to introduce our families.  It was wonderful to have so many of our our families there.  We had all 4 of them represented -- Clarks, Glasgows, Porters and Severtson.  It was so nice to have Lauri and Amy come into town for Kami as well.  It was a wonderful dinner of Courdon Blew, potatoes, vegetables and deserts, followed by lots of visiting.  Then as soon as it was over, we all jumped in and moved things into place for Kami's big day tomorrow!  What a wonderful day before the wedding!

So proud of Jonah and his hard work in track this year. I was hoping that he would take after his momma and do hurdles, but they recruited him to high jump. I was surprised, but we don't call him jumpin' Joe for nothing! He had  good season and was able to jump 5'2"! He was asked to go to the East Valley conference to jump for Newell Barney. Jonah was the only one from our school to do it. There was about 12 boys jumping. It was a pretty warm day with the temperatures in the 90's. But they all did pretty good. Jonah jump with ease with the first few heights, until they got to the 5 foot mark. He got pretty lucky when they called a few jumpers to go run the 4x400! It's hard to jump after running the 400! Jonah knows from experience, but it was to his advantage! Those boys boys came back and they couldn't jump any higher which put Jonah towards the top. Jonah cleared 5'2", but you could tell he had done something to his hip. so he wasn't able to go any higher, but he got 3 PLACE!!! How awesome is that!!! He did great and worked hard. Can't wait to see what he does next season! We love our Jumpin' Joe!!