Jenna and Grace sang a duet at their 7th Grade Talent Show! I am so glad that they decided to do it. They did a great job! They sang "She'll Love You." I will have to post a video later. They also sang with their Honor's Choir. It was fun to watch! I brought them to Dutchmans for a treat after!
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The Sterling Scholar Region finals for the Southwest Region were tonight at the Cox Auditorium at Dixie State University. Jaiden won Runner-Up in her category of Speech and Drama!! Jaiden is our third child to be represent their high school as Sterling Scholar (Janika was the FACS Sterling Scholar for Tuacahn High School and Jase was the Math Sterling Scholar for Snow Canyon High School). Jaiden is the first one to win a place at Region.
I dropped her off at the University this morning at 9:15. They had a practice for tonight and then provided lunch for all of the candidates. Then they changed their clothes and had their interviews. The Speech and Drama candidates were asked to prepare a 3 minutes monologue (or monologues). Jaiden did the song "You've Got Possibilities" for 90 seconds and a monologue from Blyth Spirit (using an English accent) for the other 90 seconds and then had the interview for 7 minutes. She said that she felt like it went pretty well!
They had free time from 3:45 to 5:15 and Rick was working at the Institute and brought her home to change, eat dinner, and get ready for tonight. We enjoyed the ceremony and were excited that Jaiden won runner-up! There were only three who won from Snow Canyon High School. Xavier Pinna got Runner-Up in the General Category and Kirstin Carter won Region Sterling Scholar in Music. The music winner performs at the ceremony and Kirstin played a beautiful number on the violin. Jaiden's friend, Ruby Ludlow, (also a winner in the the Distinguished Young Women Program) won Region Sterling Scholar in her area of Social Science! (She is pictured with Jaiden in the bottom left corner of the collage).
As Runner-Up, Jaiden will receive a $200.00 check from her school district and a deposit of $1000.00 will be put into her University account. She already has a full tuition scholarship, but hopefully that money can be applied to school fees or other expenses. Rick and I took her out for ice cream afterwards. Congratulations, Jaiden!! (And I feel like I deserve some of the credit also for the many hours I spent helping her prepare for this!!)
Jaiden
Jensen was the winner of the Distinguished Young Women scholarship competition
for Southern Utah and the first runner up in the state of Utah, winning the
categories of Interview, Self-Expression, and Talent. She has been involved
with student council from elementary school all the way through high school and
is currently serving on the Executive Council as the Activities Representative.
Along with student government, Jaiden has also been involved with drama,
madrigals, choir council, national honor society, dance company, and tumbling,
all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. She has been involved with numerous theatrical
productions and was recently seen as SpongeBob in The SpongeBob Musical
at Snow Canyon High School.
Leadership Supporting Documents
Community Service Supporting Documents
Jenna and I hiked the Tukupetsi trail again this morning -- this time we did the morning one down by the water instead of the trail up by the cliffs. It was more relaxing for me because I wasn't worried about Jenna getting too close to the edges of the cliffs!
I asked Jaiden if she wanted to go hiking and she asked if she could bring some friends!
Another beautiful hike less than five minutes from our home! This hike (the Tukupetsi Trailhead) is a little ways west of the Jacob Hamblin home, on the south side of the street. Turn south where the big Santa Clara Power sign is and drive up a dirt road to a parking lot. The hike is above the Santa Clara River Reserve. The temperature was in the mid-50s -- perfect for hiking!
Jenna has been getting really good at doing hair!! She often practices on herself, on Jaiden, and on her friends. Here are a few pictures of some of the styles she has done!
Today was the only day that I didn't have interpreting appointments and so I planned to take the kids on a hike. But Jaiden had a fund-raiser activity for her Exec Council and Josh didn't want to go, so I just took Jenna and her friend, Lindsey. Jenna's friend, Grace, was going to come, but wasn't feeling well. We went on the Turtle Wall loop. It was such a pretty hike with gorgeous views in every direction. I can't believe that this hike is only five minutes from my house and I have never hiked it before! The weather was absolutely perfect too. I look forward to doing this hike again!
Josh fell wrong on his hand during the alumni soccer game last Saturday night and wondered if he might have fractured his wrist. Monday morning I brought him to the Insta-care for x-rays. He had also twisted his ankle and it was swollen and so we got that checked out also. They said that the ankle was not broken, but they were not sure about the wrist. They couldn't see a fracture, but since it was in the anatomical snuff box they wanted him to get checked out by an orthopedic specialist. Then a few hours later the clinic called and said that the radiologist looked at the film and there actually was a fracture.
We were able to get in to the orthopedic specialist on Tuesday (I was able to get out of my interpreting job) and Dr. Millward looked at the x-rays and said that this type of fracture (if there was one) was hard to decipher. He said to keep the splint on it and come back in ten days and they would x-ray again and be able to tell if it had healed with the splint or if it would need to be put in a cast. He said if it needed to be cast then it is a big cast that would need to be worn 8-12 weeks. So hopefully next week's appointment has good news. Josh thinks he won't need the cast because he said that it is feeling a lot better than it was.
In the meantime, the doctor said that Josh could still play soccer, so that is good news. I brought Jaiden, Jenna, and Jenna's friend Grace to watch his game tonight in Hurricane. Josh's JV team beat Hurricane's team 7-0 and the Varsity won 4-0. So it was a good night!
Jenna went hiking with her friend, Grace, and their family to Elephant Arch in Washington, Utah! Unfortunately it was hot and Grace got sick from heat exhaustion, which was a little scary!
Jaiden applied to be an Ambassador for SUU next year. There were several rounds in this process and lots of people were cut in each round. Jaiden made it through all of the rounds, but we won't find out for a few more weeks if she was chosen to be an ambassador. Part of me hopes she is chosen because it would be a great way to get involved with the university and meet people and it would also provide some more scholarship money -- and she would do an amazing job! (And of course it looks great on a resume!) But on the other hand, part of me will be a bit relieved if she doesn't get chosen because she is already so busy. Plus she already has a full tuition scholarship and could probably earn more money at a part time job than from this. Either way I am sure she will still be involved and busy at college. So we will just see how it goes!
Anyway, the application process consisted of several rounds. Round one included a registration form -- filling out a questionnaire and answering a bunch of questions and turning in transcripts and things like that. Round two involved making a video. She made the entire video on her phone. I couldn't possibly do that. She was sick during part of it (you can hear it in her voice when she is holding the brush as a microphone.) The video is really cute, except she filmed herself in front of our outside faded, paint peeling French doors during part of it and in the back yard with our old broken door in the background. I wanted her to redo those parts because it looks like we live in the skids, but she said she didn't have anyone to film her in the first place and was sick and didn't want to redo it. Oh well, regardless of the background she still made it to the next round.
The next round included a twenty minute interview over zoom (which was scheduled during school which we thought was weird. I actually had to check her out of school so that she could come home and do the interview!) The interview was with a panel of three people (the head guy and two other ambassadors). She had to teach a ten minute presentation on "why you should come visit our home town" and then answer a bunch of interview questions. She made a power point for the presentation which she shared over zoom. It included things like Tuacahn, Swiss Days, State and National Parks, statistics on low crime rates and so forth. She felt like she did pretty well on the interview.
Round three included a weekend of interviews, presentations, team building exercises and forth at SUU. They started off with over 200 applications and only 58 were invited to the President's Ambassador Weekend and only 20-25 will be picked to be ambassadors. She should find out within the next month or so! Here is Jaiden's write up about the weekend (I added capital letters to the beginnings of the sentences and to the acronym SUU because this generation doesn't seem to capitalize anything and it kind of drives me crazy, ha ha!)
Jaiden:
I had my SUU ambassador weekend thing!! It was super fun but also EXHAUSTING!!
We first had to do interviews, and then we were put into groups and had to make
skits that were like an SUU commercial, and then we were put into other groups
and had to create a 10–12-minute presentation for convince people to go to
SUU... it was kinda hard because we weren't allowed to have like slides or
anything.... but after that we got to go to the SUU gymnastics meet and it was
super super fun!! And then we got to go do open rec at the gym and then we did
a 10-minute escape room that my group totally failed hahaha! The next day we
had to perform our skits and our presentations! Basically, in the presentation
they gave us a demographic like 30 minutes before so ours was a general science
class of juniors and seniors from California, so we had to gear it towards
that. Our presentation was only 6 minutes *oops* but we did have a smaller
group hahaha and then after they
asked us tons of questions lol. I have no idea if I'm going to make it or
not because they are definitely going to cut the group who was up there in HALF
or even maybe more! Crazy! But we'll see how it goes haha.
So Jaiden found out that she didn't make it in as an ambassador. She was disappointed, but at the same time it might be a blessing in disguise. She has been so overly busy and stressed this year and this would just add more to her busy schedule. It might be better if she started out her first year of college without jumping right back into a million activities and responsibilities. Anyway, here is the email:
Hello,
Unfortunately, you were not selected this year to be offered a position as a Presidential Ambassador at SUU.
As we discussed at the weekend there are a lot of factors that go into choosing an ambassador team, some involve a particular skill set, others involve things that might be out of your control that we as a recruitment and admissions team have to consider (ie Where people are from, our current gender ratio, our out of state representation vs in-state, etc.).
We met some amazing candidates at the weekend and had some diverse evaluation processes that we feel offered great insight. We appreciate your time and commitment to making a thoughtful experience, but unfortunately, we have decided to move forward in a different direction.
Although you were not selected for this particular position there are a LOT of other positions at SUU that you could be a GREAT fit for. I’ve taken the initiative and sent your name to our Student Involvement and Leadership (STIL) Center.
The STIL center is a triage for incoming and current students to help you find a place at SUU, train up on necessary skills for a particular position, and give you meaningful exposure to a variety of positions and organizations throughout your time here at SUU.
Don’t let this setback keep you from accomplishing amazing things here at SUU. We encourage you to work with Heather and get involved with the STIL center.
Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you on campus next year!
With Gratitude,
SUU Recruitment and Admissions Staff
Josh was NOT happy about the way his soccer pictures turned out with the wind and sun making his hair look so weird! I said that maybe we could go take our own pictures at the soccer field this week!
Tonight was the awards night for the Washington County School District Sterling Scholars. It was held in the Dixie High School Auditorium. All of the Sterling Scholars were given a certificate and a check for $100.00. They will all compete in the Region competition later this month! (Jaiden is the Sterling Scholar for Speech and Drama at Snow Canyon High School!)
Jared is 22 years old today!! I had his missionary blog transferred into two really nice big hardbound printed books and gave them to him for his birthday. The books turned out great!!
Jaiden asked Cameron Hugunin to Preference...
Today was the day!! Other couples were Gwendalyn and Gabe, Emily and Maddox, Keirra and Keaton. It was pretty chill (and cheap) which is nice! One of the boys (Gabe Layton) was in a Rugby game today, so they incorporated that into their date. They went to someone's house and decorated posters and then they all went to cheer him on at his game! Then they had grilled cheese sandwiches at someone's house and painted little plates and mugs (the kind where you use special markers and then put them in the oven to set the paint.) That was fun, but all of Jaiden's sunflowers turned from yellow to brown after she cooked it, ha ha!
They came home and got ready for the dance. Jenna is the newest hairstylist in the family and did Jaiden's hair for the dance. She is getting really good at it! Man, I sure could have used her skills last year when I was struggling to get Jaiden and Janelle's hair done up all fancy for dances at the same time! Jenna loves it and is always doing interesting hairstyles on herself and on her friends! Jaiden had asked me to take their preference pictures and so I took them at the Opera House. It was freezing! But at least it wasn't raining. (They moved the dance from the outside tennis courts to the commons area inside the high school due to the threat of possible rain in the weather forecast.) They then went to dinner at Keirra's Grandma's house (Cafe Rio style sweet pork). After the dance they came to our house for key lime pie and Jackbox games!
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