Josh's Graduation!!

Six down, one to go!! Congratulations, Josh!! Josh graduated with a 4.0 GPA!! All of our children have graduated with either a 3.9 or 4.0!! Josh got several honor cords, but ended up losing one somehow during graduation. 

I had told Rick that one of us needed to go an hour early in order to get seats on the shady side! He offered and said that when he got there a little after 7:00 a.m. it was already really crowded! He was lucky to get seats! I came thirty minutes early and had a difficult time even finding parking! 

It turned out to be a little chilly in the shade. Whereas the people on the other side of the stadium were all fanning themselves because it was so hot in the sun! Rick had first put on a long-sleeved shirt and I said, "Why are you wearing long-sleeves? It is going to be really hot!" So he changed, but then he wished that he hadn't listened to me because he was cold! By the time our seventh child graduates we should have it figured out -- come over an hour early to get in line in order to get the shady side, but bring a jacket! 

The program was good and the students who spoke did a great job on their speeches. Josh's friends were the Valedictorian and Salutatorian. Josh sang with the other senior madrigals for the musical number. The program ended in about 90 minutes. We took some pictures and then took Josh out to lunch at a restaurant called Bishops. It was really good. Then we came home and took naps!! Tonight he will go to Grad Night at the RINQ! 

Yesterday I made candy leis for Josh. They took a lot longer than I remembered. In fact it took several hours to make the four leis. It also took a good while to iron Josh's graduation gown. I think Josh is glad to have high school behind him. Rick and I are glad that he is graduated and can now move on to bigger and better things! Now he can start focusing on mission preparation!! 

Josh Jensen and Bridget Layton 

Adam Parkhurst, Josh Jensen, Caleb Parkhurst 

A few of the soccer seniors... Zach Buck, Ethan Scott, Brock Boyce, Josh Jensen, Kadan Morris

To see all of the past graduation posts, click HERE!! 

Josh: Seminary Graduation!

 Josh graduated from Seminary tonight!! Congratulations, Josh! 

To see our past Seminary Graduation posts, click HERE! 

Josh: Senior Honors Night

Josh wasn't able to attend the Senior Honors Night tonight because of the soccer game. But he picked up his awards and scholarship recognitions the next day! Way to go, Josh!! 

Josh, Soccer Banquet and Awards

Josh had his final soccer banquet and awards ceremony tonight! We got all new coaches this year and they have been awesome! There just seems to be much more positivity and team unity than in the past and that has definitely shown on the field! However I am not thrilled about the proposal this week to have the whole team bleach their hair before the quarter-finals!! 😝😂

Here is a picture of the Varsity Seniors (missing one) 

Josh received the Warrior Letter Award, Offensive Player of the Year, and Academic All-State for Soccer! They have started calling Josh "Josh LIGHTNING Jensen." Coach said he was the fastest player that he has ever seen! Here is a picture of Josh with head coach Kendall Nani (who also bleached his hair, but his isn't as noticeable). 

Josh, Soccer Senior Night

 Senior Night!! 

Tonight was Senior Night! Unfortunately we were playing the most difficult team -- Dixie. Snow Canyon was tied with Dixie for first place in Region going into the game. Sadly we lost -- by one point. If we had won, it would have been a three-way tie with Snow Canyon, Dixie, and Crimson Cliffs for first place. But since we lost Dixie took first, Crimson took second, and Snow Canyon took third. So it was a very disappointing loss -- especially on Senior Night. The boys played well though! Hopefully we get a come-back going into the semi-finals! 

Josh's Mission Call!!

Josh got his mission call tonight!!! YAY!!!! It was quite the process leading up to this. I will include all of the details after the video and pictures! He was called to Seoul, Korea!! We were all SHOCKED!! He has been learning Chinese in the dual immersion program since kindergarten! He was only one of four boys in his school to pass the Chinese AP test the first time when he was in the ninth grade. 

So far ALL of the Chinese dual immersion kids have been called Chinese speaking except for two -- Josh, and Tavin who is going to Thailand. And they are two of the four boys who actually passed the test! Well, God knows what He is doing and He must know that they can do it!! I was a little disappointed at first that he wasn't going Chinese speaking, but I am really excited for him now and feel good about it. Josh is really excited too and has already started learning Korean!! He will be a great missionary!! 

We had been anxiously awaiting this for a while. Preparing to submit mission papers is quite the process...  doctor appointment, dentist appointment, wisdom teeth out, forms filled out, pictures taken for the headshot... The pictures were a big deal because Josh didn't want to cut his hair -- at least not short enough for a missionary -- until way closer to his mission. But I told him that he needed a haircut for the picture in order for him to submit his papers -- and it needed to be "missionary approved." And I warned him that this picture is the one that would follow him around for the rest of his mission. They use the photo that is submitted with the mission papers for the transfer board from there on out, ha ha! 

I was tempted to set up an appointment for him, but knew that it was important for him to be the one to set up the appointments. He put it off for a while, but then finally went to get a haircut at G.O.A.T. Haircuts with the coupon on the Starving Student Card for a free haircut. When he came home I said that it looked just the same -- I mean it was a little shorter, but not much. At least it was shorter on the sides, but I was expecting all of the curls to be cut off. I wasn't sure it was even short enough for his missionary picture. He said that it would be fine, he would just comb it over to the side. So he did and I took some pictures of him -- some with it combed over to the side and some with it down. Either probably would have been fine, but we ended up going with the one with his hair combed over to the side. Here is the picture! 

And here is him with his hair down...

Anyway, with that out of the way, we set up an appointment for Josh to meet with the Bishop for his final interview on March 17th. (Rick was out of town on a cruise). Josh's papers weren't quite finished (we should have made sure they were completely finished before setting up the appointment) but Josh assured me that they were "almost finished." Anyway, after church he asked if I would help him finish the papers. As soon as we started into it we could see that there was a lot more than we thought. 

Each time Josh clicked on something to fill out it brought up another page of items to be filled out. He was trying to hurry and fill out everything, including family ancestry information, medical and insurance information, and everything else on the list. Then it asked him to upload all of the medical forms. I had already scanned in all of the forms, but for some reason some of them weren't uploading. It kept saying the file sizes were too big. 

So I was trying various tactics such as reducing the photo sizes and changing the pictures to PDF's in order to try and make it work. Then it was time for him to leave for his appointment and we were still trying to get the forms uploaded. I finally told him to go and bring the medical forms with him and we would figure out the rest later. His appointment went fine and the Bishop told Josh to text him when all of the forms were uploaded. 

We finally got that all finished after Josh got back and the Bishop submitted the papers to the Stake President. So now Josh just needed to have an interview with the Stake President and then the Stake President would officially submit the papers. I was thinking that Josh could just see the Stake President the same day, but that was wishful thinking indeed, ha ha! The Bishop said that we should be hearing from the Stake that week to get an appointment set up. 

Well, the week went by and we didn't hear anything, so Josh asked the Bishop about it the next Sunday. Again, I was hoping Josh could get in that Sunday, or that Tuesday, since it was the only Tuesday that Josh had a BYE from soccer. Well, they told Josh to contact the Stake Executive Secretary to set up an appointment. I was wishing we had been told that in the first place. So he did, and they said that the first available appointment was a week from that Tuesday. 

But Josh has soccer games every Tuesday night (except for the 26th when he had a BYE). But that date wasn't open. He said that the next available date would be April 14th! Josh and I were freaking out a little. That was SO far away!! Apparently he couldn't get in sooner because the next couple of Sundays included Easter and General Conference and so the Stake President wouldn't be in his office, and Josh couldn't do Tuesday nights because of soccer. 

Finally April 14 came and Josh was to meet with the Stake President at 9:00 am. I was out of town and so that was a little stressful for me. He had waited for a month already -- what if he forgot to set his alarm, or didn't wake up on time? Of course Rick always says that I worry way too much about everything. If he slept in then it would be his own fault and he would suffer the consequences. Ya, but still... Anyway, he is a responsible kid and he did make it to his appointment on time and his papers were finally submitted!! 

We figured that he would get his call in about ten days -- a week from Tuesday. But then a few days later, Josh got a message from the Bishop saying that he had received an email from the senior missionaries who are in charge of screening medical information for the missionaries and it showed that Josh's pulse was put down as 140 -- which was unusual and way too high. It was most likely a clerical error, because Josh is an athlete and his resting heart rate is probably only around 50-55. Anyway, they said he would need to take his resting heart rate two different times on two consecutive days and sent the numbers in to them. Because of all that his papers had not been processed and it would be at least an extra week.

Of course I was freaking out again at at the delay, but Josh said that he followed the instructions and turned in the numbers and so it should all be taken care of. So, the next Friday I checked to see if his missionary email had been set up and it HAD!! Jaiden had said that if you want to know if your call has been assigned then check and see if the missionary email has been set up. That is a good indication that it has been assigned. It was, which means he would get his call the next Tuesday (April 30) and he DID! 

He had a soccer game that night and so he decided to do that missionary call opening the next day (May 1st). Josh had put down July 31st as his starting availability date. I really wanted him to be able to leave before the colleges start in the fall so that in two years when he returns he can start college right away instead of waiting around for several months. With all of the delays part of me had given up hope that he would leave that early. Many people getting their calls were now leaving in September or October.

Well, he got his call and will be leaving August 12th!! That is perfect!! So in spite of all of the delays he is still leaving on time. He will get home just a week or two before the semester starts. Of course that means I will have to register him for all of his classes and everything, but that's okay!! We are so excited for Josh and all of the adventures that await him!! 

Josh Rappelling

Josh went on a campout with the Young Men this weekend. He didn't know that there was going to be rappelling involved! He typically doesn't get into things like that but said that it wasn't too bad and that he had a good time! 

Josh, Madrigals at Swiss Days

It was a happy surprise when Josh decided to join the SCHS Madrigals! Thank you Gabe Layton for constantly bugging him until he decided to show up and then kept showing up.  I enjoyed watching their first concert at Swiss Days. They sounded great! 

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