Apparently I Graduated

This week was a big week over at 1724 Wightman St.! I tuned into SUU's commencement and officially "graduated" even though I've been done with classes since February. It was surreal to think I am completely done but also a big relief knowing I will never ever do school again. Just certifications for work from here on out. I was so sad to hear during General Conference that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was sick and on dialysis and would not be fulfilling any of his upcoming assignments until he was on the mend. He was supposed to be our keynote speaker at graduation since he is from Southern Utah but we instead had the new Dean of the University speak as well as two students. They all did a great job and I enjoyed listening as I worked. My friend Kelsee I met in my first finance class (our friendship was truly the only good thing that came out of that class) texted me pictures from the actual graduation. One day I'll actually meet her in person! 

Then I got to sit in the hallway and listen while Jaden presented his capstone project. So crazy to think that he is starting and ending this thing over Zoom. It all started in the Summer of 2020 doing his internship virtually from our basement in Bountiful during the height of COVID. And now he just gave his last presentation via Zoom. I'm so so SO proud of him and all the hard work he did to get us here. From doing math classes in Hawaii, an internship in Chicago assignments in Ohio and New York, he truly never stopped working no matter where we travelled. And it has paid off. Although there is still a lot of uncertainty about what lies ahead we are so excited for the next chapter.

And when I say uncertainty let me explain. We finally heard back from EY about start dates this week. But instead of a July start date like we had originally anticipated they said that due to Economic difficulties they were going to push everyone's summer start dates out to winter start dates meaning January, February, or March. We were shocked and so bummed to hear that! We had been sitting, waiting, wishing for them to get back to us so we could apply for apartments in Dallas and feel kind of betrayed that we waited so long just to hear we were going to keep waiting for the next 9+ months. At the first of the week Jaden especially was frustrated he felt stupid that out of all his friends he was the one that had the first offer and last date and it got pushed into next year. He was questioning if it was all worth it. I kept trying to talk him off the ledge and assure him that it was and will be so worth it and it will workout someway. Then toward the end of the week I started getting frustrated watching our plans and preparation fall away. We have started exploring our options back home in Utah. At first we were thinking we'd just come home and live with our parents for the interim and then go to Dallas. Jaden reached back out to Invite Networks where he had worked doing project management with our brother-in-law Mike before we came out to Pittsburgh. He asked if they had any projects available and they came back and said that they wanted to do an interview with him next week. We are excited about a new possibility and know that somehow someway it will work out!

The rest of the week was filled with a lot more activities than last week. Young Women's activity was shooting rockets in the park, it was still pretty chilly but the youth all had a blast decorating 2 liter bottles and shooting them off of a launcher powered by a bike pump. Alli our young women's president said it was super cheap on Amazon and could be a fun family night activity especially with young kids. It was fun to be outside and made me think about how we probably haven't utilized the parks around us enough. 

Friday night I really wanted to last minute buy tickets to see Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson (I love them both so much and wanted to try to go to a concert at Heinz Field) however it was the long-awaited graduation party with all of Jaden's buddies from school so we went over to Daniel's apartment and played games and ate food with everyone. It was still a fun night me, Zach and Tanner all wrecked everyone at Secret Hitler game and then the boys had everyone rolling when they airplayed their capstone product video on the tv. It probably helped that a lot of the party guests had some alcohol running through their veins so it likely made Bob's Widgetz & Co. video even funnier. Another week feeling grateful for our Pittsburgh people!

Peaches

• Graduating
• Jaden finishing up his capstone project. Just one more exam and a couple more classes next week and he is done!
• Rocket launch in the park with the YM/YW
• Graduation party with Jaden's school buddies
• Finally putting faces to names I have heard about for so long
• FaceTiming Hayes boy. His new favorite thing is to go into a downward dog headstand and play peek a boo. He is so dang cute and is growing up so much

• Jade and I found a Jenni's ice cream that recently opened here and we are THRILLED. We loved it while we were in Chicago and think it is way better than any other ice cream shop in the city. Even my former favorite Millie's

• Planning Jenna's baby shower. We're combining with another girl in our ward and making it a bee theme

• Sometimes I am just taken back by the beauty of the green and the trees here. Especially when it rains. 

Pits

• Hearing about Jaden's start date getting pushed back
• Feeling like our plans crumbled
• Just wanted to document the random lifetime table that was propped up against the back of our house when we got here but no one has used, that we are aware of. It often falls over in the middle of the night and makes a large crash. After scaring us multiple times we have just left it laying down. I wonder how long it has been there and how long it will be there if no one claims it.

• Missed all of the girls this week, all three of them were back in UT. Jenna's dad hasn't been doing well and was hospitalized with stomach ulcers, Keile has had a trip scheduled with her family for a while and Amanda flew back for the unexpected funeral of her aunt. Sad and heavy circumstances for Amanda and Jenna. I took care of their boys though and made them dinner on Sunday. We made our favorite honey garlic chicken for them and they cleared house with no leftovers whatsoever. I also asked them if this past week had given them an idea of what it would be like to be going to school as a bachelor out here and Zach said "yes and it's horrible."