School's Out for Summer!!!!!

Due to that December ice storm when we were in the dark and out of school for a week, we didn't get out of school until May 29th.

Life has been crazy at the Studyvin household--but what else is new?

Laney graduated from high school on May 17th. She really appreciated all the gifts and cash from family and friends. She wants to figure out a way to keep that perk coming. She's in the process of getting out her thank you notes. Aunt Judy, Jared, Jen and little Roy came for graduation so that was fun having a houseful of family. Laney might not agree but this grandma was glad to spend time with our gang. The only downside was that our air conditioner picked graduation weekend to quit. It quit on the weekend; we couldn't get a hold of the builder (we bought a brand new house) or figure out how a new air conditioner could quit working just because we had a houseful of company. We have had a very pleasant spring (which is unusual in Oklahoma). But just when the company arrived, the temperature hit 95. It wasn't too humid but to the wimps from Wyoming anything over 10% relative humidity is humid. So we sweltered in our warm house until Monday when the HVAC man came and explained that when they install an air conditioner in the winter (when the house was built) they can't "charge" the unit--whatever that means--so they have to come back to put freon in and charge it. But did anyone bother to tell us that ahead of time--NO! Within an hour after "charging," the house was cool and comfortable--more evidence that I would not make it as a pioneer.

The next order of business for Laney happened today when she registered for the University of Oklahoma. OU is in Norman--about 2 hours from our house. They have a great dental hygiene program and right now that's what she's thinking of doing. There are about 16-18,000 students so a tad bigger than her HS graduating class of 114. I kept comparing it to BYU and thinking OU isn't so big and bad! Of course, for me, there's nothing better than the ZOO. I'm a Cougar through and through. I recently got a new phone (Black Jack II) and am thinking of having it "skinned" in BYU cougar colors. So far I have a Wyoming Cowboy son and an Oklahoma Sooner daughter. My greatest hope is that one of my children will see the light and go to the "Y."

So Laney and I spent the day being oriented and registered at OU. They actually have a very comprehensive new freshman orientation/registration program. Apparently they've found that the better prepared the new students are, the more likely they will be to stay in college. Just from my experience teaching HS in a low income area, there's not a lot of encouragement from many parents to go to college and it can be quite overwhelming. Laney has been overwhelmed with the whole process and she comes from parents who both have post graduate degrees. By the end of the day, however, she was getting very excited for the whole college thing. She still fears she will flunk out--despite what her HS English teacher, her mom, her dad, her aunt, and her brother tell her--but she's at least looking forward to the experience.

Update on Josh. He's had his driver's license for almost a year now. He's been a little too proud of himself for not having a wreck unlike Laney and Jared who both rolled their vehicles in their first year of driving. But of course--pride goeth before the fall. A tree jumped out and hit the back of my van as Josh was backing it up. It dented the back hatch door and broke out the back window. So then my van looked like a white-trash, ghetto van. (See picture) We don't have full coverage on it anymore (too expensive with two teen drivers) so we had a friend of a friend pound out the dent enough to replace the back window. We got the window replaced last Saturday just as a horrendous thunderstorm began in Tulsa. Golf-ball size hail was reported (yes that actually happens) and I was literally soaked running from the glass shop to the car (about 20 feet). It didn't rain as hard north of Tulsa where we live and thank goodness because much of Tulsa was without power for the weekend. We've never lived in such a weather-event area before. Our road has been flooded in minutes due to a downpour; we've had four inches of ice on our driveway; our trees have snapped at the base due to ice; and we have tried to grow a garden in this humid hades-like climate. Sorry--I digress on the weather.

Anyway, back to Josh. Before the tree had it in for Josh, gas prices starting rising. (Is anyone else really sick of high gas prices?) Roy decided to trade our Arctic Cat four-wheeler in on a street motorcycle for Josh to ride so that Roy could drive our purple Dodge Neon (Barney) instead of his big truck. Josh wasn't complaining at all at the plan and finally (for Josh) they picked up the motorcycle while Laney and I were on our way home from OU. The grin hasn't left Josh's face. He's suddenly discovered friends to visit on the bike. I was a little dismayed when I saw the bike for the first time. I fondly remember riding behind my brothers on their motorcycles as a child and then on the back of Roy's Honda 650 when we were newlyweds (was that 25 years ago?) This new bike is a Honda 750 Shadow something or other so it's larger than Roy's old bike but somehow to me it looks smaller. I believe the motorcycle seat has shrunk directly in proportion to my seat expanding. I'm not sure I will get on the back of that bike even with Roy, who I trust with, not only my life, but my children's lives. I told Josh if I ride behind him and start to slide off, I'm taking him with me. That didn't do much to inspire Josh to offer to give me a ride. And yes, he will wear a helmet.

This is probably enough of the Studyvin adventures for now. I promise now that summer's here, I'll try to keep this updated. Stay tuned for thoughts on summer reading assignments, being a baby boomer, text messaging and more.