Bucket List

In honor of our move to San Jose, KerMatt has been trying to make the most of our last days here in Utah. As part of our bucket list, we spent a weekend in St. George with Pikey and Chris and Tori, Bryan and Jackson. Sadly, Keri has not spent much time in St. George besides stopping through for food on a road trip.

As part of our weekend, we spent a day at Zion National Park - another first for Keri. We had a great time and realized now why so many people escape here during the winter. Zion was beautiful in a very dry, red-rock kind of way. We did two different hikes and had a great time with our friends before all of our lives change so soon.

Tori and Keri

KerMatt

KerMatt again - we spent about 10 minutes chucking rocks in the river and seeing who could make the biggest splash 

KerMatt, Chrikey, Broriackson

Bryan, Tori and Jack

Baby Jack loved being pushed along the trails

Chris & Pikey (and little baby on the way)

Zion

KerMatt is leaving early

A recruiter from Deloitte called Matt last week and asked Matt if he would be willing to start working earlier than September 12th. After a little deliberation by him (because it meant he would lose a month of his summer) we decided to take the opportunity. His new start date is August 8th.

It's a good thing we had a trip planned to San Jose this weekend to go find an apartment.

Keri also had to bite the bullet and tell her work that she is leaving. Her boss and team took it exceptionally well and were happy for us. They said they knew she was a risk when they hired her but that she was worth every penny, which made her feel so much better about leaving before even finishing out the year with them.

So off we go this weekend to find our new home (apartment)...

Downtown San Jose, where Matt's office will be located

You may need to work this weekend...

I had an interesting experience at the hospital this last weekend that bothered me. 


On Friday evening, the hospital received a call from a man saying he was a manager for Toby Keith and that they were coming the direction of the hospital to bring a very large check (over $3 million to beat the Telethon, he said) and that Toby was bringing out country singers with him (Clint Black, Carrie Underwood, Allan Jackson, and a secret surprise (Keith Urban). They were doing all of this because they were disenchanted with the fact that Primary Children’s was excluded from a NASCAR race where some children’s hospitals were named beneficiaries of a large competition. 

This guy came to the hospital (which 99% of these crazies don't ever do). 

He presented a check for $3.3 million, then he turned around with a cell phone to his ear and said, "I need to take that back. Toby wants to bring up a cashier’s check." 

The guy never showed up on Sunday of course. 

I kept getting calls from my boss saying to standby in case we had to go in on Sunday to make this happen and if I were her, I would have been very upset about losing my weekend to this crazy. She spent almost 5 hours with him on Saturday, then an hour on Sunday to meet him and his "crew".

To be honest, I think she was way nicer than I ever would have been. I mean what is wrong with people?! What would possess someone to do something like this? I am amazed at the lengths this man went to pull off his stunt, which we have all decided was some kind of prank. He wasted his own weekend on this and my bosses and for what? Not to mention the fact this is a children's hospital and we are trying to save lives!!!

One of my co-workers and I have decided the best solution to this problem is to find where this guy lives and do an old-school egging. ;-)

Artistic Interpretation

We have been blessed to receive some beautiful drawing from nieces and nephews recently and I just had to share these because they are so cute and show each personality so well :)  A couple of them are still on our front door, which is where I found them last Saturday night. I had gone out with Matt's mom and came back to find the first three on my door from the girls along with a clean home and a Funfetti birthday cake that they had made with Matt. They tried to distract me while Matt searched for candles and offered me glasses of water and then they sang to me right after giving me these homemade pictures.  

Johanita's Happy Birthday drawing for me. Notice the special scrolly handwriting. She also signed it "Truely Johana"

Jeraldine's avant garde bouquet

Jamie's version of the "warm fuzzy".  Notice the large Daddy Long Leg/mosquito eater (we are still debating) on the left (not Jamie's addition) which I did not even notice  until after I uploaded the photo.

  

Drawing from Carys, who signed it as Carys McGhee "Princess"

Little Calay's drawing which Dan fittingly titled "Masterpiece With Crayons"

Probably the most articulate and witty drawing I've ever seen from a child. This is from Cayden  who not only drew this dinosaur by hand and but he glued on a copy of Matt and I at last year's  BYU graduation to make it look like we were about to get eaten. Then his witty meesage to Matt above "Try not to get eating in the Real World, Uncle Master Matt" 

Pomp and Circumstance - Master Matt has graduated!

Matt graduated on May 6th from the University of Utah with his Master Degree in Information Systems. He would like to be called "Master Matt" now which I definitely do not do but oh well, he tried.

I am so proud of him and so happy to be done! Matt has had a long, hard journey through college and I could not stop thinking how amazing it is that he has persevered and stuck through it all. I have never seen so much hassle through financial aid EVERY SEMESTER.  It seems like every semester, they lost his paperwork and he had to worry up to the last minute whether he was going to have to drop his classes.

Matt in his all his graduated hotness with his wife on his arm

We also love that he was the last of his siblings to get his Bachelor's Degree but the first to get his Master's Degree. And he is the first cousin on the Folsom side to get his Master's. I like to brag for him if you couldn't tell :)

We were honored to have his Grandma and Grandpa Folsom join us at the ceremony. It was not an easy event for them with all of the crowds, the walking and the sitting but Grandma was determined to make it since she was not there for his BYU graduation last year. I got to shuttle everyone around in a mini-van while Grandpa told me I'm definitely not a Utah driver. I took it as a compliment but I'm not quite sure if that's what he meant. Since we were in the Sugarhouse area, they even had me drive by the house where Grandma grew up.  It was nice to hear her share stories about her life and the area.

Matt's parents also came out for the trip and the ceremony and Johana and her three girls joined us as well. They are probably the only 3 kids I know that would sit through a whole graduation ceremony without complaining - especially since they came to the BYU graduation last year and definitely knew better. 

All of the Business school graduate students during the Graduation Ceremonies

Jeraldine and Johanita waiting for Uncle Matt's name to be called

Proudly displaying his diploma

Matt with his cute nieces who sat through the whole ceremony for him

The morning of Matt's ceremony, we went down to Provo to watch the twins Chinese Presentation. It was weird to not be able to understand anything but it was so cute to watch and they did a great job. Below are some pics from that.

The girls standing in front of their artwork for their Chinese presentation.