Welcome Aboard

Well, it has taken me quite a long time to get around to doing this entry. I had to shed, and then Jarom and Lixi locked me in my cage for a week while they took a nice cruise around the eastern Caribbean sea. A great deal has happened, so this may be a little long. I will use subtitles so that you can skip any sections that do not seem to interest you.

End of the semester

Jarom ended another semester without an intramural champion t-shirt. His football team lost in the semi-finals, although he is confident that had they won that game they would not have won the final. They would have played a team consisting of athletes from the track team. He had seen them playing a few times before his games, and his team of weekend warriors would have been hard pressed to keep up with them running down the field play after play.

This was the final full semester that Jarom will have to finish at BYU, which made him happy. It also made it very difficult to remain focused on school (a problem that Jarom has never had to deal with before). But he did OK, and managed to pull out a GPA that was a little above a 3.0. Lixi decided that she needed a break from life, so she packed up her bags and left Jarom for a week to visit her parents in Cleveland. She had a wonderful time being a old lady with her mom. They played canasta, had brunches, went shopping, played doubles tennis, and complained about democrats. It was a fabulous time, and now she is excited for Jarom to get a good job so that she can begin to live that lifestyle full time. This excites Jarom a great deal.

Graduation

There were people everywhere for a few days. Lixi's parents came to see their first child graduate, and I was nice enough to share my room with them. It is a good thing that I can't hear because word on the street is that Mars snores like it's going out of style. There were also Winn parents in town, but Nancy is scared of me and won't share my room. There was lots of eating out for a few days, and a lunch that included many extended family members on the morning of the graduation ceremony. The ceremony took place in the afternoon, and everyone wanted a million pictures of the kids dressed up like nuns. Jarom planned his graduation to coincide with his two younger sister's and his wife's in order to save his parents a few plane tickets (I know, what a swell guy, right?). So the whole crew got to stand out in the parking lot together before marching into the Marriott Center. But BYU was not finished with it's annoying behavior. As if to send out a parting kick in the shins, it decided to make it snow and be freezing as the graduates had to stand there and wait to be told to march lemming style towards the arena.



They got to listen to Elder Bednar of the twelve apostles. He gave a pretty good talk, although he made a pretty big snafu. He started his talk by telling us that he had attended many convocations and couldn't ever remember what anyone said. Because of this, he promised, we would be getting a very short speech. This was exciting news for those who may have wanted to get out of their penguin costumes. But then he gave a normal length speech. Oh well. He said that everyone should learn to love learning, which is sound advice, even if you take a long time to say it.

The day after, Alixa and Jarom skipped their departmental graduation ceremony to hang out with Lixi's parents, since they were only there for a few days. They played a fun game of tennis with them, and then got under dressed and went to the Chef's Table. After getting over the embarrassment of looking like bums compared to the other patrons, they found a new thing to be embarrassed about. Alixa began to see some people that she knew from work, where she had called in sick. Then some more people, and more. Apparently, the entire office staff, including some assistant principles were there for a big lunch, and our table was right on the path that they all traveled to get to theirs. So Alixa had to keep finding ways to cover her face as they walked by. Fortunately, no one noticed her and she resisted the urge to say hi to each one as they walked by. Disaster averted. That afternoon they packed up their bags so that they could catch their flight to Orlando and begin our next segment...

The Cruise

They arrived at the airport and headed over to a hotel for the night, where Jarom took his nice clothes out and hung them in the closet so they wouldn't get too wrinkly. If you can see where this is going, good for you. That's right, he never took them back out of the closet the next morning when they left. Fortunately he realized this before the boat set sail, and was able to call the hotel and have them hold on to the clothes, which he would retrieve after the cruise. Stupid Jardog.

The cruise ran from Saturday to Saturday and stopped at St. Maaaaarten, St. Thomas, and a little isle in the Bahamas that Disney owns. It was magnificent from start to finish. The boat contained over 100 members of Jarom's family (His mother's side), which could get a little overwhelming. Despite the fact that the boat has over 12 million square miles of space, it was impossible to go more than 15 minutes without passing a family member. It makes for a fun game though, "Guess the name of that relative". Jarom is only slightly better than Alixa at this game. It is a hard one.

Days on the islands were spend snorkeling and riding different boats. One day it was a smooth sailboat, and another it was tiny jetski-like watercraft called rhino riders. They are named thus because it feels exactly the way riding an actual rhino would. After that day there were many sore butts, and I think that Jarom and Lixi each shrunk about an inch. But the water was clear and the weather was beautiful, and Jarom got to swim with a sea turtle, which is all he really wanted. Alixa avoided fish because she is still scared of them.

Days at sea were spent watching shows, shuffleboard, playing Settlers of Catan with cousins, and playing basketball. Jarom had to set up a 3 on 3 tournament for the reunion, and it was a big success. The conditions were less than ideal, though. The court was on the tenth deck, or about 85 feet above the water, which made for a lot of wind and rocking. There was also a net above the court meant to prevent balls from flying off the boat. It also tended to block your shot if you were further than 15 feet from the hoop. But it was great fun, and Jarom's team managed to win the tournament, even though they had a girl as one of their three.

But too quickly, the cruise was over, leaving Jarom and Lixi with nothing but some fond memories and a feeling that they might still be on the boat, even though they have been on land for three days. Due to some miscommunication and a flat tire on the bus, they got to the airport late and missed their original flight, but were able to catch another one going through Columbus, Ohio. That has to be the deadest airport in the lower 48. It was probably only built for the six days every fall when about 50,000 screaming idiots fly in to root for their beloved buckeyes.

First Week Back

Lixi had to start getting up early again, and Jarom had to go back to school. You see, he only pretend graduated. He actually has one more two credit class that he is taking during the spring term. They also both went back to coaching, although they are almost done. Jarom's lacrosse team played their first playoff game on Wednesday, and won 13-12 in OT, after being down 12-9 with only three minutes left. He was very proud of them for the way they played and wouldn't quit, and they were all extremely thrilled. It was the first playoff game that any of them had ever won. Round two is on Saturday, and hopefully they will continue their winning ways.

A new final intramural season has begun, and Lixi and Jarom are both on softball teams. They each won their first games, and Jarom has another one tomorrow. I think this really is their last chance at a t-shirt. Jarom is going to go golfing tomorrow, which makes him happy. He will look pretty bad because he is playing with two guys who will shoot low 80's, compared to his 110-120, but he will have fun anyway.

One final tidbit is that Jarom heard that he got into the University of Tennessee for grad school, so as of now the plan is to attend there starting in August. He would like to thank everyone who has helped him reach this point in his educational career, especially his little brother Nate.