Em/Ashton's Graduation::22/52::May 26

(I told him to "smile"... so he closed his eyes really tight :) )


I'm so proud of her! At the beginning of the year, she was told that there was no possible way for her to graduate with her class at the charter school. The plan was to have her get as many credits as she could, and then take more classes at the adult high school.

Day 1 of school, she had a melt down. The next day, I checked her out of the charter school and headed to the alternative high school.

After jumping through hoops, I got her registered at the alternative high school, paid her fees, talked to the counselor, and learned that according to Utah State requirements for graduation, she was only .25 credit shy of graduation, as long as she passed all of her required classes throughout her senior year.

Well, the school and Emily worked miracles together, and she was done with all of her credits in March... which leads another story that I'd like to tell.

Emily has struggled with depression & anxiety for years and has had to be hospitalized for it. In March, with a week left in the term that she had been doing so well in, the depression kicked her butt and she had to go in for a week. She was disheartened, because at the charter school, it was so hard to make up a week at the same time as trying to keep caught up with the regular work that she ended up never catching up during the first term of her junior year. We were worried it was going to be the same scenario...

When I talked to the counselor, he said that he had talked to the teachers and had agreed that they would just freeze her grades where they were and she could be finished. I LOVE that school, the teachers, the counselors, and the administration! They treat students like people. At the beginning of the year, when she met with the counselor, he said that at their school, they believed in mutual respect: teachers showed respect to the students, and in return, the students were expected to show respect to the teachers. Emily was surprised and said, "That's not the way it was at my old school! Teachers don't show respect for students there." Unfortunately, she was telling the truth about many of the teachers there. I am amazed at the alternative school, and I couldn't be happier with her experience!

She has had a hard 4 years, and I couldn't be prouder of her that she stuck it out and saw it through! Congratulations to my 2015 Graduate! <3

♥ Melody

Yes, I do get obsessed...

I've noticed a pattern in my life: I'm obsessive about things that interest me. I eat, sleep, and breathe it. And then I tell about it here on my blog. I'll bet you can guess what has caught my interest lately, huh?

I need to learn balance. Actually, I could tell you about all of my favorite tv shows, you know, because they are my other obsession. Grey's Anatomy, Elementary, Supernatural, The Blacklist, and my newly acquired Scrubs, are a few of my very favorites. This summer, Steve and I will catch up on Person of Interest and Castle. Maybe we'll catch up on BONES too, but that would take some work, since we are 2 seasons behind on that one.

So, yep, religion and tv. That is balance in and of itself, right?

And if you're not into religion (or at least my preferred brand) or tv, we'll go back to the basics...So, how about all this rain we've been having?
♥ Melody

Quote from "Searching for Sunday"

I've been reading the book, searching for sunday: loving, leaving, and finding the church by Rachel Held Evans. It is an excellent book that I can relate with in so many ways.

Today, as I reading along, I read this passage and I loved it so much! She told about the scene in the Bible where the woman caught in the act of adultery is there with all of the men who were her accusers and also Jesus.

"'Where are they?' Jesus asks the woman after they have gone. 'Has no one condemned you?'

'No, sir,' she replies.

'Then neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.'

We tend to look down our noses at these ancient people with their religious codes regulating everything from the fibers in their clothing to the people they touched. But we have our own religious codes these days. We have our own scapegoats we cast from our communities and surround with Bible-wielding mobs. We have sins we delight in taking seriously, biblical instructions we interpret hyperliterally, issues we protect over-vigilantly because it helps us with our sorting system. It makes us feel righteous.

'Let's not forget that Jesus told the woman to go and sin no more,' some like to say when they think the church is getting to soft on other people's sin.

To this I am always tempted to respond: So how's that working out for you? The sinning no more thing? Because it's not going so well for me.

I think it is safe to say we've missed the point when, of all the people in this account, we decide we're most like Jesus. I think it's safe to say we've missed the point when we use his words to condemn and this story as a stone.

Billy Graham once said, 'It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge, and my job to love.'

Perhaps it would be easier for us to love if it were our own sins we saw written in that dust and carried off by the wind."

♥ Melody