Mother's Day and then Some

I had a really great Mother's Day. No breakfast in bed (sleeping in preferred), but a delicious dinner prepared by David. Steak cooked on the grill with crab legs, shrimp salad, asparagus and chocolate cake for desert. Mmmm good!! Plus I received two bouquets of flowers, not to mention a hand made card from Primary (thanks Matt and Chris), and a candy bar from the Bishopric. Plus, David bought me a lovely necklace that I wanted from the Fort Worth Main Street Arts Fair that we visited with my parents a few weeks ago. And, to top all of that, we got a new refrigerator!! It was delivered today and now sits gleaming full of food and with all of our magnets on the front in our kitchen. Quite the Mother's Day, I tell you.

I also got to listen to Sara and Mike on the phone. I say listen, because I still can't talk. Sara is doing well but has tons of reading to do in her two English classes. She has still managed to go rock climbing with Derek and go to a baseball game with Jeff in the past week. Mike got a job doing design work for a local bank in Rexburg. It is part time and may keep them in Rexburg through the end of July--otherwise they would be able to leave the end of June after he turns in his BFA project. We will see how that develops.

Chris had a blast in Hawaii, maybe he will take a few minutes to fill us all in on his blog. He has started his marathon study for the CFA exam today and may not have a spare minute until it is over June 7. He has a lot to cover between now and then. Matt is keeping busy working the early shift at the gym and sleeping and playing video games on the huge mega screen TV he is borrowing from Ryan.

I went to a specialist today about my voice. Apparently my vocal cords are not closing all the way when I talk. The right one is slightly swollen and a little red. This is likley a response to the bronchitis I had in mid April. He wants me to try a stronger and longer dose of steroids and see if that won't get things back on track. If in two weeks I am not better, he will go in with a scope for a closer look. The good news is that there are no nodules or creepy things growing on my vocal cords, so hopefully these drugs will work and I'll be back in good working order soon. 33 without a voice and counting--ugh!

Graduation

Yes, we are back. We got back on Sunday night. I have been sick ever since we left and am still sick. I still can't talk. It has been 14 days so far and I can tell you it is getting old! I went back to the doctor on Monday and she wanted to try to dry up my drainage hoping it would reduce the inflammation of my vocal cords so she gave me a prescription. I am to call her tomorrow if I still can't talk and she will bring out the "big gun" antibiotics. My cough is better and my second sore throat is getting better, so something is working--just still no voice. Plus I am tired. I haven't been to work except for one day and pretty much just staying in bed and sleeping alot. Blah.


Our trip to Utah was quick and full. We got there on Wednesday afternoon. Matt and Chris came over later that evening and the two of them, David, Sara and I went to eat at TGIFridays for a celebratory graduation dinner. After dinner we went to a nickle arcade where all the machines take nickles to run. Chris is the Ms. Packman champion of the whole place--naturally. We won enough tickets between us to get some of Chris' favorite candy and then it was late enough to go back to the Nixon's.



We were talking to Chris about Commencement. He was all raring to go, but had no idea what it entailed. We told him about the processional, the talks, etc., the recessional, etc. He asked how long that took and I said about "3 hours" and I thought he would have a heart attack! We determined that the whole thing was going to be broadcast on BYU-TV, so Chris opted out of going to Commencement--and I have to say that noone was arguing with him. So we all spent the day hanging out--the boys played some b-ball, Matt packed up his stuff and moved out of his apartment, Sara moved into her apartment,and right about dinner time Mike and Melinda arrived from Rexburg to round out the proceedings!



The next day we all met up for an informal "lunch" and get together at the Tanner Building at 11:30 where we mingled with ourselves and ate a few snacks. After that we took some pictures and then trotted over to the Marriottt Center for the Convocation ceremony. This was just for the graduates of the Marriott School of Management--and let me say, I was looking for something sharp to land on before it was all over! There were about 1100 of them!!! Thankfully only two speakers and one of them was a student that we knew who used to be in our ward here in Plano (Austin Peterson) before his family moved to Dubai. The other speaker was as dry as toast can be--even Paul had to get up and leave during his speech. He was lucky to be seated on the outside of the row. Finally they got to the calling of the graduates names and the handing of the diplomas. It took forever, but they eventually got around to Christopher Z. Nixon and we got to do our cheering thing. So now it is official--he is a graduate of BYU with a masters degree in accounting. Hooray. One down and three to go. After the ceremonies Dad took us all to Carl's Jr. for lunch (we were all starving). I had my very first Six Dollar burger and it was Fantastic!! I think I am glad there is no Carl's Jr. here in Plano.

Since we have been home, Matt has started working the morning shift (5:00 to 10:00) at Express Fitness and Chris has escaped to Hawaii. Chris gets back a week from Friday. Once Chris gets back he will start studying 10 hours a day for the CFA (Certified Financial Analyst) exam he will take June 9. On May 10 my brother Zan his wife Bonnie and their four kids are coming to Texas for a short visit. To my knowledge Zan hasn't been back to Texas in over 25 years--so this is a milestone of sorts. It will be fun to visit them here for a change.

It looks like Mike might be finished with his school stuff by early to mid June and they could be on their way back to Texas by then. His final project will need to be turned in 2-4 weeks before the end of the semester and since he only has the one class, there won't be any reason for them to hang around. I will mean that he won't "walk" at graduation, but could mean he will start a job that much sooner. He will know for sure this week. So, the state could be bulging with Nixon's before the summer is over.