Open House and Plans

My sister, Sara's Graduation Open House was on Saturday. It went from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. They had on Open House at our Church Meeting House for several of the graduates in our ward. This first picture is of Sara's table.

This next one is of Sara standing behind her table.Here Sara and I are standing at the Open House.

This Saturday, May 17th, is her Seminary Graduation. And on the 25th of May is her high school graduation, at 5 pm. Rachel's going to be up here for the high school graduation. She's going to get her the day before (Saturday the 24th) and stay Sunday for the Graduation and then leave on Monday. I plan on going with her. I'm planning on going on a mission this summer and I figure it would be better if I went down there early. That way, Rachel could more effectively help me to prepare than I could if I stayed up in North Dakota during that time. I plan on going on my mission around July 15th at the earliest. I might come back up to North Dakota beforehand if necessary, but I plan on going down there with Rachel after Sara's graduation. Even though, I still need to figure out where exactly I'm going to stay while I'm down there. Rachel suggested that I might be able to sleep on the floor at the place she found, but she doesn't know how long I'd be able to stay there. I'll need to figure out exactly where I'd stay before that. Although, right now I'm drawing a blank at where I'll stay. I still have a week or so to figure that out.

Mothers' Day

Today is Mothers' Day. The first one since Mom died. This is for Mom.

This is the survey I made for My Personal and Family History book that I created in my senior year for my Individual Worth Personal Progress 10-hour project (more like 20 hours).

Karen (M) Atwood

Q: What are your favorite scriptures?

A: Doctrine and Covenants 76:22-24

22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

23 For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father-

24 That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.

Q: What are your favorite books?
A: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle; Light and Truth by Darryl Harris;
The Keystone by b.v. cheyenne

Q: What are your favorite TV shows?
A: CSI; Without a Trace; Monk

Q: What are you favorite movies?
A: Fiddler on the Roof; Jumanji; One Magic Christmas

Q: What are your least favorite movies?
A: Karate Kid; war with battles

Q: What are your favorite foods?
A: baked potato; bananas; fish fillet

Q: What are your least favorite foods?
A: Lima beans; Pumpkin pie; very spicy

Q: What are your favorite school subjects?
A: Mathematics

Q: What are your least favorite school subjects?
A: Physical Education

Q: What are your favorite topics?
A: The Last Days; Church History

Q: What are your least favorite topics?
A: repetitions

Q: What are your favorite types of music?
A: Easy listening (can sing to); LDS

Q: What are your least favorite types of music?
A: Rap; Western

Q: What are your favorite songs?
A: Bring Them In by Nancy Hanson; Never a Better Hero by Kenneth Cope; Here I Am, Lord from The Savior of the World soundtrack; I Write the Songs by Barry Manilow; The Test by Janice Kapp Perry; Abinadi by Jenny Phillips; We Trust in Our God by Jenny Phillips

Q: What are your favorite colors?
A: purple; blue

Q: What are your least favorite colors?
A: yellow; orange

Q: What are your favorite animals?
A: dog; cat

Q: What are your least favorite animals?
A: wasps; hornets

Q: What are your favorite types of books?
A: mysteries; historical fiction; science fiction

Q: What are your least favorite types of books?
A: R-rated books

Q: Who are your favorite teachers?
A: Gerald Hilton

Q: What are your favorite things to do?
A: read; play games

Q: What are your least favorite things to do?
A: clean

Q: What are your favorite book series?
A: The Work and the Glory

Q: Who are your favorite prophets?
A: Joseph Smith, Jr.; David O McKay; Gordon B Hinckley

Q: What are your favorite hymns?
A: “O My Father” (#292 from Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints); “The Lord Is My Shepherd” (#108 from Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Q: What are your favorite animated movies?
A: Finding Nemo

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: crocheting; paint by number

Q: What are your talents?
A: good at math; mother; good cook; good at crocheting; knitting; reading fast

Q: How do your family members describe you?
A: weird; avoids confrontation; nice; stubborn; responsible; worrywart

Also for a Relief Society activity several months before she died, we each had a piece of paper we had written each of our names on, and passed them around the room, when everyone wrote something good about the person whose name was on the paper.

These are what people wrote about my mom:

It is wonderful to see you in the temple. The great mother you are is reflected in the affection your daughters show you.

Karen is a very gentle person.

Your ability to handle situations is amazing & you always come to church meetings.

You are such a nice person.

You are a very nice person and very friendly.

You are very reliable and helpful.

Amazing mother, willing to sacrifice everything

Karen, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? You are an amazing woman. Thanks for being a great supervisor! We love ya.

You have a tremendous ability to quietly overcome hardships.

You are a kind & sweet spirit.

Thanks for being so strong and kind.

My Art

These are some of my latest artwork. These first ones I did for my Young Women's Divine Nature 10-hour project. The pictures didn't take long enough to do, so, I ended up doing 10 of them total for the project.This first one is a picture of the Tree of Life in 1 Nephi of the Book of Mormon. My sister, Rachel, had the idea that I make the fruit on the tree be pears, so that's what they are. I decided since I needed to do so many to fulfill the time for the project, I'd give some of them to others. This one I gave to Rachel, since she suggested the pears in the first place.This next one is just of a body of water with a sunset in the background.
This one is another one of the Tree of Life. I didn't want to attempt to do pears this time, so I just did circles, but I have a sunset in the background. This one of the Tree of Life is the one I kept. I wanted to have a sunset in the background of mine, because I like the look of them so much (in case, you can't tell from most of my pastel pictures).This one is just a plateau with a sunset in the back. This is another one I kept.This one is yet another of the tree of life. This one I gave to my sister, Sara. She also wanted a copy of the tree of life.This is a picture of a path going between two trees and leading into the sunset. Yet another one I kept.This one is of two hills with a sunset in the background. This one Mom wanted to have, so I gave it to her.This is another of the Tree of Life. This one I also gave to Mom. She had liked the idea of using pears, so she wanted pears on the one I gave her.This one is just of grass with a sunset in the background.This one is not one of my Divine Nature project. It's a pastel picture I did, quite a bit after the other pastels. This one is another portrayal about the Iron Rod leading to the Tree of Life. In the Book of Mormon, it tells about a mist of darkness and lightening. So, that's what I portrayed in this one. You can also clearly see where the Iron Rod is in this picture.This is a drawing I did for my 9th grade Art class. My teacher gave each of us a tiny picture of a house in Bismarck that we had to enlarge with what's called the grid system. With the grid system, you lightly draw a grid on a picture you are going to enlarge and then you draw a larger grid on a blank sheet of paper and go from there. Here are my most recent pictures that I've done. I used this same grid system to enlarge that I really enjoyed when I drew this picture in the 9th grade (which I got an A on).Here's the first picture I tried. I printed this picture out in black and white and used the grid sytem to draw it. It's a picture of the Bismarck, North Dakota Temple. I was quite happy with how it turned out. Several people that I've shown it to, have complimented me on how real it looks. Someone even told me they thought it was a photo at first.
This one I tried is of my sister, Rachel's cat, Gizmo. I gave this one to her for Christmas after she got back from her mission in Russia.
This picture is of our cat, Cougar, who died in the fire that we had in our house 5 years ago. I'm amazed at how well it turned out. The drawing actually looks like he's actually giving me a sideways glance.
This last picture is of our dog, Sugar, who died from cancer of the blood quite unexpectedly while Rachel was on her mission. All of these pictures I printed out in black and white, so I could use the grid system to enlarge them properly.

On Tuesday, Sara and I walked from our house to Fairview Cemetary. I estimate that it is about 4 miles to walk. Sara and I had wanted to visit Mom's grave for her birthday. On the way there, we stopped at Dan's Supermarket and bought a bouquet of flowers (with a lot of purple) to put on Mom's grave. After we got there, I decided to read my poem at the grave. I thought it would be a good thing to do. I had Sara record the video of it.

After that, Sara and I talked a while at the grave about Mom and I recorded that as well. I really enjoyed it and it was good just to talk about her. I felt really good about reading the poem at her grave. After we were finished with that, we spent about a half hour at the grave. We walked home from there.