Grayson's Eagle Court of Honor

In May, we had Grayson's Eagle Scout Court of Honor -- the same weekend as his baccalaureate  and graduation from Centennial High School. It was a very nice ceremony with lots of people, lots of nice things said, and a beautiful Scout cake made by Hannah Bennett!

 

Photos from his slide show:

 

 

Photos from the Court of Honor:

 

"Pinning" his scout leader, Aaron with the "Mentor Award"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabulous Eagle Scout Cake made by Hannah Bennett!

 

Buddy Davis Fuqua

 

See post about Grayson's Eagle Project: HERE

 

Grayson - Seminary Graduation

After four LONG years of 'early morning seminary,' that started at 6am each weekday, Grayson graduated! I remember reading somewhere the statistics of early morning seminary students. They are pretty staggering in that those who 'sacrifice' and go to class at 6am tend to develop stronger testimonies, fill more missions, stay stronger in the gospel longer, etc. I don't know if that is true, and I'm sure there are pros and cons of both -- Steve and I were both blessed to have 'release time' seminary -- but I think it has definitely been good for our kids to make that sacrifice.

There's something to be said for getting up around 5:15am each day and heading out to class for that early morning 'devotional.' Steve taught early morning seminary back when Sam was a baby and Randi was in Seminary. At that time they met at the church, but Grayson met at Bart & Kathy Wheeler's house for two years, then at teacher, Tanja Crouch's house for two years. (Tanja was also Chris' teacher years ago.)

Lee Pennington, James Grayson and Grayson

Grayson and lifelong buddy, Hannah Bennett

Hannah and Spencer Bennett

Also, the ward youth leaders held a special SENIOR NIGHT the week before where they honored each of the graduating seniors. They did a slide show of photos of all the graduates, display tables, posters for each one, gift baskets, and the parents told a little about each student.

Here are some of the photos I submitted for the slide show:



His display table



Graduates with their gift baskets: Grayson, Jordan Johns, Blake Scott, Ben Paine, Hannah Bennett

Graduates wearing their candy necklaces made by the Young Women

We brought his poster home and hung it in the entryway.

That Jail "Stuff"

May was a very busy month at work. I did a CorizonTV filming in California, we did a special filming for our new CorizonSMART initiative, and we had our corporate leadership training in Atlanta. All good stuff, but very busy! Especially when it's also the end of the school year, Grayson's Eagle Scout, High School and Seminary Graduations, family in town, etc.

CorizonTV -- Alameda County, CA

We flew to Alameda County Jail, in Santa Rita CA, which is Corizon's longest standing client, at over 26 years.

My matching pink phone would have been in the photo -- but it was TAKING the photo.

We were there to film their outstanding Women's Health programs. It's a beautiful property, the people were very gracious, and the final episode turned out to be one of my favorites we've filmed so far. Click here to check it out on our YouTube channel: CorizonTV - Alameda Co. Jail  It's pretty cool to see what happens behind bars!

We got some shots of the men outside on the grounds, even though we won't use for this episode. It was funny, either they wanted to hide their faces, or they wanted to do pushups and spike the volleyball and grandstand for the camera, with just a few in between.

They had these cool little robotic carts that ran on a track and came around to pick up dirty food trays, laundry bags, etc. I guess they've had them for many years, but they seemed pretty high tech to me.

Inside the medical unit and the female facility:

Again, I love how this episode turned out. It's brief, I hope you'll watch it at the link above!

Great DVL film crew, great Corizon team in Alameda, fun to spotlight their good work.

Crew dinner after the wrap!

Filming the hosted portion -- and showing the final product!(Top Photo: Shawn, Rebecca Warren, Jason Marlin,
Kristin Priesol, me, Callahan Miller)

Filming CorizonSMART

One of the new company initiatives we have that defines our professionalism policy and lays out our executive leadership expectations is called CorizonSMART. It had been in the works for awhile, but all of a sudden, they wanted the video done in time for our leadership training. So we did it! It was a quick turn, but turned out great and we were able to show it at the leadership meeting.

I don't know why, but for some reason I didn't take any photos during the CorizonSMART filming. But DVL has this cool interstate sign in their break room, so we got this shot in front of it when we were done!

And this is what it looked like on the screen in Atlanta:

ATLANTA -- Leadership Training Meeting

We had a successful leadership training in Atlanta. When I went to check into my room, I found it amusing that they had put me in a room with a bed about 2 inches off the floor. WHAAA??? One of their tallest (female) guests, and I'd be sitting on the edge of the bed with my chin on my knees...Um, no thank you. I asked for a different room.

After that, the accommodations were just fine.

One of my responsibilities there was to go in a day early and get new head shots of our Vice Presidents and above. So, getting all that organized with their travel/arrival/meeting schedules was a challenge, but we did it! Although I can't believe I didn't take any photos of the 'shoots' we did get some great head shots. And the DVL photo crew had a nice dinner that night.



Gale Gargiulo, Melanie Taylor, Holly Rawnsley and me, "Lynelle" (long story)


It was a successful event, but I couldn't wait to get home because we had lots of fun stuff getting ready to happen starting the very next day! (see next post)

Playing Catch Up!

So...as you will see, the next several posts are waaaay behind chronologically. I am officially THREE MONTHS behind on my blog. Don't think I've ever gotten that far behind since I started blogging. It has really been a rough three months! So, these will likely be quick posts, and we'll try to Keep Calm and Catch Up. Stay tuned...