Time to Pull Out the Emergency Chocolate

So I'm doing a little consulting work while the kids are in bed and listening to my iTunes (showtunes--the boys gag if they even suspect I'm listening within their earshot) and every other song is making me misty! Who knew "Popular" from Wicked could induce such sentimentality? It's too soon! How am I going to get through the next week packing up my baby for college? Exactly when did he get taller than me anyway?

His love of formal wear began at a young age...

The Deacon, the Teacher, and the Priest

For one brief month, we will have all three offices in the Aaronic Priesthood covered (Justin is set to be ordained to the office of Elder this month). The Aaronic, or preparatory Priesthood is given to worthy males in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 12 (which Bryce turned in July), and they generally progress through the offices every 2 years.

Each office has a unique set of responsibilities--for example, Priests bless the sacrament and can baptize, Teachers "watch over the church" by ushering, and Deacons pass the sacrament. Once you are ordained to a higher office, you can still perform duties of the lower office, but not vice versa. For example, Priests and Teachers can pass the sacrament but Teachers and Deacons cannot bless the sacrament or baptize.

I love this set of scriptures the Young Men recite weekly. It gives me a shiver to hear about 50 of them, aged 12 - 18.

1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.

6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.

7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

(Doctrine & Covenants Section 4)

When Mom Tells Us to do Something We Say....

"you don't talk to me like that"...

courtesy of Will Ferrell and this SNL skit.

I did just get back from JC Penney...

Extra! Pictures

Ask and ye shall receive...

Here are pictures from 10 Things

See what I mean about the "picnic"?

And, love the letterman jacket with shorts. Isn't a little warm for a jacket?

Thanks Carolvee!

An Offer He Had to Refuse

Addendum to the post below... Justin relayed that he did get another job offer earlier this week. In his words, "You can't make stuff like this up!" He was leaving the gym when he was approached by two women in the parking lot. One of them introduced herself as the store manager of Abercrombie & Fitch in our mall and offered him a job on the basis that they were "...looking for attractive and outgoing people" to work in their store.

Funny. Not smart people. Not responsible people. Not people who can correctly make change. I guess that's a compliment. Where were they in January?

Oh, what might have been. He had to turn them down. After all, he's a star now. Oh, and he leaves for college in 18 days...18 days...18 days...

Extra! Extra!

Who knew it would be so difficult to find a job for this clean-cut-honor-student-Eagle-scout-church-going-all-league-football-player?

After all, he's smart, he's disciplined, he presents well. And, bonus, he doesn't look like this:

Or, this:

Or, even...

YIKES! Do you think those are his "business casual" knives?

You know you've seen those guys with jobs!

But, I digress.

Anyway.

When January rolled around, Justin suddenly found himself with time. A lot of time. No football. Out of school at 12:30. A guy can only go to the gym so many hours a day. And, well, let's just say after having a 4.2 gpa the first semester, he pulled nearly straight B's the 2nd semester. The guy needed to be productive. So, he started job hunting.

These days, you can do most of your job hunting from the comfort of your own computer (probably how those guys above all got their jobs). He started with the "yeah, I'd agree to grace them with my presence" list but rapidly learned that he could not afford to be that particular. Magic Mountain (the ever popular employer of Santa Clarita teens) called but he could never get through on the number they gave them.

Now it's May. Plan B. Justin learned (as so many of us before him), "It's all about who you know." Aunt Jan kindly put in a good word with Boys and Girls Club, but no openings. Friend and future dorm-mate Mitchel passed on his leftovers (somehow Mitchel managed to have 3 jobs for a while), but nothing took. He did lots of manual labor in the meantime--dogsitting, yardwork, moving dirt, jack-hammering cement--all for friends and neighbors. (Interesting enough, our own house projects for pay never seemed to make the cut...)

Along came an angel. Friend, home teacher, young men's leader, philanthropist and roommate's father all rolled into one--Steve took pity upon Justin and put him on his roster for extra work for tv and film projects. It was a perfect fit! Flexible week to week AND it gave Justin an excuse to shop whenever he needed the required outfit.

First paycheck!

He's done work on 10 Things I Hate About You (ABC Family series). For this, he really had to reach way down DEEP inside to find the motivation for his character....

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wait for it...

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a high school football player!

He was flipping channels last night and saw that the show was on and it happened to be the ONE episode he was in (season 1/episode 5). HERE it is if you want to take a look. He's in at least 3 times. If you choose to watch, here's what to watch for: the first time happens pretty early on (during opening credits), he's in the quad in the lower right in a letterman jacket sitting on the grass on a blanket (LOL! who brings a blanket for a picnic to high school?). The second time he's again on the quad behind the main characters and 2 cheerleaders bounce up to talk to him. The last time he's in the school hallway chatting it up with Patrick (his roommate to be). He says the toughest part is all the fake talking you have to do.

He's also done an episode of The Closer (TNT I think) and the movie, IronMan 2 where he HAD to be in a scene with supermodels in bikinis.

Tough job but someone has to do it.

(PS, I can't figure out how to clip screenshots out of the video--if anyone knows how, give me holler! Judy? Rober?)