I never thought this would happen...

Last Monday was my final day off before I returned to work, so I decided to go golfing. Since JoAnna was at work and I have no golfing buddies left in Provo, I went out on my own and got paired up with two older gentlemen. It turned out that one of the two men was the lead sports editor for the Deseret News (Provo newspaper). As we were golfing, we discussed many aspects of BYU sports because his main job is to cover BYU basketball and football. He even travels with the teams. He began to ask me my opinions on the BYU recruiting process and how I ended up at BYU. I spoke openly to him about it, and he seemed to agree with me. Well, JoAnna's co-worker found this column/blog the sports editor wrote about me a couple days ago.

Before you read the article, let me clarify a few things he exaggerated on, or simply misunderstood.
- We were talking college football and I mentioned Tim Tebow played in the same area as me. In the article, he says we are "friends", which is far from true.
- Next, he combined my academic and athletic scholarships together. I had academic scholarships at Florida and Florida State. I had athletic scholarships at Hawaii and Valparaiso.

Anyways, it was pretty cool to talk with this sports writer and discover that he wrote about me. I still can't believe our conversation was important enough for him to write about it, but I guess you never know. Oh and for those of you who are wondering whether or not I beat him in golf, the answer is, "Yes".

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.deseretnews.com/blogs/1,5322,19,00.html?bD=20090501&sc=dmn

Graduation Weekend

On Friday, April 24, 2009, Robert graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in Communications.

Pondering on what the future will hold...

His parents were able to come out for graduation. We were so happy to have them visit again, and we had a lot of fun spending time with them.

We were so happy that it turned out to be a nice day! It was supposed to rain or snow that day, but it held off. At least for one day. It ended up snowing on Saturday.

Robert and his parents.

Robert going through the tunnel at the Marriott Center about to walk across the stage to receive his diploma.

There it is, the moment we were all waiting for, Robert receiving his diploma! Robert graduated in one of the biggest colleges, so we waited a looonnng time to hear his name announced. However, the actual graduation ceremony was wonderful. Elder Holland's son spoke. He was my professor for American Heritage (loved his class). He is leaving BYU to be the new president of Utah Valley University, so they had him speak at convocation. All the speakers were fabulous.



Here is a video of Robert receiving his diploma.

YAY! He is officially a BYU graduate.

My brother Jeff also graduated, so we were able to see his graduation as well! We almost missed the start of his because Robert's almost did not finish in time, but we made it! Jeff graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Recreation Management & Youth Leadership with an emphasis in Leisure Services Management. Congratulations Jeffrey!

My side of the family came up and watched both graduations as well. It was fun to have two gradutations to celebrate! We were excited to see Jeff and Laura again because we have not seen them since they moved to Texas.

My mom is so sweet, she gave both Robert and Jeff candy and money filled necklaces.

Robert wheeling my Grandpa Whitehead around campus. He is always so helpful! Grandpa has that big smile on his face. I think it is because after dragging him around from place to place we got him some milk to drink. He loves milk. He was such a trooper. We were so happy to have him there.

My Grandma Tolsma and my mom, two classy ladies.

High five, you did it!

It was a pretty windy day! It was hard to capture good pictures when the tassel actually stayed still. I think we were ready to be done taking pictures at this point.

After both graduations and taking lots of photographs, we all went to eat at the Olive Garden. The food was delicious, and the company was even better! After dinner we all went up to Robert's parents' cabin that they were staying in to spend the night. We ate ice cream, cookies, and treats while we opened all of Robert and Jeff's graduation presents. They were spoiled.

Speaking of graduation gifts, this is Robert's graduation present from his grandparents. Yep, that is a brand new 2009 Hyundai Sonata all expensed. We were totally shocked and excited! They are so generous and kind! It is unbelievable! We are so lucky to have such wonderful grandparents!

That smile can't get any bigger.

The interior of the car.

Off we go! It turned out to be an awesome graduation!

Thank you!!!!!!

Speaking of internships...I just got one!

As JoAnna was working on finishing her internship application, I was in the process of interviewing for a summer internship at the Law Offices of Ford and Huff in Lehi, Utah (Thanksgiving Point area). Of the 35 BYU students who applied for the internship, I was the student who was chosen to be their law intern for the summer. I will work there for 8 hours each week. It is not a paid internship, but the experience I will gain from it will be huge. The law office has 28 lawyers and does many types of law including criminal law, estate planning, immigration, and general litigation. The law office has an interesting focus. The office motto is "In serving each other we become free." The lawyers in the office complete an unbelieveable amount of pro bono (free) service for Latin individuals in Utah. On top of that, the law office is unique because it allows its lawyers to practice part-time if they would like or even only work a case for half of the time. Also, the lawyers get to choose the cases they want to work. The managing partner, which has an MBA, feels lawyers often are unhappy because they get stuck working long hours on cases they don't enjoy. Thus, the reason the law office is so flexible with their lawyers is that they want their lawyers to be happy doing their job. Lastly, I will be able to attend court with the lawyers, sit in on depositions and phone calls, and participate in training sessions with the lawyers. One great chance I will have is to participate in a training session in which the estate planning lawyers get trained on a will-making system. Since I am interested in possibly doing estate planning law, this would be an excellent opportunity for me to learn more about the field. Well, I will stop talking about this internship now. As you can see, I am quite excited that I received the internship and cannot wait to start it.

Application submitted

Last week, I submitted my application for an internship position at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital of Tampa Child Life Department. Most of you may know already, but I graduated from BYU with a major in Marriage, Family, and Human Development in hope of becoming a Child Life Specialist. Child life specialists are trained professionals with expertise in helping children and their families overcome life’s most challenging events. They provide emotional support for families and encourage optimum development of children facing a broad range of challenging experiences, particularly those related to healthcare and hospitalization. Since we about 80% sure we may end up at Stetson for Robert to attend law school, I thought I would apply for the hospital's fall internship program. The application process was very comprehensive, so it took a lot of time and effort to complete. I want to thank Robert for all of his help and others who took the time to write letters of recommendation for me. The internship is the next step I have to complete in order to be able to take my certification exam to become a Child Life Specialist. I will know if I get the internship in June. Hopefully by then, we will know for sure where we are going to be living! If we do end up at Stetson, I hope I get this internship because it will be a great opportunity for me to see if this is the profession I really want to be in. It would be a great learning experience for me and give me a chance to use my degree.

Robert is Graduating from BYU!

Brigham Young University

announces that

Robert Todd Fountain

is a candidate for a

Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science

with a minor in Communications.

The University Commencement will be held on

Thursday, April 23, 2009

at four o'clock in the afternoon.

The College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Convocation will be held on

Friday, April 24, 2009

at eleven o'clock in the morning

in the Marriott Center.

I just want to say how excited and happy I am that Robert is graduating. He has worked so hard, and excelled in everything he has worked on. Robert was awarded a University scholarship for 3 out the 4 years he attended school here. In the fall, as most of you know already, Robert will be starting law school. We still have not made an official decision on where yet, but we will let you know as soon as we know! Well I just wanted to take this moment to say how proud I am of him. I love how determined and smart he is! Robert just has finals left that start tomorrow before he can say he is officially finished!

Way to go Rob! I love you!

Robert will be walking in the Friday Convocation with his class.

Snow and lots of it!

Winter refuses to leave. On April 16, 2009, this is what we woke up to. Just a few days ago we were outside enjoying the 60 degree weather, and now look at it! I didn't believe the weather man when he predicted snow in the valleys. I thought "Yeah, sure the mountains will get snow, but I bet it will only rain down here in the valley." Boy, was I wrong!

Look at these poor blossoms on this drooping branch. I don't think even the blossoms saw this one coming. See, I am not the only one wanting spring to be here, even nature is confused!

Although I was unhappy that it had snowed, I could not resist taking pictures because it was just so beautiful! Everything as you can see was covered in white.

Standing in our backyard.

This is our street that we live on. We almost didn't make it out of our parking spot. I thought we were going to be stuck, but our ol' green machine bucked up and made it out!

Rob showing off the accumulation that we received, right before he scraped it all off the car. Unbelievable!

This is my favorite picture I took. On a positive note, this is my favorite type of snow. The kind that falls quickly, covers all the trees, melts fast, and allows the sun to still come out. Happy spring everyone!

You don't see this everyday...

For those of you that know Robert, there is no need to explain the significance of this picture, but for the rest of you I will gladly explain. Robert dislikes or refuses to eat most "green" things, but since we have been together "we" have been trying to work on this. The other night I made a salad for dinner and asked him if he wanted to try some. As nice as he is, he accepted. However, to my surprise, he loved it! He even asked for seconds! Amazing I know! Well, slowly but surely he is branching out and liking more "green" things. Way to go Rob!
The recipe can be found on my Jodaisy Design blog.