Senior Year

Senior year started out with a bang. Within the first few weeks I helped plan 2 assemblies. In the Sophomore assembly, we rocked to Guns and Roses as we welcomed the sophs to the “jungle” and helped with sophomore elections. We also had a welcome assembly for the entire school. For the welcome skit, I was assigned the role of the girl in the tight, short dress (not sure why this role was needed) and also performed with Laytones (there is video of this, if you’re interested.)

Football season was especially fun. Our guy friends were finally the studs on the team and It was fun to cheer for them at the games. I had gone on a few dates with Robb Kelly (my Junior Prom date) around that time and he was the star running back, so I felt kinda special, he said I was his good luck charm. Often we would hang out before and after the games, but it didn't last long. He changed interest in girls about as often as I changed underwear. I thought he might ask me to Homecoming, but he asked someone else. I ended up getting asked by a kid I hardly knew, and surprisingly, I was selected as Homecoming Queen. I know, I could hardly believe it either. (Actually, I had a dream that I was Homecoming queen during the summer, but didn’t think it would come true in a million years.)

During Homecoming week I was mostly involved with planning and decorating for the dance but also helped with everything else. We painted the “Lancers” on the side of the football field, we painted the street, decorated the halls of the school, had a movie night, held lunch activities daily (one was a dunk machine). I also helped sell dance tickets, helped with the pep rally, made 5 balloon arches for the football game, made a display for royalty (I hated my picture), wrote the homecoming assembly script, and went to the bonfire and powderpuff game. (I didn’t get to participate) I was in the Homecoming parade and was announced as Homecoming queen in the assembly. (I honestly felt so uncomfortable. There were many other girls who were prettier that should have won instead of me.) At half-time of the Homecoming game, I was driven around the track, riding on a blue convertible as they announced my name. (more video, if interested). On the morning of the dance, I decorated the gym. My date, Brock picked me up at 6 PM in a convertible corvette and gave me the most gorgeous purple orchid corsage. We met up with a large group for dinner at The Timbermine where I ate a delicious New York Steak. At the dance we had a photo shoot with our group and also for royalty. There was also a special royalty dance. After the dance we went hot tubbing and watched a movie. It was a lovely night.

A week later, I went with some friends to General Conference. We sat outside on a blanket on the lawn at temple square. At one point, two of us decided to go look through the doors of the Tabernacle to see if there was any room to go inside. Two people came out as we were looking in, so we asked the usher if we could take their seats. He said that there was another couple that had been waiting before we got there, so we started walking away. The couple that was supposed to go in caught up to us. They were a middle-aged couple that had been to conference many times. They asked if we had ever had the chance to go inside, we hadn’t, so they let us take the seats. It was so nice! I wanted everyone else to have a chance, so I went in and watched a couple of talks and then Mindy went in and then we just kept rotating so that everyone would have a chance. The two speakers I heard were Marvin J. Ashton and Dallin H. Oaks.

During Christmas time, we performed at the usual elementary schools and seemed to do 2 or 3 sacrament meetings each Sunday. We sang some beautiful, powerful music. Silent Night and the Hallelujah chorus brought chills every time we sang them. I loved being a part of Laytones.

In December that year, we welcomed baby Jessica to the family. Jenny invited me to be in the room for the delivery. I spent a lot of time holding Jess over the next several months.

That year, I seemed to be hanging out with different friends every day and had a lot of boy drama. I had many friends, but not a lot of close friends. I probably hung out with Mindy the most, but my one stalwart friend, that never seemed to let me down, was Mark Murphy. He was the one I could talk to about all the drama, the good and bad. I really appreciated having a friend that always had my back. I tried to be that kind of friend for him too and our relationship was a blessing in my life. If he comes to my funeral, please give him a big hug from me and tell him thank you!

During that time, I started making plans for college. I only had one school in mind. I applied to BYU and got accepted (3.91 G.P.A. 24 ACT). There were a couple other girls that were going to BYU, so we decided we would room together. I had no idea what I wanted to study, but believed I would figure it out eventually.

The second half of my senior year was busy. As officers we held “Mr. Lancer” week along with the “Mr. Lancer” competitions.(video available) We also planned a fun activity that we called “Roman Holidays.” I don’t remember what was supposed to happen, but I do know that it was going to be held at the football field. We set up a “danger zone” that was reserved for the brave. We had mushy spaghetti noodles, bags of flour, sugar, water and dish soap that we were planning to throw out into the danger zone sporadically throughout the event. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but next thing you know, a few of the football players got handfuls of spaghetti noodles and started an all out war on the field and in the bleachers. There were spaghetti noodles everywhere and people were soaked and covered in flour and sugar. 900 water balloons had been thrown in the melee. The activity was brought to a halt and immediately canceled. The next couple hours I spent hosing down the bleachers and picking up the water balloon pieces from the field. Some of the benches had been busted. What a disaster! I also helped with a fundraiser and helped plan and carry out our farewell assembly toward the end of the year. During the final assembly, we, the student body officers, got a standing ovation from our peers for everything we had done for the school that year. I got a little teary and was sad that it was coming to an end.

That spring I had a blast on another choir trip to California and got to help select the Laytones for the next year. I graduated from seminary. I also went to a fun overnight party at a cabin in the mountains, with about 15 of my friends, girls only. We reminisced about all the good times we had through the years.

Graduation day was June 10, 1992. We had a large graduating class, so the ceremony was held on the football field. I wore a special gold cord for being on the high honor roll and an honor society collar and got to sing with the choir at commencement. It was surreal to walk across the stage, knowing it was the end of my high school years. After the ceremony my parents took me to dinner and then I went to the overnight graduation bash at the high school. Early in the morning we all took a swim at the Layton pool.