Open House...

My open house was perfect. I could go back and do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing. My sisters and brothers-in-law all came over and helped get things ready in the morning. My mom had been baking up a storm for the last few days and had made three cakes, 12 dozen bar cookies, 3 dozen cupcakes, and 6 dozen cookies. Several of our other friends also brought sweets and so let me just say there are a lot of leftovers (YUM!)

One of my sisters brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and some college start up money and the other gave me a wonderful SUITCASE! Now let me just explain that I have a slight obsession with luggage especially hard side luggage. I have been wanting my own suitcase for about 3 years but have not had the money to buy a nice one. So lets just say that I was thoroughly excited (i.e. jumping up and down screaming) when I saw it.

The rest of the day was just as good with my friends and family coming in and out bringing me cards full of well wishes and gifts. It was so nice to sit and talk. I felt so loved.

But graduating is bringing changes (although not as many as I had thought) such as marking the transition from Mr. and Mrs. to first names with many of my friends parents (WEIRD!) Now I am constantly like "Mr. Smi... I mean.... Jim..."

One of the coolest things about my open house though had to be the cake. Mom, Emily and I went to go order a sheet cake from Costco, but all the had was the exact same graduation cake that Stacy and every other graduate has had. A cake with a hat and some flowers. Well I am not like every other graduate. I wanted something different. So we started looking over the templates and I found the perfect one! A cake meant for a baby shower with a giant STORK on it! It was AMAZING. So we had the decorater's leave off the baby stuff, change the colors and put a graduation cap on it and this is what I ended up with...

Isn't it cool! Mom said that storks are usually only symbolic of one thing however and I said "Yes it represents my new birth as a College Student!" and Emily quickly added "Besides Mom, it's not a stork... Its a mutated Beaver!" LOL

So there it is... My fantastic day. Probably one of the best in my life. I couldn't ask for anything more...

Graduation... YUCK!

Yes I am a member of the class of 2008, and yes I have mixed feelings about it. I mean the whole thing is kinda silly. Take for example a open house. A bunch of people show up and "encourage" you by saying things like "Congrats on completing the last 12 years of schooling! Now only 2-8 more. Oh and by the way you have to PAY for these ones, did I say Congrats?".

Then you have those incredibly boring ceremonies, that the grads make their families sit through. You sit there for hours watching TONS of people you have never met before graduate, then you clap and cheer for the two seconds your grad is on stage and sit through some more mind numbing boredom counting the names until it is over. Thankfully I am home schooled so I got to opt out of the whole graduation ceremony thing. I wouldn't want to subject my sisters to the same torture that I have had to sit through several times already.

Also there is the ritual of senior picture taking. Oh goodie! For someone who doesn't care to get their picture taken, and has low self esteem, this is really no fun. Thankfully Olivia is taking my pictures and she can make almost anything fun. So we got started tonight and tramped all over our poison ivy filled back pasture in search of the perfect picture. After an hour we ended up with some goofy ones...Some good ones...

And some bad ones that were promptly deleted. We have yet to find "the perfect" one but we are going to take some more tomorrow.

Anyways, I guess what I am trying to say is graduating can be silly, boring, frustrating, and annoying, but despite all of these things, it is kind of a big deal. It makes me feel special and I am actually really looking forward to my open house.