Graduation

As anyone who looks at my facebook or Istagram would know, I graduated in December after 4 1/2 years back to school. About a year-and-a-half ago, I approached Caleb and asked his thoughts about going to Rexburg when I graduated so that I could walk. I really wanted to feel like I had the ultimate goodbye to being a student/mom and I didn't feel like getting my diploma in the mail would give me that. He was really supportive of it and told me that whenever I graduated, we would make it happen.

About a year ago, right at the beginning of January, I had this really strong feeling that I needed to finish school by the end of the year. BYU-Idaho has this great track system that allows you to fit three semesters in to a year. Because I have been juggling wife/mom/student life responsibilities, I usually only did the traditional fall (September-December) and winter (January -April). I knew that if I added that third semester instead of taking it off like I usually do, I could finish in December. 

That winter semester was kind-of intense for me, but I did my best to power through it. Spring semester runs from April to Julyish, and I felt very out of my element, despite having only 5 credits that semester. It was my practicum class, which required me to design and implement and workshop on a topic of my choice, and then I had my final religion credit to complete. Towards the end of that semester, I realized that if I really was graduating THAT YEAR, I needed to look in to booking a hotel. Rexburg gets packed around graduations and especially with everyone leave for the holidays, it would be really jam-packed. So, I talked to Caleb again and he said we needed to sit down and book something before they filled up. He was smart to do that. We booked a hotel just outside of campus with an indoor heated pool for the kiddos to enjoy. AND one of my friends booked her family there as well! 

When December rolled around and finals week hit, it felt so surreal to me. I turned in the last of my finals, cleaned the house up, and packed everything I though we'd need. 

On the morning of the 14th we headed up through Logan towards Pocatello. Rexburg is only about 3 hours from us, so our drive wasn't too bad. It was really foggy that day, but it didn't detract from the smile on my face! 

When we reached campus, the first thing to do was Grad Fest where I would pick up my cap & gown. Everything looked so different and Caleb kept asking me where to go and I kept telling him that I was trying to remember. You can forget a lot in 9 years apparently, especially when they make changes. 

By the time we finished up there it was time to get checked in to our hotel. It started snowing, and I was so excited. I know that's funny since we get snow all the time, too, but I guess it just felt like a little graduation present from the universe. 

I neglected to mention this but that morning Caleb had woken up with a horrible cold. He had been taking dayquil the whole day just to survive. When we got checked in I tried to have the kids calm down while I ironed my gown and let Caleb take a nap. Eventually I realized it was dinner time, so I started looking up nearby places to eat. I thought KFC looked like a great choice, so I woke Caleb up and told him the plan, before we all loaded up in the car. It wasn't really that simple though. We couldnt find the KFC so after turning around about 3 times, we realized we couldn't find it because it was in plain sight...boarded up with the lights out. It was getting a remodel and completely closed so of course they didn't want people finding them. We settled for the Arby's close by. 

When we returned to the hotel the kids were so excited to go swim. Caleb and the kids went ahead of me and I followed just minutes behind. When I got there, my friend from Louisiana spotted me and introduced me to her family. We had several classes together throughout our schooling and there were two classes where we ended up in the same groups. I have a few friends that have really stood out to me and she was one of them. And her family was the sweetest! 

The next morning we woke up and went downstairs for the delicious breakfast the hotel provides. It seriously was excellent. We stayed at the AmericInn, by the way. 

I had wanted to do a few things that day, but it didn't happen and I'm ok with that now. We spent a lot of our early afternoon swapping plans with the family and taking it easy before the stress would set in. We decided to meet up with my friend Lynetta's family at the Applebee's across the parking lot from the hotel. 

When we got back from lunch it was time for me to start getting ready for Graduation and getting my stuff together. We were about to leave when my parents called and asked us to give us some things so that they weren't having to hand them over at graduation. From there we all headed to find parking. 

We planned to meet in plenty of time for everyone to find Caleb and get tickets from him and for me to be where I needed to line up. We had some spare time to grab pictures.

I had a little bit of trouble finding the right line since it was the VERY LAST ONE and everyone seemed to know eachother. When I eventually got pointed in the right direction I stood around for a little while until I realized someone that looked like my friend was sitting down. I was worried maybe it wasn't actually her because she smiled at me a little but didn't like wave, so I decided that I would walk over there and if it was here, great. If it wasn't her, I'd use the excuse that I just wanted to sit down. It totally was her though, she just thought it wasn't me because my hair looked longer than she though it was and I wasn't really making a move to head over there lol. 

Commencement felt a little long to be honest, but since I was sitting with the graduates, I didn't have to deal with the kiddos. 

After commencement we walked just a little bit to the Taylor building for Convocation, which is where the big stuff would happen (when I actually got to walk accross the stage and get my diploma). My sweet sister-in-law got a video of the big moment for me while my mom and husband got pictures. 

Convocation went by really quickly and then it was time for more pictures. 

As you can see, my kids weren't really in the mood for pictures. 

We still tried though!

It meant so much to me to have so many family members there to support me on my big day.

We were all BYU-I students at the same time!

I've now joined my mother as a BYU-I alumni!

And of course I had to snag a picture with my biggest supporter. All those late nights doing homework while he handled the kids and all the years he put his own education on the back-burner and let me do mine first. Love him to the moon and back!

WHAT NOW?

I've had a lot of people ask me what's next for me. Will I get a job? Start graduate school? Just stay home with the kids? Well, the answer is yes, eventually. To them all. When the time is right I will want to go to graduate school. I'm really interested in pursuing a job in school counseling and to do that I need my masters. But for now, I think I've earned myself a little break. I need to focus on being a mom while my kids are still young, and maybe when they're all in school and I'm ready to move on to the next big thing, it will be time to move on the the next phase of my education. Until then, I'm just home with the kids, letting Caleb work on his education and trying to get my latest health issues under control.