Blue Thunder

The day after my graduation I went to an amazing airshow with my friend and old roommate Erin. It was in Idaho Falls and boasted the US Navy Blue Thunder air team.... Wow...Impressive! Here is a small taste of the awesomeness....



The announcer said that there is only 8-10 inches between the planes when they do these close maneuvers.






I can't even explain how neat it was to see this in real life. Just hearing the loud engines, and feeling the power they emitted was incredible. Erin and I were scared out of our skin more than once because some of the planes would distract the audience with cool tricks while the other two planes would sneek up from behind and roar by right over head or right in front of everyone.

And, almost as entertaining as the show itself was seeing all the grown men totally reverting back to their younger years. I have never seen so many men with looks of shear delight and utter respect etched on their faces for such a long period of time! The man in front of us was practically giggling with joy... priceless...completely priceless!

By the way, I can't take credit for any of these pictures. I got them on-line.

Graduation Highlights

Today was just an all around great day! Some of the highlights, in no particular order, included:
(Warning: Sorry, this post gets a little long!)

• Wearing the incredibly cute new outfit that my mom (and dad, by association :)) bought for me to wear, and then covering that outfit up with a silly graduation gown.

• Hearing the guy who was sitting one person away from me at commencement whisper to the guy sitting right next to me that there was something that smelled "really really good" and then having the guy right next to me whisper back to him that "ya, it does smell really good, it's the girl sitting next to me" ....why thank you, feel free to whisper complements about me as much as you'd like :)

• All the professors lined the sidewalk leading into the Hart and clapped as we (all the graduates) walked past them to go take our seats. I loved it! They just made graduation seem like such an accomplishment and such a big deal. I think everyone should have the opportunity of walking through a group of people who are clapping for them, it's good for the soul! :)
  

• After walking across the stage and having our names read at convocation, Brother Romney, the horticulture teacher on campus and my sister-in-laws dad, was at the end giving each graduate a rose. He was really sweet and picked me out the prettiest rose in the bunch when I got to him. Perks of family connections :)

• My cute 3 yr old niece, Autumn, who is a more interested in fashion than I am, told me my graduation cap looked weird and then backpedaled when she realized what she's said. "But...I like that it's black...I do! That tassel is cute and black... It is! And, I like your head right there..." Well, thank you Autumn I'm rather fond of your head too. :)
  

• Having Amberlee and Autumn wake me up this morning by coming into my room and jumping on me while yelling "happy graduation day." It was made an even better highlight because Autumn couldn't quite say it right so she kept saying "Happy grajitation day.... gravitation day....gradgiation day"
  

• Lydia rubbed my feet before I even got out of bed.
  

• After convocation, as I was talking to Lizzie and her mom, I found out that one of my past professors, brother Shaw, used an assignment that I had turned in to him previously, as an example of how he wanted his students to do their final reports if they wanted him to give them extra credit. He told the class that he had given me extra credit for my paper which was news to me, good news, but news. It was the last report I had turned in to him, and he isn't very good about posting grades and such so I had no idea. When I was in the class I had just gotten sick of writing the same reports with the same format every time, and I'm sure they were boring for brother Shaw to read, so on my final report I just switched things up a bit and made my report into a poem. I was a little worried that he would think I was a looser and give me a bad grade (he has a personality that is a little hard to read sometimes), but I decided to turn it in anyway. After all this time I'm glad to find out that he did like it after all. He had told me while I was in his class that he had been using my regular reports to teach some of his other classes about how to write a good safety report, and that was flattering. But then to find out that he was showing his classes my "outside the box" report, that I didn't even know if he liked or not, and was now offering students extra credit to follow my lead .... well, that's so much better than the icing on the cake!! :) The report I wrote is really not that great and it's pretty silly, but I will post it as a page on the right side of my blog if you are interested in reading it, anyway.

• My final highlight of the day was that I got a Georgia Mud Fudge blizzard at Dairy Queen after graduation. My parents took me. Georgia Mud Fudge is the best ever! Delicious!
  

So...I graduated...

Today I basically just felt like this....

.... and apparently so did Amberlee...


I love my brothers sweet family! They were so good to me today and made me feel so special about graduating. Lydia gave me a foot rub before I was even out of bed this morning! How luck am I to have such a sweet sis-in-law?! They also bought me Bocce Ball as a gift! Awesome!


Lizzie graduated today too! She's the best!


Lot's of pictures were taken today!



The picture that makes it official!

Hmm....

So.... I was looking through some of my old pictures and found this delightful one. I think I need to make these delicious little morsels again, and soon! I made them for a little "tea" part that I had, hence the tea cup plater. I got the recipe from one of my old roommates, Michelle (she's awesome!). They are really easy to make too, wich is fabulous. In case you are interested here is how the joy is made:

1 package of cream cheese
1 package of oreos
Melted dipping chocolate

Crush the cookies up finely and then mix the cream cheese in well with the cookies. After they are mixed well just roll the mixture into small balls. Then dip the balls in the melted chocolate, place them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze them. Yum!!

PS - I graduate in exacly one week from today! Caps and gowns look ridiculous