Yesterday Stephen graduated from University of Advancing Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Software Engineering. Despite everything else going on, I was on a high all day. I am so proud of him! This has been 7 years in the making. He has worked extremely hard w/ school and always working a more than full time job on top of that.

There was an amazing speaker at the graduation that Stephen really admires. He is one of the foremost physicist in society today named Michio Kaku.

He was very funny and made his point about being innovators in science and technology for the future through jokes and anecdotes.

I guess that was just a side note, but one worth mentioning.

Stephen was amazing. You’ll notice a gold chord around his neck. Yes, that means he graduated suma cum laude, however you spell it, or w/ highest honors. When they were announcing the valedictorian they said that normally it was very easy to choose. That normally one student stood out from the rest, but this year was different. This year there were a few and they wanted to honor them all. So they called out about 4 names and had them stand before announcing the actual valedictorian. Stephen was the second one called. This was a great surprise to me, and to him I found out afterward. Neither of us had any idea that he was a candidate for that position. I think his dad was about to cry.

Here he is actually getting his pretend diploma. Of course they mail them to you later.

Greg (Popito) and Mom and Dad came with me. It was so nice to share this with them. Dad took a picture of me with Stephen as well, but I am being vain and not putting it up. I look horrible and no one wants that anyway.

So here is my graduate.

Well, I haven’t been on here in a while. There has been lots going on and that doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. As you all know, Stephen was down sized last week. Even though it has been very hard to see him going through the grieving process over this, I have really enjoyed having him home with me. The girls think that he stopped working just so that he could spend more time w/ them. Kas understands a bit more of what is going on and is being very supportive for his dad. I know they have all enjoyed seeing each other more as well. Today it seems like the phone has been ringing off the hook with leads all over the country. So, as of right now, everything is up in the air. Stephen also graduates on Thursday and we are all very excited about that. Hopefully, now even when he finds his new job he will have more time on his hands than he has been accustomed to over the passed 7 years. We are having a graduation dinner on Thursday night. Anyone who is reading this blog is welcome to come and celebrate with us. Just toss a comment on here and let me know. We are excited to see where our next path will lead us.

With all of this going on, I am going back to work next week at Ritz. This is a temporary thing until the dust settles and while Stephen can be home with the Goba, but it will be full time. It should be interesting. I haven’t worked full time since before Antoinette was born.

On a lighter note, I got to go have lunch w/ my amazing friends Amy, Kim, and Janice on Friday. Janice’s twins are adorable! It is really sad that it takes Amy coming in to town from Kentucky to get us all together. These girls are my very best friends from high school. I love them. It seems that no matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other, we can always jump right back into our own comfort zone. It was pretty funny when Janice asked Kim whether something she did was new since high school. It’s only been 17 years since we were all there. Oops, that may be giving too much away.

Stephen and I were both given new callings in our new ward. Steve’s is a family history consultant and mine is the librarian. I have never done this before and am excited to give it a go. I get my dad in there with me as an assistant and that should make the slow times fun. I don’t really get to spend much time w/ my dad anymore with no distractions so I am excited about this. I think we will get a chance to go to classes too, but first they need to give us a key so we can open and close as needed.

School is almost out and I can feel the wind changing. Actually I can feel a gale force blowing me over. I just can’t wait to see where these spring/ summer winds are going to take us.