Finalized!

Although I finished my class work in December, actually having the graduation made it all FINAL in my head!

We had a great time at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia last weekend. It was really nice that so many family members were able to attend!

The weather was beautiful for the entire weekend. This was at the rehearsal on Friday afternoon.

After rehearsal they had a very nice reception for the distance learning students.

I loved how the student center was designed. There were all kinds of sitting/lounge areas that were decorated in really neat ways for a collegiate setting.

I liked this checkerboard area where none of the seats even matched.

The graduation ceremony was held outdoors at Williams Stadium.

I thought for sure I was near the back of the line of graduates until I turned around and saw this mass that still had to exit the soccer field where we lined up on Saturday morning. There were 4,800 graduates, so you can imagine the line of people.

It was so funny to watch all the graduates on cell phones, waving, standing on chairs, and doing all sorts of actions to try to find their family members in the stands. This was quite a feat with about 20,000 people in attendance.

This is my friend, Lynette. She is a really sweet girl. She was in the distance learning program too, but lived much closer - only 2 1/2 hours away from campus.

I'm sure this would have been a fun professor to have in class! He had 2 cans of silly string and was spraying his students during the faculty processional!

He obviously wasn't the only one that did this as you can see from the field.

Yeah - Aaron's probably just as glad that I'm done as I am myself!

Unfortunately, my mother was sick and had to leave partway through the ceremony, so she's not pictured here (and we missed you too, Jana/Mark and KKKK).

Camen looks very interested in Kendall's map of campus.

And finally, the LU mountain - very cool!

A Heavenly Banquet

Friday night, Aaron and I went to the high school Jr/Sr Banquet for Union Bible Academy. We've taken pictures at their banquets for several years now and I always enjoy seeing the different themes and decorations they have each time. This year the theme was Heaven - and it was very beautifully decorated. They had beautiful white pillars, white balloons for the clouds, white tulle, white lights, and the Pearly Gates with large "H's" on the gates. The servers for the dinner (the sophomore girls) were dressed up as angels. And even the chocolate in the chocolate fountain for dessert was white. It was a really neat idea and very well done!

Aaron - who patiently (usually) lets me test my lights on him before we start.

Here are some of the couples!

The ones that went to a lot of work planning the banquet - The Junior Class!

Senior Time - again!

I took Anne's senior pictures this week. One thing I love about taking pictures is getting to know people better. I go to church with Anne, but never knew she enjoyed boxing! She also loves to read! It's so fun to be able to capture people's personalities along with their image.

Catching Up . . .

This is a hodge podge of recent pictures that I haven't taken time to post.

The Saturday before IHC, Aaron and I along with Mark and Kristin sang at Auburn Bible Methodist Church for a revival service. Afterward we ate at Skyline with Jeremy & Lisa Robison and Angie Burton. I love Skyline and have eaten their many times, but, this was the first time I ever knew they had ice cream cones!! These are actually mini cones. They are so tiny but cute and the perfect size to complement a 3-way. Really - I think they are for the kids, but they sold them to us for 50 cents each. :-)

I really enjoyed IHC this year - especially since my 2 sisters were there!

This is what you would call 3 kids in a packed van!

The cousins always enjoy playing dress up. We had hardly been at Jeff's house for an hour when they came downstairs looking like this.

Drew meeting his new cousin, Karson, for the first time. They already look like buds to me!

The awesome flowers from my boss on Administrative Professionals Day!

It was the perfect weather for the GBS picnic last Thursday!

Mark Cravens was the favorite pitcher!

Aaron loves playing with Jake (Ron and Jennee's dog). I thought it was so funny to see Jake drinking out of a water bottle.

Welcome to the World!

My new niece, Emme Grace Englund, was born yesterday, April 26! Congrats to Jeff and Vicki and her 4 older siblings: Drew, Caleb, Kaley, and Camen.

Kaley finally has a sister!

Camen already adores his little sister - he wanted to hold her all the time and kept patting her.

Camen was so funny - he kept counting her toes.

While Jeff and Vicki were at the hospital, Aaron and I kept the other 4 kids. We had a lot of fun playing games like Uno Attack and Bingo, we made homemade sugar cookies, we went up to the church for a few more family pictures for the new church directory, Aaron took them to the park after we got home, and then we got to go to the hospital to see the new arrival.

Camen enjoyed having his "own" dough - he did cut out a few cookies, but was mainly more interested in poking the dough.

Senior Time!

Last night I had the privilege of taking Rachel Crissinger's senior pictures and we had so much fun! She was so easy going and excellent to work with.

I had a really hard time sorting the pictures because I took so many - I just couldn't stop. Here are a few of my favorites.

A Whirlwind of Activity

A host of pictures . . .

Last Saturday we went to Findlay Market for the very first time. I absolutely loved it and can't wait to go back. It's so much more than just fruits and vegetables. I can't believe we have lived here for 5 years and just now discovered the goodness of this place.

They had salsa, soap, honey, flowers, woodworking, baskets, meat, cheese, bread, spices, waffles, desserts, fudge, bakeries, and a host of other items.

Late that afternoon our church had a surprise retirement party for our pastor's wife, Mrs. Durr, at Karen's house. Surprised she was! It was fun.

There was one small catastrophe that happened with the chocolate fountain. Mrs. Wingham was overseeing the process of melting the chocolate and the three tiers had lovely chocolate cascading down. All of a sudden the piece in the middle rose up about 4-5 inches and the fountain was still spinning! I never heard so many people scream and scurry. There was chocolate flying all over the place (as you can see in the above picture - which was taken after it was stopped). It was terrible and funny all at the same time.


Later on that night, we met at Ron and Jennee's house for a surprise birthday party for Mark Foster.

Kristin made this incredible dessert that was delicious!!

Jennee, Katie, me, Kristin

Jake, the dog, was very possessive of his bone. . .

. . . except when Wesley got a hold of it! He did exactly what Jake does with it - in the mouth it went!!

On Monday, Mark's actually birthday, Mark grilled out steaks (fillet Mignon from Findley Market) and we ate on the back porch!

This is a little late, but had to post this picture. Kristin was overjoyed that Michael English was coming to town last week and just HAD to go see him in concert - so we did.