Mark's graduation!

One happy camper

4/20/09

OK...I am deliriously tired...waiting for a Dr. Pepper's restorative qualities to kick in...so forgive me for my rambling, picture-heavy blog post. Our little family has logged 2,500 miles and at least 45 hours on the road these past couple of weeks. I am happy to finally be home for a while--heaven knows I have a lot to do here. But at least I'm back in my own bed and am not living out of a suitcase.

We headed out to Albuquerque last Thursday for Mark's graduation, and my mom ended up coming along. Her mom, my Gma Nora, is still in the ICU there in what has been one of her most serious health crises to date (and if you know how dismal Gma's health situation is even normally, that's saying something). All my mom's siblings came out as well to sit with Gma 24/7 to make sure she didn't keep ripping out her IV, pick line, oxygen, nasopharyngeal tube, heart monitor, blood pressure cuff, and external pacemaker. Poor thing was extremely restless and uncomfortable, but was so out of it that she didn't realize what she was doing. Anyway, she is slowly on her road to recovery and it was nice to see her and my aunts and uncles, even though the circumstances could have been better.

Saturday was the day of Mark's graduation ceremony from the University of St. Francis. The main campus is located in Joliet, Illinois, and the Albuquerque campus is just one small building that has a PA and Nurse Practicioner program. But the president of the university condescended to come down and be the commencement speaker (he's on the far right in the gold and brown robes with the funny hat). He kept going on about Franciscan values and the Pope, which was weird because we'd all seemed to have forgotten that it's actually a Catholic school. (St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint.) They had a graduation Mass at a church beforehand, but we didn't go. Overall, the whole thing was short and sweet, since there were only seven Nurse Practicioner and 29 Physician Assistant graduates.

Mark's good buddy Cole Bryce, the only other LDS person in his class. He has a cute wife Julie and three young daughters. He'll be working in Arizona at an orthopedic clinic.This is Jeremy Parker, who is from Texas. He's a big hunter, an excellent cook, and one of the nicest people I've ever met. Madelyn adores him. We are going to miss him and his girlfriend Nicole.
I've always thought those Master's degree robes and hoods look so distinguished. The gold and brown are the "Franciscan" school colors, and the green edge represents the field of Medicine.

The most beautiful (and pricey--to the tune of $130,000) piece of paper I've ever seen...I show this off to anyone who comes within ten feet of my house.

Enjoying some post-graduation refreshments with my mom Carolyn.

The fates were kind to us and got rid of the clouds that had been dumping snow on us all the day before.This little Miss loves her daddy!

We're so proud of our graduate!!We went out for some authentic New Mexican food afterwards at El Sarape (formally Mi Chante, for those in the know) in Los Lunas near where we were staying at my Gma's house. The food was so good we nearly ate ourselves into a coma. Then we went and saw Monsters vs. Aliens at the movies. It was a fun family outing.

Yeah, I know this is a long post. You can't say I didn't warn you...

The day before graduation, we got to spend some time with our best friends the Richards, and Madelyn (the naked one, who obviously feels right at home there) enjoyed playing and watching Sleeping Beauty with Beckham and Ravi.

On the way home yesterday, we finally kept our promise to Madelyn to stop and let her walk across the bridge that goes across the Colorado River. The visitor's center next to the bridge at the Glen Canyon Dam (which dams Lake Powell) in Page, AZ is always a nice stop on the long road to NM.

And now I've got to go address Mark's graduation announcements, which I failed to order in time and so are being sent out after the fact. Hopefully the next time someone graduates I'll be more on top of things. I figure I've got about 14 years to get ready. That should be enough time, right??? What do you mean--"Your life is going to be even more busy then" ?! Sigh.