Virginia Tech Visit- Graduation!

Aaron, my mom, and I drove down to Blacksburg last week for my sister's graduation!  It was a pretty long drive but it was a pretty good couple of days.

Michelle Obama and Mark Warner spoke at the commencement in the Virginia Tech football stadium.  (I didn't bring the camera to this one- sorry!)

The Architecture and Urban Studies college convocation was short and sweet- only about an hour and a half.  My mom got on Skype during this one so my dad (in Korea) could see Nat walk and get her diploma.

Congrats Natalie!

*Note: We are now a family of college grads!  My parents, siblings, and in-laws on the Brayley side have all completed (at least) a Bachelor's Degree!  Hooray!*

The Kimblers come to Provo

Aaron's parents came out to Provo for Aaron's graduation!  We had a lot of fun hanging out with them, as well as Aaron's brother who is living in Provo right now.

Aaron graduated.

We played games.

 

 

 

We went to the zoo.

 

 

 

Where we saw a giraffe picking his nose with his tongue.

And did a lot of other things we didn't get pictures of.  But it was a really fun week.  Thanks for coming!

Graduation!

He did it!  He graduated!  I'm so excited for Aaron, the college graduate!  I took a lot of pictures, but I really need to edit a lot of them since the lighting was really weird, so I'll just give you a few to look at:

Ok, so that was more than just a few, but I think this guy is pretty cute and I'm really proud of him.  Congratulations Aaron!

Reality

Sometimes life sneaks up on you.  So quickly, in fact, that it doesn't seem real-- more like you're practicing for the future.

Context:

I graduated in April.  But I'm having a hard time believing it because I don't feel like this summer is any different from any other summer I've taken off from school so I could work.  Yes, I have a diploma hanging on my wall, but how is a single sheet of paper in a frame supposed to represent four years of work?  It just seems unreal that that framed piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper means that I'm completely done with college.  And I feel like I should be planning out my schedule, just like I've done since 2006.

My hours are running out at work.  For some reason, it doesn't feel like I'll be leaving this job anytime soon.  I think it's because the job itself doesn't end.  When I worked at the Freedom Center, it really felt like the 10 weeks of camp were coming to a close because there was a date when we would all leave, and the camps wouldn't run anymore for the year.  We had fewer and fewer counselors and campers as the weeks rolled by, reminding us that it wouldn't last forever.  But I'm still doing work that will prepare my organization for changes that are years in the future, so it's strange to think that I won't even be here to see those changes happen.  Things are going to keep going after I leave, but I don't feel like I should be leaving at all!

The summer "break" is ending soon.  A month from now, Aaron will be getting ready for his next batch of classes to start.  His little brother will be starting college.  My coworkers will be starting classes again.  And this 90+ degree weather will stick around for a little while, but not for too long.  And we only went camping once!  And I only use the pool once a week!  I've read so little of my summer reading list!  And I haven't played tennis!  I only made a few scrapbook pages!  So many things I wanted to do, and it just hasn't happened.  What happened to May, and June, and JULY?


Maybe I'm just overthinking things, but I feel like so many things in my life are changing, and I don't know if I'm ready to make those changes.  It's crazy to think of where I was 5 years ago, even 2 years ago!  High school, getting ready for marching band camp and the football season to start, working at a coffee shop, hanging out with Tony and Matt and Ashley and tons of other people I don't ever see anymore.  Miller Apartments, living with Michelle, just starting work as a Computer Lab Assistant, single.

Crazy.  Reality hits you.

Diplomas and Dementors

Exciting news!  My diploma came in the mail last night!

It took a month and a half after graduation to actually get it, but I replaced the Sample diploma with the real one in the frame and boy, it looks beautiful!

We also finished the whole Harry Potter series this week.  This was exciting for me, not only because I finally get to cross something off my Summer Reading List, but because I have loved the Harry Potter books for many years and now Aaron can finally appreciate them for himself.  We listened to them instead of reading them, but it was a great way for us to do it together.  He was so funny when we were getting close to the end.  I would just sit there and watch the looks on his face change as characters he's grown to love died, hidden secrets were revealed, and everything came to a close.  Thank you, Aaron, for agreeing to listen to them even when you thought the movies were good enough, and you're welcome for proving that there's so much more to these stories than the things the movies show you.

Really, I'm glad we're done, because I was starting to have really weird dreams about Harry Potter, polyjuice potion, and the imperius curse.  Strange.  Now I'm just going to have dreams about Greek gods and their love children (I'm reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians now).

Side note:  I think we've decided to stay in our current apartment.  We've always known that our apartment is more/just as expensive than larger ones in Provo, but we blamed it on the location close to campus, the pool, and the furniture.  We did some searching, and we did find some furnished places with a second bedroom for significantly less rent per month.  However, most of them were further from campus than we want to be while Aaron's still in school, and we just don't want to deal with apartment searching and moving.  It's only 8 months right?

Uh, another side note.  Sorry.  I was just voted employee of the month at work!  Whoo hoo!  Free movie tickets for me!

Also, we're taking another weekend trip this week!  My coworker's family has a condo in Park City, so she, her husband, Aaron, and I are going up there for a few days.  I know we just had a long weekend but I'm still super excited to go.  I've never been there, and I've heard awesome things about it.  I'll put pictures up when we get back, because I'm sure we'll take lots on our adventures.

Visit from the Brayleys

I'm sure you all are sick of reading about my graduation excitement, so I'm going to just skip talking about all that and just write about the lovely week I had hanging out with my parents.

So they got here on Wednesday.  The forecast was for rain, but when they got off the plane in Salt Lake City, the skies were blue, there were just a few fluffy white clouds, and there was a bit of a breeze.  All in all, a beautiful day.  We went into Temple Square and got lunch at a sandwich place.  Pretty good, but the cookies were stale...  When we came back out to go to the Conference Center, the sky was cloudy and grey, and the sidewalk was wet.  So we took a peek inside the Tabernacle and headed off to the Conference Center.  Once inside, it started to pour.  Good timing, folks.  Anyway, we toured around the building and couldn't go on the roof because of the rain, so we went over to the Church History Museum.  It had some pretty neat exhibits, including Joseph and Hyrum Smith's death masks.  We went back to Provo and my parents took us to Fortune for dinner and then Wal-Mart to buy Aaron a lantern for his birthday.  Now we're all set to go camping this summer!

Thursday was beautiful.  We had a late start, but we made cookies for my cousin in the MTC and went up to campus so my dad could see some people he knows and so I could show my mom my office.  We got some Jamba Juice too, and headed back home.  Graduation took most of the afternoon, especially with all the pictures we took before and after.  We came home to crock pot orange chicken. Yum.

On Friday, my College Convocation took up the whole morning, but by the time it finished, the morning rain was done.  In the afternoon, we went to the fabric store to buy supplies for my new table runner (more on that when it's actually finished) and to another store to pick out a diploma frame.  We watched Star Wars: Episode VI that night.

On Saturday I started on the table runner with Mom's help.  After working on that for most of the morning, we picked up some Subway and went to Bridal Veil Falls for a picnic lunch.  We walked to the falls and then headed back.  We went to Costco, where my parents decided to buy Avatar.  So after a dinner of taco salad that night, we watched it.  I was really impressed.  Amazing graphics, really.  But "unobtainium?"  They couldn't come up with a better name?  Oh well.

On Sunday we went to another ward's Sacrament Meeting, where we didn't pay much attention since they were changing  both councilors in the bishopric so all the talks were about the new and old councilors...  And then we ate some lunch and dropped my parents off for their flight which apparently had to land to refuel in Richmond.  Mom's facebook status this morning: "Non-stop flight to from SLC to BWI should have been 4 hours, but a little thunderstorm, and a diversion to Richmond to refuel, made it more like 9. Home at 2:45 a.m.!"  Poor parents...


So it was a great visit.  I hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving, so it was really nice to have that time together.  It was especially nice because we had a lot of time to just hang out and do whatever we wanted-- which made for a very relaxed visit.  It was fun.  I'm sure they're glad to be home, sleeping in a real bed in a real bedroom (instead of an air mattress in our living room) but I think they had a good time with us too.

(I couldn't resist... more pictures on facebook if you're interested)

I'M DONE!

Yay for Family!

Well, Aaron and I are both done with finals!  It's such a good feeling to be done but at the same time it doesn't really feel real yet since I'm still working at my on-campus job for several more months.

And my parents are getting here tomorrow for my graduation!  I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving, so it'll be great to hang out with them for a few days.

My oldest brother, Doug, called me yesterday and they're definitely going to come visit us this summer!  They have a gap between Doug's current job ending and his next job starting, so they're taking a trip to Canada to visit the grandparents, coming down to stay with us for a bit, and then visiting Cassie's family in Arizona in August.  My nephew, Archer, is so cute and I'm excited to see him again, especially since I've only seen him once since he was born last summer.

Aaron's younger brother is going to be coming out to BYU in the fall, so Aaron's parents are coming to Provo to bring him out to school.  So we'll get to see them this summer too!  And we're probably going to drive out to Las Vegas with them and meet up with Aaron's brother (and family) from Arizona before Fall Semester starts.

I knew a while ago that all of this was going to happen, but I'm just realizing that I'm going to see 3 of my 5 (immediate) family members and 4 of Aaron's 6 (immediate) family members without going too far from home!  It's going to be a great year!

[Un]fortunately Aaron's taking 6 credits during Spring term this year.  While that's great because it means he'll have a lighter load during his last two semesters, it also means that I'm going to have to let him work on homework in the evenings, so I'll have to distract myself by doing other things.  Luckily I have my handy summer reading list to work on, and I'm also hoping to do some more sewing and scrapbooking.

Also, Aaron's birthday was this weekend and we had a great time celebrating!  We had some people over (the same people that came over for the murder mystery party for my birthday) and made homemade pizza and played games.  I even made Angel Food cake for the first time, and I think it turned out great!  So happy birthday honey!

All kinds of excitement!

Well, I just turned in my last research papers of my college career!  All I have left is a written ballet final at 4:00 this afternoon, and a 3 page essay take-home final due on Friday by 5:00pm.  I did my gymnastics final this morning, turned in my 12 pager on symbolism in LOTR and did a presentation on it, and turned in my 10 pager on Hitchcock and Poe.  What a day.  And you know, it's really too bad I don't know French, because learning these French ballet terms would have been a lot easier if I did.

So Aaron's birthday is on Sunday.  I'm struggling a bit to think of something to get him...  Unfortunately, this boy has expensive tastes!  The only things he can think of that he wants are a desktop computer, a new digital camera, ratchets, and an angel food cake.  Well, I already bought the ratchets, and the angel food cake pan is all ready to go, but I just don't know.  And my parents asked me for suggestions of something to get him, but I can't tell them anything because, well, I'm basically out of ideas!  I know he's satisfied with just getting the ratchets from me because he's easy to please when it comes to gifts, but I feel a little lame just getting him some tools.  No, it's not that I feel lame getting him tools, I just really want to make him happy.

So I have to get my countdown on here because everything is getting so close!

• End of classes: 1 1/2 hours
• Aaron's birthday: 6 days
• Mom and Dad get here: 9 days
• Graduation: 10 days
• 1 Year Anniversary: 34 days

 On another note, Aaron has been working at the BYU Telefund for...ever... and he got a new job doing IT stuff that he's going to start either later this week or on Monday!  I'm so excited for him! He'll be graduating next April, so it'll be good that he has a whole year of relevant work experience before he starts a real, big-boy job.  Yay!

I'm so excited to see my parents next week!  I feel like I haven't seen them in forever, even though it's only been since Thanksgiving.  Though, to be fair, I think this is about the longest I've gone without seeing them.  Crazy.  They're staying with us in our one-bedroom apartment, so it's going to be a little tight, but I'm okay with that because I'm so excited!  I just hope the weather is good while they're here!

Mount Doom and Mary Kay

I feel like I've been living in Lord of the Rings all semester.

I'm taking a great Senior Seminar class on Tolkien, Lewis, and Medieval Literature. I know that sounds a little random, since neither Tolkien nor Lewis are Medieval authors, but they were both Medieval scholars and wrote a lot on Medieval literature. So in addition to reading works like Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,and Pearl, I had to read the entire Lord of the Rings series in the first half of the semester.

And this is just for one class.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really loving the books, but I feel like all I do these days is read and work. Even when I'm sleeping, I dream about Frodo and Sam and Gollum and Merry and Pippin and all the other characters that I'm getting to know so well.

Unfortunately I got a little behind over Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend, and I'm just nearing the end when I was supposed to be done earlier this week. *sigh* I even forgot to eat dinner last night because I was too busy cheering Frodo and Sam on as they reached Mt. Doom.

So that's pretty much my life right now.

Speaking of Valentine's Day weekend, Aaron and I went out to dinner with Mike and Amber Turner (my old roommate and her husband) at Gloria's Little Italy. When we walked in, a lady gave Amber and I a flower each and a little paper to fill out to enter a drawing. Knowing that I rarely win anything, I filled out the form and promptly forgot about it.

Then on Monday, I got a phone call telling me that I had won! I won a free Mary Kay facial and a gift basket with a Mary Kay gift card, a Gloria's Little Italy gift card, candy, and other goodies! I'm getting my facial on Saturday and I invited a few friends to do it with me. I'm pretty excited!

Also, I just ordered my cap and gown for my college graduation. It's a little strange-- I am so ready to be done with school, but at the same time, I don't know what it's like to NOT be in school... I mean, I've always had summers off from school, but it's going to be strange to still live in Provo while Aaron and most of my ward are still students. Weird. I'll finally have time to scrapbook, and sew, and do all kinds of things I just can't do right now.

I put a couple countdowns on my Facebook profile:

• My birthday: 9 days
• Aaron's birthday: 51 days
• Graduation: 56 days
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: 266 days
  

Sweet.