Masters Weekend

This past weekend has been a crazy one to say the least.

Kevin and I packed up on Friday morning to head to the airport and I ended up having a client meeting that morning. Then, I was ironically conferenced into a mandatory meeting on the importance of work/life balance for a couple hours. It was an important exercise for our company, but it made a once simple morning far more busy than I anticipated.

April drove us to the airport and we got into Seattle around 10pm. We went right to the hotel, ordered some quick dinner, and went to bed.

We were up bright and early the next day to catch the 6am light rail into downtown Seattle. We got some Starbucks and my friend from grad school, Emily and her husband picked us up and we road-tripped (5 hours) to Spokane for graduation.

We had a great time listening/ singing to mix cds Emily made, talking about life, and in complete awe of the scenery.

The trip started out looking like what one would think switzerland would look like. Tall mountains, covered in snow, even though it was 60 degrees outside. Gorgeous. During this phase of the trip we stopped to eat a proper breakfast at this hole-in-the-wall cafe. They offered items like a "spam omelet". Shockingly, this "classy" establishment had a fireplace that took 1100 hours to make. It was shaped like a big turtle. The stonework was impeccable.

Then we entered wine-territory. Grapes for miles.

From there, we entered a place that looked like the middle east. Barren mountains, cattle, very little civilization and then we got to Spokane.

Which we nicknamed spoghetto, spocan't, spokesganistan, spocompton.

It's a gorgeous lanscape filled with a dirty city and a sparkling Gonzaga campus.

We checked into the hotel and while the boys got ready, and ironed their clothes (and ours!) we picked up our caps and gowns.

Then we got ready and headed over to campus to line up. The line up was alphabetical and Emily and I ended up being next to each other (Wang, Vinton) which was fantastic! We were also in line with our two other grad school friends Katy and Jessica, which was also really great!

When we walked in, we had trouble finding the boys and when we finally spotted them, we gave them the biggest smiles.

The speakers spoke, "serve others" was the theme, and then they called out the names. Which took forever! But then they finally called mine. Walking across that stage, I felt such a sense of accomplishment and gratitude to my family, especially my husband.

I started this energy-sucking,  wonderful degree just after we got married. He has supported me through it all. Encouraging me when I got stressed out and showering me with kisses when I didn't think I could do it anymore.

He understood how important it was and stood by me. God truly blessed me with him.

After graduation, we took pictures with our friends and husbands and headed off to the COML banquet. We ran into one of my professors on the way and he not only remembered my name, but congratulated me on how well I did on my thesis. We also ran into my mentor and I was so glad, because she went to my oral presentation even though she didn't have to and I really wanted to thank her in person.

By this time, we were all exhausted, headed back to the hotel, and fell asleep. I'm still on east coast time, so I woke up early and wrote this post.

What a wonderful day. Now, onto vacation!

:)