Rachel's Graduation

Rachel's graduation

Yay! She did it! We are so proud of Rachel for graduating from Southern Nazarene University yesterday.

We drove up to her school on Friday, arriving before 3pm, after sitting in traffic for a couple spells. Amazing but true, she had every last little thing pack up and cleaned up, so loading the cars went very smoothly and quickly. I say cars, plural, because her friend, Kenny, kindly drove up with us in his car to help bring her stuff home. Also attending: Grandma Dennis from south Texas and Auntie Carol from Pennsylvania. Rachel was happy for these visitors especially since her own brothers were unable to attend.

After packing the car we went to the hotel, changed our clothes, and then headed back to SNU for a dinner given in honor of the graduates. The dinner speaker gave a humorous talk, but it was a good talk since I actually remembered his three points:

1. Get a job.
2. Be happy--appreciate the humor in life.
3. Remember Jesus loves you.

After that it was back to the hotel to watch the Dallas Mavericks on cable TV--they lost. According to reports, the boys got a lot more sleep in their room than the girls did in theirs.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove off to do some sightseeing at the Myriad Gardens, a lovely park and elaborate greenhouse with 2000 tropical plant species. Then back to the hotel, change our clothes again, and off to graduation.

The graduation was kind of long, but the did a quick job of actually reading off the names. When Rachel's name was read they pronounced the "Fitona" part right, but they messed up on the "Simons." For a short moment, we though she was going to run back and tell them to correct the pronunciation, but she decided instead to keep on walking across the stage. After the indoor ceremony we went over to the fountain for a ivy cutting ceremony, then some photos with professors and friends, then we were headed back home, arriving at nearly 10pm.

Grandma will be here several more days and my niece, April, is coming tomorrow for a few days, so that will be a nice time for Rachel to transition back to life here.