Pomp and Circumstance

My heart is swelling with pride.
We celebrated quite an accomplishment this evening (all week, really...).
Bill earned his second (2!) Masters degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the Michael D. Eisner School of Education at C.S.U.N.
That's just a fancy of way of saying that he earned his Administrative Credential, and the Masters degree that goes along with it. :)Monday night, we endured the 96 degree heat to watch him be decorated with an Honors medal at the Honors Convocation.

Having the medal placed around his neck....

Praise the Lord for the MUCH cooler weather we enjoyed tonight for his graduation, er...COMMENCEMENT ceremony. (I'm still wondering why everything is "commencement" now. Make sure you grab your COMMENCEMENT program before you take your COMMENCEMENT seat. ) The girls and I were so excited to see Daddy walk in his "pretty dress" and "golden medal", as Lexy put it.

The jubilant family....
Not the best picture, but hey... we do the best we can, right?

The President of the University made a point to recognize the graduates who held a full time job while working towards their degree, which seemed to apply to about half of the graduates. I had always known that this was a huge undertaking (obviously... I was living through it), but for some reason, it all clicked tonight. WHAT A HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT to work all day long and then still carve out time in his busy schedule to go to class, write papers, perform fieldwork, etc. Bill has worked SO HARD to earn this degree, and I know I am often selfish in celebrating the fact that our chaotic life will finally return to normal (whatever that means). But tonight, as the president spoke, I realized that me celebrating the end of it all was belittling the huge amount of work that he put into it. I am so proud of him.

Bill went through the whole process with his buddy Rich, and it was fun to see them finish together. And it was nice to share the crazy night in the audience with Chrissy, Rich's wife, and their 3 kids.
We were also blessed beyond words to have our dear friends Nate & Debra Perkins (and Annabelle and Ava) come to cheer Bill on. Wow-- Can't believe you WANTED to come to a graduation... ahem, Commencement! We CHERISH your friendship and feel so touched that you wanted to celebrate this milestone with us.

And I couldn't publish this without at least one picture of the girls....
So here's a peek into the future at the graduating class of.... 2023???

Check out the half eaten waffle sitting on the couch.... Lovely.

And a token Tori shot that has absolutely nothing to do with graduation!