fina'11y

Well, I am now officially a University of North Texas Alumni!  Man, that sounds so nice.

Wow, I can't believe this day has finally come.  It has been 11 years in the making and I feel very happy and relieved.   Now that I am almost 30, I feel like I can move on and life can really begin.  That's a great feeling :)

Last night, we celebrated at Two Rows in Allen.  Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Eddie treated us, close friends and family, to a wonderful dinner and a fun night.

A few pictures of the girls playing together!

Baine Brooks, owner of Two Rows, fixin' up his specialty, Baine's Brownie Explosion.

My wonderful college friend, Tandy.

Nanny and her grandbabies

My brother and his family

Josh and Dwayne

Aunt Bonnie, Alyssa, and CeCe

Our [fairly new] and awesome friends, Lori and Nolan

Our saving graces, Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Eddie

PawPaw and Anna

My family, minus my two sisters (missed y'all)

And then today was the ceremony.  I fought back tears several times.  I was just so happy to have finally finished this thing I have worked really hard on for a really long time.  

Back stage

Josh took video of me walking across the stage and I wanted to capture the image but I can't get the file converted to be able to use it.

And here I am leaving!  YAY!!

Greeted by my parents, sister and brother afterward!

At the reception.

To all of my family and friends that have supported, encouraged, and offered help throughout this journey, I am forever indebted to you.  Without you watching the girls while I had class, helping us financially, giving me study materials for my certification tests, offering advice, giving me rides to denton, loaning us a vehicle when we only had one to get back and forth to school,  and just simply telling me how proud you are of me, none of this would have been possible.


And to my husband who was willing to come on this adventure with me and see me through it, who worked several jobs to provide for our family while I was in school, who never complained or made me feel guilty when all of the money that he worked so hard for was gone before getting to spend any of it on himself, who helped me with my homework when I had no brain left, who stayed positive, encouraging, inspiring and gave me strength, and for just being my number one fan, you are my rock, and I feel so blessed and lucky to have you by my side, I am in awe of you and am so very grateful. I look forward to our life without school (with more money!) and I feel like we're just getting started (all over again).
I love you.