Stephen is done with school!!!! He graduated with his Master's of Nursing Anesthesia degree on December 14th. That Tuesday had already been a long day, since we got up that morning, loaded up a Penske truck, cleaned all the things, touched up the walls, and moved out of our apartment. After a quick run over to a hotel and a nice celebration dinner at Grand Lux Cafe, we barely made it over to the school in time for Stephen to run in and find his {unassigned} seat. {Plus, it was COLD, so all the summer-ish clothes I had saved out of our moving boxes weren't quite enough to kept us all warm.}
Too many people in academia love to hear themselves speak, and many of them droned on and on, even when they weren't officially on the program. We started having a hard time keeping all the babies/children/adults entertained and patient, waiting for the real reason we were there. We did get a few chuckles at one speaker who claimed, more than once, that FIU was "The Greatest University....IN THE UNIVERSE!!!!" {Thanks, He Man.} He was also given the task of swearing in the graduates. He had them raise their right hands and repeat after him, but I don't think he followed any sort of script. At one point, he was going on and on with phrases much too long for a large group of people to repeat back and the resulting slur of voices became humorous. After a LONG list of "promises" we finally got to the "....so help me, God" part, and it was time to move on.
The keynote speaker gave the graduates 3 pieces of advice: 1) Be proud of your accomplishment and your degree. 2) Make your community better by using your degree and supporting your local schools. 3) Support FIU, which will help make your degree more valuable. {This last one was actually a recurring theme....you would think the GREATEST UNIVERSITY IN THE UNIVERSE wouldn't need so MUCH extra support/money/alumni giving back to the school for it to survive.
The boys started to get restless. Kyle had to be taken out by Grandpa and ended up having to sit next to Uncle Bando while I had to stand with a tired Ryan. {The nice usher ended up allowing me to stand in the balcony of the arena, even though the official rule says you're not supposed to.}
Finally, the SRNAs were ready to get their diplomas.
Uncle Bando helped point out Dad to Kyle.
He's done! {Except for that pesky board exam....}
A shower of streamers and the playing of "Celebration" signified the completion of another graduation.
Stephen bid farewell to all this peeps and met us outside {in the cold} to take some photos.
WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before we could leave, we had to hug Dana, Stephen's BFF, one last time. She wouldn't let us go without taking our gift, this HUGE Godiva gift box.
I'm SO proud of Stephen and of all his hard work. He's FINALLY done and we are ready to move into the next stage of our life. I can't believe 2 1/2 years is already over, but I'm excited about where the near future will take us.
After the move to Houston was completed and we'd had some time to finally relax and de-stress, it was time to P-A-R-T-Y! Uncle Hubba had the fantastic idea of throwing a surprise graduation party for Stephen with some of his favorite things: Brother's pizza and Chocolate Delight. I managed to get Stephen out of the house to grab a few extra items out of our storage unit and to pick up some baby items. While we were gone, the rest of the family decorated with streamers, balloons, and posters representing all of the many colleges Stephen has attended. 
Kyle was scared at all of the commotion at first, but eventually agreed to join in on the fun and put on a party hat. I think all it took was a few bites of the yummy pizza. 
Next it was presentation time. Liz found some real gems from the past, especially an article from Stephen's jr. high days when we was one of the spotlights. 
He opened a few gifts--some real and some just for fun. 
Yum, yum!
