Jake's Graduation

He is Finally Finished!!

Jake's Graduation was short and sweet; the graduation was about 30 minutes with at least 10 minutes of that being the senior video. Jake has great skill in editing movies and did an excellent job editing for the senior video a synopsis of the achievements the Centralia Panthers have had this year.

The picture to the right is the first of a series I took of Jake shaking hands with the community in the grad line. Quiz: How can you tell it is the first picture? Hint: he is still posing for me!


Jake is now working hard to prepare to serve a mission in Londrina Brazil!! He leaves for the Brazil MTC to learn Portuguese on September 11th, 2012!!! We are so excited for him!

These are pictures of the happy family awaiting the graduation. The parents and grandparents had a special seat reserved for them, and Jenny played in the band. So, lucky for me members from the Hiawatha Branch came to support Jake and I was able to sit with them since I was not important enough to have a reserved seat.

Grandpa and Jake beating each other up after the graduation. : )

The graduation party for Jake afterwords was amazing, and of coarse we did not want anyone to go hungry so we ate it for days following. It was so good!! I did not trust my ability to make the fajita small enough to fit into the wrap so I always ate mine like a chipolte dinner. Oh, and the favorite neighbor lady brought over her famous brownies for dessert!!!

My baby LOVES the grandparents cooking!!

My FAVORITE picture!! What is she going to do without you for two years?!

Katie's Graduation

I am GRADUATED!!

 Dallin H Oaks came and spoke at commencement. There were tons of people and I swear I waved at nearly eight families before I realized I should just stop waving. Finally Heidi called me and I was better able to locate my loyal fan club!

 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone that was able to come and support me at graduation!

 Graduation at the time was kind of a blur... I felt like I was not quite taking it all in as others around me cheered in high jubilation that they had "done it!" I guess maybe I had simply never thought about not completing college thanks to my parents who always raised me to believe I could and should obtain an education. Two weeks later now, I realize why everyone was so excited to graduate- FREEDOM to choose what to do with our time, interests, and lives. Backed with the character and the love of learning that I was able to obtain at Brigham Young University I am so excited to get started building my future.

Shane and I did not want to wait around in line to ring the bell after I graduated on Thursday, so here is our best attempt to ring it illegally on Friday. Don't worry I let Shane help a little! : D

My ART ED. Graduating Class!

Cassandra Baer: Best Friend in the Program

Heidi was able to fly out and stay the weekend with Shane and I. We had so much fun doing activities together and sharing stories about our lives. The Saturday after my graduation Heidi co-hosted a BABY SHOWER for me, and it was a ton of fun. Everyone was able to participate in pampering themselves with lotions, bath salts, and fun games. We had a great turn out with many people traveling from far distances or having to rearrange their lives to find some time to drop in even for a short time, and I am so grateful for the time and support they showed for me.

Yesterday, WE WENT FISHING!!!

         This fishing trip was unlike any other in the fact that mom and dad trusted us to go fishing all by ourselves. This meant a change in roles for Jake. He now had to be main man and do all the gross hard work including baiting our hooks and getting the fish off. He did an excellent job trying to cheer Jenny and I on when we would get frustrated easily. After about my 15th failed cast that this time did not even make it two feet and landed on the bank Jake came over and very kindly asked me, "Katie do you want me to cast for you every time, because I will do that for you if you need." He was so sincere, but there was no way my little brother was going to cast it for me EVERY TIME! So then he just tried to instruct me. "Katie, stop trying SO hard!" I just want to point out it must be a man sport if trying is a negative aspect. When I go golfing Shane is always telling me "don't try so hard... Don't try and kill it; just hit it." Is the point to under achieve and then you will be successful? Anyways I soon found out I was trying too hard, because I caught the fish in the side rather than in the mouth. Poor thing I must have cast a little to hard and swiped him right in!

               Jenny was a hoot to take fishing, and spent the majority of the time feeding the worms to the fish we had already caught, because she thought they were hungry. She sat down frustrated after a while, and I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I am tired of this reeling in every 5minutes; whatever happened to getting to sit down and peacefully wait for a fish to come. " She was right- we caught 40 fish, and I was often upset if I had to recast because I had not gotten anything that cast because I had again lost my worm.

        Jenny went to lots of work to care for two baby fish that were caught, and even hiked back to the truck to get a special bucket for them. I am not sure they loved her quite as much, because she tended to smother them. I am a little scared for when she will soon become an aunt. : D But, that was not her only pet of the night. She also caught a frog which she did not notice until she had reeled him in thinking that she had not caught anything. She was quite shocked and screamed, but quickly warmed up to it and proceeded to take it for a hop/walk on her fishing pole.

Thanks Jake for all your work getting the supplies ready and cleaning the fish afterwords. It is a good thing we have a brother!