surprise party.

Thursday night I attended a surprise party, and it was in my honor!! I had no idea previously, (clearly a surprise party) that my sisters had planned a graduation party for me in the earlier weeks before I even graduated!! They had e-mailed my closest friends and invited them to the party with the disclaimer to dress as a patient aka elderly person or someone that needed care of fixing.
Thursday night as I sat at the UVU baseball game with Channy Ash text me if I could come over to help with the kiddos seeing as how she supposedly had a slumber party that night and mom needed help cause the kids were being crazy. I believed her after having watched them for a few hours earlier that day. Channy took her sweet time driving home, stopping in at work and such, while I got more irritated that mom needed help : ) as we turned the corner to the house I noticed balloons tied to the mailbox along with Melissa's car parked in front of our house! It wasn't long before I noticed brook's jeep and was wondering what the heck was going on, as it became to clear to me that we had not been called over to help babysit!! I ran into the house as everyone yelled SURPRISE!! It was awesome and I was in total shock. Ash and Channy had decorated the house super cute with scrubs hanging up, pictures of me and my close friends over the past couple years, Some pictures were even sticking out of a urinal : ) They also had hung up real CAT scan and "X-ray's" with ace bandages. They even had a cake and black and red balloons to boot!! did I mention they were all in costume??? I couldn't stop smiling!! I was so happy that someone had taken the time to do that for me and that everyone had come despite their schedules and that they had all kept it a secret so well!! I was really happy especially with all the crap that's gone on with "friends" lately to know that I've weeded them out to know that I truly do have the best friends and I'm so glad that we're all so close again!! I was especially happy to celebrate graduation with those who had missed it along with once again celebrating it with Melissa : )

The brains behind the operation : ) thank you thank you!!!

I seriously loved it and I am so grateful for all the planning that went into it and all the time spent decorating!! Thank you so much sisters for being the best!! and friends I just love you : )

I did it.

the sappy long posts about reflecting on my life the past 5 years can end because I graduated. Finally graduated that is!! It was a fantastic week, finals were finals of course but packing knowing I could get out that house was great motivation!! I hung out with my best friend Melissa majority of the time than Ashley came into town cause she was also graduating. So we definitely made the best of her visit!!
Thursday we wanted one last outside hoorah in Southern Utah. It started by picking up our cap and gowns and getting free ice cream early in the morning. Then we gathered the crew and ate at Don Miguel's to celebrate the day's holiday of Cinco De Mayo. We finally took off for Red Cliff's where we spent the afternoon hiking around on the red rocks through the "slot canyons", going down the "slides" and cliff jumping. Yes I did it : ) It was a gorgeous day outside and we were more than happy to lay on the rocks and soak up the sun!

Promise that's me in that big splash! I did it...Cynd was just a lil slow on the capture : )




That night our class had originally wanted to do a big ol BBQ with just us 20 before the families started rolling in Friday but lack of planning left us with a last minute text to gather at pizza factory for dinner. Not all of us were there but enough of us were there to make it fun, as we reminisced, talked about future plans and as always told stories. It was a great last time for the friends at PF!!

Friday the fun continued... The fam arrived just in time for my pinning ceremony. The pinning was the part that meant the most to me so I'm so grateful they were able to come. It turned out perfect! We had great speakers (Professor Becky and buddy Daron) who almost put me to tears, then a slide show presentation which announced the Most Likely awards we'd received by vote of our class. Examples were: Most likely to-own the most scrubs, write a book, star in Grey's anatomy, get a nursing tattoo, etc... My award was most likely to get proposed to by a patient : ) We then received our nursing pins and had photoshoots before we were all off to eat with the fam.




The valedictorian of the whole school Nicole and myself : ) she's amazing!!
love these ladies!!

Definitely feeling the love!!!

Following a delicious lunch at pizza factory with the fam it was time for commencement with all the graduates. We got to line up on as colleges and parade around campus prior to the ceremony and it was actually really fun! we lived it up and thanked everyone along the route and smiled big for all the camera's not taking pictures of us. However, it actually was really cool to walk through all the faculty on both sides of us as they cheered and applauded (ours high fived us) right before we entered down into the stadium. In the ceremony us nursing students couldn't help but make a big deal about Nicole, we're so proud of her we cheered and stood up when they announced her. Not to mention the President admitted that Nursing is one of the most rigorous undergraduate degrees on campus, how can you not cheer for that!! I just hope everyone who has given crap in the past months was listening at that moment, if not I'd be more than happy to mail copies of the program with that statement printed in it highlighted with a personal message to you : ) Once again was an afternoon full of photos.

coolest jumping picture courtesy of channy's photography

the ribbon representing Jake

Would not be here without these two

Matty and me. one of the greatest kids I know!

Saturday was the convocation for the college of science where we actually walked across the stage for our "diploma". We had many photo ops while waiting around in the tunnel lining up : )

check out the dean's face!!! he's either really surprised or really happy for me...

My Twin and I. Seriously though.

Thank you so much to my support system!

2011 baby!!!

The goodbye's and tears begin...

So graduation is over. It was a pretty fun weekend and I kept my emotions under control majority of the weekend, unless it came down to my class then I was sad. I'm gonna miss seeing those guys all the time and it was hard to say goodbye after being together pretty much 24/7 majority of the time. I'm so glad was my family spent the weekend with me, it meant a lot to have them all in attendance (minus the bro's but they couldn't make it). I also was grateful to leave Cedar City drama behind and be rid of certain people I once considered friends. Good memories in that place and lots of growing up there, so naturally got a little emotional as I drove out of town Sunday morning and left it in the dust!! anyways, point is I did it. Finally graduated!