Here comes the graduate... the saga ends!

Today (Saturday, December 19) was the Commencement Ceremony that culminates the road to Mike's graduation! We debated whether to take Arianna with us or not since these things can take awhile so we opted for my sister to help us in the babysitting. So, the first picture is when Mike and I got to the gym where they were waiting to take their "formal" picture and get in lines, etc...I, after taking some pictures, went to the basketball court to save some seats for the ceremony.



Mike is all smiles waiting for his turn to get his diploma. Although he got his diploma a few weeks ago, he got another one with a sheet that says congratulations and by the way, we have a graduate program for you! So it is symbolic, but it was a very nice feeling.


We could not get closed to take a picture when they were on the stage, but I managed to take this picture from the tv monitor. Cool, right?


It was a really cold and gloomy day, but it was a very joyous occasion. We were all warm and toasty inside, but we were freezing.


Family pictures! So, after the ceremony they had a reception, but it was so crowded that we decided to go to the Fine Arts hallway and take pictures. Then, we went to a restaurant on Burbank called Chuck's. Ron you would have loved this place. Plenty of meat to go around, lots of BBQ. Very good food. We were stuffed.



Love this candy shot!


Great Job! as Arianna would say :)



I saw this wall and liked the arrangement. I took this picture mostly because I know Mike used to walk this hallway quite often and he could remember it later and partly because I loved it.


Paths, paths... Where will life take you next?


Getting ready to go to the restaurant. Last time on the parking lot. He used to park in Level 2 since it was cheaper, well you have to walk one more floor, but it was half the price. Good bye Cornflower level!


We are so proud of you!

Mike's Honors Graduation!

This is the last blog for today. I was so behind in news and events, but I think this pretty much puts me on track again!
Last week was Mike;s graduation (Honor). The Big Ceremony is this Saturday! But, here are some pictures of the event. We are so proud of you! :)

We had just arrived and realized that it was going to be a mini banquet - ok, more like cheeses, vegetables, fruits, crackers, some small fried goodness...

Looks cute, right? It was not bad and we actually got full after some chicken satay, meatballs, and lots of cheese!

Love the sunflowers in this arrangement I wanted to take it home, but I figure I would have a hard time keeping Misty away from it !


Some tables got small bouquets, other got the 3 candles. I actually thought it was nice and classy.

Here are some of our plates.. I think I grabbed one more after this one.


Mike's name got called so he can go for his medallion for been in the top of his class. Summa Cum Laude is the top honors that you can get - GPA of 3.9 and above :) So he will wear this medallion to the ceremony on Saturday.


How smiley!

Nice work honey. I love this picture.


A girl sitting on our table helped us with this picture. How cute :0 We don't have that many pictures of us lately. We love you and we are very proud of your accomplishments!

Arianna's silliness

I was making pancakes and Arianna wanted to help so I gave her a bucket with some water. When she was done, she goes " Pancake mix ready". Maybe in the near future we will bake cookies together :)


She does different faces... here are some for you.

Christmas Tree and cats update

This year we decided to go for a real tree! So, we went to Home Depot and bought a Doug Fir Tree. It was about 28 dls, not bad. Smells great, and it is a nice size for our space. The day was very cold, but it did not take too long and Arianna loves it. Mike and Arianna did the decorations this year since I am still getting used to working second shift (most of the time- it may change anyway) but I was happily surprised with a tree with lights and ornaments!
Arianna was sleeping in the beginning, but woke up in time to see the trees and she was really happy. Our neighbor has a Christmas tree on their porch and she wanted to touch it all the time. Now, we have ours. We still need to put our train like we do every year, hopefully this coming weekend...


In other good news, Jack has been in our first floor with the other cats! As you can expect they have once or twice a day some kind of chase, but they have neutral territories and they stop. Plus I have my handy water bottle and they hate to get wet (unlike Ezri!). So, no injuries so far and we are happy with the progress. It took 6 months, but the outcome looks very positive :) We had to take Jack to vet ER last weekend due to a bad rash on his back with some spots with no fur and a nasty scratch/bloody injury by the ear that apparently was self-induced. After some medicine (Predisone I think) in case it was an allergy his wound is healing nicely. So, we are happy.

Looking for a bed...and the cart

Arianna was sick for awhile and with the fever and such she wanted to sleep with us. I know that is bad because if they like it, well say goodbye to your bed. Plus, she did not like her crib anymore. So, we went hunting for a toddler bed, something that she will like. We went to IKEA, but the boxes were too big and we did not want to rent a truck to buy a bed. So, we ended up buying a princess bed from Toys'R us. It is very pretty. The catch? Well, it is pretty for Betsy that we caught her sleeping on it. As for Arianna, there is no bed except ours :( But, not all is bad... we actually love sleeping with her. We snuggle. I know... but we can't help it. We will try that when she is asleep we will move her to her crib and go from there otherwise I don't think she will sleep with us forever ;)




She is so helpful, isn't it? She likes to push the cart or the stroller. If I can only sit in those... This reminds me when all our nieces and nephews went through this phase.

Pre Christmas reunion

Every year I tried to get together with few friends that I made when I worked at my previous job. If I can say something from that place will be that I made some good friendships and that is what I will remember the most. I want to thank Leigh Ann, Barb and Tiffiney for making time and making our get together lots of fun as always :)
We tried a new restaurant Cafe Gaston on Orland Park. The potatoes were great and the french toast with pecans and caramel ... yums! We also had a grab bag. Those are always fun. Now, we are hoping that we can get together for Spring! Looking forward to it!

Amanda's Party

Two weekends ago we went to my friend's daughter's party - Amanda. They celebrated her party at Enchanted Castle on Lombard. Arianna had a hard time with the place after people started screaming. Too much noise? Too crowded? Too dark? Anyway, we could only stayed for about 1 hour and left. She kept asking where is purple car? Purple car? And we tried to go around the games and such, but after a few minutes she started to look for the door. Here are some pictures so you can see what I mean by the look on her face ;)


But after the party we went to the mall for no reason except that we did not want to go home just yet.... do you see her crying or unhappy at all?!!

Night and day reactions ;)