We Finally Meet!

When I got home I was so bummed because I got to see Elise everyday, but I couldn't hold her because I had a cold. Finally on Mother's Day I got a chance to hold her!

Poor thing, she was just waking up when this picture was taken.

Catching Up...Graduation Gifts

At Anderson, a primary focus of our interior design studies is learning all of the iconic chairs, who designed them, what period they fit into, and innovations they display. As a result, all of us become hopelessly in love with famous chairs by the time we graduate. In honor of that, I made each of the interior design girls I graduated with her favorite chair embroidered and then placed in a frame that would suggest the materiality of the chair. Now, I realize no one cares about this, but if you were interested in famous chairs, I promise you, you'd fall in love. :)

The Barcelona: Given to Erin. This one was my favorite because it has little buttons at each of the tufts.

The Tulip: Given to Jena. Probably the best reaction I've ever gotten when giving a gift came from her in response to this. :)

The Bergere: Given to Tanya. When I asked everyone what her favorite chair was, I was thinking modern chairs (because they would be way easier to embroider). Tanya wanted this very ornate one...and I cursed her name as I made it. :) Just kidding... In her defense, once she opened it and found out what I had done with her favorite chair she was so apologetic.

The Wishbone: Given to Marya.

Louis and Clark, Take Two, Days Two and Three

Day Two started at 10:00am with homemade iced coffees. Iced coffee was the drink of choice for this trip, and, what was once a much hated drink is now the elixer of choice for these two road trippers.
Just in case you're wondering, the recipe is about 1/2 a cup of coffee and about 500 creamers over ice. These were non-dairy, but definitely not non-fat...
Cheers. Let's get on the road.

Crossing into Missouri
Our first stop was the St. Louis Arch. It was very fun to go up inside of it all the way to the top!
Getting read to board the tram.Megan was a little scared.

Crossing into Kansas!

Contest: Who can get rid of her gobstobber first. We could also call this string of pictures: the unattractive faces of Megan and Emily. My grandma's shower is real sketch, so...we went dirty for our last day.

Megan wins. I had a little bit left, Megan chewed hers. Gross picture, for sure.

I was a sore loser.

Over reaction. There was much jubilee.

Louis and Clark, Take Two

Megan and I started out on our journey back to Colorado this morning. Today we made it 592 miles today and are staying in Mount Vernon, IL. Some great moments of the day:

11am: Left church with iced carmel "matchiados" (that's what my mom said).
This is my dad showing us the route on the map...something that neither me nor Megan paid much attention to. Within oh, about 2 seconds, we were going in the opposite direction my dad had suggested. Whoops. We followed our trusty GPS, hereafter called Gigi. :)
Entering "Hot Georgier."

2pm First Stop: Spicy Chicken Sandwiches at Wendy's, just outside of Tennessee

Highlights:

1. A bathroom that smelled like a barn. Really?

2. A mom who changed her child's diaper by laying him directly on the stall floor. Vom.

3. Me, tossing my cookies, as a result.

4. Now at Wendy's you can add flavor to your drink. I love calories. Two pumps, please.

Crossing into Tennessee.

Crossing into Kentucky.

Megan may or may not have said "We need to go there!" when we saw this one.This is how much fun Megan had...studying.

We were packed in pretty tightly with very little visibility.

My alumni sticker needed to go on now that its official.
Yay.
There's a first time for everything. Here's a little consequence for my speeding sin. Crossing into...Illinois?!
We had just gone over a bridge for the Ohio River so we assumed...given our extensive knowledge of geography...that we were going to enter Ohio. So, we were so surprised, we hardly even got the Illinois sign!So, we went back.

Fazolis called my name for the whole afternoon, so we went there and slurped some spagetti.

We had a little bit of anxiety about where we should stay and we had some criteria: hot tub, pool, breakfast, cute, and...oh yes, safe.
Pretty cute, I think.

Graduate from College...Check.

It hit me today as I sat with the other graduates and watched the ceremony...I never thought I'd get here. I guess I had always been expected to go to college, and maybe even to do well, but I think there have been so many times when I just didn't think I could do it for one more hour that I never thought I'd actually complete four years of school. Now I see how people can get their masters or their doctorate. I thought once I got my bachelors, I'd feel like I knew it all. I don't, so I have a feeling more education is in my not so distant future. We'll see.

Graduation wasn't nostalgic or a big defining moment or anything. It was weird how everyone got emotional and sentimental, and I just kind of graduated and didn't feel anything. I'm one of those non-emotional people who wishes I were emotional at times like these. It seems fitting, but it never seems to happen. I shed one single tear at the cermony. It was pathetic.

The ceremony was great and I love, love, loved the fanfare of the event. I was so thankful for beautiful weather and the beautiful landscaping.

Here's the white horse that led us in.
The money shot if you ask me. Ms. Martin carrying in the School of Interior Design banner.

"Processing."

Receiving my diploma sans handshake because of swine flu. As you can see I weigh 500 pounds with this gown on. I had a huge breakfast.
After graduation. I got Denmark Society (yay!) and that's my diploma.

I have my diploma, but...can I have my friends back? This was really hard. I wept when I had to say bye!

The Parents...matching.

This would be even harder if I didn't have friends like Megan and the other Rentel sisters to return to!

My aunt, uncle and cousins who came for graduation!

Graduation Party

My parents threw me a little graduation/going away party the other night at Oh La Lolly in downtown Anderson. That place is adorable and has so much personality. The food is great too!

All of the interior design girls, Lilly, and Ms. Martin, squeezing in one more "update" in before we graduate. I'll miss these girls.

Look at Jena's little creative endeavor. I think these are incredible and would have snatched these up in a heartbeat if I saw them in a boutique. Love these! Thanks, Jena!

Me, Mary Kathryn, and Joya.

Me and Lauren.

My sweet friend Megan who flew out for my graduation during her finals week and is driving back with me. At the party, everyone went around and said how they knew me and Megan said "I'm Megan and I'm from Fort Collins, so we get her back..." How funny is that!

"Rich" (one of my professors who said I needed to be on a first name basis with him now), my dad, Jared (my boss in admissions), and Steve.

Joya, Anne, Lauren, Ben, Megan, Scott, and Mary Kathryn.

Well, it's nearly 4am and I can't sleep on the night before graduation, but I guess I had better try.