Project 365 – Week 19

Last Sunday was another lovely, relaxed day spent with Kyle’s family. When we went to find Dani in the kid’s wing after the church service let out, she came tearing out of the bathroom saying, “Tiiiinnnnaa!!” She may have been prepped a little by grandma She also called me “Uncle Tina” a few times, must be since I’m with Uncle Kyle it just makes sense that I would be Uncle Tina!

Monday was my first day on the new job! I ended up working from home Monday and Tuesday since they didn’t have the office ready for me yet. Monday was a bit distastrous though, at about 10:00am I realized a bolt had fallen out of the back of my toilet. So, I Skyped with dad, showed him the problem and he said it was a bolt that held the tank to the base and that I could get a new one at the hardware store and replace it. So, I stuck a bowl under the toilet to catch the dripping water, tried to turn the water off, and got the part I needed at the hardware store. Long story short – I couldn’t fix it, I couldn’t turn the water off and eventually there was water everywhere including seeping into my bedroom carpet, I was freaking out because I needed to be working, no one was readily available to rescue me, so Kyle sensed the desperation and frustration in my voice and sent me a plumber to save the day! The plumber ended up having to turn the water for the whole house off to fix the problem, then he changed the bolts and replaced the water shut-off valve with one that worked!

Tuesday I worked from home again, mainly preparing for a meeting on Thursday with the interns, also doing some writing.

Wednesday was my first day in the office! It was a busy day spent making phone calls, prepping for the meeting  and compiling binders for the interns. By the time I went into work at Cerulean I was a bit frazzled thinking about everything I still needed to do, but after getting my mind off of everything for a few hours I calmed down, spent some time with my favorite ladies after work, and then went home to finish prepping for an early morning on Thursday.

I was up SO EARLY on Thursday!! So, maybe lots of people normally get up early, but not me, and I was up at 5:30am! The day went really well though; great meetings, really productive, and even a fun shift at Cerulean to end the day! I got to work with some of my favorite girls in the whole world, and we went a little crazy taking pictures! We took pictures in the sushi lounge… in a booth… in the walk-in… in the wine cellar… with the new beer fridge… but my favorite was the one on the porch!

The weekend was an absolute whirlwind of graduation related activities! Friday morning we had rehearsal (which lasted longer then the real graduation). After rehearsal I had to book it to Fort Wayne where I had a bunch of things to do. One of the things I hadn’t planned on doing, but I found a place to get my eyebrows threaded. I’d heard from several people that it was really cool and that they’d had great results so when I saw a store in the mall that offered it for $8 I jumped on it! It was painful, but only for about 20 seconds, and it turned out great

Jon, Natalie, Kyle and I went out for dinner at Cerulean. Kyle had very sweetly pre-arranged to have flowers on the table and our first course waiting for us when we got there!! I got my absolute favorite dish, the sea bass with the goat-cheese squash cake, YUM!

Becca met up with Toni and I at the dessert and I do think we both look quite lovely in our floral shirts

The two Abby’s, Prof Prinsen and myself spent some time catching up. We’re all doing new, exciting and different things with our lives right now! It was really nice to catch up with everyone.

Saturday was the BIG DAY!! Graduation was long (and at times boring) but overall really good

I felt so blessed to spend the day with so many wonderful people! 4 people from my home church made the drive (2 of them even had to rush back to MI for Hillsdale College’s graduation!).

Kyle’s parents came to graduation and lunch!

Lunch was so fabulous. We had a group of 14! Kyle had even pre-arranged for two gorgeous flower arrangements (in Grace colors!) to be on the tables!

The food was AHHH-mazing!!!

We laughed and had a good time!!

And took lots and lots of pictures!!!!!

At the end of the day it was so nice to relax. I just kept sighing!! I guess it was a mix of relief, contentment and anticipation!!

BONUS! They spelled my name right on my diploma