1 marriage, 1 death, and 5 years later...

I FINALLY GRADUATED! I graduated on December 12 with my bachelor's in Psychology (and to blow my own horn I was 1 of 4 people to graduate with honors from the psychology department). With the exception of finals, it was a good week. Michael came in from Utah on Wednesday evening, then his girlfriend, Brooke, came Thursday evening. Finished all my finals Friday morning and took the rest of the day off from work to try to get organized and went to pick out a Christmas tree with my mom. We went to Eskimo Joes Friday night then Saturday morning, bright and early, was graduation. Of course it was 30 degrees and cold and windy on Saturday while everyone was outside taking pictures. Then my parents, Mike, Brooke, Jake and my in laws went out to lunch. My brother, Robert, graduated at 2:00 on Saturday, so right after lunch my parents and Mike and Brooke went back for Robert's graduation and then Jake and I went back up after Robert's graduation to take pictures with him in our caps and gowns. We had a family graduation/birthday party for me and Robert and my nephews, Tyler and Yorke, birthdays. Then Jake and I took a 15 minute breather and headed out for a night on the town with some friends to celebrate.

Mike and Brooke headed back out to Utah on Sunday, so of course it was sunny and warm. We got together with them again and played some games at my parents and had lunch with them, then sent them off.

Traditional trip to Joes

Robert and me in front of the UCO Broncho
" It took me five years to earn these cords and I'm wearing them all day"

Getting my diploma cover from a guy I've never see before

My dad earned the nickname "Paparazzi" after this day because we have over 100 pictures of people not ready for the picture

Trichology Salon: Suited for Success Show

This past weekend I got to do a hair and fashion show for Trichology Salon's 1 year anniversary. Each stylist had their own group that they did a theme with, there were "dolls" and wild looks, etc. For my stylist, he wanted all the girls to have a classic 1920s look, so we all wore black bob wigs. Then our clothes were provided by White House/Black Market. I had so much fun, with the excpetion of when I almost fell off my shoe on the runway when someone yelled, "work it, girl" but that was hilarious and I take it I must have been doing something right. Here's a few fun pictures from the show.

Emoly, Me, and Heather

The black bob group in our finale outfits.

Undead Party

September 27 was the year anniversary of my death and resurrection, but since we missed it my mom and sister in law, Wendy, threw an undead party for me on the anniversary of the day I got home from the hospital, which was also the first day in my house. So we had a family undead party/official house warming party.

Naturally I had to steal the babies as soon as they got there. Davon is in my right arm and Nathan is in my left.

Flying baby Nathan

We kept the kids entertained by letting them paint pumpkins on the back porch.

My parents keep trying to get away from the "zombieness" of it and focus more on what a miracle my recovery was so this was the cake they got for me. It's a little blurry, but it reads "miracles remembered".

Thank you again, Wendy and Mom and everyone that brought stuff for it.

Shows and shoots

In the end of September I had a fashion show with Meg Guess Couture in which I modeled wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses and formals. Afterwards a few of us stayed and did a quick photoshoot with Colorband Photography. Here's a few of my favorites from the show and shoot.

The next week I was able to do an ad with Colorband Photography for The Oklahoma PhotoBooth that will be in Brides of Oklahoma Magazine in the beginning of 2010. Below is the composite ad they are using. I'm pretty excited to see that in print.

How can that be, I'm not that old.

Since school has taken over my life, I've seriously neglected my blog. I'll just run over a few of the fun things from the past month.
First, on September 18 Jake and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Which on its own is a major accomplishment for a couple of kids deciding to get hitched one day. Jake and I made a quick inventory of everything that we thought we was going to happen in the first five years and what we were planning on accomplishing after five years. So far we've accomplished two of our about eight 5 year goals, and we decided we would wait at least 5 years before we had kids and now that we're at 5 years, we're thinking another few years would be good before we jumped into that arena. Of course, school got in the way of this great anniversary trip we wanted to take; so we decided to go to Tulsa for the weekend and just have some time away from home.
I finally finished my first sewing project. It was a skirt or a pair of pajama pants. Since I can never find pajamas that are long enough for me I went with that option. So I completed my nice, long red pants with polka dots. I was very excited for them. After I finished them I decided I wanted to add on back pockets, which is incredibly hard to do once the pants are finished. After only a few mishaps, I added on 2 back pockets and I didn't even sew them closed.

It's about time....

I went back to school in August for my last (keeping my fingers crossed) semester. But I decided last minute that maybe I want to go to graduate school afterall. So I'm in the midst of completely my capstone class and my grad school pre-requisites that are strongly recommended to be taken separately. I currently do nothing but study these days. With all the madness of studying, I decided I also needed some easier classes too, so I'm also taking pilates and basic sewing. So far I liked my yoga class better than my pilates class, but that could still change and I love my sewing class. I like to be creative, but I really have no talent for it. I originally took the class so I could learn how to hem my own pants to make them longer, but sewing so far seems to be right up my alley because I can be creative and all I have to do is follow a pattern. I'm currently making some red and white polka dot pajamas pants that, if I did this right, they will be long enough for me.

I did take a break from my studies when my brother, Michael, came home from USU to see the new babies. While he's here we have to eat at all the local places that Mike can't get while he's away. So on the way home from the airport we had to stop and get some Braum's for some burgers and ice cream. Throughout the week we had to go to Pop's, Hobby's Hoagies, Eskimo Joe's, and Billy Sims Barbeque. There were other places on the list, but we ran out of time.

Luckily, Jake and I were both able to get Labor Day off work, so the three of us went on a motorcycle ride to Stillwater for lunch at Eskimo Joe's, then took backroads through Wellston and down to Route 66 to stop at Pops for a drink, then back to Edmond. It was a good time, but a very long ride. Then we finished off the trip with a night of karaoke and Mike flew back to Utah on Wednesday.

Also over Labor Day, Jake's sister, Heather, competed in the Mrs. America Pageant as the reigning Mrs. Oklahoma. Sadly she didn't win, but we're very proud of all of her hardwork nonetheless.

When I went into the hospital my doctors said that all of my family needed to be tested for my blood disorder because it's genetic and some of my siblings most likely have it. So my poor sister finally bit the bullet and got tested. But when you get tested for blood disorders they can't just take the normal 2-3 viles and go on their way. No, they practically drain your blood. I'm not sure how much they took of hers, but they took around 20 viles of blood when they tested me and they took it from my hand. (Luckily, I don't remember this, but I was told I cried a lot and it also explained why the entire backside and palm of my hand were bruised when I woke up from the coma.) So I checked on her after she finished and they took it from her elbow but she was still pretty sore. I'm not sure when she'll hear back on the results yet.

Cousins

For my brother's birthday we had a family dinner and we finally got the new babies together. Here are a few of my favorites from the evening.

Katharine and I realizing that our brothers having babies at the same time was the best idea ever.

Nathan and Davon discussing the comtemporary moral problems facing America's youth.

Me holding Elizabeth who is holding her baby brother, Nathan.

Nathan, the chunk, on the left and Davon on the right. Yes, Nathan really is only about 20 hours older.