Graduation

I graduated from Fresno State with my BS in public health, as a community health option. Friday there was a public health department luncheon that Mom, Jaime, and I went to. Each of us was called up by our advisers and they said a little about us; I found out I was valedictorian for my department! Me and Dr. D, he was my teacher for the senior project class. Here are the community health option graduates. Me and Kara, she was my advisor and my favorite teacher. The luncheon was nice, it was smaller and there were a lot of people I recognized. Notice though that my tassel is still on the right, I was not an official graduate yet. I had to work Friday night, so that's where I headed after the luncheon. When I got home, I found this sign in my room! Heather had put it up when they were there for dinner. Saturday morning was the commencement ceremony, Heather took a picture of my name in the program. There were a lot of people, we had almost 5,000 graduates, although not everyone participated in the ceremony. Still, it was too many people to call everyone by name, so we just stood up as colleges. There was a surprise though because they called the names of the people who graduated with a 4.0 and had us stand up, that was exciting. Finally finding my family after the ceremony. My family was there: Dad, Heather, me, Mom, Grandpa, Michelle, and Jonah. Notice my tassel is on the left now :) Heather says this is a picture of me walking into my bright future, In'N'Out for lunch! We got stuck in the parking lot forever and took some pictures because we were bored. Finally, we made it to In'N'Out and had a delicious lunch before heading home to quickly clean the house for the church picnic.

Finally Finished

The end of the semester is upon us, there were times I thought this day would never come. On Monday, I met with my group and teacher for one last time to get our final report back.

Marnique, Ra'Niesha, and I with our final project report, it ended up being 81 pages long. It was such a relief to be done with that and know we had finished well. Here's my group with our teacher, Dr. D. He did an amazing job guiding us through a challenging semester long group project. I also had a final Monday night, then two online finals that I took today. So, I'm officially done with my last semester of undergrad studies, which is weird. It hasn't really sunk in yet, although the Cold Stone to start the celebrating helped. Now all that's left is graduation and party time!

Movies, Movies, Movies

The theme of the COS dance show this semester was movies; it was a good one because it allowed a lot of freedom of choreography while remaining part of a cohesive whole. I was in tap and our movie was Saturday Night Fever, the song was Disco Inferno. It was a fun dance. Waiting with some of the girls from my class for the show to start opening night. On stage, this move was the Flight Attendant. Peggy and I have both been in tap for a number of semester and often are partners in the dances. Michelle was in ballet and they danced to a song from Alice in Wonderland, I really liked their dance too.

It's Official

I'm a pirate now... ...I have a medallion.

Wellness Fair

One of my classes this semester is a senior experience type class where we have to work in groups for the semester to plan and implement a health education program. These programs take the form of booths at the Wellness Fair. This semester, the fair was on April 20th. My group is made of three people: Ra'Niesha, Marnique, and myself. Our topic is stress management. The night before the fair, we met to prepare for the next day by organizing our supplies, making posters, cutting raffle tickets, and folding brochures. It was a fun part of the project and we got to drink some delicious sweet wild orange tea, but it took a long time. Here's Ra'Niesha working on our "Wall of Relief". I didn't know this picture was being taken, that's just how I felt. Marnique working on our game board that talked about the signs and symptoms of stress. We finally finished our stuff by about 10:40pm. I spent the night at Ashley's house so I wouldn't have to drive back home to come back the next morning. It was fun to see her again. We talked for a little, then got up the next morning and made breakfast. Ashley made smoothies and eggs and I was glad she had fed me a good breakfast because I didn't get a chance to eat again until after the fair was over. It was pouring when we had to unload all our stuff and bring it into the dining hall where the fair was. Everyone got soaked. We had a great spot in the back with a view out the window, it was quieter and fit in with the calming atmosphere we were attempting to create with our booth. A zen garden for ambiance. Our posters curled from the rain and we had trouble getting them to stay on the wall. Here's our booth set up. And from the other side. I was on this end, handing out brochures and asking people to fill out an evaluation form. The fair ran from 11:00am to 2:00pm and we were steady pretty much the whole time. Everything went well, but we were glad when it was finally over.
"What's Your Limit?" was the title of our booth. Now we are working on finishing the paper we have been writing in sections throughout the semester. For the sections we have left, we have to process the fair, evaluate our results, and discuss what we learned. So far the paper is 61 pages and 13,991 words, and counting.

Spring Break

We took a family vacation to the coast during spring break this year. We left Saturday after work and came back on Wednesday, it was a lot of fun. Here are some highlights.

Our campsite at Sunset State Beach was next to the strawberry fields of Watsonville. I had my own little tent, it was so cute.

The boys got fishing poles for Evan's birthday and had fun practicing in camp. Cookie bars for dessert the first night. The stairs to the beach; there were a lot and most of us had sore calves the next day. The boys love the beach. Sisters. Cartwheels on the beach. Group picture. Splitting a stump that Jonah found at the deserted campsite next door. Natalie waking up from her nap. There were grubs in the stump! Dad said he's give Isaac $20 to eat it, he says he was thinking about it, but Micah smashed the grub first. Stopping for fried artichokes at the Giant Artichoke. Picnic lunch by the ocean after arriving in Monterey. It was overcast, but still pretty. Michelle and me. A chocolate store close by the condo where the Nickells were staying. We went to the aquarium Tuesday. Touch pools. Micah with a starfish. It was really hard to get good pictures of the sharks because it was dark and they were swimming too fast. These guys were more photogenic. Lunch break! Jellyfish are always a favorite. We got to see the new seahorse exhibit. Stop at Ghiradelli for ice cream after the aquarium. Micah got the cherry on top. Back in our hotel room. One last trip to the ocean. The waves were huge!