Tag: graduation

Lorena helps Christian pick a dresser

On Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Christian's Ikea dresser (Lorena's 2015 May visit) Lorena and Christian went down to Ikea and bought a new, muchly needed dresser yesterday. It would have been a very sad visit to Tempe if there was not at least one piece of new furniture involved, so I think Lorena met all of her goals. It was classically Lorena. When I asked how the visit went, she gave me a list of the level of cleanliness and orderliness of each of the Christian’s rooms and all of his clothes.

Lorena is scheduled to arrive in Portland later this evening. I can certainly testify to the fact that she has her work cut out for her in our apartment after a week of my living as a bachelor with the twin cat sisters. I will clean up the apartment, but no matter how good I think I have it, she will be (rightly) disappointed. She is cleaning machine. Life is profoundly more excellent when she is here than when she is away.

When she gets back, she is scheduled to meet with the local college to make plans to take some classes. She is very close to finishing. Thinking back with the homeschool, work, moves, kids and all that, it is really amazing she has been able to make continued progress toward her degree. Our friends Troy G. (PhD), John H. (BSME) and Daniel H. (AS) all graduated this fall after long hard stints in school. It is impressive and inspiring and makes me want to try to encourage others to start or just keep going because when you have a degree, your life is enriched. And not just economically.

Betty Blonde #319 – 10/06/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Returning to sanity after graduation

By Dad

On Friday, May 16, 2014

In Family, House and home

Day 995 of 1000

All the guests are gone back to Oregon. Kelly is hard at work on her summer projects for her professor. Christian has started preparation for his summer Partial Differential Equations graduate class. Lorena is hard at work making sure the house is ready to show at a moments notice. My flight to Arizona on Wednesday was delayed long enough that I had to fly out yesterday, promptly lost my luggage and am scheduled to work through the weekend. In the midst of all this we are all trying to find new places to live out West and are finding out it is not that easy. Nothing really seems too settled right now. We can all hardly wait to get back to more controlled lives.

Betty Blonde #115 – 12/24/2008

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Kelly receives her diploma from NCSU 2014

By Dad

On Thursday, May 15, 2014

In Education

Day 994 of 1000

Kelly receives her diploma from NCSU 2014

Betty Blonde #114 – 12/23/2008

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Christian receives his diploma from NCSU 2014

By Dad

On Wednesday, May 14, 2014

In Education

Day 993 of 1000

Christian receives his diploma from NCSU 2014

Betty Blonde #113 – 12/22/2008

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Graduation visitors

By Dad

On Monday, May 12, 2014

In Education, Family

Day 991 of 1000

Grandpa Milo, Aunt Julia, and Gladys visit for the kids graduation in North Carolina I am going to write a few posts over the next few days about the graduations that occurred on May 9^th (Christian) and May 10^th (Kelly). We thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I thought I would start off with our visitors. Aunt Julia was very kind to fly out with Grandpa Milo. It would not have been possible otherwise. We were very much humbled and impressed with the care Aunt Julia showed toward Grandpa Milo with the current state of his memory. She gave us a very good lesson in how to think about all this and particularly, how to treat a person with this condition and enjoy them in their current frame of mind. For his part, Grandpa Milo was an enormous addition to the celebration. We can only imagine how much impoverished the event would have been without his presence.

Grandma Sarah, the great higher education advocate in our family could not attend, but was here in spirit. Even though our dear friend Gladys would have been a fabulous addition to the party if Grandma Sarah would have been able to make it, she was absolutely essential in Grandma Sarah’s absence. She is so kind and accomplished in her treatment of people, especially in these kinds of celebrations, we could not have done it this nicely without her. Beside listening to everyone, helping out in every way she can, and always saying the uplifting thing, she (as always) did one other thing that brought great joy to the festivities: She truly enjoyed herself and had a smile on her face the whole time.

I will talk a little bit more about the events of the weekend in subsequent posts, but for this post, we just want to thank Grandpa Milo, Aunt Julia, and Gladys who made such a great effort to be with us to celebrate the kids graduation.

Betty Blonde #112 – 12/19/2008

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Graduation ceremony guests arrive today

By Dad

On Thursday, May 8, 2014

In Education, Family

Day 987 of 1000

We are sad that Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita will not be able to be here from Monterrey for the graduation. We have planned a special trip to visit them in Mexico later this summer to celebrate the graduation, but it would have been so nice if they could have been here. We hope to get some video and pictures of the ceremonies so we can send them and plan to call as soon as the ceremony is over.

Aunt Julia, the kid’s über-aunt is flying out from Oregon today with Grandpa Milo so they can attend Christian’s graduation ceremony on Friday and Kelly’s graduation ceremony on Saturday. She is filling the place of Grandma Sarah who at age 83 really has gotten past the ability to take cross country trips. We are so glad both Aunt Julia and Grandma Sarah were willing for this as Grandpa Milo now has some memory issues and would have a struggle to make it on his own. We hope to send video and images back with Aunt Julia to show to Grandma Sarah. Grandma Sarah has been the principle cheerleader and advocate in our family for higher education. She did not do so bad either. All four of her living children have Bachelors degrees and three of them have Masters. After this weekend all six of her grandchildren will have Bachelors degrees one of which has a Masters degree and two more will be starting PhD’s in the fall. Not bad for a lady who picked strawberries and beans in the summer to support herself through a Pharmacy degree, one of the first three women to complete the degree at Oregon State alongside the first black man. She graduated in 1952 when it was still Oregon State College, not Oregon State University.

We are so grateful Gladys from Oregon will arrive this afternoon, too. She is a very dear friend and honorary grandmother to Kelly and Christian. It is just amazing she was kind enough to make the effort to be here. Of course, every place she goes is better off for her presence, but this is especially gratifying because of the huge and unique role she has played in our family for two generations now.

Betty Blonde #111 – 12/18/2008

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

A rough week for Kelly

By Dad

On Monday, March 24, 2014

In Education

Day 944 of 1000

Kelly was up until 2:00 AM this morning studying for her Intermediate Macroeconomics mid-term. She went to school early took the test from 9 to 10 AM and then immediately dived into a homework assignment due at noon. She instant messaged me with this about 11:00 (NC time):

i had too much caffeine and too little sleep and then a fried chick fil a sandwich and now i feel awful

She is not finished after her noon assignment, but has two more homeworks due today and tomorrow followed by another hard mid-term tomorrow. I told her to take a 15 minute hard walk after she turns her homework in. Hard degrees are not for the faint of heart and she is at the very end. It is going to get even uglier over the next 3-4 weeks.

Betty Blonde #93 – 11/24/2008

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

One more semester to go at NCSU

By Dad

On Friday, December 20, 2013

In Education

Day 851 of 1000
Betty Blonde #25 – 08/20/2008

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

The kids both had a successful first semester of their Senior year. Kelly’s was fun and included a trip to present her first undergraduate research. Christian’s was downright ugly. He took two very hard graduate math classes in Linear Algebra and Probability and Stochastic Processes as part of a normal amount of undergraduate credits for a total of 15. In addition, he continues to perform undergraduate research at NCSU’s Optical Sciences Laboratory. I honestly believe Christian will never have another semester where the material is both as complex and voluminous as this semester.

Their grades were great. They have both made the Dean’s List for every semester for which they were eligible. They are both signed for their final semester at NCSU and the tuition is paid. Christian has a much lighter class load, but a pretty heavy research load. Kelly has 15 hours of relatively tough classes, so she might be the one to struggle this semester. One of those classes is a continuation of her undergraduate research which takes a lot of time. Graduation day is May 10 and they are still on track.

The other really good news is that I am home now through the holidays. I work on Monday and am then off until I fly back to Arizona on January 5. Hopefully, I will be able to help Christian with some of his research. Kelly’s is on a hiatus for awhile. The funny deal is that Christian’s research area is one in which I have something to contribute, while Kelly’s research area makes her more able to contribute to me than vice-versa.