Graduation Day!!

Well, yesterday was a truly wonderful day!  We had lots of family in town and had a great time celebrating Michael getting his Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering!  I am so proud of him!!  We squeezed all of our family into our tiny apartment (for anyone who's been here before, you'll be impressed when you see the list of people!).  Here's who all joined us: Michael, myself, Sis, Adam, Mama, G-ma and G-pa C, G-Ma and G-pa H, Uncle Ed, Glenn, Linda, Nick, Maggie, Nathan, Chelsey, and G-Ma Judy.  All together we had 17 people squeezed into our living room!!  It was a tight fit, but I thought we made it work well!  Wish I'd taken a picture of that!!  We went to Valentino's for lunch and to eat cake and celebrate.  Then, a few of us and Michael went to campus to get pictures in front of the Kansas State University rock in the front of campus.  Then we came back to our place again, squeezed people in, chatted, and let Harlee entertain us for a little while.  Finally, at 6:15 the graduation started!  It took about 2 hours but seemed to go by pretty fast.  It was such a wonderful day!!  Thank you to all of you who came, it was awesome!!  Thank you to all of you who couldn't come, but sent your well wishes, we had a great day!  For those of you who couldn't join us, here are some photo highlights of the day!  :)  Enjoy!!

All dressed up, ready to get his picture taken about a bazillion times! :)

Michael and his proud parents on graduation day!

My amazing hubby in one of his last moments here at K-State.  So proud!!

Michael and I, both officially alumni of Kansas State University!

Michael and his brothers, who were both able to come and help him celebrate!

The whole group!  All of us (who went down to take pictures) got together for a group shot.  :)

Walking in at graduation!  HOORAY!!!!

I know you can't tell, but Michael is at the end of the last row, closest to the aisle.

Standing up to get in line and walk across the stage!!!

HE DID IT!!!!!!!  WOOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!

Michael James Voss, graduate of the College of Engineering!  Class 2011!

Michael and 3 of the guys who lived on the same floor as him his freshman year in Marlatt, all graduating in Engineering this year!!  I'm proud of all of them!!  WONDERFUL group of guys!  :)

Michael and Chad were roommates their first semester their first semester their freshman year, now here they are all GRADUATED!!  :)

Michael and Grandma Judy, who came all the way from Cedar Rapids, IA to celebrate with us!!

Kevin was another guy who lived on Michael's floor freshman year!

And shortly after getting home and getting changed, Michael began writing his thank you cards to everyone for being so generous and for coming to celebrate his day!  :)

Graduation Day has Finally Arrived!!!!

i have been waiting two long years for this day to come, michael is graduating from college today.  wooohooooo.  im so excited and proud of him.  he has worked so hard for five years now and its now time to celebrate.  for all those of you who are coming into town today, here are the tentative plans
two oclock through two thirty everyone will be arriving in manhattan.  you can come to our place or go straight to the resaurant, valentinos grand italian buffet.
we will eat lunch there, give michael his gifts, eat cake, chat, and celebrate the day.
then we will have some more free time before graduation starts at six fifteen.  i thought we could go on campus and take some pictures of michael beside various kstate stuff.  i heard the weather is supposed to be crummy today, so dont forget a jacket and i promise we wont stay out too long.
after that im not sure how much more time we will have to kill before graduation, i was going to show everyone around campus, but because of the weather we might do a short tour, then head back to our place.  please excuse our mess, as we are in the process of getting things ready to move.  less than two weeks now.  yeah.
so we can all come back to our place and hang out for a while until its time to go to bramlage for graduation.  michael seems to think he needs to be there an hour early, im going to try to keep him until thirty to fourty five minutes till, but we will see.
after graduation you are more than welcome to come back to our place and hang out some more.  however, i know everyone has quite a drive, so if you decide to leave right after graduation, we understand.

thank you all for coming and making michaels day a special one.  we love you all.  see you soon.

Field Day

Today is field day here at school, and it's going really well.  My kids were a little bummed that they only got 2 hours of stations in the morning until they realized they also get another 2 hours in the afternoon.  They were also bummned that I put science on the schedule, which makes me sad.  They were pumped, though, when they found out that science was a Mythbusters video.  :)  I am so cool!  :)  Today we're played musical hoola hoops, ran a 3 legged-race, had sack races, colored with chalk on the sidewalk, played with bubbles, had a dance party, had scooter races, played on large bouncy balls, did some cup stacking, and shot basketballs so far today.  :)  It's been a good day!  Hopefully the afternoon goes as well.

Also, I promised pictures of the egg drop, so here they are!  We had 11 eggs live, and 9 eggs smash.  Mrs. McElroy's class had an even 11 lives and 11 smashes.  :)  Enjoy!!

 

 

 

Countdowns

as the school year approaches its end, michael and i have many countdowns going on in our lives...

• one oral report and one final until michael is done with college
• six days until michael graduates
• nine school days until the end of the school year
• fifteen days until our two year anniversary
• three weeks until we move to wichita
• less than one month until nick and maggies wedding and our mini vacation in kansas city
• a little over a month until sis birthday
• a little over two months until sis and adams two year anniversary
• one summer away from tugfest

we are going to be very busy for a while.  please know that we love you, and if we dont see you, its not you, its us and our crazy schedule. love you.  hope to see you all for michaels graduation this weekend.

WE MADE AYP!!!!!!!

Ok, I lied.  I said I wasn't going to say anything else about state testing for a while, but I had to share with you this exciting news!!  :)  We didn't make AYP in math last year, so we were considered a school "on watch".  But this year we worked our tails off and we made it!!!  :D  I'm so proud of my kiddos and the rest of my staff who worked so hard this year.  What a great accomplishment!!  :D  HOORAY!!

A Fair Test

This is the last thing I'll say about state testing for a while...  I got this picture from a friend and it sums up quite well how I feel and many teachers feel about state testing.  Enjoy!

Nothing new

Well, it's been almost a week since I posted, so I thought I should update you on our lives...  But not much is going on.  Here are a few highlights:

• State testing is done!  WOOHOOO!  On science I had only 2 kiddos not pass.  Overall, 4th grade ROCKED the tests!!
• I only have 12 more days with students!  (Not that I'm counting or anything)  ;)
• Michael graduates in A WEEK AND A HALF!!!  (You're coming, right?)  My hubby is all growed up!!  :D
• We will be moving to Wichita in 24 days.  Found out yesterday that we are approved and ready to go!
• 4th grade is doing an "Egg Smash" experiment this week where they build contraptions to keep a raw egg safe when dropped off the top of an 8 foot ladder.  (I will post pictures!)
• We went to the Mechanical Engineering Senior Dinner tonight and Michael got a cool name plate for his future desk!  :)
• Harlee is nutso, but that's not new.  She got a bath on Saturday compliments of the Riley County Humane Society donation dog wash.  :)  She was not too happy
• I packed my 3 boxes up this week!  Only 3.5 more weeks to pack!
• Michael's Senior Design class is done (for all intensive purposes, ask me if you want to hear the rant).  ;)
• We took pictures around Manhattan to make a collage to remember our time here at K-State.  Enjoy the pictures below.

 That's about it.  Sorry we're boring right now.  Mostly counting down the days until the end of school and moving.  Love you all!!

Where Michael and I spent a great deal of the first semester

 we were dating.

The street where Michael and I have lived the first 2 years of our marriage.

Where Michael lived with Nate and TJ, before we got married.

Bill Snyder Family Stadium

Where I worked for 3 years as an usher and security guard for football games.

Our view of the stadium from our overnight security post.

Our post for overnight security.

Where all of the basketball magic happened.

Michael spent a lot of his waking hours here in the engineering building.

Michael's more artistic shot of the Engineering Building.

More artsy shots of Michael's beloved Engineering Building.

The Plaza outside the Union was a great place to spend a warm afternoon.  Harlee also likes to drink from this fountain when we go on walks around campus.

Cru met here in the Little Theater.  Michael and I met at Cru as well.  :)

I spent a lot of my time at K-State here in the Education Building.

I always thought it was cute that we have Lover's Lane here on campus.  I wanted to get our engagement pictures taken here, I guess I'll have to settle for this.

Varney's bookstore and the main stretch of Aggieville is here on Moro.

Definitely one of the best places in Aggieville, and my favorite coffee shop in town.

One of my 2 favorite bar's in town, I love the atmosphere down in the basement here at Auntie May's.

Aggieville

This is the scenic overlook, where Michael asked me to be his wife.  He couldn't have picked a more beautiful spot in all of Manhattan.

Building 920 has been a great place for us to live to begin our marriage, can't wait for all the new memories to be made in our new home in Wichita.

So sleepy...

All I want to do is complain right now.  Mornings are not my thing.

24 days until the end of the school year.  18 more school days.  16 more days with students.  The end is in sight.

I've got to start getting to bed earlier.  Ugh...

Zzzzzz.....

THEY ALL PASSED!!!!!

We have in the rest of the results for our math state assessment and ALL OF MY KIDDOS PASSED!!!!  Praise the LORD!!  What a relief and soooo exciting!!!  :D  Here's the breakdown of how they did:
Academic Warning - 0 students
Approaches Standards - 0 students
Meets Standards - 11 students!
Exceeds Standards - 6 students!!
Exemplary - 5 students!!!

I just can't believe it!!  I'm so proud of them!!