My wife is officially smarter then me

As I continue this journey through 2009, I'm finding time to be more precious then ever. In the last week, I apparently didn't post anything. I wanted to, I just found very little time to do much.

Let it be know that I love reading many blogs, but last week, I lost the battle. I filed for Google Reader Bankruptcy and hit the "Mark All As Read" button. I had fallen so far behind and realized that it was hopeless to delude myself that I might ever catch up. My free time has been measured in minutes lately.

About 3 years ago, my wife pitched an idea to me. "Honey, I'd like to go to grad school and get my masters, maybe my PhD." Interesting. Work will pay for most of it, so that's not much of a problem..."I will be writing a thesis and um, it's gonna be a huge time commitment."

So we'd sacrifice. It's her dream. "You wanna go back too?" she asked. "Are you insane? One stressed out parent is probably enough."

She went back to school. For the first year, it wasn't too bad. Then, it started, the thesis. Yikes. She cut her hours way back at work. Then the clinicals started. Those are hours spent working in a real world setting putting all this new knowledge to work. We missed her, but we knew there was a greater good.

At first, I would help with her homework. You know, I went to school too...but then, one day, it happened. I was proofreading her paper and there were these letters that looked like a word, but it didn't compute. Normally, I'd had enough foreign language that I could come up with some Latin equivalent and get close to the definition, but these words didn't crack so easy. It got to the point where I would just sound out the word so she would know which one and I'd ask, "Is this a verb? Cause if it is, you used it wrong, if it's an adverb your golden." I had no idea what it was she had written.

The last year of school was draining, for all of us. Seems like we could never catch our breath. But we made it through because almost 2 weeks ago, it was over. The thesis was sent to the printer and bound, the last presentation was delivered and the last paper written. She did. My wife completed her masters degree.

I was so happy. It was a day that field me happiness. I can't tell you how proud I am of her.

Last Friday, she graduated. I know there are people that think walking is silly and waste of time. We don't think so. Here's the pictures I promised last week.

That's my bride! This was at the hooding ceremony. When you get your masters degree, you wear a hood. The purple and white are the school colors.

Here's the official part. The hood is placed over my wife's head by one of the PhD's in charge of the program. This ceremony occurred before the big graduation. Each discipline has their own hooding celebration.

I got some pretty good seats for graduation, huh? You can see OhCountess. She's 3rd from us in the second row of Masters of Nursing students. Look close...she's the HAWT one!

No turning back now! They called her name and me the girls were so proud.

All week leading up to this, me and the girls were cooking up a plan. There was time between the hooding ceremony and graduation...we needed to get flowers for mom. OhPrincess1 got the honor of giving the bouquet to mom. I'm not sure who was more excited.

When it was all done, we got to stop for some pictures. Congrats honey! I'm so very proud of you!

Phase one was done. She got to walk through graduation. The next day, it was party time! I had cleaned the garage to a sparkling shine. Really, she was that clean. This picture was her cake. She wanted it to represent a party and a beginning to life after grad school. Not sure if you can read the wording in the middle. It says, "Welcome to free time". 

For the first time and 3 years, it's all about the free time. No papers. No presentations. No thesis.

Welcome back honey. Take a deep breath, kick your feet up and relax. You deserve it!

I'm so very proud of you! I love you!