Wow, I have lots to blog about today!!! First of all, as the title suggests, grad! I am officially a graduate! CHYEAH!!! Stacey Ingram, B.A. THAT'S ME!!!! =D Oh my goodness, I've cried so much this past week, especially yesterday, holy smokes... Just thinking about grad made me tear up! I never really thought I'd get to this point, but here I am, yay!!! =D
Saturday evening was our banquet, it was so yummy! Bacon-wrapped tenderloin, carrots, asparagus, shrimp, and poitato pear Williams (they were pretty much mashed potatoes shaped like a pear and deep-fried). Dessert was marinaded berries in a touille bowl, which was basically a bowl made with fortune cookie stuff... Yummo! =D My mom, Georgio, and Dennis came too, I had a great time! =)
Sunday morning, Mom and Granny came to the bacclaureate service, it was really nice! =) They stayed for lunch too, we had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies, with pumpkin pie and whipped cream for dessert, yum! =D We sat in the commons cuz the dining hall was full. Laura, Sherrie, and some others were there, INCLUDING the Ramsey's! =D It was so great to see them again! I've missed them...
Then after lunch, I went for pictures and Mom and Granny left. After pics, I had an hour before having to be at Knox, so I checked my FB, then went up to the commons and hung out with Laura and Nicole. Then we walked over to tKnox together with Sherrie. I headed downstairs to get robed and ready, but it felt like forever that we had to wait, and it was hot and dry down there and we just wanted to get up there and do it! But then we went, and I was so excited!!! When we were going in, I saaw Mom and Granny, Drake and Debi (Drake caught my hand and was like, "Hi Stacey!" and I was so happy to see him there, I was like, "Hey! =D" but I had to keep walking lol!) and someone else shouted to me but I didn't see who it was... All I could think about was how I needed to count 1-2-3 beforew going down the aisle, then trying not to trip, cuz I was shaking haha... Then going up the steps I almost tripped, but didn't, thank goodness LOL!
Then all the speeches and stuff, it was all really good, except for one part just seemed to go on forever lol... Then the certificate grads got their certs, then the degree grads went... Oh my goodness I could not wipe the smile off my face, but I was also fighting the tears lol... When it was my turn to get hooded, I handed my hood to Dr. Burke, and he was whispering to me, and even while he was hooding me, telling me how proud he was of me, and I kept looking down because I knew if I were to look up and see people I would've cried... and cried... and cried... lol... Actually what was going through my mind as I was getting hooded and shook hands was, "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry..." I mean, I know it's okay to cry, but I knew that if I would've started crying, I wouldn't have stopped... So I waited... Then as we all stood together, the audience cheered and stood for us, and I really had to fight the tears... But they were happy tears, I was so happy to finally be done! =D
Then after we got off the stage and people came and hugged me, and I was smiling and doing fine, then my mom came and hugged me, and I almost started to cry... Aww Mom I love you =) We took some pics, then headed over to the college for the reception. Shayani had a gift for me, it was a picture frame with an attachment piece that attaches with magnet (it's really cool!) that holds my tassle. And people just kept coming and hugging me and congratulating me, which was cool, there were lots of people there that I knew, but I was so close to crying, and I didn't wanna cry in front of all those people (it's just how I am...)
Then the Butler's came over and they had a gift for me too but Curtis had to go get it from the car, so he did. I opened the card first (as I believe should be done), and it was signed by my church family, which I was not expecting at all, and I just burst out crying, I couldn't hold it in anymore. Thankfully my mom had tissues lol... That card meant the world to me, because it really solidified in me once again how much my church family loves me and accepts me, just as much as I love them! =) The gift was a picture album box thing (it's hard to explain lol...) where you pull it out from the top, and it's like a photo album in a box frame, it's really neat! And in the front there was a Scripture verse and a MLK quote, that I can't remember what it is right now... And in the back was a congratulations note to me, both of those were typed up and put in there for me. It was amazing, I couldn't believe it, and I love it so much! Thanks you guys, it really means a lot to me and I was so touched, so thank you! =)
Haha then I got home and I cried and cried and cried... My mom had gone to bed, and I was so incredibly exhausted from such a busy weekend, but I couldn't sleep... So I cleaned off my desk a bit, and organised a bit, and put my grad cards up on my wall. And I was texting Anna too, and actually what was going through my head at that point was, "OH MY GOSH, THERE'S A DEGREE SITTING ON MY DESK!!! A FREAKIN DEGREE! ON MY DESK! WITH MY NAME ON IT!!!" Hahahaha...
Anywho, enough about grad... on to the "maybe a house" part of this blog title!!! Today I went with Shayani to visit a house that has rooms for rent. It is on Mountain right by Salter, three blocks away from my granny's house. OH. MY. WORD! I LOVE THIS HOUSE!!! It's a big three-story house, and there's a little room on the main floor for $325, and a big room with two parts on the second floor for $425. Shayani and I talked about it after visiting, and if we do go with this house, I would take the downstairs room, she would take the upstairs far room, and the first room in the upstairs one we would share, and we would split the cost $375 each. Which would be great, because in sharing this room, it would give me (having the little room downstairs) some more room to put my stuff, and we could have that area for just me and her. There is another girl there too, Christina, who just moved in yesterday, she's also on the second floor, and the lady that owns the house has the whole third floor as her bedroom (cuz it's all pretty much just one area...) And we'd have access to the whole house, everything included in our rent (water, heat, etc.), and we would pretty much live in Christian community. COOL!!! =D As well, the house is open as a safe place for kids to come hang out, kinda like a Block Parent type thing. There are boundaries to that, of course, Debbie (the one who owns the house) said that they come once a week, usually between 4-6. It's in connection to Inner City Youth Alive, which is super cool! And Christina is also wanting to get into youth pastorship (like me!), so that's awesome! She's connected with ICYA too!
So yeah, that's basically it... Right now, I'm super loving this house! It is farther away from downtown than I originally wanted, but what Debbie is doing for the kids, and how she dreams of having a Christian community living together, is exactly what I would love to do! I actually JUST finished reading Blue Like Jazz the other day, and in it Don talks a lot about how he lived in a Christian community like that, guys only of course, and I thought to myself how cool that would be, to live in a female Christian community like that! And here it is, right here in front of me, that opportunity! I really really REALLY super love this house and the plans surrounding it... Lol while Shayani and I were there, some girls came over, I guess it's Mondays that are the days that they come... And Debbie makes them supper and hangs out with them and stuff... So we stayed for supper as well, Debbie is so gracious! =) And Shayani and I also chatted with Christina too, she's super cool lol and she really hopes that we come... I would honestly love to! =D But we'll see what happens, where God leads us...
If we do go with this house, the plan is to move in for September, although we are welcome to come sooner if we decide to. And you know what? I'm completely up for moving in there! I am super excited to move out! And I think I would rather move into a community like that instead of into an apartment right away, just me and Shayani, because living just the two of us together like that coming straight out of our parents' houses seems a little scary, but having that community life thing, we would have each other, the four of us, for support, for prayer, for helping each other out. It doesn't seem as scary! Actually, it's super exciting!!! =D
Anywho, I think this post has been long enough, and if you've read all the way to this point, you're awesome LOL! Please keep us in your prayers as we move into this part of life and start to work through our options! =)
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