Graduation!

I am now officially a college graduate! Here are some photos my lovely siblings took from the weekend.

 Me receiving my diploma from the dean of the School of Philosophy, Dr. McCarthy.

 Me receiving my University Scholar award from President Garvey.

 Our awesome university mace bearer, Dr. Druart, who was also my academic adviser for two years.

 Me in the procession in.

 My father in the procession in. See the hat? We gave it to him for his birthday.

 Me and J.

 Me and my friend Annie.

 Me and Kevin.

Almost all the soon-to-be graduates of the School of Philosophy, waiting to process in. This picture was taken by the university photographer, not by siblings.

The weather was lovely, and it was a great day. Terrible traffic on the Beltway meant that we didn't get into South Bend until 2:30 in the morning, but we persevered through it all. I will post the pictures from Teresa's graduation in a separate post.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real: the Zoo

On Monday, we went to the zoo to celebrate senior week. I thought I would share a few photos for Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real this week. 

{pretty} 

The White Stork is my favorite bird. We got to see them engage in their mating displays. They clack their beaks loudly while throwing their heads over backwards.

 {happy}

At the risk of sounding too totally cheesy, I love watching Kevin watch things. He gets totally into it and it's wonderful.

{funny}

If these ears aren't funny, I don't know what is.

{real}

All the flamingos look like this. Sometimes we don't think about how unnatural zoos are, but when you have to damage an animal this badly to keep it in the zoo, it does make me wonder if they're really treating the animals right.

For more photos, head over to Like Mother, Like Daughter.

It is finished

(Is that blasphemous? I hope not. I don't mean it that way.)

I just turned in my last paper and my last final exam. I'm finished with college. I graduate a week from Saturday, and get married a month from yesterday.

I guess this makes me an adult?

This is all kind of surreal.

Papers and more

This week, I have three finals, two papers, and a paper presentation. On top of that, I have work and regular life. I got a chance to do some fun things, including go see one of my favorite bands in concert, but now I am paying the price because I have to do all my schoolwork now.

I hope to post some pictures soon, because I have been taking pictures, some of which I am very pleased with.

Take Up Thy Cross, the Savior Said

Keeping up my tradition of posting a hymn on Good Friday, here's today's:

"Take up thy cross," the Saviour said,
"If thou wouldst My disciple be;
Take up thy cross with willing heart,
And humbly follow after Me."

Take up thy cross; let not its weight
Fill thy weak soul with vain alarm;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up,
And brace thy heart and nerve thine arm.

Take up thy cross; nor heed the shame,
And let thy foolish pride be still;
Thy Lord refused not e'en to die
Upon a cross, on Calvary's hill.

Take up thy cross, then, in His strength,
And calmly sin's wild deluge brave;
'Twill guide thee to a better home,
It points to glory o'er the grave.

Take up thy cross, and follow on,
Nor think till death to lay it down;
For only he who bears the cross
May hope to wear the glorious crown.

Moving into break

Hopefully I can get ahead on my papers over this break. I have an ambitious but hopefully doable list of tasks to accomplish over Easter break, which runs from tomorrow until Easter Monday. This list includes writing one paper, outlining another, going to the doctor, and tidying my room. Perhaps I will post before and after shots of my room. Or possibly I will decide the before shot is too humiliating and only post an after shot!

This Easter will be new, as it's the first major Church holiday since we moved. I am hoping that our proximity to the D-house will mean we can go there, but I suspect the others will want to go to a parish church. Oh well.

Medieval Fun

Last weekend was Medieval Day at CUA. We all had a great time. I brought my new-to-me camera and practiced taking pictures. One of them even got published in the school newspaper! Here are a few of my favorite shots of the day.

The whole flickr set is here, deliberately obnoxiously watermarked since many of the pictures involve the faces of children.