Duke MBA Graduation!

He did it!

Nate graduated with his MBA from Duke University.  Not only that, he also graduated in the top 10% of his class!  I am so, SO proud of that man!

We have anxiously awaited this day but we've also sort of dreaded it because graduation means the end of this phase of life that we have loved.  

Before graduation we met up with some friends for a little photo shoot.  Prepare for lots of photos :)

Nate, Joel, Tyrus, Carl in front of Duke Chapel

Izzy, Julia, Lyla, Ruby, Brock in front of Duke Chapel

Ruby and Lyla in front of the chapel

 We were so lucky to have Nate's parents and my stepdad, Rik, to come out for the big day!

The best shot we got of our family :)

Friends from the very beginning.  We truly love these guys!

Hardie's, Oakes', McIntyre's, Wright's

Carl, Tyrus, Joel, Nate

 And of course, us wives had to get a shot of us with the guys caps, because we worked just as hard, right? Right? Anyone? ;)

I LOVE these ladies!

Becca, Haley, Laura, Kelly

 Nate with his amazingly supportive parents.

Jerry, Nate, Pat

 Nate and his girls.

I love my man!

I'm SO happy Rik was able to make it out!

kelly, nate, rik

 And one of Ruby, because it was too cute :)

Onto the ceremony...

I am so proud of Nate.  Not only did he get recognized as being a Fuqua Scholar that day, but the student body president, Deb, recognized him in her speech.  She named 6 different qualities of a Fuqua student and named a student who exemplified each quality and Nate was the example for the qualities Humble AND Brilliant! Being the humble guy he is, he was pretty surprised and felt very honored.  

Deb during her speech.

 After all the speeches it was finally time for the grads to walk.  Sadly, my pics turned out blurry and these were the best I had.

Lyla ran right up to him afterwards and gave him a big hug.

It's no secret that graduations are exciting but also really LONG and at times boring.  So, to kill time, the girls and I got a little silly :)

 One of the coolest parts of graduation was that it was held in Cameron Indoor Stadium where Duke plays all its basketball games.

The women's bathroom plaque.

Ruby was super tired by the end and fell asleep on my shoulder about 20 seconds after I picked her up.

We then ran into Russ Morgan, the Assistant Dean of the Daytime program.  He spoke with us and sang Nate praises, which left him feeling even more honored than before and me and his parents prouder than ever!

Nate and Russ Morgan

After the ceremony, we then decided to head over to Fuqua for the graduation reception.  We were out for about a minute when we felt one drop, then two, and then what felt like buckets of water dump all over everyone.  My camera was out and I hurried to put it away while I ran with everyone to get under cover.  Unfortunately and embarrassingly, nobody grabbed Lyla and she was left out in the pouring rain just sobbing because she was so scared and some grad was trying to help her and pull her under cover.  I ran out feeling like a terrible mother and so bad that we left her and pulled her under cover.  She later said that she was just a little scared and then thought it was hilarious.  

We waited for the rain to stop and when we realized it wasn't going to let up, we found a custodian and grabbed several trash bags so we wouldn't get soaked.  By the time we got everything on and were on our way, it was only sprinkling. 

We headed to the reception and said our goodbye's to some of Nate's classmates.

Nate and Deb (they were on the same team and became good friends)

Nate, Chak, and Deb (teammates)

Nate and the Dean Boulding, Dean of Fuqua

 After the reception, we headed to dinner where my stepbrother Rhett and his family joined, as well as some friends.  Afterward, we all headed to our house for dessert and some great conversation.  Overall it was a great day!

And as a final thought, I am so very proud of Nate and all that he accomplished at Duke.  He worked his tail off, had fun during the process, and made some great friends along the way.  I'm a lucky girl to have such a great guy.

a little update on us

I have so many things I need to blog about in order to catch up, but there is no way I am going to do that in the month of May, so I'll do a little update. 

First of all, have I mentioned that Nate got a job with Amazon and we are moving to Seattle in July?  Cause he did, and we are, and it's pretty awesome and slightly crazy.  I mean, who needs sunlight?! ;)

May is officially our crazy month.  Nate had his last class of MBA school, EVER, last Friday.  He took his take-home final on Monday.  Soo... he's finished.  Completely.  AHH!  I am incredibly proud but that is all I will say for now because Nate and his graduation deserves its own post.  

Last Saturday we hosted a big brunch at our house with most of the LDS MBA families here at Duke (aka our Durham family). It was a beautiful morning with great food and even better company.  We honestly are so sad to be leaving such great friends (*tear*).  Luckily, we'll get to spend time with many of these guys at the beach this week.  

Miller's, Busby's, Hamilton's, Holm's, Oakes', Wright's, Culbertson's, Candrian, Ricks', McIntyre's, and Hardie's.  Missing the Giles.

the ladies

As I said before, May is our crazy month and this is why I will be MIA for a bit on the blogosphere. We have...

Beach house for a week with friends.

Papa Rik comes into town.

Grandma and Grandpa Wright come into town.

Graduation Day.

Mother's Day.

Thailand for 10 days.

We'll have about a week to get our house packed up, scrubbed clean, and we'll be on our way (by the end of May)

Then June:

House hunting trip in Seattle.

Visit family in California.

Visit family in Utah.

Move into our home in Seattle at end of June or early July.

All the while, I will be trying my hardest to think about things one at a time so I don't get too stressed out.  Wish me luck!

hey, that's MYelin!

After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), I knew that I wanted to do what I could to fight this disease.  Not only did I want to fight what I would be battling physically and mentally, but I also wanted to fight the future of this disease.  I don't want my children to have to worry the way I worried about being diagnosed with MS.  Talking with Nate, we thought the best way to fight MS would be to participate in Walk MS.  Nate agreed to take on the lead of coordinating our efforts of forming a team and he did a fabulous job!  

First we had to decide on a team name.  It took us months, but we finally decided on "hey, that's MYelin!" Why?  Of all the suggestions, this one was my favorite and made me smile every time I heard it.  I usually have to explain to people what the team name means, but that's ok.  

Next, we had to start recruiting.  We had so many friends that immediately jumped at the opportunity to walk with us and we felt so touched by their eagerness to support us.  Seriously, how did we get so lucky?  Once we started to recruit, we started to raise money.  Honestly, we had pretty low expectations in this department.  Our original goal was to raise $1500, thinking that was a stretch.  However with the help of fundraising efforts from my brothers, my dad, and others, we ended up raising just over $4300 (14th out of 200 teams)! We couldn't believe it!  We were (and still are) floored by the generosity of so many people.  

Aside from the recruiting and fundraising, we made signs, had t-shirts made, and had a tent in the walk's Team Village so we all had a place to meet.  

My friend helped me make this sign for our recruiting table we had at Fuqua.

Our recruiting table with the most adorable recruiters in the world!

Nate painting our team tent sign.  He's a stud!

Then it came for the big day we had been anticipating for months!  We ended up having a huge group of walkers and Nate and I were both so touched that we had so many people there who love us and support us.  We really have the greatest friends in the world!  We ended up having 44 adult walkers and a whole lot of kids and strollers.  It was quite the site to see!  

Our team, "hey, that's MYelin!" minus 4 adults and 3 kids who arrived just after this picture.

Those who came from Fuqua to support us.

I am SO glad some of my family was able to be there: Nate, Rhett, Katie, Rachel, Westen, Lyla and Ruby.

Right before the walkers took off, they had a balloon release.  It was so cool!

And then we took off on our 1 mile walk.  There were so many people there doing that walk and it made me realize just how many people know and love someone with MS and want to help find a cure. It is good to know we are not alone. :)

A bunch of the Fuqua students walking.

Our family, minus Lyla.

As we reached the finish line, they handed out a bunch of orange leis.  In case you didn't know, orange is the official color for Multiple Sclerosis awareness in the US.  :)

After we finished walking, we mingled with our team, ate snacks and enjoyed the day.  Here are some pictures of some of those who were able to make it.

Hanna, Necia, me and Kim

me and Katie 

Cabrina, Luke and me

Kristen, Cabrina, Luke and me

Our family with the Giles family minus Garrett

me and Belize.  This picture would have been a little cooler if you could see our legs.  Oh well. 

a regular pic of me and Belize

Nate, me, and our neighbors/friends Jessica, Christian and Landon Ricks

me and my girls

our silly faces

me and Becca

Haley and me

 Unfortunately, Haley took off right before we decided to take an MBA wives picture, but we got the rest of the group who was able to make it to the walk.  I love these ladies so stinking much!

Top: Laura, Belize, me, Jessica, Katie, Lis
Bottom: Becky, Jen, Becca (and Bear)

haha!

my hott husband and beautiful girls :)

 Once almost everyone was gone, we started to pack up our things to head home.  As we were packing up, they started to announce team awards.  I was half paying attention and Nate wasn't listening at all.  As they began the awards, they started to describe a first year team who had x amount of participants and who raised just over $4300 dollars and I thought, "it kind of sounds like they are describing our team" and they said "Our Rookie of the Year award goes to, "hey, that's Myelin!".  We were like, "wait, that's us!" So, Nate ran up to the stage to collect our award. :) (Please excuse the terrible quality and lighting of the phone pic below.)

yahoo!

Overall, we had a very fun and successful day and I am so glad we did it.  Go team, "hey, that's MYelin!" :)

I want to thank everyone who took the time to walk with us, who donated, and who sent their love and support to us.  We are so thankful for each and every one of you and have felt your love and your support from here in Durham and from all over the country.  And I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who has blessed me and my family in countless ways.  

I am so thankful for my amazing husband who spent hours and hours coordinating our walk for me.  He had so many other responsibilities on his plate and opportunities to do other things, and yet he never once complained.  Nate has been my rock, my partner, and my best friend and I have always been able to count on him from the very beginning.  He makes my life so enjoyable and I am so thankful that he is mine.  I love you Nate!