Pomp and (Unusual) Circumstance

Sunday, May 27th
Graduation Day

Our graduation day truly was a graduation day--my ceremony started at 9 am and Jeffrey's began at 2 pm, so including all the getting ready, pre and post-ceremony photos, and speeches, someone was graduating at all times, all day.

I guess all the excitement got to my head (or maybe I was just an overheated pregnant lady in a velvet floor length graduation robe in a warm college gym) because during my graduation ceremony I thought I was going to faint!  I spent much of the event sitting with my head down as low as I could bend with my belly, and as far as the mortarboard on my head would allow before it fell off, and with my neighbor graduates fanning me with their programs.  It was miserable, but in a way it was perfect--dental school was not an individual effort.  I had needed support from family and friends all along, so why would the ceremonial completion of school be any different?  All the fanning worked and I walked the stage to become Dr. Lauren Edwards, DDS.

My dental school group, GPG 7.  I love these people and will never forget the good times (and not so good, sometimes) we had together.  We spent every day of 3rd and 4th year together and still managed to like each other at the end.  I'll miss these faces!

Carly Klassen, also from GPG 7

Dr. Brent Magness, the fearless leader of GPG 7

My biggest fan.

Conspicuously absent?  My sister!  She woke up at 4 am the morning of graduation suffering greatly from a kidney stone.  My grandmother stayed at the hotel with the poor girl, and someone took a video on their phone of the moment I walked across the stage so that she could feel like she was there!

Later in the day, Jeffrey graduated.  His ceremony was a bit longer since his class was much bigger, and this also meant that he could only invite 10 people to his graduation.  (I made the cut!).  His ceremony was VERY crowded so we had a hard time even finding seats.  He looked very handsome in his green and black robes, and required no fanning to get through his event.  Welcome to the professional world, Dr. Jeffrey Edwards, MD!

Can you find Waldo?

Jeffrey's biggest fan.

Ryan and Sylvia Mack--future Temple residents themselves!

The Best Laid Plans

Saturday, May 26th

So I mentioned in the last post that I had Saturday planned beautifully, down to the minute, in fact.  That much is true.  But Saturday was not to go according to plan.

The morning started out with a CPR course that I had signed up for a little bit on a whim.  (We're required to have current CPR certification when we apply for our license from the state board, and mine was set to expire at the end of June, meaning that it might expire while it was at the state board, so I felt like I needed to renew before graduation.  I decided this approximately 2 weeks before graduation, and this meant that the only option was Saturday, May 26th.)  I signed up for the course online and it said that it would be over at noon.  Perfect!  I thought.  Because my friends from ACU had planned a baby shower for me at 2 pm that day.  Plenty of time to change clothes and spruce up between events.

Problem #1:  I woke to the sound of Dixie barfing on her dog bed at 6 am.  That is not a good way to start a day.  After I cleaned that up, I decided that going back to sleep would be pointless because the CPR course started at 8.

Problem #2:  The CPR course did not start at 8.  As I was driving to pick up my friend, Maegan, before the course, she called me and said that she had just double-checked and the class didn't start until 9.  Great.  I went back to the house, packed a couple more boxes, and then left (again) to pick up Maegan at the right time.

Problem #3:  At 11:30, Maegan and I realized that there was no way our rather long-winded CPR instructor was going to wrap this class up in the next half hour.  Hoping to urge him along, during a break I asked him, "Umm...does this course not end at noon?"  He said, "No, it ends at 1 pm."  Maegan and I politely disagreed with him (since both of us had double checked the times this morning on our confirmation emails due to the issue with trying to figure out what time the course started).  He argued with us a little and pulled out the course website to prove to us that he was right.  He was incorrect--they had made a typo on their own website.  The course was supposed to say 9-1, but instead it said 9-12.  I told the guy that I had a baby shower to go to, and to his credit, he rushed through the rest of the curriculum so that we got finished by 12:30. 

Problem #4:  CPR guy has just run into my lunch hour.  That is a major problem for a pregnant lady.

I dropped Maegan off at her house and called Jeffrey to ask him to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so that I could have a quick lunch, change clothes, and get ready for the shower.  When I walked into my house at 1 pm, I was greeted by Jeffrey, Jeffrey's family, my lovingly prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a million people.  Don't misunderstand, I wasn't unhappy to see my relatives and Jeffrey's, but all at once during an already-hectic moment, there were several aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc all clamoring for our attention. 

I finally managed to get upstairs, slam my sandwich, change my clothes and put on a little make up, then it was time for the shower.

The shower was absolutely wonderful!

My friends Amanda Lee, Dabney Fletcher, and Sylvia Mack were the hostesses and they really did a fantastic job planning and decorating the entire thing.  The theme was "Little Mister" and the girls challenged everybody to bring a onesie to see if I could guess who brought which one.  It was really hard at first because there were several options for some of them (an ACU onesie could have been from one of many ACU supporters/alumni that were in attendance) but others were really obvious, like my Aunt Cindy's that had dogs on it and included a doggie neck roll just like she got Leslie and me for Christmas one year.  The onesie game was fun and then I had even more presents after that!  Carter really got showered at this party.  He got a stroller and carseat from Mom-O, a high chair from Nana, and a crib from Grandmother (we just set that up--I'll do a post on Carter's room sometime soon). 

The hostesses!  Amanda, Dabney, and Sylvia.

Problem #5:  I didn't realize until that very moment that this would likely be my final goodbye to the sweet girls who threw the shower for me, and it hit me hard emotionally.  We were staying in San Antonio for a few days following graduation, but we knew they would be busy days and probably wouldn't allow for time visiting friends.  As I tried to say thank you and goodbye to the girls, I started to cry.  I rushed out to avoid a full-out pregnant lady sob-fest, because (you guessed it), the day wasn't over yet!  Luckily Sylvia and her husband Ryan are also moving to Temple, and even more luckily we live in the 21st century, so Amanda and Dabney are always a call, text, or email away!

Once again I came home and did a quick change of outfit to prepare for our next event--a dual graduation party for Jeffrey and me at an Italian restaurant called Zio's.  Our parents threw the party and it was a great success--lots of attendees drove in from out of town, including Jerry and JV Johnson, who acted as the photographers for the night.  So nice!

Mom and Dad with the gift we gave them.  Jeffrey and I both framed pictures of us at around age 1 and in our graduation regalia with the caption "We've come a long way, baby!"  We so appreciate our parents' support over a lifetime, but especially in the last 4 years.

My Uncle Gary gave me a set of extraction forceps that are engraved with my initials.  I used them immediately!

Problem #6:  The day STILL wasn't over.  After the graduation party, we needed help to load up Grampy's trailer for our move to Temple.  Once again, we all changed clothes and met at the house to pack up.  I have to say that our moving crew was wonderful.  Let's be honest:  moving is not fun, and there were several people who helped that we didn't even ask--they just volunteered!  A big thanks to Grampy, Robert, Jenny, Darren, Melinda, Rebekah, Greg, Courtney, Zach, Andy, and (of course) Jeffrey for getting us packed.  They did an excellent job, but even with their help it took until about 11 pm to get the trailer loaded and secured.  We were pooped!  (By the way, someone somewhere has a picture of our moving crew and the incredibly well-packed trailer...I'd love to see that picture someday!)

After all that excitement, we collapsed into bed to get a good night's sleep before graduation the next day.

Ready, set, blog!

The last three weeks have been some of the most hectic and fun weeks in my life.  So many huge life changes were packed into the last month that I thought at times I might explode, but looking back over it, it was somehow imperfectly perfect just the way it was.  So get ready for a LOT of "backwards" blog posts as I try to relate all these events over the next week or so (before I start to forget!).

Tuesday, May 22nd
Last Thursday Night Dinner

When we moved to San Antonio, we thought that we didn't know a soul, but gradually we began to make some connections, especially with some ACU alumni that had moved to the area.  Chris and Amanda Lee, JC and Dabney Fletcher, Chris and Jenny Thompson, and Jeffrey and I (at Amanda's suggestion) began meeting weekly on Thursdays for dinner.  We took turns hosting and making the entrees, and everyone else brought sides.  It was such a wonderful time together with friends of the same mindset and faith. 

Over the years, we sometimes invited new couples to join our little dinners, and the club got almost unwieldy in size and impractical financially for those who hosted often.  Unfortunately, the last few months of our time in San Antonio, our dinner meetings had become more rare.  We decided long before Jeffrey's and my moving date that we needed to reinstate the dinner for a send-off. 

Amanda hosted, just like she did the first time, but this time she had a theme of "See you later, gator" for us. 

Thursday, May 24th
Dental Graduation Party

On Thursday night my dental school class decided to throw a graduation party for ourselves.  (Sometimes, if you want to party like it's 1999, you just have to do it yourself!)  The party was a little fancy--downtown at the Frost Bank Building complete with 4 course dinner and dancing the night away.  Of course, finding a formal gown for a girl who's pushing 6 months pregnant was no easy task.  I went with basic black (it's slimming, after all) and just hoped nobody bumped my belly on the dance floor.

Proof positive that dentists know how to party.  We're crazy, y'all.

Some of my girls, plus Korbin in the background.  Apparently the glow sticks had gone to his head.

Jeffrey, Lauren, Baby Carter, and city lights.  Nothing better!

Friday, May 25th

On Friday, Jeffrey's parents came to San Antonio, bringing with them a trailer, a Grandmother, a Tommy, and a Rebekah.  Four out of the seven items above were helpful in the move--Darren, Melinda, Rebekah, and the trailer.  Grandmother wasn't helpful in the move because no one would let her move anything (She's a grandmother and she's in her 80's.  We wouldn't even have let her move pillows if she tried.)  We didn't expect anything from Tom because last time we moved he managed to get one box up the stairs before he said, "Jeffrey, my heart's beeping too fast," and sat down, never to help us move again.

No matter, though.  The Edwards spent the night with us on Friday and bought us a much needed dinner at Babe's Burgers, since by that time the only things left in our fridge were jelly for PB and J sandwiches and stains from too many spills of gatorade, spaghetti sauce, and whatever else you find when you clean out a fridge before a move.

Saturday, May 26th was planned very carefully.  I knew it would be a busy day, but I thought I had it under control.  Spoiler alert:  I did NOT.

Tell you next time.