Mama finally walks...the cap and gown kind of walking...

The night before graduation relaxing.
I'm pretty sure I'm in trouble for posting this picture.

Happy Mama!

As most of you know, my mom is my hero. You probably all know because I talk about her...pretty much all the time. When I was a junior in high school we moved to Utah and my mom decided to go back to school to finish her Bachelor's degree. She graduated at with a BA in English and Latin at the end of my freshman year of college. I walked into her room the morning of graduation and she was still in bed. I asked her why she wasn't going to her graduation. She told me that her present to herself was sleeping in after three years of not getting sleep in. When she got her Master's in Education... I'm actually not sure why she didn't walk. I do know that it was quietly done ...I didn't even know she was getting her Master's. But this time...I knew.

She started the program about two seconds before my dad got his job in Boise...and since Alta High School loved her so much they gave her a sabbatical which meant she had to work for them when she was done with her Master's program...which meant that she and my dad would be living in two different states (happily married...just far apart) but that is a story for another day. This time she was going to be home (actually the only reason she was in town for graduation was because she broke her wrist about eight weeks ago...again another story)...so I (with a little help from my friends) convinced her that it would be a good idea to walk at her graduation. AND IT WAS. I even got a choked up. I was proud...like a proud mama...only reversed. My mom has worked really hard...for her whole life...not just in school, or as a teacher, or now as a vice principal...but as a mom...raising four kids, having a great marriage...even from a long distance...but most importantly just being a good person. I think that is what I love about my mom the most...she has always tried to be a good person and she is the best person that I know.

Shaking hands and getting her diploma...I know it's tough to see her but she is the one in front of the podium on the stage.

GRADUATED and walking out. She is in front of the guy in the cream shirt.

Still studious...even after getting her degree...this is not posed either...they were really having a serious conversation about vice principal-ing.

The cohort and the professors.

My hero.

these might be the flowers on the seat in front of me and I may have taken about ten different photos of them during all the speeches...I don't love that part of graduation.