"Official" Vanderbilt Graduation

Warning, this is a long post with lots of pictures! :)

So, last weekend, Mike and I met in Nashville (he from NYC, me from Dallas....another story for another day) to go to my "official" master's degree graduation at Vanderbilt. I really graduated last August and did go to the Nursing School's Pinning Ceremony at that time (which in the nursing world, is really the most memorable/significant). However, since I had put in all of that work over the past year, I wanted to actually walk across the stage and get hooded! So, off we went!

I arrived on Thursday mid-day (after my kind mother dropped me off at Love Field at 6:00am- she gets brownie points!), went to my favorite coffee shop in Nashville, The Frothy Monkey, and got my long-awaited chai latte before I headed back to the airport to pick up Mike.
Later that evening, we went to the Nursing School's wine and cheese reception (see below).


While at the reception, Lauren and I were re-united! :) So, so good to see her! I keep telling her that Children's is hiring and she and Andrew need to move to Dallas! Almost convinced her when she came to visit last summer....

Thursday evening we had dinner with some good friends, Tim and Julia, who let me stay with them in Nashville a couple of times. Sad day that I don't have pictures from our dinner, but we had a great time! Julia and I actually started together at Children's in the ER, then she moved to England (difficult life!)- we actually stayed with them as well when Mike and I went to England a couple of years ago.

Friday morning was graduation! There were two parts to graduation: first part was with the entire 2010 graduating class (undergrad, grad, doctoral, etc). It was an out-door graduation and can I tell you that I steamed in my black gown and cap- it was SO hot and humid!! But, thankfully, the rain held off until after graduation!

The second part of graduation was the hooding ceremony. We broke off into separate schools and each of us were hooded by our program director (see below).

Then we got our diploma (fake one- real one is already framed and hanging on our wall at home) from the Dean.

Yay us! We graduated!

So thankful for Mike, who was my support system through out school.

So, Vanderbilt is known for their strawberries and champagne reception after graduation- you can see why. This was just one of the many mounds and mounds of fresh strawberries, that were actually really good! And, on the side of the tent were tables with free-flowing champagne!


Friday night, we all went out to dinner and then headed back to Lauren and Andrew's condo for dessert. Here we all are, with our significant others... So very thankful for each of these girls! Happily, we are all employed, but sadly, scattered through-out the country.


Saturday, Mike and I slept in and then had lunch with some friends and then spent a rainy afternoon back at The Frothy Monkey. We had dinner that evening with Melanie, Cliff and little Kaylee! Melanie was my roommate back at Samford, and graciously let me stay with she and Cliff when I would come to Nashville for classes last year. She had Kaylee while I was in school, so it's been so fun to see her grow up!

So thankful for Mel!

Mike and Kaylee


Sunday morning found us back at Nashville airport, where I headed back to Dallas and Mike, back to NYC...such is life these days. But, we had a FABULOUS weekend away!