An Early Graduation

In June Jared participated in the graduation ceremony for his MBA program at Seattle University.  It was a day to celebrate for sure as Jared has been working towards his MBA for the past three years, but was really a preview of things to come as he still has a few classes left to take until he completes his program.  His hope was to finish this August, then he decided that he'd finish in December, but as of yesterday I was informed that it will now be March of 2012 when he will officially be done!   

Jared started taking classes in the part-time MBA program right after Charlie was born.  Charlie will be 3 years old next week so that's how I always gauge how long we've been doing this.  It's been a long and challenging road for our family and there have been moments almost every week during the past three years when I thought I might not make it through this process. I don't think either of us realized how hard the reality of Jared's travel schedule, combined with having three kids, and going to school part-time was going to be.  Luckily, I have survived this process and now there is at least a light at the end of the tunnel.  If we've made it this far, I know we can make it until March of next year.  Our hope then is that life will slow down a little bit, we'll have a little more family time together, and of course our biggest hope is that Jared won't decide to start a doctorate program (just kidding honey)!

All jokes aside, I was so proud of Jared as I watched him walk across that stage and accept his diploma.  I got a little emotional as I listened to the speakers and thought about what a huge undertaking this has been for our family.  Jared has endured three years of whining and complaining from me and he has somehow managed to keep up with an insane schedule of travel and homework and keeping up with this church and family obligations.  In fact, I think he might be superman!  It was so nice to spend a sunny, summer afternoon in Seattle celebrating Jared's hard work and accomplishments.  

It's not everyday that you get to see yourself on the jumbo screen at Key Arena!

A sea of Seattle U graduates

Daddy and his girls

It was just the girls who came to support Daddy on his big day.  Charlie was way too much of a two-year-old at the time to sit through an entire graduation ceremony, so we left him with a friend for the day.

Little miss Maggie... looking cute as always!