The Graduate

After 5 years of college, I finally finished.  Of course, true to Kirsten style, it was not without incident.  

First, here is the graduate announcement I created and sent out. 

I thought it turned out cute and true to my style instead of a classic graduate announcement.  

I did better this semester than all my previous semesters which means finals were not too difficult.  Randal and I spent the time relaxing, studying and soaking in my final days of school.  We (Randal, Sal and I) even went on my first mountain biking ride.  My legs and butt were killing me.

My parents, grandparents, and my siblings, Zack and Des, and my adorable niece, and also Randal's parents and his Sister and her son came down to Provo for my graduation.  I loved having everyone here and it really meant a lot to me.  On graduation day I went early to the Wilk to get all set up to walk.  My family went and found seats in the ballroom.  

While waiting to queue up and walk, we were handed graduation program with all the graduates names in it.  My friends and I all searched for our names and mine was nowhere to be seen.  Yep.  I wasn't on the program.  I was immediately panicked.  I wanted to just walk out of line and go home.  I was so embarrassed.  Knowing that my entire family came out I knew I couldn't so I stayed and tried not to get too emotional.  I think people thought I was nervous or sad or just crying because of graduation.  

Randal called and wanted to tell me that they couldn't find my name either.  He thought I wouldn't be able to walk and thought I would be close to having a melt down.  Which I was. ha.

When all the graduates walked in, my seat ended up being on the end of the row and Randal came over to hug me.  I broke down and just started sobbing.  I was a mess.  After a quick pep talk from Randal, I got it together and realized I was still going to be able to walk, I would just have to sort out everything with my counselor after the fact.  

As it turns out, I ended up being the last graduate to walk so not only did I have my family cheering for me, I had the whole crowd cheering.  Talk about a boost to your confidence!  It all ended up working out thank goodness, but I'm still pretty ticked about it.

As a family (including Brenda who just graduated that day and Crystal) we headed over to El Gallo Giro for a celebratory lunch.  My parents surprised me with a Bernina Sewing machine.  It also includes sewing classes and maintenance for 2 years!  Yahoo!

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I have so many things I want to get working on and I'm so happy to have a nice machine to work on.  Not only did I get that but I got some great presents from Randal's parents and cards from friends and family.  It was a great day, but the best thing is not having to worry about school anymore.

I have been running in the mornings, weeding my flower beds, mowing the lawn, and spring cleaning.  I also have work of course, but it is nice not to have homework.  Randal already started classes yesterday and boy am I glad to be done with that!  Finally.

Now, the down side of graduating.  I don't have a "real job".  It's fine to work odd jobs during college but once you graduate people expect you to start working in your major.  Well my major is useless without graduate school, and since that's not something I want to be doing right now, I'm stuck.  It's an awkward period of my life and I don't like it.  As much as I hated school, at least I could stay in that "emerging adulthood" demographic but now I'm expected to be a full blown adult.  I feel a bit useless.  

My parents reminded me that they both have successful careers that having nothing to do with their degrees.  My mother's being Art and now she owns a concrete barrier company, and my father's being sociology and now he is a pilot.  So I just need to wait and find my niche.  It's just hard when you have dreams of graduating and finding the perfect job, but it really isn't like that at all.

So for now, I'll just be basking in all my graduate glory and hopelessly working on finding my calling in life.  Wish me luck!

Randal hates this picture of himself, but I think we look great.
I could have never done it without him.

Little Boys: Caine's Arcade

I only hope my kids are as imaginative and adorable as this little boy.  I love how hard he worked on this.  I couldn't watch it and not smile.  When he pushes the tickets through the box?  So funny.  

Enjoy!

Caine's Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Sal the guard dog?

Maybe underneath that sleepy exterior she is actually on the lookout for danger?

Yeah...probably not.

911 and handguns

This morning I was doing my regular morning routine by laying in bed and snuggling sal while I check emails.  Our bedroom window faces the front porch so we see and hear anytime someone comes to our door.  Anyway, I was in bed (even though I told Randal I wasn't...shhh...) and I hear two people run up to our door.  I thought for sure I would hear them knock or something so I slowly starting putting clothes on for the day.  Well, they didn't knock, but I did hear them jiggle the door knob.  One of them said to the other, "let's go!".  I then hear them leave and the next thing I know someone is at the back door trying to open it.

I FREAKED OUT

I grabbed my husbands little gun, cocked it, and called 911.  The dispatcher was very nice but I was so scared I was shaking and could hardly talk.  I just sat on my bed with the phone in one hand and the gun in the other, too terrified to move.  She told me that a cop was on his way and to stay inside until he came.  She asked if I saw them and what exactly happened.  I knew it was two men based on the sound they made walking up our front porch stairs, and I heard the one talk.  They weren't young, but they weren't old.  My guess is mid 20s.  She told me to look outside and to see if they were still there.  I looked out the front and saw my landlord's truck in our driveway.  Instantly I was embarrassed.  I knew that she had some boys, one of which just got back from his mission, that come from time to time to help her with things outside.  I told the dispatcher that it was probably just my landlord and I said I would just go out and talk to her.  I kept apologizing on the phone for wasting her and any police officers time, but she insisted that it was not a waste and that she would stay on the phone until an officer came to the door and that I need to stay indoors.  I looked out the window again and saw that it was just my landlord and she didn't have her kids with her.  A few minutes later an officer knocked on the door after talking with my landlord outside.  I can't even remember what he said because I was crying out of embarrassment for just calling the cops on my landlord.  It was mortifying!  After I collected myself a bit, I went out to talk to my landlord and apologize for the confusion.  She had no idea I was even home.  She had only gotten there a few minutes ago.  Our landlord told me that she pulled up and went straight to the back shed to work on it and hadn't checked the doors or even been near them.  She also said she didn't see anyone when she got there.

I don't know what happened or who it was.  Sally started barking when she heard them the second time and I don't know if they heard her and realized someone was home, or what happened.  But I was terrified.  Last week, a man from Provo city came (not in any official clothing or anything) and knocked on the door asking who all lived here and that kind of business.  I didn't think much of it, but Randal asked if he actually worked for the city and that I should have asked for ID.  I think that freaked me out and had me primed to be more scared.  Also, this older teenage boy has been sitting on our curb outside our house with his hood on the past few nights.  We asked him what he was doing and he just told us he was using the internet.  Our internet is blocked, but I'm sure he could pick it up from the neighbors or something.  He said he lives in the apartments down the road.  It was kinda sketchy.  Now, it could have just been someone dropping something off (I did find a little handout thing on the front door), but what makes me question it is that they ran to the back door.  People don't realize that we even have a back door with a separate basement apartment, and they didn't leave anything on that door.  I'm not sure who it was, but it scared me pretty good.

I texted Randal that I called the cops on our landlord and that I had his gun ready to use it but that I don't know how to uncock (if that is even the real word) it.  He told me to put it in a drawer and not touch it until he gets home.  haha.  I would have never thought my first reaction would be to grab his gun, but I guess it's good to know I'm not as scared of it as I thought!  I'm kind of more open to the idea of getting my own gun now.  I should at the very least learn how to properly use one.

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And if I had a gun that looked like this, maybe it wouldn't be so intimidating?