Dallas/Denver Grads

We arrived back to Des Moines Monday night after a “very long graduation weekend trip” to Dallas and Denver.  Since life goes on in Des Moines while we’re absent, we’ve been busy working at Pine Rest and ChildServe, and catching up on the homefront with bills, laundry, groceries, correspondance etc, ever since. I’m just now home from Pine Rest today, with a window of opportunity available for posting. Lloyd is still at ChildServe, expected home any moment. Salome and Isaiah are pulling a moving truck from Dallas to Des Moines today, with expected arrival time between 6-7 PM.  We’re planning to eat supper at 7PM tonight, with hopes that they will have arrived and will be able to join us. Soooooooo,  in a few moments, it will be time to start cooking: Rice, grilled chicken, fresh CSA veggies……Mmmmmm.

Salome graduated from Texas Wesleyan School of Law on Friday, May 14th at 2PM. She is now a “Juris Doctor” with hopes of passing her bar exam in Iowa towards the end of July. First though, an 8-week Iowa bar cram course at Drake University here in Des Moines. She’ll be starting this cram course on Monday. She and Isaiah will be temporarily living with us here in Des Moines until after she (hopefully) passes the bar exam.

Salome took us on a tour of the law school the day before she grauated. It was really fun to see the classrooms where she studied, meet some of her professors and visit the bookstore.

Congratulations, Salome! About to leave for the ceremony here......

Kim called right before we left. Nice talking with you, Kim!!!

What a long journey it's been. Congratulations, Salome!

While we were in Dallas, we had numerous opportunities to see Michael and Amanda, since they are living with her parents a mere 2 1/2 miles from Salome and Isaiah's place. We went out for lunch to Subway together, shared a supper meal at Golden Corral (a buffet similar to Ryans in Des Moines, which Michael is so fond of). Michael wanted us all to accompany him and Amanda to a doctors appointment at the clinic adjacent from the hospital where their baby will be born. This hospital is just across the street from Salome and Isaiah's apartment. Yes, it's a small world! Baby is due May 22nd, and we learned at this appointment, that baby will be induced on Monday, May 24th, if he does not make arrival before then. So very exciting!

When we picked Michael and Amanda up for Golden Corral, we had an opportunity to meet Amanda’s parents. We can now picture them as well as their house, as Michael and Amanda talk about their lives.

Our planned late Friday night flight from Dallas to Denver was cancelled due to weather. Yikes! We were abit concerned about making Nick’s  9AM graduation in Denver the following day! As it turns out, we were able to catch an early Saturday AM flight which brought us to Denver airport at 8:15 AM. From there, we took a taxi to downtown Denver, where Nick’s graduation ceremony was happening. We arrived there at 8:50, suitcases and all, just in time to join Jess and her sister and brother-in-law, Aaron, as the graduates walked in to typical processional music. There were LOTS of graduates from UCS. So many, and such a large crowd, in fact, that we had to watch a large screen up at the front area to even see Nick walk the stage. It was really fun to see him on the screen, as he graduated with his Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning. Yea, Nick!

Congratulations, Nick! Job well done!

Later that day, we went to an open house for one of Nick’s fellow-graduates, Adam, and then out to eat with Nick and Jess to a restaurant that features seasonal foods. We really enjoyed the philosophy of cooking there as well as the delicious food!

Nick and Jess had to leave the following AM for Turkey (Nick’s final practicum experience) and Uganda (Jess is volunteering there for a month as a labor and delivery nurse). We brought them to the airport around 0800 the next morning. After Jess checked her medical supplies bag, there was at least an hour to spare before they had to board their airplanes, so we shared some Caribou Coffee together in the airport. As far as we can know at this point, Nick has made it to Turkey by now, and Jess to Uganda. It will be very interesting to watch their posts from these two locations.

We are thankful that travel arrangements worked out well enough. We enjoyed sharing time and experience with Salome&Isaiah, Michael&Amanda and Nick&Jess.