CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. KEVIN!

Kevin is now officially a doctor (okay, not until he passes the national licensing exam) but he has his DPT now and YAY FOR HIM! Lucky for us, Kevin was in the first 15 people out of about 1000 people to walk through and get his diploma (first because they do Docterate degrees first) So even though they ask you like 10billion times to stay in your seat for the duration of the ceremony, my mom and dad and I snuck out right after Kevin's class walked. I mean do you really expect me to sit through 2 more hours of name after name being called of people I don't know or care about? There were close to 8500 people there at the Alerus Center! I don't think us leaving will make a big wave.

I hooded Kevin this morning in a special hooding ceremony, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, there were quite a few people there, and I wasn't scared or anything.... not even nervous cause everything was going well... until... bum bum buuummm...It's my turn to go up there and meet Kevin in the middle of the stage, I put the hood over his head ( it isnt' really a hood to cover your head, it is like a cape that goes around your neck and hangs in the back down to your knees) I give him a hug and we turn to shake the hands of the important people standing there like Deans and things... then.... Kevin's MOM starts yelling out to me very loudly I might add... "APRIL APRIL STOP APRIL STOP I WANT TO GET A PICTURE!!!" So now that I'm embarassed cause NO ONE DID THAT!! So I wave like "um... kind of busy here" and then instead of walking directly off stage like YOUR SUPPOSED TO DO, we have to hold things up and stop to take a damn picture... and then her camera, of course, doesn't work right away so its not like its a quick thing... no she has to fuss with it and there I am thinking "oh my god, i don't know this woman and she was NOT just screaming my name"

But then I relaxed and thought "Its good that this day isn't about ME, it's about Kevin, and how proud we are of him. So even though my mother in law is a total spaz sometimes, it went well and I'm soooo proud of Kevin! He deserves every inch of that pretty pink hood! He has worked so hard for 8 years to be done with school! He skipped out on a lot of fun stuff to stay home and study, he went out on clinicals and was away from home for 9 weeks at a time, he met with study group after study group, walked ENDLESS blocks to class in the snow and sleet across campus like a total of like a 10000000000 times He has done a thesis study that is now PUBLISHED and in it's own little BOOK! He balanced his social life and school life perfectly. I mean, I'm soooo damn proud of him! It is and always will be one of his biggest accomplishments in his lifetime, he was so happy today, not just to be done with school FINALLY, but I think he realized that all that hard work payed off in the end, and he knows he has every right to feel like he's totally "THE MAN" because to me he is! It must be sooo nice to realize that you accomplished something so woth everything in the world. To some people it may just be Kevin graduating... and I know people are used to seeing kevin do well in most things he does (I mean I'm not bragging, but he's really good at school) but this took a lot of hard work, he may make it look easier than it is because he is passive like that, but I saw first hand how much this meant to him and he did it, all by himself, HE DID IT!!! I love ya Dear, and I want you to know how proud I truely am today, I'm so happy for him that I just don't even know what to say right now except for YAY!!!!!!

Do you know how many people have asked me "you don't mind that Kevin wants a Big Screen TV?

Um, no I don't care, he has worked his ASS off to be TOP OF HIS CLASS for 8 years, he graduated with an undergrad degree with HONORS and now he is a DOCTOR of Physical Therapy, why do you THINK I don't mind!

YAY FOR KEVIN, pics to be here soon.