More Graduation News - Updated

Hi to all! I love reading all the posts so please keep them coming. Big congrats to Suzanne, Joanie and Heather for their graduations. Joanie, I visit Vegas a lot so I may have to look you up and make sure you're being good.
Wow, lots of babies are coming. How exciting is that? Can't wait to see the new little Talbotts when we get together for the picnic. Connie, you win the "most family news" this month for sure! Nancy and Debbie, what an accomplishment at the marathon. And Mark's in New York? Did you see that coming? Our babies have grown up for sure. God bless them all.

It's been a busy time for the Stamp Family Singers. We also just celebrated a graduation. It was a hectic 3-day celebration at KU for Cassidy, but we got it all done. We got to share Cassi's big day with wonderful family like WJ and Marian, Niki and Matt, Marty, Gigi, Maria, Shaylee and Elissa. Friday night was a party for over 200 family and friends at Cassi's house put on by the parents of the nine girls who live there. We didn't make that soiree but headed down Saturday for the School of Education ceremony at the Lied Center, then a sorority dinner at the country club. Sunday was a luncheon at the Kappa House followed by a hilly walk to the stadium for the traditional "walk the hill" to the football stadium for over 4,300 graduates. It was very hot and sunny but we found a perfect shady spot under a tree for everyone while we waited.
Elissa, our mama-to-be, provided us with valuable planning information and perfect directions for the day's events. The graduates'"walk" took over an hour but it was extremely entertaining and quite emotional to see such jubilation on all of their faces (ok, some had too much happy juice).

Post graduation was another gathering at the house for dinner with all the girls and their families and it was wonderful and relaxing after the walk back. I'll have to say that my in-laws are the world's best good sports. We are so blessed they have such good health and able bodies to endure that kind of adventure on such a long, heated day.

Another event we are proud of is Niki's finish in Lincoln where she ran the half marathon. She asked me to ride my bike alongside her several times while she was training about 7-10 miles each run. She would chat the whole time and entertain me to no end. Oh to be that young and so full of energy. Thanks to Debbie and Nancy for posting the picture of the two of you with Niki.

Last night I returned from Texas visiting my mother, sister and brother for five days. The trip was wonderful but due to major storms in Dallas, my flight home involved me sitting on the runway or in the airport for 17 hours, bringing me home at 2:30 a.m. Steve and Marty are fishing in Canada, so my loyal and trusted friend, Lisa, picked me up at that ungodly hour without a complaint. I will never again travel in heels and without my DVD charger. I got to bed by 3:30 and did manage to get up at 6:30 for work today. I'm feeling it now, though.

Also, just a quick "save the date" for everyone if you can make it. We're celebrating Marian's 80th birthday on Sunday, June 29th. It will be at their church by their home and we hope you all can make it. I'm trying to book Bon Jovi for the entertainment, but don't hold your breath.

That's all for now. Keep the posts coming and we hope to see everyone soon.
Suki

Welcome Carlie---the first great,great grandchild! and other news, too.

Hello, everyone.
Miss Carlie Lynelle Talbott arrived at 2:04 p.m. on May 24, 2008. Ben and Heather are the proud (and relieved) parents of a 6#1oz, 19" daughter. She entered the world "face up" and inhaled some nasty liquid, so was whisked out of delivery and into the care of those who knew how to get her past the crisis. A ventilator helped her breathe and monitors and sensors were applied to keep the team updated on her status. Ben watched as the team worked. They did a wonderful job. The vent was removed at 6:30 p.m. We were able to see her and touch her delicate fingers just before they performed that procedure. She is lovely and doing well.

Heather's grandfather was named Carleton and called "Carlie" by all who knew him. I think Miss Carlie will appreciate the honor of carrying on a special person's name.

As Nancy documented, Joan's graduation was impressive. Following the ceremony, several graduates and their families gathered at Joan's house for a party. We enjoyed crab cakes from Katie, the Maryland roommate and fantastic ribs prepared by Nathan's dad, Brad Hopkins. Lots of small world stories here, including the fact that Brad & Lonna have friends in Gretna. (I did not ask for names, tsk, tsk.)

Tom and I journeyed back to Manhattan Monday to load up Joan's belongings. We had trailer issues, but managed to get back safely. The best part of the trip was visiting with Tom. His life will change dramatically in September when he, too will become a father. He and Sarah Creighton will be fine parents, I'm sure. Sarah is a wonderful young woman and the sister of Amanda, Joan's teammate in high school and roommate for 2 years in vet school. Tom started working at NPPD's Sheldon Station on May 12. (It is located near Hallam.) His job title is "station operator" and is challenging. Training is 4 months long. The job offers security and the means to be a good provider.

Debbie and I and several friends are attending Football 101. It will be fun to see "Bo & Co." close up and personal.

The family picnic date is yet to be determined. We will send invitations as soon as we know more specifics.

Congratulations to Suzanne, Nikki (months late) and Heather (BSN from Wesleyan).

Connie

Hi from Nancy

Good evening from soggy Geneva! It's been raining most of yesterday and today and while the moisture was needed, enough is enough....
There have been three noteworthy events since I wrote last--marathon, trip to New York and Joan's graduation.
First, Debbie and I were in the Lincoln Marathon again on the first Sunday in May. The entrant limit was raised to 6000 this year, so imagine our surprise when Niki bounded through the throng outside the football stadium to greet us. As you can see, she was more athletically dressed than her elderly relatives. Neither Debbie nor I had done any "training" prior to the race so we were a bit concerned about our stamina for 13 miles. One of us was able to match last year's pace and one of us tried to keep up with a younger sister, but after about 4 miles, gave up and walked at a more reasonable rate :) My assistant from work also did the marathon, so she and I had several hours to visit as we looked at houses, landscaping, other walkers, etc. My time was >30 minutes longer than last year, but I didn't care at all, until this week that is, when all the Fillmore County participants' names and times were listed in the Geneva paper. All the others were runners, so my 3 hour, 45 minute time was considerably more than the others.

My second event was to spend two days riding with Mark as he drove to his internship site--Turning Stone, a golf resort in Verona, NY. It's quite impressive; you can see it at turningstone.com. I know he was nervous about spending so much time with his mother trapped in a car for an 18 hour drive, but at the end, he said it didn't feel like we had been driving for two days. I saw it as a huge gift, having the time to tell him about the day we found out we were going to have twins, the day he and Beth were born when we were on every prayer chain in Geneva, and other memorable times. He seemed to enjoy the stories. He left me at the Syracuse airport to fly home; he'll be there until November. There are nine interns from all over the US and Mark is the only one from the midwest; they live in intern housing in Oneida, a small town near Turning Stone.
This is one of the two hotels (includes a casino and spa) & the golf practice dome.














There are three golf courses and two clubhouses, which is where Mark will be working.














It was very hard to leave him so far from home where he knew no one, but he's braver than his mother so was able to fight down his apprehensions and is now (according to his phone calls) enjoying his grand adventure.

Last Friday, the Bull family gathered in Manhattan for Joan's graduation. It was an impressive ceremony and we were all bursting with pride at her accomplishment.
Here she is getting hooded--Dr. Talbott!! Proud brothers...........














Proud parents.....
When Allison graduated from Wesleyan with her BSN, she didn't want to go through the ceremony and we respected her wishes, although I was disappointed. For the time being, I'll have to experience graduations vicariously through family members, so I was glad to see Suzanne's pictures. Congratulations to you!!
We were surprised and happy that Theresa came from OK City; here we are..........















Stan and I are heading to Syracuse tomorrow for his 40th class reunion. How is that possible?!? I won't be able to attend Football 101 this year, but if any of the cousins go, please publish a post afterwards, OK?
Love, Nancy

Pics!!!!

Here are the photos!!! Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to edit my previous post--I'm too tired to try to figure it out.

I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!!!!

Greetings all,

I have OFFICIALLY graduated from school! I graduated on Sunday, May 18th, and it was an absolute BEAUTIFUL day. I didn't get any pictures of what the campus looked like in Crete, but it was beautiful!!!!! There were 450 graduates in all. But that included the Masters degree candidates. Most of them were Education candidates that received their diploma. There were masters in counseling, masters in education and masters in management that received diplomas along with us undergraduates.

But I'm officially graduated!!!! I'm sooooo excited. So what's next for me? Well, right now I think that I'll head back to HRC and work part time there and save up some money. I'll then ATTEMPT to go to graduate school this fall in Counseling. Randy, my adviser said that it's pretty pointless to get a masters in criminal justice unless I want to teach it. So he advised me to take the counseling route. I do counsel people now, but I don't want to be a counselor. So we'll see. But if I do go back to graduate school this fall, I have settled on going back to Doane College because they have an outstanding program AND I don't have to take the GRE exam--which I just found out was a killer exam from a friend who took it.

I celebrated my graduation by going to the WWE PPV Judgment Day in Omaha at the Qwest Center. Grandma and mom and me went to Korea King in Omaha. However, Grandma suggested I lock my doors and I LOCKED my keys in the car!!!!! It didn't ding because the key was out of the ignition far enough not to ding!!!! Grrr...so I had to call triple A and they took over an hour to get to me!!!!! Man sakes alive, I was late to my PPV and missed 2-3 matches...2 of which I wanted to see. *sighs*. But I did get a PPV t-shirt and a program as a souvenir. As soon as the DVD releases, I will be buying the DVD also. But I did get to see my favorite wrestler (the Undertaker) wrestle!!!!! I was so thrilled to watch him.

Umm, I forgot to mention that I ended up being the outstanding graduate in the Liberal Arts major. I got to wear a medal at graduation and I have it now. So I'm very excited. My GPA was a 3.89. Man, that's the best I'll ever do!!!!! Grad school will probably be a 3.0 the whole way through. But what can I say? Oh and the blasted economics course I had to take when I was in college, I got a B+ on the course!!!! It's way better than a D+ from CCC!!!!!

Well, I don't know what else there is to write about. Umm, grad school--check, me graduating--check, outstanding graduate--check. Yeppers, that's all there is to post. So I will end it here. I will talk to everyone later!!!!

Suz

5 month baby bump!

Here's the baby bump at 5 months (21 weeks)! We went to the doctor a few weeks ago and had another ultrasound. Below are a couple of the pics...a profile (a little blurry because the baby kept putting it's arm over it) and a little foot. Everything looked great, the baby's just under one pound, and we got to see all the organs and bones in there :) I wasn't planning on finding out if it's a boy or girl, but asked them to write it down and put it in an envelope. And then we promptly opened it while we were waiting to see the doctor! They think it's a girl and we're both really excited!

She moves all the time now and Matt's favorite pastime is to push around on my belly to feel where she's at and loves it when she pushes back! I'm at 6 months now and things are going just great. Hope everyone is well!

Love, Elissa and Matt