graduation

yes, this is a week+ late, but we've been a little busy, driving across the country and moving into a new apartment and all that. there's not much i need to say with this post, anyways, other than I GRADUATED! BOOYAH!

thank you, trees

i had my last final last night. i turned in my last academic paper last night. i turned in my key and my gradebooks, and took everything home from my cube. i thought i would do something really dramatic after FINALLY TURNING IN THE LAST PAPER, like start crying or cheering or run out of the building to thundering applause, but of course i didn't do any of those. i just left and walked out to my car in the parking deck for the last time. 

funny story: my professor, after reading through my rough draft on this paper, told me it was "PhD-level work" and encouraged me to submit it for publication. if only he knew how little effort i put into it and how little i care . . . he probably wouldn't have been so complimentary. if THIS is PhD-level work, i don't think i need to get a PhD. it was a pretty big load of junk.

also:

you probably can't see very well in this picture, but this stack of papers is almost as tall as the harry potter book next to it. these are all of the readings i've printed out for my classes and papers over the last two years. and it's all going in the recycling TODAY.

sorry, trees. i did my best: almost every single one of these is printed four pages to one page--double-sided and two on each side. so this stack should be four times as tall, really. phew.

i'm the king of new york

our brief trip to new york was just fantastic. the wedding was beautiful (both the sealing and the reception--AMAZING), the company was excellent (it was like our own wedding all over again, with friends AND family, but better because we weren't stressed and could hang out with the friends and family), and the sightseeing was a lot of fun. we got to see cousins on both sides of my family and friends from byu who i hadn't seen in far too long, and it just all made me very happy.

since this is a picture post, i'll just post a billion pictures and not bother with too many comments. 

first, the wedding pictures:

and, the sightseeing pictures. we went to times square, ground zero, walked the brooklyn bridge, ate lunch in little italy, and saw newsies on broadway. and we did some other stuff too.

and in six days we start our cross-country road trip. we're going to hit alabama, mississippi, arkansas, oklahoma, and new mexico--all new states i've never been to before. our only real sightseeing plans are to go to graceland and the grand canyon, and to hit up a few diners, drive-ins, and dives restaurants--other than that, we'll just be booking it across the country. oh yeah, and i graduate in four days. booyah!

random good things

i taught my last class of english 101 ever last night. technically, i CANCELED my last class of english 101 ever, because it's supposed to be tomorrow, but i wanted to give them extra time on their final papers. therefore, i'm done teaching AND my students LOVE ME for extending their deadline and canceling class. win win all around.

*****

i went to my second-to-last class of grad school ever last night. while we were walking out the door, one of the girls in the class, who i'd never really talked to before, told me, "i just wanted to tell you that i've thought all semester--you're extremely beautiful!"

wow, what an ego booster right there! i didn't know what to say, other than thanks and returning the compliment. we ended up chatting for a while about being pregnant (she had a baby the third week of the semester and was back at school the next week--wowza).

*****

we went in to renew our apartment contract this morning, and as we were signing the endless pages, we chatted with the two ever-so-friendly employees who we've gotten to know over the last two years of living here. we told them we were moving to santa monica for the summer, and one was practically screaming in excitement because of her undying love for santa monica. we then told them i was graduating, and they were so excited again. and THEN we told them we were having a baby in the fall, and they were both practically jumping for joy and shouting all over the office. it was pretty fantastic--and nice to have random acquaintances so happy for all of our good news.

*****

i took a bath last night and while i stared at my bare stomach, i could actually see the baby kicking and moving my skin, over and over again. i don't care what you say (is it too early?), it REALLY WAS. and it was pretty freaking amazing. baby pele the kicker.

*****

the big wedding is in 9 days. my graduation is in 17 days. we leave to drive across the country in 19 days (and we are planning on hitting up graceland and the grand canyon on our way there).

we are so lucky!

let's celebrate!

tommy and i have been finding reasons to celebrate a lot lately. i finished my capstone--let's celebrate! only one more week of class left--let's celebrate! tommy finished his prelim--let's celebrate! we made it through the day--let's celebrate!

of course, our celebrations usually don't involve much other than dessert of some variety. we've bought several half-gallons of bluebell ice cream lately, and far too many smoothies/frostees. i gained five pounds in one week of ice cream--and although i'm supposed to be gaining weight, that seems a little disconcerting. OH WELL WHATEVER! bring it on!

on saturday, after i finished my capstone (thankyouverymuch), we went to local favorite locopops. for the first time. i've driven past the one in raleigh approximately twice a day every day for the last two years, and still never been. but we went to the one in durham and it was well worth it.

i am mostly posting about this just because of the look of utter disbelief on tommy's face that he got as he bit into his chocolate-peanut butter pop. "i didn't think it would be THIS good," he said. he was almost reverent in his awe as he savored every last drop of that popsicle--it cracked me up.

and here i am enjoying my chocolate brownie pop. almost as good as tommy's.

yes, we are converted locopops fans. we'll be back. 

it's a...

at the ultrasound yesterday:


ultrasound lady: so, do we have any guesses from the two of you for what you think it is?
me: we both kind of think it's a girl. 
tommy: yep, a girl. 
ultrasound lady: ...
...
...
...
well, looks like you're both wrong. 




yep, it's a boy!


and for your viewing pleasure, a shot of the six-inch little man himself. 

and now, back to the drawing board for baby names. 

FAKES-ican stack

we had planned to have mexican stack for dinner. a murphy family favorite, going back to the wisdom and crowd-planning skills of grandma murphy. rice on the bottom, chips, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, all sorts of deliciousness. it's a super-easy and super-satisfying dinner.

i got home from school right at 6:00. and tommy was walking out the door for his violin lesson, not to return for another hour and a half.

i convinced him that i didn't have the energy to make the meal all by myself, and promised i would wait for him before starting to make dinner. (i am so nice.)

at 7:30 sharp, he got home.

"hey, dear," he said, walking through the door. "oh, shoot. we should have started the rice a long time ago."

oops. mistake number 1. rice takes about 35 minutes longer than the rest of the meal.

i closed out of my scintillating game of spider solitaire (hey, i'm a busy, important person) and we started making our dinner--tommy belatedly started the rice. i began shredding cheese. tommy browned the hamburger. i chopped the grape tomatoes.

"hmmmm," said tommy. "we don't have any stewed tomatoes to go with the meat."

oops. mistake number 2. grandma murphy-style mexican stack involves a thick, soup-y mix of the meat and tomatoes that goes excellently on your rice. so all we had was some meat, which was fine. but not what we'd planned. we didn't even have an onion to go with the meat because the smell of chopped onion makes me throw up, so it's not worth it to even bother.

tommy pulled out the lettuce. i opened the fridge.

"hey," i said. "we don't have any salsa."

oops. mistake number 3. how can you have mexican stack without any salsa?

it was still pretty delicious, but it wasn't really mexican stack.

and we had to wait a good half-hour after everything else was ready to eat it until the rice was done.

not a great feat of cooking genius, let me tell you.