My Graduation Gift

My parents gave me my graduation gift like the night before my graduation, but it wasn’t the right size. They gave me a gold and pearl Pandora ring (that I actually posted about when I got back from spring break…funny story: my mom didn’t really like it because she thought “I was hitting her over the head” by saying how much I liked it, so in turn, I deleted the post.) and I absolutely love it! It has 4 teeny tiny pink sapphires in the sides of the “crown”. When we were in Phoenix, the saleswoman told me that it was part of Pandora’s princess collection. How fab? Well, anyway, mother had ordered a size 7, which I’m guessing is like typical ring size. The 7 easily fell off my hand though, causing a slight wearability problem. It fit on the middle finger of the hand I write with, and even that finger has a huge knuckle that it fit over. Needless to say, I needed a much smaller size, so we headed back over to Smyth to get a new one. After ordering the size 6 (and being properly fitted) it finally arrived a few days ago!

I’m still getting used to wearing a ring, and I tend to fidget taking it on and off and on and off. It does turn fairly often, so I find myself turning it back because of the texture (you can see the little balls on the photo). Also, to take the close up pictures (pardon the hair, my mom seemed a little grossed out, but I didn’t think twice about it) I used the digital macro setting on my camera for the first time! I upgraded my camera around Christmas time and I still am not sure how everything works yet! It took incredibly clear VERY close up photos of the ring. I decided to take the picture ON my hand because you can see the pink sapphires the best. Who even knew that sapphires could come in any color besides blue?! Well, they come in the fabulous shade of pink too!

Ever get any special graduation gifts? This is definitely one I’ll remember!

xxKatie

Commencement 2009!

Well, now that its all over-graduation and all that it entails-I have some time to write. I'm actually back from my school's beach week because I decided that it WAS NOT for me and headed back with (a saint of) a girl who was making the way back-thank you a million times, Kate! Baccalaureate was a raving success and I had SO much fun there. There were such good performances by a bunch of my classmates and they really showed off their pipes! This is a picture of Kathleen, me, Lizzie and Sarah. We're all at Baccalaureate and headed to USC. We have gotten a bunch of "South Carolina Girls" pictures. The 4 of us are all going there and Kathleen even wants to be a nurse too! This is me and Ben. We've gone to school for 12 years together, sorry Ben, I had to break the pattern, I decided to choose USC over...MIT. Yeah, the real MIT from the movie 21. No joke. He's 6'7'' and going to play basketball there, and he's just a little smarter than I am!! He-he.

Graduation was a blast too. My friend Evalyse brought up a great point. It was really one of those like "life-long" moments and she kept telling herself, "Remember this. Remember this. Remember this!!" This is a shot taken of my "group". I ended up wearing my Kate Spade shoes just for fun, and hey-both my PRINCIPAL and some other Director said something. Literally, AS I WAS WALKING ACROSS THE STAGE TO GET MY REAL DIPLOMA. I will always remember my walk across the stage. As you can see I'm the only one without some kind of neutral shoe on. It was awesome. Actually no one else in my graduating class had shoes like mine!

Also, I know I promised a photo of my USC bedding, and here I am to follow through! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this and my mom picked it up kind of as a surprise. She just found it and had to buy it and thank God she did because it is perfect!!! Hope everyone is having a fabulous beginning to their summers! USC move-in is officially 2 months from Monday!

xxKatie

Since I temporarily fell off the face of the blogging earth...

This stinks. I haven't blogged in ages, but hey- its just like riding a bike, right? What a bummer, I feel like I've totally let everyone down. Well here's my attempt at redemption (again).

Since I last blogged, SO much has happened. WOW. First and foremost: prom. What a fun night! It happened to be the last day of school for seniors which was totally an added bonus! The theme was "Vegas" and there were mocktails (I had a mock cosmo!!) and mock gambling, but that was a bit over my head. Here are a few photos from prom:

This was how my date (Brad) asked me:HOW ADORABLE IS THAT? I know. My dad was like, "Am I allowed to eat one?". We loved them in my house!
This is my "group" and our dates, and it happens to be one of my mom's favorite photos from the night. I'm in the pink:
This was decidedly one of our favorite pictures, me, Brad (minus his crooked tie), and Grace my sister:

It ended up as a very fun night that I think most everyone enjoyed. Thank you to all the members of the class of 2010 who put it on!

Next, I came back from my Habitat for Humanity trip. (Click the link for the location we went to.) I LOVED IT. It was so much fun and I encourage everyone to do something like this, especially with a group of people you know. We all got very close to one another and it was really a great bonding trip for everyone who went.This is the entire group that went except one girl because she was at her sister's college graduation (Boston College!) and had to fly down to meet us later. We all had such a good time!

I've been working a ton and Lilly Summer 2009 rocks. Swimsuits, dresses, ahh its fabulous! The store is really picking up especially with the Navy graduation week and everything. What a good few weeks for the store!

Also, believe it or not, I'm gearing up for school. Its CRAZY. Taking placement tests, buying stuff here and there (I have positively the cutest bedding that my mom picked up for me. Photos will obviously follow.) I can't believe I head out August 14th! I guess first I technically have to graduate, which is June 6th. Woo-hoo! The night before my graduation is Baccalaureate, which is a big event (dressy) put on by students for students. There's a big reflection, and tons of people perform guitar or sing or make candid power points of us across the years, its generally a tear-jerker. This is the dress I'm wearing that I love from j.crew and now its on sale:Very cute! Unfortunately I had to take the hem down a little but it was totally worth it. Plus I can take it with me to SC!

I feel like so much is going on these days that I can't think of everything. Thankfully, I will be blogging regularly fairly soon so that will be good, I'll be able to keep up with stuff again. Miss you all and its really good to be back!

xxKatie