Graduation

The long awaited day for graduation from Residency finally arrived. We left the girls with a friend so we could all enjoy the ceremony without little ones asking for a snack every five minutes. We were lucky to have Mike's dad in attendance. I know he enjoyed being able to be there for Mike's graduation. The boys sat next to grandpa and did great drawing on their little pads of paper during most of the speeches. Mike was the second to last resident to finally get his "diploma." The real diploma was actually mailed to us the following week. The Chief of Surgey who was sitting in the audience even held out his hand to shake Mike's hand which he did for only a few of the residents. I thought that was pretty neat.

The only disappointment I had about graduation this year was the fact that the graduating residents all had to wear their ACU's instead of their really nice dress blues. It made me wonder why we ever had to purchase that expensive uniform when it has hardly ever been worn. Apparently this year some women who were expecting complained about not fitting into their dress blues. The result--the yucky brown and pretty casual uniform. I would have liked to witness all of the residents who had devoted so much of the last 10 years of their life in something a little more professional and dressy. That is just my opinion. Other than my annoyance over attire I thought the event was really nice and afterwards we were greeted by the Staff in the ENT department to wish us congratulations.

We celebrated with all of the kids afterwards by eating out at Stanley and Seaforts which is a great seafood restaurant in Tacoma. The kids were on their best behavior and did quite well for most of lunch. The restaurant sat up on a hill in Tacoma so we were able to enjoy the beautiful view of the Puget Sound. It was a great way to celebrate such a momentous occasion!