Three . . . Two . . . One . . . "Happy New Year's"?

The countdown clock that we have been watching for almost a year now as it marked the days left until graduation finally did explode! I created the "gadget" for our personalized Google homepage with the title "James Graduates from UAA!" We've watched it tick down all week and couldn't wait Sunday morning to boot up the computer and read the announcement. We both laughed so hard to see that the numbers had been replaced with the dubiously punctuated phrase: "Happy New Year's!" And so begins a new year and phase of our life.
~ ~ ~

Final Project and Class Celebration

Friday night, May 2, James arrived home late with last minute changes and additions that his design team had taxed him with doing on the project for the presentation on Saturday morning. He was up until two. At six, the alarm went off and James and I dressed up and headed into Anchorage. At Seven thirty, his classmates assembled for a trial presentation before the real one in front of community members at nine. This was the first time that I had met most of his classmates. It was fun to put faces to the names James talked about every night at home. Everyone was excited, nervous, looking their best, and realizing the significance of this one last class event with these people that they had struggled through engineering school with. I felt honored to be there.

The presentation was very well done. Although James didn't present, his drafting skills were displayed in many slides. His class showed a very united professional front. I think that their heightened awareness of how much they had shared and how soon they would be apart made their presentation even better. Dad Smith, Jeremy, and Niki were there in the back row to watch.

During an awkward intermission, the students (with me as a tag along) trooped over to the engineering building so the engineering students could do some last things on the computer. The group told and retold stories of the bridge competition, their last minute frustrations with the project, and how Nick (one of the students) got held up by police the night before at his own house because his teenage son was spotted climbing on the roof by the neighbor! Afterwards, we met in the atrium (really a well-lit junction between two hallways and the stairs) for a ring ceremony (in front of the Coke machines) and the distribution of honor cords to the three students who must have not had a life for the past four years to earn them, the engineering-student-of-the-year award (they definitely picked the wrong person--James is TOTALLY the engineer of the year in my book), and a clock with "James Smith Civil Engineer" printed on it in big letters. I was so proud! We enjoyed a casual lunch buffet and snapped some last minute pictures of James with friends. I loved the closure we all felt with seeing the engineering class and several of their teachers all in one place one last time. After four years of working side by side, this was good-bye.

Graduation
Sunday morning, we showed up to the Sullivan arena bright and early. The students signed in and collected plates of breakfast foods while milling around with classmates. James was number 57 out of 1000 in line to graduate. For an hour and a half, he and the other 999 people (give or take a few) practiced lining up, marching in, crossing the stage, receiving their diplomas, and getting their pictures taken (no kidding, the real photographer used an invisible camera to practice taking their picture).

We went home to let out Titus and eat leftovers (how celebratory) and then returned at two when the doors opened so we could go in and find a seat to wait for the ceremony to start at three. The parking lot was packed and lines stretched away from every entrance. Uh-oh. The possibility of finding seats for 9 in a place with a good view was looking slim. Thankfully, Dad and Mom Smith found six, but that meant three people had to go find seating elsewhere. It was nuts and hectic, but realizing that everyone around us was celebrating as much as we were and wanted equally good seats, we had to make allowances. When the Kuenning family arrived, Brady, Aspen, and Isaac volunteered to go to the nose-bleed section above us, although Brady still managed to capture some marvelously close up photos with his high powered camera.

The ceremony went just as practiced. The newly appointed chancellor, Fran Ulmer, gave a very nice speech on learning, teaching, and serving others. The valedictorian, a guy from James' speech class, ironically, gave one of the most canned graduation speeches I've ever heard (he even managed to mention Darfur). The sound system worked perfectly and a nice bit of sports-style cinematography allowed for multiple perspectives of the stage and graduating students to be broadcast on the jumbo tron. Then it was time for James to graduate. This time, it was not "Pomp and Circumstance" that made me cry, it was not the calling of his name (I did yell though, I didn't know I had it in me!), it was not the crossing of the stage, it was when James finally sat back down in his chair with a green UAA diploma holder in his hand that I burst into tears and cried noisy sobs for a few minutes while inwardly praising God for getting us through. Then we watched the other 943 people graduate.

After having his degree conferred upon him, turning his tassel, being sprinkled with confetti, and marching back out the door, James met us in the frantically busy parking lot where we all crowed around. We took pictures, hugged, congratulated, and laughed with enormous relief. Then we drove to Eagle River for dinner at Pizza man where Jeremy, Sheila, Niki, and Drake joined us for a delicious Italian dinner in a private room.

~ ~ ~

Praise God! He did it! James is a graduate. In four years, James never failed or was forced to repeat a class. While classmates bailed right and left for various reasons, James struggled through difficult classes with impossible teachers, most of the time while holding down a part time job at an engineering firm. He made friends, gained the respect of his teachers (and thus many in the local engineering community), and learned a passion for a new kind of work. Now my poetic, artistic, creative husband who earned extra money his first year at UAA by tutoring English students, could spout theorems and equations; calculate, diagram, and map anything I could ever need; and be a general engineering nerd at any opportunity. God has given him a good job, with men who respect him and can be respected for hard work and good ethics. Knowing that he did it for me--for us, so he could support me and our family, I am humbled and grateful for one of the greatest gifts anyone has ever given me.

Congratulations, James! I'm so proud of you.

The countdown clock is going to explode!

Five more days to graduation! Woohoo! On my weekly to-do list is "iron gown and graduation clothes." Can we really be this close? I have to keep pinching myself to be sure it's all real!

It's a funny thing about that gown too. Three years ago when James was working at TNH, a recently graduated coworker gave him his cap and gown in a plastic sack and said, "Here, I don't need it anymore." James has had it in his trunk since then. Last year sometime, my dad came up to James with another sack with another cap and gown that Mom Kuenning had found at a thrift store. That one went into the trunk too. Then, a few weeks ago, James went gown digging in his trunk and came up with nothing, so I frantically called my mother and asked her to dig out MY cap and gown from the "costume" trunk in the basement. So we finally had a cap and gown stored (of course) in another plastic bag. Then James found the other two! So now we have a little collection of various caps and gowns with tassels from different years. So if I blithely iron a hole in one (or two) while dreaming of our soon school-free future, we'll be just fine.

This has been the strangest finals week ever. James called me yesterday asking if I could come pick him up so that he could go grocery shopping with me after work because he was "bored" with studying. This is an all time first! Not only do I not have to tip-toe around keeping my thoughts to myself for fear of distracting his concentration, he actually has been able to help me with laundry, takes time to tease me, and volunteers to run errands with me! I think I'm going to really enjoy a college free marriage!

Thursday morning will be his only true final in his concrete class (uh-huh, concrete, and it's a whole lot more complicated than it sounds). The good news is that he only needs more than 8% on the test to pass the class (a cinch). The bad news is that he needs 90+ % to get a "B" in the class (nearly impossible on a Dr. Quimby final). So, we're thankful for the nice "C" James will get with no worries or great stresses (but always with prayer).

On Thursday night, James won't be taking a final, but will be required to be at his last art appreciation class anyway. Maybe he'll bring home another art project to hang on the refrigerator like the Styrofoam plate print of a hedgehog he made me, the card and envelope made from magazine adds, or the self portrait. Or maybe he'll bring home a sculpture like the wire and bead thing which I admired for a few days before asking permission to toss it. We'll see. Over all the class has been a huge disappointment for both of us (I love art history, but the class has none. James loves art, but the class is rather shallow), but at least he has his art credit and will get his diploma. So we're happy.

Saturday the festivities begin. For the first time, I am going to school with James to sit in a classroom with the members of his graduating class. They will be presenting the special project that they've been slaving over all semester to the board that commissioned it and to esteemed members of the community (like the mayor). Then there will be a special ceremony for the engineering graduates and some sort of a banquet. It's all kind of fuzzy for me now. I'll post more next week when I actually have information to share!

Sunday will be graduation (those UAA heathens!). The ceremony will be in the afternoon, but mandatory rehearsal is at 10 (those anti-Christian UAA heathens!). In addition to missing Sunday services, we are missing the state-wide Alaska lectureship in Fairbanks this weekend. It makes us sick to think about all the people we won't see (James was even asked to help with the youth program!). What's worse is that my sweet family is giving up their trip to the church reunion so that they can be at James' graduation too! We love them for this kind of support! However, no regrets! God is answering literally thousands of prayers in this weekend. I get choked up just thinking of how good He has been to us. There is no way I will be able to sit on the hard orange chairs in that stadium for three hours without crying a little bit (and it won't be about my tailbone!). Afterwards, we have booked reservations for our combined families to have dinner at the high-brow establishment of "Pizza Man" in Eagle River. It should be fun.

Monday, I am taking a "wellness day" off from work and have no plans but to make blueberry buttermilk pancakes for James' breakfast. He deserves it!

Saturday, May 10th, Mom Smith and I will be hosting an open house in James' honor at the Smith's house. If you are in the area, you are welcome to come by from 2-5 for some games, snacks, and fun. We are requesting no gifts. This is a thank you for all of the kind friends who have supported us so lovingly through all these years of school.

I hope to post as these events happen to show pictures and let you know how things go, but please understand that things are going to get increasingly crazy through the month of May! Please be in prayer for us, and I'll be in touch.

One Fine Day

Well, it's a gorgeous, if a bit chilly, day in Chugiak/Eagle River/Peterscreek, Alaska (Where in the world do we live anyway? We take the Peterscreek exit to get to our home, have a Chugiak address, pick up our mail in Eagle River, go to church in Wasilla, and work, shop, and fly out of Anchorage. It's not like they all run into each other either. Wasilla is 50 miles from Anchorage!). Well anyway, since I last wrote about the snow, we've accumulated about six more inches! Of course, during the day it melts away. It's like having break-up on a stuck record (or skipping CD). We get it over and over and over again! Every day walking Titus we discover new patches of mud that are then covered in snow that then become mud again. I can't wait for green grass! When I was donning gloves Wednesday morning, so that I could sweep and scrape off the three inches of snow and ice crusted all over my car, it seemed a little unfair for April 15. Other people in America are harvesting salad greens and asparagus, and we're still wearing snow gear and the snow plows are running! I guess it gives us something to talk about when standing in line at the post office to mail in our tax forms!

Last Saturday, James took his 8 hour FE exam and somehow survived the grueling, brain numbing experience (his brain was so numb afterwards that he picked up the movie Tron for us to watch when he came home that evening!). James spent Friday night at an elder’s house in Anchorage so that he would be closer to the test location in the morning. He was given a very specific list of suggested items to bring for the test including headache medicine, a cushion for the chair, and a hand towel! James went to Wal-Mart and bought a watch for the occasion. I packed homemade granola bars, fruit, trail mix, water, and food for the five meals he would have while away from home. At 6:30 Saturday morning, I called him to make sure he was awake. He was already pulling up to the testing place (more than an hour early), so I went back to sleep. At noon, he called me to tell me that the morning session went really well. He felt great about his answers and had plenty of time left over to check them again. The afternoon turned out to be a little more taxing, although he still had enough time to complete everything. Since we would not know his specific scores on each section unless he failed the test (the information would help him study for retesting), we are hoping that we never find out how he did specifically on each section, but overall, James feels confident that he was well prepared and did his best and that his best was good enough to pass. We are not worried. Thank you, God!




Now with a little over two weeks until James’ graduation, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. One more week of classes and then a week of finals and special events and James will burst out on the other side blinking in the sunlight. It’s a very dynamic time for us. James is deciding on which job offer to accept, where we should live, what to do with our finances, and how to spend our summer. I am getting to the end of another school year with a summer of promise and possibility in front of me. James is getting to the end of an era for him (did you know that he has spent every winter in school for the last 20 years?). God has been good to us. He has brought us to this point even when there were many times we thought we’d never see it happen. May all of our decisions for the days to come be in His will.

April Showers

Just to remind you (and us) that we live in Alaska, this is what we woke up to today. These are pictures from the Anchorage Daily News. Although I didn't see or hear any weather reports, I actually dreamed of feet of snow piled up rather than the dusting and accumulating inches that we did experience. Recently temperatures outside have been mild enough and sunny enough for me to walk Titus for a few minutes without a jacket, and we've had our windows open in our apartment every afternoon for a few weeks now. We also have seen pussy willow buds. But today the weather conditions were severe enough for schools to cancel all afternoon activities, news reports to issue warnings, lots of cars to get into accidents or slide into ditches, and our Wednesday evening church service to be canceled. We are supposed to get a few more inches tonight and part of me is hoping for our one last chance of a snow day!

While I might get a free day off of work, James is studying hard for his big FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam this Saturday. It is going to be an eight hour exam covering every engineering and math course he has ever taken. He has been studying night and day, talking FE exam, thinking FE exam, and dreaming FE exam. His favorite method of studying involves teaching someone else, so I'm learning all kinds of abstract, unrelated information from this too, although don't ask me to try to reproduce it on a test! Too bad I'm such a lousy aural learner! Please pray for him on Saturday (he starts at 7 AM) to do great on the test and then have a really good feeling about it afterwards so he won't worry about it anymore! He has an uncanny ability to predict his grade down to the tenth of a percent on regular tests, and I want him to be able to walk away from this and enjoy the celebrations and events of the next couple of weeks without feeling like he has something hanging over his head.

This test marks the beginning of the end as over the next three weeks James' classes will culminate with his final finals of his engineering school career. Graduation is May 4th. Although I have been dreaming and planning and praying and hoping for this, I can scarcely believe it's here. I am sluggishly waking up to the fact that in three weeks and five days, we will wake up and not have to worry about homework, class schedules, ordering books, exam weeks, buying notebooks, and so on for a long, long time. Good bye College, and Hello Life!

I wish you all could be here with us to celebrate this happy time. I will try to post updates and pictures of our special events as they come up so that you can share in part of the experience. James would love to hear from you too, and a note or email would be so appreciated.

Take Time by the Toes

I have long loved the books Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on their Toes. They are full of true stories of a gregarious big-hearted man and his 12 children at around the turn of the 20th century. Frank Gilbreth was a pioneer in motion study and used the results of those studies to minimize the amount of effort it takes to get a job done. He worked in factories all over the world to teach how to use time and energy more productively, joined up during WWI to help increase military effiency, and develped processes to rehabilitate handicapped soldiers (among many other things). These two books, written by two of his adoring children, tell of careening around in his "Tin Lizzy" (he would yell out to enquiring by standards that his children came "cheaper by the dozen"), listening to French and German language records while getting ready in the morning (to waste less time), pioneering the touch type system, and all the blessings and foibles of a large, happy family. Belles on their Toes emphasises the girls in their teen years and the time old tale of a relationship between old fashioned parents and their teenage daughters. Both books will make me laugh outloud and are hilarious for family reading, yet so sweetly and honestly portray the strengths and weaknesses of their parents that I've cried a few tears over each book. They are a part of my permanent library and look forward to reading them to my children someday.

A week ago, I discovered another Gilbreth book in the adult biography section of our Eagle River library. Time Out for Happiness switches it's focus from the boisterious, red-headed man of the family and focuses on Lilith Gilbreth, his soft spoken, but powerfully effective wife and the mother to those 12 children. Like the other books written and co-written by their son Frank Gilbreth Jr., this book was easy to read and often quite funny. Lilith grew up in a weathy German family in California and was so shy that she avoided going to school until she was nearly eleven. Her mother taught her at home until then and when Lilith did enter school, she quickly excelled to the top of her class. She believed that she was plain and would never marry, until an energetic red-headed engineer changed her mind. They decided on their honeymoon to have a dozen children -six boys and six girls- and did!

I found many reasons to respect Lillie Gilbreth:

1. She was truly her husband's help meet in his work and at home. No matter what crazy schemes and creative child rearing ideas Frank applied, she provided the loving support and gentle humor to keep everyone from taking things too seriously.

2. She was a dedicated mother. Although she went on to do many things in the male dominated field of engineering, she did not consider herself a feminist or a carreer woman, but a mother first. Everything she did while she had children at home was for their benefit above all else and graduating all 11 surviving children from college was her goal in life.

3. She was a hard worker. She kept a business and full household running after her husband died when her youngest was still a baby. She traveled, taught, and worked to help, encourage, and further educate people in the methods she and Frank had developed until she was 90 years old. She "did not eat the bread of idleness" and when she no longer had need to work for financial stability, she used her work and skills to help others without payment.

4. She loved to read and would fall into bed after an exhausting day and read stories to her children gathered around her. She considered reading to be one of the highest pleasures of her life and tried to instill a love of books and reading in all of her children.

5. She listened to people, noticed the details in other's lives, and made them feel special.

I do not want her life. I pray that I am never put in a position where I am forced to support a family without a husband, but I have a lot of respect for the morals and values expressed in this woman's life and hope to take a little bit of her grace and grit with me in mine.

Chilly Willy Day

Thanks to all ye faithful visitors of our blog even in two weeks of silence. All it really means is that life has been busy for us.



James is fully emeshed his last semester of college. As each semester has it's own quirks and challenges, this one also looks like none that have gone before. His twenty hours of working to earn our keep are now for a small company that courts him predigiously hoping that he'll choose to stay when bigger, flashier companies offer salary packages and experience elsewhere. His three classes are a brain numbing concrete class, a group project driven senior design class, and a fluffy freshman art apreciation class. He spends most of every Saturday working with his group on the senior design project of planning an American history memorial park for downtown Anchorage. He also has meetings to polish up the design for the steel bridge competition in April, and his bedtime reading is the FE exam prep book which he will have to take in late April (right about the time that he has finals). We decided that a good date night (we haven't taken one since our anniversary!) would be to go to the Anchorage Museum of Art so he can get credit for it in his art class. The funny thing is that he took me there on a date when I was in art appreciation back when I was 17! Yup, semester is in full swing.


On my side of things, it is the time of year when all my little bilingual kids have to be tested in English to see how their skills have progressed since last year. Since I am the only bilingual staff person at both schools (by title, not definition), this means that I have to organize test materials, procure rooms to test in, group students to test, send passes, run passes, proctor, fend off angry parents, soothe irrate teachers, and collect and return all materials intact. The testing materials are so sensitive that I had to sign in blood that I would watch them like a hawk and when I check them out each day, I have to chain them to my wrist--even taking them to the ladies' room with me! Thankfully, I am almost completely done at one school, and I am looking forward to a smaller group at the other so I hope I can complete it all in one day.



February 8, we went to the Kuenning's house to celebrate Mom's birthday. We enjoyed a delicious dinner, of course, of all Mom's favorites--some cooked on the grill (in sub-zero weather). Aspen made a German chocolate cake (Mom loves both coconut and chocolate), and we opened Kinder eggs--as is our birthday tradition now that we have a supplier (Thanks, Uncle Rick and Aunt Jan!). It was an enjoyable evening, and Brady and Aspen made it even better when they announced that they finally set a wedding date: May 31st! We teased them and said they were getting married on our two year, five month wedding anniversary, but it is really good to have something to plan and work for.



Sunday night, we had another family event, but of a different kind. I took the little sweater and cap that I had crocheted months before (and only put the finishing touches on Saturday!) and put them in a bag with my favorite Burt's Baby Bee products for little Drake's baby shower! It was a co-ed affair and nearly 40 people were there at the Smith's -- including all of my family, which was nice. It was the first time I had seen Drake since he was two days old. He was wide eyed and rapt in looking at my face and occasionally gave hints of a smile! He is a beautiful baby boy. It was good to connect to all the family, and I think everyone had a good time.




So now we get to Chilly Willy Day, while birthdays and babys are exciting, how often can you go to church dressed in a cowboy costume? Well, that's what we did Saturday afternoon. After placing my pie on a table groaning with the weight of chili pots and fruit and cream pies, I stood back and mingled with cowboys, cowgirls, indians, and a mountian man. James came dressed as the town mayor in vest, cravat, and pocketwatch. I wore a prairie dress, full apron, and bonnet.


After the chili and pie judging (and lunch) us wild west people were released into the auditorium which now looked nothing like it had before. In the town of "Ye Blessed" stood "Ye Blessed Bank", "Ye Blessed General Store" (fully stocked and functional), "Ye Blessed Mother Lode", and "Ye Not So Blessed Jail." Hung strategically around the room were wanted posters for many familiar faces. There was a cake walk, a (fake) firing range, a spittoon hitting contest (with waterguns), a place for kids to make bonnets and vests, pony rides (dispite the -10 degree weather), an ice cream eating contest, a bubble gum blowing contest, and a place to have pictures of your sweetie put on buttons.


All of it was completely free. We paid in fake gold coins which could be earned through winning various games, panning for gold, or turning in a wanted criminal. If anyone wanted to contribute in REAL currency, the money went toward sending our teens to AIM Camp Adventure. It was good to see the men playing sherrif and robbers with the kids, the women making bonnets with the girls, families fellowshiping, and so many visitors! It met a need that I didn't even know we had--for a little bit of fun in the middle of a cold, dreary winter.

I'm tired of you too, Pa!

That line comes from an old joke about an elderly couple who are both hard-of-hearing. The old man is telling the old woman how it's amazing that they had been together so long and through so much. Finally the husband says rather tenderly to his wife, "I'm proud of you, Ma." To which she responds testily, "I'm tired of you too, Pa."


Well, actually I'm really, really proud of my husband. He and his teammates designed a steel bridge which James rendered in 3D on the computer and then presented to a couple of boards of Engineering students and professors for review. In competition to four other bridges designed by classmates, his bridge was chosen to represent UAA in a regional competition in Oregon next Spring! For that competition, a 20 foot long model of the bridge will actually have to be built in front of judges. Yay, James! All of that hard work and perseverance really payed off (he got a nice grade on it too!). Here are some amazing pictures of the bridge below:















This last image really demonstrates the amount of detail that went into each componant. I personally watched James design the threads in the giant screws that hold it all together.


All of this means, of course, that what was "just" a semester project for steel class will demand a lot more time, attention, and money than has been invested in it even thus far. Thankfully, though, this is one of those projects that will "give back" in experience, learning, and exposure both of him to the world of engineering and the engineering world to him. I will be sure to keep you apprised of further developments. Next Spring, he will be on a team that will design a concrete canoe . . .

Note: I couldn't resist including the bridge at the top when I saw the Russian lettering on it. I thought it said, "Christ Rose" with an X, but then I realized it probably is aK so it says something like, "Peasant Raised." It's funny how those two very different statements can look so much alike at first glance!