I FINALLY GRADUATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can now say that it is OFFICIAL!!! I'm FINALLY finished with school!! Well, at least for right now! This past weekend we (Mom, Dad, my cousin Paulette, Sarah, and Venita) went to Chicago for my Graduation with Kaplan University! I received my Associates of Art and Science in Business Administration!!! I can not even begin to explain what a relief it is to be done! Before you play the slide shows-you'll have to mute the music at the bottom of the page.

Venita and I flew up Friday morning (everyone else came later on Friday)...when we first got there...we decided that we would go to Navy Pier and have lunch! It was amazing! Later on in the day we met up with my Mom and Dad and Paulette. Sarah came in later that night. We met them for dinner at Bennigans. It started raining right about dinner time but that didn't stop us from walking around the city. lol Here are the pictures from the first part of the trip! :)

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Saturday morning was an early morning as we had to be there by 8:00 and Graduation started at 9:00! I woke up (from very little sleep) and felt very overwhelmed. I think it finally hit me that I was graduating...and at that...from a very large university. With doing classes online, although you have interaction with other students and faculty, it didn't really dawn on me what a huge university I had been apart of for the last 2 1/2 years. Kaplan University has right at 80,000 students and is considered to be one of the largest colleges there are. On this day, there were right at 500 graduates. That was a big shock for me as my high school class only had 35 students. lol It was kind of an emotional day, although I choked back some hard tears, not only because this was a HUGE day for me, but it was a milestone in my life...a milestone and goal that had now been completed. I am so thankful that my Mom and Dad, Paulette, Sarah, and Venita were able to be there for that very special day. I only wish that both my sisters and their families could have been there as well as everyone of my family and friends to celebrate that special day. But unfortunately we couldn't make that happen. But through it all, I can't complain. It was an AMAZING weekend!

I just want to say THANK YOU to every one of you that helped make it such a memorable day!! Whether you were there, the phone calls, the texts, the emails, the cards, all the comments on facebook...it has all meant SOOO much to me! I will never forget this day...this milestone in my life. Thank You for being apart of it! :)

Gradation was at the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom!! And afterwards they had a reception on the East End Plaza, which is the Terrace of Lake Michigan! It was amazing! Here are some pictures from the Graduation festivities! :)

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Here are the pictures from the rest of the trip! It was SO much fun!!!

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Missouri Campmeeting 2009

A couple weeks ago Venita, Sarah, and I went to St Louis for the last night of Missouri Campmeeting. It was an awesome service preached by Bro. Godair! The next day, we slept in, which was wonderful! We ventured out to Old St Charles and ate at one of the best cafes ever! I LOVE eating at Magpies!!! They are famous for their baked potatoe soup..and they have the best salad there too! After we ate, we walked around Old St Charles. I love all the cobble stone streets and all the quaint little shops! :) We ended up having a photo shoot, and we had a blast!!! We ended the day with Fritz's ice cream! Mmmm!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Robyn and Jeff!!! 15 years! Wow! That is awesome!! Love yall so much!!! (This picture was from their Anniversary trip to Indy).

Kansas City Power and Light District

On Saturday night Venita, Sarah, and I decided to go eat downtown Kansas City. We had a lot of fun! We ate at one of our favorite restaurants!
The Peachtree!!! Yummy Soulfood!!

I love walking around this area at night because of all the lights. They have some awesome courtyard areas that you can just sit and relax and listen to the famous Kansas City fountains!

Across the street from the Peachtree restaurant is a new AMC theatre...I love the looks of this building!!


Here is Venita and Sarah, and Sarah and I...just hanging out and walking around downtown! :)


I absolutely adore this clock tower!! This courtyard is so awesome!!! They have music playing, fountains flowing, and it is just way too cool! :)


This is a view of The Sprint Center!


We have a mini Beale Street! LOL

This is another view...love it!!!

GO T-Bones!!!

We went to the Kansas City T-Bones game Friday night!! It's minor league baseball, but who cares, right? We had a lot of fun anyways! :) And...the best part is...THEY WON!!! 16-7!!!! GO T-BONES!!! Um, and it just so happened to be Elvis night at the stadium. LOL Let's just say that we were wishing he would have taken a seat instead of the mic! haha But thats okay, we had fun anyway! lol

"Fight For You"

This has got to be one of the most powerful songs that I have ever heard. Bro Tom Trimble sang it the first night that we were in Memphis. It was very timely and spoke into us so much. God will fight for us and HE will win!!! Thank You Jesus for helping us through our time of need. If you need encouragement, know that GOD is always with you and He WILL fight for you!

Fight for You
I remember when you found me
I was barely breathing
You gently lifted me with arms of love
And I thank you Jesus.
Never thought that I could live again
I can not forget the words you said

I will never leave you
Never walk away
I will hold you in my arms
When you are afraid
But when the battles raging
And you feel like giving in
I will fight for you
I will win

There were days when I ignored you
I’ve loved you from a distance
There were times when I’ve adored you
But your love has been consistent
I’ve suffered pain from choices that I’ve made
But when I cried to you I heard your sweet refrain

I will never leave you
Never walk away
I will hold you in my arms
When you are afraid
But when the battles raging
And you feel like giving in
I will fight for you
I will win

I’ll never leave when you’re afraid
I’ll always stay
I’ll never leave when you’re afraid
I’ll always stay

Grilled Goodness!

Dad and I decided to grill out tonight!!! Can we say yummy!!! You can view my cooking blog for more info!! www.chefkris.blogspot.com

4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!!! Yes, I know, I know, this is late. I have been so busy and have not had time to keep my blog updated. lol There is no place like The United States of America. The land of the free and the home of the brave! I am so thankful to call this home. We take so much for granted...our homes, electricity, a/c, cars, freedom, we can do whatever we want-whenever we want. Stuff that we don't even think about, we take it all for granted so much. A lot of countries don't even have a third of the "stuff" that we have and yet we want more. But I am so thankful that God has allowed me to be apart of this great nation. We must remember where this nation was founded...so if I can say...."GOD BLESS AMERICA"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With that being said, I had a wonderful 4th! I got to spend a lot of time with my family!! We were going to go to the Royals game on Friday the 3rd, but since that didn't work out, Mom and Dad and I decided to go watch the fireworks! It was amazing as usual and Dad and I decided to take some shots of it! It was pretty funny since we both had tripods and we were on our knees trying to get some good shots! haha Dad got some awesome ones! Here are just a few that I took...



Saturday we had a cook out at the house and my cousin and her family and aunt and uncle and Jonathon came over. We had an awesome time! I love being with everyone!
This is me and my cousin Paulette...one of my favorite people ever!! :)

This is Jonathon and I...one of my best friends...

We grilled hamburgers and had potatoe salad, tea, my famous lemonade, and dessert. It was SOOO yummy...but quite the spread!!

This is the flag cake that I made....mmmmmm yummy!!!!!

Saturday night, we all went out to watch fireworks again! I was actually plesantly surprised that they had such a good show...I'd never been to this location before, but it was awesome! I took almost 100 pictures of the fireworks. LOL So I will only share a few of the best ones! Once again, Dad and I took tripods out there and tried to get some shots. Dad got some AMAZING ones!!!

Hanging Out

Ken and Gin were in town this past week, and with them deputizing to go back to Africa, we don't get to see them very much. I got to spend some time with them, especially Gin. It felt good to have "sister time" again! I miss them so much!! Gin and I spent all evening together and had an awesome time together! I didn't get a picture of Ken and Gin together, but here is one of Gin and I. Gin, if you see this...I miss you so much but am so thankful for our time together. Love you!!