Saying Goodbye: the one with all the pictures

Last week was finals week.  Enough said.

For one last time, Nathan met with his discipleship group (sans Jonny).

Looking for any excuse we could find to spend more time with our friends, we hosted study breaks for three nights and the center was dubbed "The Hub of Relaxation."

There were movies.  There was studying.  There was food (like Anna's homemade sticky buns).  And coffee.  Lots of coffee.

And there was snuggling.  Because we won't see some of our favorite people again for a long time and that means we can stay up past our bed time, just a little bit longer.

Not photographed -- the washing machine.  We had lots of overnight guests in to help their students move out of the dorms. Lots of guests means lots of sheets and towels folded.

There was also lots of eggs cracked, flour whisked, and cream cheese blended while Nathan whipped up three cakes and three cheesecakes for Saturday's commencement reception:

I tried a new, easy-to-make tea punch recipe which you can find here:  http://www3.samsclub.com/meals/recipes/patriotic-tea-punch-recipe

While the graduates lined up to walk in for graduation, Nathan ran across the street and snapped a few photographs (below) that he turned around and printed on our home photo printer.  We then decorated the buffet table with prints of the guests of honor in their own Global Cafe mug (above) to take home.

Then we grabbed photos with some of our favoritest people.
Bottom right (below):  the kiddos with Mark.  On the first day of next month, Mark and Eszti will wed and start a year of ministry in Eszti's home country of Hungary.  We're hopeful that we'll get to see to see them sometime in 2013!

Prior to the reception, I took a photo of our apartment to remember it by before the start of packing...

...because my parents and Hannah made a spur-of-the-moment decision on Friday night to come visit us in KY.  Mom brought her A game and while we were serving cake and punch, she started packing up our closets and cabinets like a fiend.

Then less than 48 hours later, it was time to say 'goodbye'.  Sadly, I'm not trying to protect my parents' identities by not showing their faces.  These are literally the only photos I have to prove they were here!  There were lots of tears.

Though school is out for the summer, our schedule hasn't abated... Nathan is presently in Marion, Indiana facilitating a big session at orientation for our young-adult summer volunteers.  When he returns on Thursday we will get to begin tackling our summer list!