Matt's commencement ceremony

Although Matt will not defend his dissertation until June 24th, he was able to walk on May 3rd. This was a huge blessing since now we don't have to fly back to Gainesville in August. It was last minute, but Matt was able to get all the details worked out. We were not sure what to expect with the graduation ceremony, but it was great. The Phd's were hooded first and then all the masters students received their degrees. I was able to get some great photos.

After the ceremony Matt and I went all over campus and took some pictures with our favorite University of Florida sights. I had made a list beforehand so that we wouldn't miss any of them. Lisa Merrell was our photographer. She was excellent. After all the pictures were taken we went to lunch at Chop Stix with Bob and Lisa. It was quite a memorable day!

Enjoy the pictures!

Here is Matt with his advisor Pete Giacobbi.

Matt's 28th Birthday!

New Hair Cut

Well here is a picture of my latest hair cut. It is short, but I am getting used to it.

Mom came to visit us in Gainesville for the last time (at least for a while).
It was really fun to have her visit. Whenever she comes she spoils us with good food!! One night she made us chicken piccata, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes and a GF angel food cake for dessert.
Mom loves to do puzzles so she brought one to do while she stayed with us. It was a puzzle of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. We had fun doing it, although the water and sky part were really difficult since all the pieces were the same color.

For the first few days Mom came to Brentwood with me. My students thought it was so neat that Mrs. Buman's mother was visiting. Mom even came on a field trip to the Devil's Millhopper. It was so special to have mom come on one of my field trips for which I was the teacher for when for years she was a chaperone for field trips when I was the student. After the tour of the sink hole we ate lunch at this really cool park with a neat playground. Here I am playing on the playground with my students. Who can resist the monkey bars. I even convinced Kim to come down the slide. The students thought it was hilarious and so cool.

I took Friday off from work and Mom and I went to the beach. It was a really relaxing day. Saturday we went to the Gator women's softball game and then out to dinner at Cabanna Cove.

This is the amazing meal that I ordered at Cabanna Cove, curry chicken salad. I thought it would not be good, but Matt convinced me to try it. I am glad that I actually listened and ordered it.

We went to church on Saturday night. Matt worked all day on Sunday, while Mom and I went to the beach again. This time we got there much earlier (10 am instead of 1 pm).

One of the other things that Mom and I did was get saddle bags for my bike. It will be my birthday present from my parents. These saddle bags are awesome and will keep me from having to carry a backpack on my bike and have sore shoulders and back. I love them.

Dinner with Kevin at the Swamp

Kevin was working at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL for the week and came up to Gainesville for dinner. We decided to go to the Swamp restaurant on University Ave. It was yummy especially the sweet potato fries. We were glad to be able to hang out with him even if it was just for the evening.

So our BIG news is that we are moving to CALIFORNIA!!

Matt accpeted a post doc at Stanford and we will be moving this summer. We are so excited for the new life ahead of us. We are definately going to miss Gainesville and the friends and memories we have made here. God has been so faithful to provide everything along the way showing us that this move to Stanford is the right thing.

I took a trip to San Francisco all by myself, rented a car, stayed with someone I had never met before and had 8 interviews for teaching positions. God protected me and provided for me the whole trip. I was so proud of the courage that God gave me to make this trip. The trip was a huge success and I was blessed with 4 offers one of which I accepted!!

This is the car that I rented on my trip - bright blue. I stood out like a sore thumb. Most other people were driving Mercedes and BMWs.

This road is called Palm Drive and it leads right to the center of Stanford's campus. It was lined with these HUGE palm trees and was very stunning.

The campus has a unique feel to it and has such beautiful Spanish style architecture. Here are a few pictures I took when I was exploring the campus for the first time.

Patrick, I took this next picture for you because you love palm trees and I thought these were so cool. :)

Matt and I got Crispers takeout for lunch and ate at Lake Alice in celebrattion of my new job in Menlo Park, CA. It was a wonderful picnic lunch. I got my favorite salad, Harvest Cobb with pumpkin seeds, grapes, crasins, blue cheese, pears, lettuce and poppy seed dressing.

Baby Shower, Padres shirt & Family Group Girls Night Out

Here are some of the things that have been going on in our lives over the last 2 months...sorry I got so behind!

We had a baby shower for Zach and Kristy and baby Beckett. Emily Sorgius had it at her house. It was really fun especially to have both Evie and Beckett there!

Here are Kristy and I at her baby shower.


Here is Emily and Evie coloring.

This is the Padres shirt that Matt brought back for me from his recent trip to San Diego for a conference. He did a great job picking it out. It is exactly what I wanted!!

We had Girls' night out with the Family Group. The girls decided to go to the Melting Pot. We had a great time eating a pot of cheese and two pots of chocolate.

Wii tennis - Bumans vs. Sorgius

Last Saturday night we had a game night at Caleb and Emily's house. The first thing we did was play a little Wii tennis. This was my first opportunity to play Wii. It was really fun and we got really into it.

After Wii we played our new favorite game, which does not have a name, but is kind of like telephone but alternates writing a sentence for a picture you see and illustrating a sentence you read. One of the funniest sentences we had that night began with "Darth Vador cannot destroy Luke and R2D2." Then it progressed to "Luke is consumed by the flames while a wheel-chair bound Vador observes." It was so funny to read after we had finished the round.

Florida Gators take on Tennesse

We were very blessed to be able to go to the final Gator's SEC basketball game of the 2007-2008 season. It was amazing that anyone would give up their Florida vs. Tennesse tickets, but we got the opportunity to go. It was on ESPN and the game didn't start until 9 pm, but we couldn't turn down the offer. Our friends Chauncey and Rose took us. Chauncy got the tickets from a big time donor to UF athletics (both football and basketball). With the tickets came passes to go to dinner on the 3rd level of the football stadium. The view of the field from up there was amazing. We also got to get our pictures taken with the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Men's basketball trohpies. You could tell that if you were up here before any basketball game you had some serious money and donated a ton to the University. Just before we headed down for the game Urban Myer and his wife game up to get some thing to eat. We had seen him the night before at the F.C.A banquet where he shared his testimony.

Red Sox Spring Training in Ft. Myers

One of the things that I have always wanted to do ever since we knew we were going to be living in Florida was to go to a Red Sox spring training game. Ironically, we got an invitation to go with Springfield College alumni and took them up on it.

On the weekend of the game we drove to Sarasota and spent Friday night at Dave and Joetta's house. Saturday morning we drove to Ft. Myers. There were 3 Dunkin Donuts right next to the stadium!!! Just like in Boston!! We stopped for some iced coffee.

I did not pay close attention to where the game was being held. I assumed it would be where the Red Sox usually play. OOPS. We showed up to the ball park and no one was there. Luckily the game was only 6 miles down the road at the Minnesota Twins stadium. The coolest part about showing up to the wrong stadium was that we got to get our pictures taken with the 2 World Series trohpies that the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007.

After a barbeque lunch with the Springfield College Alumni we watched the game. The atmosphere was incredibly relaxed and chill. The weather was perfect. They announced how cold it was in bost Boston and Minnesota and made a joke that it was only 80 degrees in at the partk.

Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day Matt and I stayed home and cooked a meal together. We made beef and broccoli and fried rice. For dessert we heated up frozen fruit mixed with a little lemon juice and sugar and served it over vanilla ice cream. YUMMY! The meal turned out great. Afterwards we played a heated game of Scrabble. Yeah we're nerds, but it was fun. We got each other a gift without the other finding out. I got Matt a Stanford red Under Armor t-shirt and a pair of heart Gap boxers. Matt got me a Nike Gator t-shirt and Gator socks. It was fun to be surprised. We both know each other really well.

We're moving to CALFORNIA!!!!

I am sorry that it has been a long time since I have updated the Blog. Things have been really crazy around here. The big news in our lives is that Matt accepted a post doc at Stanford University. He will be starting September 1st. We will be moving to the west coast sometime this summer. God has totally led us to Stanford and made it clear that He wants us there. We are super excited!

I have been applying and interviewing for jobs for the past 3 weeks. I can't believe that I haven't don any blogging in almost 2 months. We really have been doing some cool things. I finally have a free night and so I am going to try to update you on our life over the past 2 months.