There’s this “rule of 7″ in my family that went for a full 49 years before it got broken. But starting with my mom’s oldest sister, my aunts, mom and most of my female cousins on my mom’s side are separated by 7 years, including my sister and me. It’s kind of a neat thing if you ask me.
Speaking of years, I’m really proud of my sister Stephanie for a lot of reasons. We have a lot of stories between us, ranging from leaving her at a Cracker Barrel once in Ohio (she tells that one every chance she gets) to her having the fattest steer at the Jr. National Hereford Expo in Montana one year. Then there was the time that she didn’t get accepted to the theater department at U of I, so we drove around campus for half a day talking to the admissions office and the art department trying to get her into one of the programs at Illinois. I think I told the admissions lady something along the lines of “She WILL go to school here eventually, whether it’s this year or down the road.” I guess we did something right because within a couple weeks she was accepted to the art department and she’s been there ever since.
Mostly though, I think she deserves the most credit for graduating in 4 years while raising my nephew for 3 of those years. Steph jokes that Nevan (now two and a half) is also graduating from college so he got to be a part of the photo shoot. And if Aunt Holly has anything to say about it, Nevan WILL go to Illinois someday. 
The “safe” headshot in case Mom doesn’t like the other more artsy ones. Haha…
Special thanks for Scott and Barb at Memory Lane Photography for letting me borrow the cap and gown for a few hours!
