Done, done and done!

Now, I get to waste my brainpower on pointless TV and video games.  Vacation, how I love thee!

What College Graduates Do

Congratulations, Babe!  I'm so proud of you for finishing your Bachelor's Degree.

I should be studying for Wills

Instead, I am posting Thanksgiving pictures!!!!   This year Joel and I flew to New Hampshire to spend the holiday with my dad, stepmom, and siblings.  This was one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever had and it was definitely Joel's favorite (he's not a big holidays guy...I'm working on it!).

Incidentally, this was Joel's first time on the East Coast and he loved it!  His first day there he turned to me and stated we should move to the EC.  What?!?  Is this really my husband?  During our first few months of dating we almost called the whole thing off several times because of this very issue.  All Joel wanted to do was move to Washington and live next door to his best friend Hutch.  All I wanted to do was move anywhere and everywhere all the time.  Needless to say we couldn't do both - the crossroads.  We eventually worked it out by coming up with a shared desire.  Now Joel is spearheading the 'Let's move to New York, London, New Hampshire!' campaign and I'm kinda liking the settling down idea (gasp!  did I just say that?).  I love his enthusiasm!

Morning of we enjoyed Company Brunch for breakfast.  Dad and Mary recently remodeled the kitchen and it looked great (and was also wonderful to use).

Best Buds

 

Rory has become quite the little musician!  People in the know tell him he's a natural at the flute.  He has always been more artsy than Nick who is a Tae Kwon Do buff (he's currently a black belt!)

Nick

Chris and Nick (two oldest boys).  Nick always preferred Chris and Rory preferred me and Katie.  Now, Nick can't get enough of his sisters. I guess if you ignore them long enough they lose interest.

The island packed with holiday goodness (sorry bout the quality).

Daddy's little turkey helper. I think rusty ended up eating more turkey that all of us combined.  Dad's a sucker for a cute face!

Table Decor

Someone could not wait to get his head into the broccoli cheese casserole dish.  Katie was policing him here, but don't be fooled.  She ate more of it before dinner than he did.   (Koodos to my lovely sister for making almost all of the food including the very delicious turkey)

Thanksgiving feast brought to you by the floating heads.

My plate (and no porker jokes!)

Told ya dad was a sucker for a cute face.  On our way to the parking lot after taking family pictures, dad decided to stop by the pet store.  He immediately pointed out this adorable Bichon Frise and asked to play with her.  My dad is not normally like this (spontaneous yes, but take time to play with a dog, no).  After about ten minutes of playing we were standing at the cash register paying for her.  What just happened?  I think we bought a dog.  

Meet Lily.

She's as hearbreakingly cute in person as she is in pictures.  I have a feeling she will be utterly spoiled.  According to dad he had been thinking about getting Rory a little dog (I guess Rusty is too big for him...poor Rusty!).  Well, he got a good one!  She was actually really good for the two days I was with her.  She loved going outside but because she's so small (under 4 pounds) she would roll down the slight hills in the backyard and could hardly hop over the tall grass.  She was also stepped on a few times by us and Rusty (he may have intentionally stomped on her since he was not getting attention.  But he did get more turkey and other treats!  (sorry about the first picture, I don't know how to rotate)

Well that was fun

Nothing like failing a real estate finance exam to really bring the senses alive.  I am now more than halfway through finals (yea!) but the 3L-itis is really kicking in.  I find myself getting lost on the internet (amazingly I have made it through two whole seasons of America's Next Top Model in the past 5 or so days, and while I watch this stupefying show I find myself saying "why the hell am I watching this crap?" I don't know.) or cleaning the house (the lesser option) or some other task that just doesn't need to be done right now.

My first semester of law school I outlined every night, prepared for class, and studied for exams.  This semester?  Lets just say that Monday night I started studying for my real estate exam when Tyra convinced me that I would be ok to set the books aside and look at my outline the next day.  I told Tyra that the next day was exam day but she reassuringly removed the books from my hands and gently let me know that three hours of studying on exam day was more than enough.  She was wrong.

Now I am in the throes (using the word very loosely) of studying for my Wills exam on Friday.  Lets see.  My day started at noon and by the time I had made it through several episodes of ANTM I realized maybe I should start studying since I took last night off as a reward for all my hard work (ha!).  So I would guestimate a good three hours of studying happened today.  My first year self would have killed this girl.  My response to her?  I roll over and hit snooze a few more dozen times.

On a side note, the grass is definitely greener on THIS side of the fence.  As a way to dodge finals I have been thinking about moving and have successfully talked Joel into the idea (my skills of persuasion have become superb and I am not ashamed to use them to get my way).  Even though my poor husband was extremely sick this weekend and spent HOURS (way more hours than I spent on two papers and two exams) writing a paper, he accompanied me to an apartment I saw on craigslist.  

The apartment was $150 less a month and still in SM so we thought "gold!"  It took all of two minutes for me to realize how incredibly amazing our huge one bedroom that does not smell like cigarette smoke really is.  Lets just say that this apartment was the size of our bedroom and bathroom combined.  Its only redeeming quality was that it had a parking spot.  Joel was trying to be positive by saying how much he like the bathroom (the size of our closet) and the bedroom wasn't that bad (and where would we put our two dressers, bike, laundry basket, and bookcase?) while I was laughing hysterically by how crappy this place was compared to our marvelous (and have I mentioned huge?) apartment.  

The moving talk has now been shelved.

TOMS

As soon as Joel and I have some Holiday Cheer (aka, greenbacks) our feet will be lined with TOMS. Will yours?



*Update - I am currently working on an 18-20 paper and should be done in the next few hours. Yea!

New look for a new season!  This is much easier than getting the Thanksgiving pics off my camera and on to this blog.  Although, I do plan on that one of these days.

Sidenote - I am now in full force, nail-biting finals mode so please excuse me if I don't post for awhile.  I think I may have an anxiety attack between now and next Tuesday (yes, that's right, 6 days to write two papers and take two exams).  However, I promise to post some uber cute pictures and update about our life after the panic subsides.