we arrived home today from a wonderful vacation.  our first plan was to pick up our cat tomorrow after church, but we couldn't wait to see the furball so we drove all the way to orange county immediately after arriving home.

now everyone is lounging on the sofa...we are content.

the land of trees and rain

washington is great! i love the rain and cooler weather and the awesome trees, but joel and i are definitely missing our apartment (and chachi!). when we first bought our new mattress, i was convinced that it was too hard and that we would be taking the mattress back to the store. however, we roughed it out and now love our bed. i didn't realize how much we loved a firm mattress until this vacation.

the reason we bought a firm mattress was because of the mattress at joel's parents' house. he loved the firmness of it and convinced me that getting a firm mattress would be worth it. he was super excited to have the opportunity to sleep on his parents' wonderful mattress again. after a few days we started wondering if maybe they had switched mattress' in our room with the other mattress that was super soft. so we went in the other room and felt the mattress only to find to our chagrin that the one we had been sleeping on was the firm mattress! basically, our mattress is so firm that this one is now soft...ugh.

last weekend we drove to wenatchee to visit my best friend, rachel, and her husband. we had a wonderful three days with them. it was everything a vacay should be - eating fast food, watching tv (yea olympics!) and movies, and chilling on the couch playing games.

tonight we visited with joel's best friend, hutch, and his wife, whitney. they recently moved to tacoma (which could not thrill joel more). we ate wonderful thai food and played a rousing game of railroad tycoon. we love hanging out with them.

last night we drove to port orchard and ate dinner with my family. we then spent the rest of the evening with my cousin jeff and his roommates. i miss seeing them.

we leave this wonderful place on saturday to prepare ourselves for the upcoming semester. i have one more year left of school and joel has one class left before he gets his degree (yea!!!). hopefully, this will go off without a hitch.

check out our website. joel recentely updated it and there are some great photos for you to look at.

we are currently in washington and are having a wonderful time visiting with family and friends. joel's youngest brother and his wife recently had a baby (our first nephew!!) so i have been trying to get in as much time with him as possible. he's so freakin cute and i'm hoping our kids will be equally cute.

on a side note, i finished up my summer associate position at kaye scholer. i loved it...i loved meeting all the lawyers there, the work was great, and i loved all the eating! most of all, i loved that they offered me a full time job! now, all i have to do is get through this next year and pass the bar next july...no more resume pushing!

dan...i know i promised you photos and i promise that i took them on saturday.  then the camera battery died, and the sun was just a little too bright and my cat told me i had to pay attention to him and some shopping got in the way and lo and behold here i am sunday evening with no pictures on the blog.  but they're on my camera!!! and, hopefully, one day they will get here.

too long

i apologize for the long delay between posts.  i finally got the hint that i need to update this blog after the fifth person asked me when i was going to update.  so here you go.  i am pretty tired from working full time so i'm going to make this into a bullet point presentation as to what's been going on in my life.

• joel and i got married on may 23!!!  click here for a wedding slideshow.
• i started work at kaye scholer on may 27th and its been a great experience so far.  i love the people i work with and i feel like i am finally feeling comfortable at the place...like i am a legitimate employee.  on thursday they are sending me to a closing...just me.  no chaperone.  i hope i don't mess it up.
• joel and i adopted a cat named cha chi.  he's black and white, about four years old, and loves to cuddle.  i love this new found freedom and being able to do whatever i want (well, with joel's permission but that's not too hard to get)
• i cut my hair and its now a bob (super cute!)
• we are not moving to new york this summer but will instead stay here in la.  my firm decided to keep me at this office all summer....thank God!  this is soooo much better for both of us.  consequently, joel signed up for summer school classes and will hopefully finish his degree this summer.
• our place is finally put together (complete with pictures on the walls).  pictures are coming soon - i promise.
• we are taking a belated honeymoon to washington this summer.  although, we'll be visiting joel's family and friends so its more like a vacation than a honeymoon.  but we are excited nonetheless.  plus, our nephew is supposed to be born the day before my birthday so i am super excited to meet him.
• well...i believe that's enough for now.  at the very least it keeps us busy and exhausted.  i will try to be better about posting but i find the days fly by before i get a chance to blink.  

my pajamas and i bonded today.  we moved from the bed to the couch and back to the bed again.  they are feeling properly broken in and i'm sure will be more than comfortable to sleep in tonight.

on another note...my sister arrives tomorrow!  i can't wait to see her...its been since christmas which is too long.  i have many fun things planned for us while she is visiting but i think the first thing we'll do is take a walk around my neighborhood.  i love living in santa monica.  there are so many great houses and tree-lined streets here.

and, having katie here will officially end my streak of boredom.  i do not do well by myself for extended periods of time so it will be nice to have another person milling around the place.  not too mention company at night when apartment living gets the scariest.  i think tonight will be my last night alone.  God knows i'm ready for that to be over!

and i should mention...i was so proud of myself that i cleaned the bathroom that i have yet to clean the kitchen.  i just find myself staring at my bathroom handiwork that no time is left to disinfect the kitchen.

music shmusic

i pride myself on being a calm bride.  in the beginning i swore up and down that i would NOT be a bridezilla and i think i've done a pretty good job on fulfilling that swear.  i think the reason i can remain calm as our wedding day so slowly approaches is because i have delegated all the work to others.  i let them get stressed out instead of me.  i must admit this is quite brilliant.

that's not to say i haven't had my moments.  i distinctly remember sleepless nights where i worried about what kind of butter we would have - pats or balls - and who would pick the butter up and make sure it gets to the place on time.  sleepless nights filled with nightmares about the potluck falling apart or my bridesmaids and photographer not showing up.  but overall i pat myself on the back for keeping a calm and collected appearance.

but the system is starting to fall apart.  i recently delegated the music to two friends that i asked to play during the ceremony.  congratulating myself on a job well-done i sat down on my comfy couch to watch yet another movie (i'm incredibly bored right now) when i found out from my friends that I need to make these musical decisions.  WHAT?!?  i can't make decisions...they are the ones that are supposed to decide what song i walk down the aisle to.

and you know what?  there are like a gagillion songs out there and even more websites telling me what songs i should choose for these special moments.  ahhhh!!!  see, this is what i have been trying to avoid these past 12 months.  now, a week and a half away - some would say i was home free - i am suddenly stuck with an inordinantly huge decision and i have no idea what to choose.  

so....any suggestions?

first time for everything

yesterday i actually cleaned my bathroom.  i scrubbed down the shower, disinfected the comode, wiped down the sink and mopped the floors. i even dusted.  i'm starting to feel sooo domestic.

today i just might tackle the kitchen.

i came home tonight to find this waiting for me...begging me to read it.  please!!!

yes...it's the book from my favorite blogger.

i also found a wedding present...ahhh...i love getting married.

wedding talk

last night i drove 2 hours after my evidence final to coco's to meet with my wedding entourage.  it was such a great meeting!  there were 8 of us there and we talked about everything wedding.  i think its going to be a pretty spectacular party and cannot wait for that day to come.

on a side note...i have to say that i am definitely marrying the best man ever.  last night he really wanted teriyaki for dinner but instead he had something else because he wanted to leave that option available for our dinner tonight since he didn't know what i would want to eat.  he's so wonderful and giving!  can't wait to be his wifey!

i'm done!

another year down...only one more left then i will be a bona fide attorney (and certified to practice once i pass the bar...scary!).

i feel pretty good about finals but that usually means i didn't do well.  its always the tests that i feel the worst about that i do the best on.  case in point - last semester in london i wrote this hodge podge of a mess exam called individual rights and this semester i realized my test was posted as one of the two model student answers for that exam (well, i have to make a confession.  i read the answer and am not entirely sure its mine cause i don't remember 100% of what i wrote.  however, the exam misspelled and abbreviated the same words that i do and talked about causes of action that i distinctly remember talking about.  so, i'm fairly certain it was mine).  now, if it was mine i count this as one of my top accomplishments in law school.

so, i felt bad about that exam and it became a model answer.  i feel alright about these past exams...?

but, i'm done and now i can focus 100% of my efforts on our upcoming nuptials!  yea!

oh...how could i forget!  we got a new couch!  my aunt kathryn, uncle paul, and yaya bought us the couch we had put on our registry.

it was such an amazing surprise - we were not expecting someone to buy this for us so when they did we were blown away by their generosity.  unfortunately i cannot upload pictures from my camera so a picture from crate and barrel's website will have to be good enough.

here is the bute of a couch...and it is as comfortable and soft as it is beautiful.

i have been the poster child for lazy lately.  case in point - i am still wearing my pajamas at 9 pm.  in fact, i'm not sure i even left the house today.  but i have a very good reason for that - evidence!  this subject has kept me busy all day long.  tomorrow is my last final of my second year of law school and i could not be more excited!  this has been a difficult semester in the sense that i have been a bit less than motivated to work.

but alas...its almost over.  that means that i can finally clean my apartment (i have a nice layer of mold building up in my shower), i can write thank you notes, i can visit my soon-to-be-hubby and more importantly, i can focus all my attention on this little event i have coming up.

its been a roller coaster...this thing called law school.  i seriously wonder if i would do it again had i known what it was really like.  but then i think about all the rewarding moments from these past few years - and there have been plenty...in fact, maybe more than there were rotten moments.  more than anything, this degree will open up the vault of opportunities for me and joel and for that reason alone i would do this all over again.

its amazing how much we forget when we are no longer in a tough situation - i think that's a gift from God to encourage us to continue to pursue the hardest things in life.  amy and i were talking about first year and i was saying how proud i was of myself for handling it so well. she chose that moment to bring up the fact that more often than not i was in tears...maybe she's right.  but i'm not in tears anymore so in my mind i handled first year like a champ.

this summer is going to be a blast and i cannot wait for my next adventure...life at a big law firm.  we'll see if all the stories are true.

Son-Of-A-Bitch Mouse Solves Maze Researchers Spent Months Building

IOWA CITY, IA—The mouse briskly traversed the complicated wooden maze in under 30 seconds, roughly 1/8,789,258 the time it took to secure funding for the experiment.

aunt holly's house

this past saturday i had #3 of 4 showers.  it was at my aunt holly's house and kim put it on.  it was gorgeous!  i had so much fun seeing women that i haven't seen in awhile.

as much as i enjoyed the shower, i'm glad that i have a bit of a breather from wedding mania.  for the next few weeks i will be school school school....all about school.  on monday i have two papers due.  next thursday i have my first exam (corporations).  then monday the 5th i have my last final (evidence) then i'm done and its back to wedding mania!

happy earth day!

yea for the earth!

have you hugged a tree yet today?

tea party shower

this past saturday i had my tea party shower hosted by my amazing friends chantel and melissa.  in my opinion, a wonderful time was had by all.  here are some pics...

me and my cousin ashley.  i made everyone wear hats...its a tea party, that's what you do!

my tea cup was in the shape of a heart...its a bit hard to see here though.  we had jasmine, peach melba and earl grey teas.  i love tea!

here is half the group...the attendees were my mom, karen, heather, rachel, sharon, jana, ashley, heidi, melissa and chantel.
present time!  i love presents...my second love language is presents so i always feel loved when opening gifts.
me and rachel. she's throwing the last shower in may.
the cute tea pots.  this whole place was jam-packed with tea paraphenelia. 
this is the door leading into the place (these are a bit out of order).
the lovely hostesses...melissa and chantel
karen and rachel
the sandwiches...after some scones, we had a variety of sandwiches on multi-colored bread. they were delicious.
my cousin bought us some crazy potholders (they were a frog and fish)
i love being a bride and can't wait till my next shower this saturday.  i added pictures from my last shower so check em out!

another shower!!!!

yesterday i had another wonderful bride moment.  my dear friends melissa and chantel threw me a fabulous tea party shower.  there were 11 of us and we all wore hats, sipped tea and ate multi-colored tea sandwiches.  it was so much fun!

mel did a great job at preparing games.  we matched animals to their mates, how to say "i love you" in many languages, wedding traditions and where they came from, and cool facts about me and joel.  and, i opened presents!  i love presents!  according to the love language book, receiving gifts is my second strongest love language.  needless to say, i have been feeling abundantly loved lately.  

thank you to all of you out there that have been showering me with love!  now its back to reality and the two papers i have to write in the next two weeks.

shower mania begins

my internet connection seems to be running slow tonight so i'm not sure how many pictures i'll be able to upload. which is a bummer because this past weekend my pepperdine friends hosted a bridal shower for me and joel.  it was fantastically wonderful!  the food was amazing and fellowship even better.  after stuffing ourselves on scones, quiche, and two kinds of salad, joel and i opened presents!  this is always my favorite time of any party.  after presents we went to the beach and played horseshoes.  it was a wonderful day and i am beginning to feel like a bride.  its about time too since there are only six weeks left til the blessed day.

this saturday my church friends are throwing a tea party shower.  can't wait!