V-Day Getaway

"How many girls can say their husband DROVE THEM TO SAN FRANCISCO for Valentines Day?!?" - Richard

Richard is the greatest. He drove all the way there and all through the night back because we were so tired of snow, clouds, and wet. A total of 26 hours!! And it payed off! We got warm, sunshine, and green! Although it may have not been the most romantic getaway ever (cheap motels = not cute), he did try, it's just that all of the good places were already all booked up! Nevertheless, it was just what we needed. And it was awesome. Here is some documentation from our trip.

This is what we left:

Richard was so excited!

Soon we were in Nevada, all alone, and surrounded by nothing.

We saw mountains again and rested in Reno.

We found ourselves in BEAUTIFUL Tahoe!

Then I fell asleep...so no pictures. Until we got to San Francisco!

Then we were too busy having fun...so no pictures. Until we took a drive to the coast!

Goat Rock Beach! One of the DEADLIEST beaches in Cali! We witnessed 20-30 ft. waves and it was AWESOME!

Then we drove ALL night to get home. All in all it was a great success! :) Sorry the pictures are so small. Forgot the camera and had to resort to our phones :(. We also went to the Jelly Belly factory, but they did not allow pictures inside. Lame. I highly recommend it, but don't get your hopes up too high for Oompa-Loompas...you don't get to see any.

Law School Update

Every week we are hearing back from more Law Schools that want Richard! So far he has been accepted into George Mason University, Pepperdine University, and George Washington University. Yay! I also got accepted into the program I've been interviewing for in the D.C. area, so it is most likely that we'll be East Coasters after all!

Richard hasn't really decided for sure where he will be going because we are still anxiously waiting to hear responses from the other schools he applied to. He's getting into SUCH good schools, he's having a hard time deciding (the better the school, the higher the tuition).

Although we are seriously considering D.C., we haven't set anything in stone quite yet. But who wouldn't love this view??

It's a Rap.

I try not to mix work and pleasure, but after a cost-benefit analysis, I decided would benefit you all much more than it would cost me to break this rule. Enjoy.

Fear the Boom and Bust

You'll thank me for this later. I guarantee it.

Know The Story:

In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there's a "boom and bust" cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it.

Resolutions

The new year is coming and there is so much I want to do I can hardly contain myself! I could never narrow it down to just a few resolutions, so I will make a list of resolutions and goals for the next year, aka whenever I get around to it.

1. I will buy new strings for my violin and play for fun.
2. We will both buy running shoes and go running (once the ice pack melts.)
3. I will move into an apartment that has closets large enough for my wardrobe.
4. I will buy some heels and learn how to walk in them.
5. We will work on genealogy on both sides.
6. I will buy adorable things for my home from Anthropologie that is not just off the sales rack.
7. I will write my thesis and graduate with my Masters degree. (It will take a lot to get motivated for this one.)
8. I will learn how to cook for just two people and not an army.
9. I will get my passport so we can be ready to travel.
10. I will relax and enjoy my last semester of classes ever!

Mind you, this is an ever growing list that I will mount on my mirror and read every day and will mount on the refrigerator for Richard to read every day. :)

2010 is gonna be good.

What We've Been Up To

We haven't posted in a long while, but here's a catch up of what we've been doing the past few months, besides being cooped up and studying.

Since my Dad has been in Japan, we've been taking my little sister, Emmie, from my Mom to give her a little free time (this is just a good excuse for me and a justification for Richard.) Here are a few pictures of what we've done with her.

With her little puffy vest she would go too fast and was so slippery she'd be all tangled up on these slides! Richard was a good sport and went down with her.

Piano time with hat and mittens. Don't ask.

She asked me to take her picture with the mannequins at Old Navy. This is Emmie with "her dog." We have a beagle at home. She insisted on these lovely white socks.

So strange.

She's such a cutie. Richard thinks she's crazy.

We went to Seattle for Thanksgiving. It was such a great time and SO beautiful! It made me miss it and wonder why I live in a desert/tundra. We got these pictures taken with the fam while we were there.

That's Richard "laughing." How attractive.

We decorated for Christmas! We bought some lights (the SWEET old school kind with the huge bulbs!) And unfortunately had to go with a fake tree this year...but we did borrow my Grandma's vintage Christmas ornaments from when I was a kid and it looks great! We love it!

Our favorite ornament, a little Turkish man!

Love it!

Merry Christmas!

Next, we will try to survive finals week. Then we will be home free and celebrate Christmastime with Richard's family! Yay! So excited!

Law School and Normal School!

While we were enjoying ourselves standing in line for 2 hours for Space Mountain at Disnyeland we found out some news...Richard got a 161 on the LSAT! Yay! That is in the 84th percentile and awesome. Ever since we have been researching Law Schools. Here are some at the top of our list:

1. Temple University (That's in Pennsylvania)
2. Pepperdine (Malibu)
3. Cornell (New York)
4. American University (D.C.)
5. Santa Clara
6. Indiana
7. BYU
8. George Mason (D.C.)

And a few more. We are SO VERY excited :)

As for normal school. My constitutional law midterm (Law, Politics, and War) that I wrote about a while ago got handed back to me yesterday:


This came from the hardest teacher in the department! A positive attitude makes a world of difference!

I love my life.

Can I just take a minute to tell you all how much I LOVE my life!

School is the hardest its ever been. (Can you say, Constitutional Law!?!) But I love it. A challenge, finally. Sometimes I complain, but really, it is such a blessing to be able to do this! I will ROCK the midterm on Monday (with some faith and luck!)

My best friend was married the same summer as me. I love her dearly and her new husband. It was hard there for a while when I was married and she was single, but now that she has joined our ranks, we are back at it again.

The temple is literally 5 minutes away from our house. Being able to go there and work for my family let's me forget about myself for a while.

Richard is awesome. Sometimes being a girl is just sucky. I'm whiney and my hormones (which I picture as little evil people whispering to my brain) tell me things like, "Be mean to Richard" or "Cry for no reason" or "You hate how you look today." Blah. Richard is just a champ. We laugh ourselves to sleep. Randomly when I'm in the car with him, I think to myself, when did all this happen? We are married? Life is too crazy.

Okay enough of this. :) I am just so happy. It took me a while to realize that the Federalist Papers will not kill me. I will survive and I will love it!