I got some good news this week.  We finally know where we will be moving and where I will be attending law school beginning in the fall.  Unfortunately, I did not get into my top choice, but PLEASE do not comment and say “I am so sorry” because I am totally fine with it.  My top choice was a private school and although it would have been so nice to live back at home near my friends and family, it would have cost us SO much more.  With my school, I will be saving about $22,000 because of my scholarship.  Also, Tom and I will be able to start our marriage completely fresh and on our own; not that I wouldn’t prefer to have his family and mine closer for us to lean on when we need them, but I really think it will help our marriage to be away.  We’ve already told our families that our house will be the “vacation house” so they will have to come visit.  I am so incredibly excited (and proud of myself) because I am actually doing it - really and truly going to law school!!!

With finals and all that, I have seriously been slacking with working out, and my good eating habits have gone out the window.  This morning, I started up again.  The gym is going to be my last “errand” of the day and when I get back from that, I will be shredding.  I weighed myself this morning AND I GAINED A POUND FROM LAST WEEK.  UGH.  I was talking with a friend and she recommended that I should stop weighing myself and instead get a measuring tape to measure myself once a week.  With all the strength training I’m doing, it makes more sense to pay attention to the inches but not the pounds. 

And lastly, I was tagged by one of my favorite people to post a picture of myself that I JUST took.  I took three and couldn’t choose, so I’ll just post all of them:

Um yeah.  Still in my pajamas, hair unwashed, face unwashed, and … I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet.  Why did you make me do this, Rachael?!

I am going to get a couple other people to do this, so consider yourself tagged Tiffany, Jessica, Katharina, and Lynn!  Here are the rules:  

• Take a picture of yourself right now.
• No primping or preparing.
• Just snap a picture.
• Load the picture onto your blog.
• Tag some people to play along.

Have fun! :)

A few months ago, Jen blogged about the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans.  Even though I’m not the most active member, I decided to hop on the bandwagon!  Anyway, they have a new challenge that utilizes The 30 Day Shred.  Whenever I’ve been out and about, I’ve always forgotten to pick it up (or couldn’t find it), but the other night I finally found it!  Anyway, I just completed the second workout from level 1.  I am feeling so amazing right now it’s not even funny.  Yes, I’m sore, but it’s a good kind of sore.  And it’s an easy 22 minute work out – a warm up, 3 sets of circuits, and a cool down.  I plan to use this both on the days that I do make it to the gym and on the days that I don’t.  If you guys are interested in something that you can do to help get in better shape without a gym membership, I highly recommend The 30 Day Shred.  It’s about $9 at Walmart and absolutely worth it!  And while you’re at it, hop on over to the Sisterhood and join!  It’s a great way to get support, whether you’re trying to lose 10 lbs or 100 lbs!

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m not in the business for the money.  I’m in it to help people.  Which is why I think I’m leaning towards family law.  Family law (divorce, adoption, custody) is near and dear to my heart.  I am a child of divorced parents.  When I was in second grade, my parents sat us down to tell us they were divorcing, even though they loved my sister and I very much.  The divorce was bitter and incredibly hard to deal with, and I am still feeling its effects to this very day.  I’d like to take my experience and help others going through divorce; whether that be the kids involved or the parents.  Personal injury lawyers are great, but there are not enough family law attorneys who are working to help families remain strong units even after divorce.

Obviously, I’ve got at least three years until I have to make a decision.  I want to take some classes and see where I am most interested in the law.  But at least I can go into it knowing what I am more interested in.

It will have to be at least two bedrooms, but preferably three.  I want a guest room and an office that we can later turn into another guestroom or nursery (if we end up staying in our first house that long).  Two bathrooms would be perfect, but the master bathroom should definitely be bigger than the one we have now.  The kitchen will have to be pretty big, but we’re planning to basically redo any kitchen we come across so it suits me better.  I want pull out cabinet drawers and a pantry.  We would have a pantry now except a) the closet is not in the kitchen (which I hate) and b) there is a freezer in there currently.

The washer/dryer should be in the two car garage.  I am sick of going outside to do the laundry.  When it’s raining, I (and the clean clothes) get rained on.  When it’s cold and I don’t feel like putting on 10 layers of clothes, the laundry goes untouched for days on end.

I also want a side yard that I can plant a garden in.  Not just a flower garden, but one for vegetables and herbs.  Having a window box with four herbs is just not doing it for me.  I also want to be able to plant all kinds of flowers in the front and backyard.  The backyard needs to be big enough for the dogs to stretch their legs.  It should be fenced – preferably with high vinyle fencing in white – no aluminum fence installation for us.  I just think they look very uninviting and just … out of place in a residential backyard.

Like I’ve mentioned before, we’re going for a fixer upper that we can turn into a beautiful home that we are proud of.  Of course, none of this stuff is going to happen over night.  It is so much fun to think about what our future house will look like though!  I get excited everyday just dreaming about it.

The night before I was looking on Craigslist for jobs and came across an ad for a legal assistant for next week only.  If anything, I could use the extra money, even if it isn’t an ongoing job.  Anyway, I submitted my resume and got a call back!  I will be working Monday and Tuesday full time to help a local law firm get caught up while one of their adminstrative assistants is on vacation.  I spoke with the head attorney about possibly getting a more regular job and he said it is very possible.  So, please keep your fingers crossed that I dazzle this guy and he’ll want me to stay on!

Since I’ve been feeling better since yesterday, I’ve gone crazy with cleaning.  The apartment got so bad that I just buckled down and did some of the really necessary cleaning – like the bathrooms.  I even washed the shower liner!  On the agenda for today is laundry (I feel like I’m always doing laundry), finishing up cleaning, dusting, and then who knows what.  I’m hoping that Tom and I can go somewhere to use our camera (like the botanical gardens or something).  It’d be a neat date idea, too.

It has really warmed up the past couple days, and it feels SO GOOD.  Seriously, I love being able to have the windows open and enjoy the warmth.  It got a little too warm yesterday, but once I turned the fans on in the apartment it was much better.  Since it warmed up, I decided to get out my ice cream attachment for the mixer.  I just made vanilla ice cream using a recipe that came with the attachment, since I’ve never done it before.  It’s actually really easy!  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Other than the two days of work, I don’t have any plans for spring break.  I’m going to probably need to go home to do some wedding stuff.  I’m going to use the time to get ahead in my classes and take care of some impending assignments, and one of my goals is to do some work on this site.  I want to incorporate more weekly articles that you can expect on the same day every week.  What would you like to see more of on this web site?  Be honest, I’d like your ideas!

I need to get out of this room … Remy is stinking it up with his farts!

So, Tom and I had A BLAST at the hunt camp on Saturday.  We got so many cool pictures which I will post when I get back from my noon appointment with the Catholic Charities guy.  We’re going to see the test results from our first marriage class.  It should be interesting – are we compatible or not, I wonder?  I would hope so, since we’ve been dating forever-and-a-day!

Anyway, on Saturday night we did the Beef and Broccoli Stirfry that I mentioned.  It turned out AMAZING and I’m not usually one to really enjoy Asian food.  We will definitely be making it again, especially because it has lots of good for you vegetables in it.  After dinner we ran up to a liquor store to see if they have Tom’s favorite red wine, but they didn’t.  We picked up two new bottles to try though, and ended up going through one of them while we played Brain Academy on the Wii.

Sunday we ran errands, did laundry, I read, and we played with the pups.  It was a fairly lazy day, complete with a trip to Checkers for me (because I feel like I earned it, thankyouverymuch).  See, on Friday I found out that I moved to the next level in strength training.  A new color of my card means they spot me more and push me that much harder.  You should feel my muscles – they are yummy :)  Not like crazy body builder yummy, but strapless wedding dress yummy.

I’ve got three tests in the next week, a quiz due by Friday and lots to do before the engagement party.  We may or may not have picked out our invitations.  The sample came in but it went to my parents’ house, so I’ll have to see it when I get home on Friday.

I’m thinking sometime this week I’d love to show you guys what our apartment looks like.  First I have to get the spare bedroom back together though.  We are rearranging the room and doing some spring cleaning since the elliptical is out of here now.  It looks a little roomier in here now but we’re still contemplating on where we should put the TV and desk (or if we should just leave them where they are right now).

Time for makeup and hair!  Have a great week and come back to see the pictures I promised :)

In the last week, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I’d like to do for Tom this Valentine’s Day.  It’s a very special one – our seventh Valentine’s Day together, but the first one that is significant because of our engagement.  I don’t want to spend a lot of money on material objects; I’d much rather spend money on ingredients for a really nice dinner that I can cook at home.  I think he would appreciate the time and effort put into that, too.  Plus, he knows how much I enjoy cooking for him.  Sounds like I just talked myself into cooking a meal for him, right?  Now I just need to figure out what exactly I want to make.  It’d be fun to use my new dessert cookbook and do something for him I’ve never made before.

What are your Valentine’s Day plans?  If you’re cooking, what will you be making for your significant other?

I managed to get everything done that I wanted except cleaning up the bathroom.  I did get the towels into the washer early this morning before I left for class, but I’ve got to scrub down the tub and walls because they’re filled with mud.  I’m telling you, the boys were DISGUSTINGLY FILTHY!

I bought more wedding magazines last night and a wedding planner.  We also got half of our guest list down on paper.  Now we’ve got to do my side of the family and my friends.  We’re thinking we’ll have 150 maximum to invite, and I know that many people won’t come down for it (which is fine for me).  I just realized, I haven’t talked much about the proposal or anything!

Tom and I just got our Nikon D60 and we absolutely love taking pictures with it.  So, on December 30th, Tom told me to make sure I looked nice for his birthday dinner (which we had already planned) and that he wanted to take pictures of a nearby lake before we went.  We walked along the edge of the lake, both of us trying out the camera.  As the sun was going down, we got to a specific spot.  Tom set up the camera so that we could get a picture of us with the sunset in the background.  He took several of me and then set the self timer.  Next thing I know, he’s unzipping his jacket and getting down on one knee!  I don’t remember specifically how he asked me, but of course I said yes.  I cried, and then he said, “My pants are so dirty now!” because he had knelt down in mud (very close to the water’s edge).  We had dinner at a local restaurant that we both LOVE – right across from campus – after calling all of our family and friends to tell them the great news.

About the ring – it is a beautiful princess cut solitaire diamond on a very thin white gold band – exactly what I wanted!  It fit perfectly too.  I wear it at all times unless I’m showering, doing dishes, or cleaning.

The next day, we came home.  Tom’s parents and sister were there to toast us and congratulate us.  We went to dinner with my parents, where we got our drinks paid for by a guy at the bar (while we were waiting for our table to open up).  We also got another toast with them.  Unfortunately, we were both so exhausted that we fell asleep at about 11:55pm, making it the first time since I can remember that I’ve missed a New Year’s!

Wedding planning is already underway.  Like I mentioned in my previous post, we are aiming for August 1, 2009.  We’re getting married in the church I grew up in and having the reception in a banquet room attached to a hotel, so the guests won’t have to travel far after the reception.  Everything is right down the street from where I grew up, which is very convenient.  So far, I am thinking about lilac and a soft shade of green as my colors.  I don’t want anything too bright, but obviously not dark colors either.  I have my bridesmaids picked out and Tom knows who he is going to ask for his groomsmen also.  His sister is helping me out so much and it’s making me feel a lot better about all the overwhelming decisions I have to make.  Thank God for her!  I think I’m most excited about picking out our wedding invitations when we finally do settle on a date.  I can’t wait!

Alright, enough babbling about wedding stuff.  I have a class in about 45 minutes and then I’m home for the afternoon (until my 5:10pm class).  Have a great day and GO GATORS!