So … we bought a house!

 

 

 

 

In November, we bought a house.

It didn’t need much done to it (we have a few projects – some big, some little), but I’m excited to share the progress along the way! First up, about three months in, we finally decided to paint the kiddo’s room.

I knew that I wanted a color inspired by John and Sherry’s (of Young House Love fame) choice for their guest bedroom. So, I headed over to Home Depot and picked up some paint samples and some tinted primer. The samples saved the day because had I picked the original color I wanted (Martha Stewart’s Plumage), we would have had to put two coats on because it didn’t cover very well (and I’m lazy, so I did not want to have to do that!). We went with Glidden’s Totally Teal (full coverage in one coat after the primer and it’s low-VOC). So fantastic! Here’s the final photo.

I love it and so does she! Next up, I tackled some gallery walls. Look forward to that post later this afternoon!

Whoa!

Has it really been a year (AND more!) since I last blogged??  I’m going to pick this back up, but, having been inspired by some fashionista and fabulous bloggers I’ve been reading lately, I’m going to document things I’m buying, wearing, and loving … starting tomorrow.  Man, I procrastinate.

Plus One

Plus One

Originally uploaded by amnicholslaw

Meet Max. He is the newest addition to our family. I was told this weekend it was time to add a new family member – baby or dog. I chose dog. The next day, I got an e-mail from a co-worker looking to find a good home for this guy. Fate!

He is a sweet, CALM, nine-year old (but still active when we want him to be) dalmation/labrador mix. He came from a great family that was growing on its own – but they chose baby!

We are excited to have him in our lives. AND, he is a Texas boy (straight from Houston – we all have our faults). It was meant to be.

Rearranged

About two weeks ago Dave and I decided to rearrange our house. I’m not talking about rearranging the furniture in one room … I mean we completely revamped our home. We moved our bedroom from the attic to the basement, we moved Meredith’s room from the main floor to the attic and her playroom from the basement to the attic. We moved the guest room into Meredith’s old room (it stayed on the same level!) and we moved the family room into the old guest room – Dave really wanted to be able to sit on the reclining couch (which didn’t fit in the basement where the family room originally was). All of this involved rearranging the “formal” family room upstairs because we stole furniture from that room. I felt like we moved all over again.

The next weekend, we painted the guest room a neutral “Barrister White” (it had previously been painted pink and purple and Meredith loved it). Okay, okay, I can admit it – I bought the paint color because of the name … mostly. On that front, I’m still trying to figure out my place in the legal world (and I’m close), but more on that later.

This past weekend, I decided I didn’t like the family room being upstairs, so we rearranged again! We moved the family room back downstairs and moved the office from the basement to the main level. SO MUCH BETTER! The office is no longer in a corner of the basement, but in its own room with a desk that fits both of our needs and a great little seating combo AND, of course, a TV. It is fabulous and I love it and I can’t wait to work from home.

Speaking of work … I’m not going to make it a habit of writing about my professional life on this blog, because, well, I’m smarter than that. But, because it fits into the topic, I’ll mention it. I’m rearranging on the professional front as well. To begin with, when I pictured myself as an attorney, I had a very (I think) old-fashioned view of where I wanted to be, what it would look like and what it would feel like. I am now an attorney and I’m still trying to figure out what that means for me.

I took a job initially back in December and it was not at all what I pictured when I saw myself as an attorney. In short, I left (against my heart’s advice) and took a job in a firm which I thought was more like what I was looking for in my career. Two short months later, it turned out not to be and I’m heading back to my first job. Finicky, maybe. Unable to make a decision, definitely not. I know that I want to be happy in my professional life and this decision will help bring that to realization. I realized that what I had in the beginning was a fabulous opportunity to be in an environment that is dynamic, smart, progressive and full of people that are really great mentors and fabulous women role models. Let’s just call the past two months my little sabbatical.

I’ve done a lot of rearranging in the past few months, and I’m counting on settling down for a good long while.

Fishing

View from the Beach

Originally uploaded by amnicholslaw

I went fishing with my husband and daughter this weekend. Rephrase. I rode along with my husband two hours into the mountains so that he and our daughter could fish. TWO HOURS, people. Just to fish. When we had spent as much money on gas as a cool pair of shoes, we finally arrived at the place where my husband deemed it a good fishing spot. We donned our gear (meaning for me, my chair and my book) and hiked down to the river. Five minutes after I had set up my chair, we needed to move. We walked a little further down the river to a seemingly better spot (the view, people, the VIEW was amazing). We stayed there for about twenty minutes … and guess what? We needed to move again. Apparently, my husband cannot stay in one spot when he fishes.

When I was a kid, my dad lived on a lake. I would fish from the backyard and it was quiet, serene. This is what I thought fishing with my family would be like. Instead, we pulled off the highway to find this spot. I imagined that we would stay in one general spot and I would be able to relax and read. Wrong. When Dave decided to move from this spot, I decided to walk back to the car to wait for them there – it was starting to drizzle (which by the way, Dave says is the best time to fish – blech) and I didn’t want to be caught in what could have very easily ended up in a torrential downpour according to the forecasters. I ended up setting up camp along side the river and reading while I waited for the fishers to come back from their adventure.

They came back to the car after awhile and we started driving. Home? Nope. To another fishing hole. Two hours later we were on our way home. I got a lot of reading done.

Lesson learned. I don’t need to go on these trips with my husband and our daughter. It’s great father-daughter bonding time and it’s sexy when Dave wants to share something he loves with her.

PS – May 26th and it was sleeting on the drive home. Icy rain, people – in May.

In one word . . .

SWAMPED.  That’s me in a nutshell now that I’ve got a full-time job.

Questions Welcomed

So, I like to hear the sound of my own voice – it figures that it would translate that I like to see my words in print (online, whatever).  I don’t purport to be an expert on anything Bar related, but I am more than happy to share my experience and answer questions.  So, for my first answer to a question asked . . . .

Q: When did Bar/Bri or PMBR start?

A: I didn’t take the PMBR class (I self-studied with MicroMash), but I do know that the 6-day class for PMBR began the Monday after I graduated from law school, so that would be May 21st.  The Bar/Bri course started May 29th. 

I graduated from a school in Texas, but was already living in Colorado.  I flew home for a quick weekend for graduation and then was back by the PMBR start date.   I had already decided though, not to take the PMBR class.  I had heard from friends who had taken the February Texas Bar and PMBR and didn’t have many good things to say about it.  I researched the alternatives and decided to go with MicroMash (if you complete the program they guarantee you will pass or else you get a free update so you can study again without having to buy another bar review).  And, I’d have to say that I was really pleased with the MBE prep.  I was able to study at my own pace and online.  The software was easy to navigate and had excellent study guides and explanations for the answers (why it was right, why it was wrong).  The program focuses on your weak areas (in my case Torts, blech) so that you are optimizing your study time.  My MBE was really low at the Bar/Bri practice exam (99/200 correct raw) and my scaled score ended up being 143 on the actual test.  So, I feel like it helped . . . at least a little bit because I totally revved up my MBE study after that.

Hope this helps!  Good luck and keep the questions coming! 

Throughout the Ages

Tomorrow is my birthday (holla!) and although I already feel like it has come and passed, I wanted to post a few interesting facts about November 19th.  On my birthday, throughout the ages, the following notable events have occurred:

• 461 – St. Hilarious becomes Pope.
• 1863 – Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
• (In honor of my husband’s love of soccer) 1969 – Pelé scores his 1000th goal.
• (In honor of the enormous amount of student loans I have accrued during my legal education) 1985 – Pennzoil wins a $10.53 billion verdict against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in U.S. history, stemming from Texaco’s establishing a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.
• 1990 – Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the Girl You Know It’s True album.
• 1997 – In Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive. They would go on to become the first set of septuplets to survive infancy, with all seven alive in 2007.
• 1998 – The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.

Today is also the birth date of the following notable persons:

• 1831 – James A. Garfield
• 1917 – Indira Gandhi
• 1933 – Larry King
• 1935 – Jack Welch
• 1938 – Ted Turner
• 1942 – Calvin Klein
• 1949 – Ahmad Rashad
• 1956 – Ann Curry
• 1959 – Allison Janney
• 1961 – Meg Ryan
• 1962 – Jodie Foster
• 1966 – Gail Devers
• 1966 – Rocco DiSpirito

And in 1978, I graced this world with my presence.  So, happy birthday to me . . . and to any other November 19ers out there.  You’re in good company!

Hey Y’all!

Can I just say . . . I LOVE Paula Deen!  You’ve got to tune in to the Food Network, if for nothing else, but to hear that wonderful Southern accent.  She’s fabulous!

Weekend Wrap-Up

In one word – chaotic (the weekend and this post). It has been a busy couple of weeks and an especially hectic weekend. A couple of weeks ago we came across a great house that was calling our names and this past weekend, we moved in! It is a cute Craftsman bungalow with a basement (yeah, I’m from Texas – that’s cool) and a finished attic space. We have some great friends here in Colorado that helped us move – and guess what? They still like us . . . seriously. The house is a wreck – we have only just begun unpacking (where did we get all this crap?) and I’m just ready to be done with the process.

Saturday night, one of the aforementioned (too legal-sounding, sorry, I may have mentioned this, but I AM an attorney) friend and I went to see Patti Lupone at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House (part of the fabulous Denver Performing Arts Complex). The show was fabulous – the woman is amazing . . . amazing. After the show, we waited by the stage door and got Patti’s autograph AND (because I am a great friend and remembered to bring my camera), I was able to get a shot with my friend and Patti. What a great night!!

On Sunday, my crafty husband built us a bed (well, actually a box spring), but yeah, with his own two hands. Our queen-size box spring would not fit up the stairs to the attic at the new place (which is where we decided to have our bedroom) – bummer, but by Sunday afternoon, we had crammed the mattress upstairs, and lugged the newly built box spring (in two pieces) into the attic. However, our couch would not fit down the stairs to the basement and our living room. CRAP! So, we’re still trying to figure that out, and get the house in order. My lovely husband turns 30 this week (whoa!) and I’d like to have some friends over for dinner sooner rather than later to celebrate.

OH – and congratulations to my friends in Texas that passed the Bar Exam! I had a bunch of friends that passed, and unfortunately a few that failed. The waiting is over and the Bar Exam is a bitch – good luck on it the next time around!!