Starting Each Day with a Smile

I’ve been trying really hard to get up every other morning and work out. It’s 45 minutes on the treadmill and I get to watch two episodes of How I Met Your Mother on streaming Netflix. Really, it’s the only thing that gets me out of bed sometimes.

Earlier this week, when I went to grab my keys from the hanging organizer near the front door, I saw this:

That’s my husband’s wedding ring on his key ring. I’m betting he put it there while he was at his personal training session on Wednesday because he doesn’t like to work out with his ring on.

Come to think of it, neither do I. I’ve started removing my wedding band and engagement ring and keeping them overnight in a crystal ring holder next to my bed. It’s got Mickey Mouse on it and Hubs gave it to me for a birthday at one point over the years. It makes me smile every time I put my rings in there.

But this way, I get to remember to put on my ring every morning – and remind myself of how lucky I am. I married an amazing man – and he’s been a wonderful partner for five and a half years. Even if he does leave his wedding band on his keys and not next to his bed. ;)

Do you wear your wedding ring to bed?

An Historic Weekend

This weekend, two of my girlfriends went down to Historic Kimmswick for our annual Cookie Walk adventure. Kimmswick is an adorable little town south of St. Louis (link here http://visitkimmswick.com/). They have other festivals like the Strawberry Festival and the Apple Butter Festival in other months, but us girls tend to go down during the Christmas period. The town is all dressed up and the houses and shops are decorated, the milk jug luminaries are set out all down the big highway that leads to town and then around the small streets, and everyone always has a great time.

Usually when we go, we have to deal with coats and jackets and all that fun stuff. This year? It was over 60 degrees by the time we pulled in around 1:30 pm. Crazy. We had long sleeves and light jackets on and even then, we were kind of warm! But since the weather was so nice, there were lots of people around.

We picked up our cookie bag and proceeded to “trick or treat” our way around the town. It’s so much fun! You go to each shop on the list and you get a cookie in every place! Included in your cookie walk ticket is your bag, map, all the cookies, and a printed and bound recipe book of all the cookies you just got! This way, if you find your favorite cookie (like the Oreo truffle – YUM!), you already have the recipe and can make your own for Christmas. Such a fun idea.

Then, we get to our favorite part of the day. The eating. We put our names in at the Blue Owl (link here http://www.theblueowl.com/) when we first got there, and got a time of 4:30 pm to come back. Yup, that’s a three hour wait for those playing along at home. But it wasn’t so bad – we shopped while we waited. In fact, I told the girls that it was 4:15 pm and we had to go get our table and we were surprised the day had gone by so quickly! Usually, we eat lunch at the Blue Owl and then continue our shopping. This time, we had eaten lunch before we came down, but we still had to get our pie. Pie and wine. Awesome combination.

They’re famous for the Levee High Apple Pie and this year, I had it a la mode. Oh my goodness. It was so wonderful! Now I’m thinking about it, and trying to find a way to get back down there before next Christmas. Someone remind me to get one of these for Thanksgiving next year!

We found a bunch of fun things, like a Christmas cookie plate, a sign that could not be truer…

An odd way to decorate for the holidays…

We confirmed that Disney is truly everywhere…

And that I love snowmen. :)

It’s officially Christmas after we spend the day in Kimmswick. What makes you really feel like it’s the holidays?

Last Week in Law School

One of the reasons I started this blog was to reach out to others about Husband’s upcoming journey through law school. I thought that with all the time that he would spend studying and in class, I should have another outlet for both creativity and support. I had been reading blogs for a long time before that (and even back onto LiveJournal days) but this was the first one I really put forth and created on my own (let’s ignore the wedding planning that happened on LJ, mkay?).

I wanted to share our story about the stresses and ups and downs of being in law school in the Midwest. With only 12 posts in 3.5 years, I’m not so sure that actually happened. In reality, the law school experience has been sprinkled throughout the whole of my blog, since it’s really been infused through our whole lives for the past three and a half years. It’s been something that we have lived with, day in and day out, month in and month out, for a very long time.

I really can’t believe it’s coming to an end.

Husband has completed his classwork for the semester, and had his last class as a full time graduate student last Thursday. Saturday started the reading period, and he’s in the middle of completing a few papers plus studying for a few exams. Come December 17, everything should be done and turned it. We have two weeks to relax, and then in the beginning of January, the online bar prep begins for a week and then switches to in-class bar prep for the rest of the month and into February.

It will seem just like law school, but more intense, if that’s possible. At least that’s what I’ve been told. I won’t see much of him in the first two months of 2013 as he prepares for the bar exam at the end of February. It will take place in the idyllic city of Jefferson City, Missouri! Hah. Well, it’s not really a vacation since he’s not going to do much of anything but studying and taking the exam.

We’ve got a Disney trip planned for March to celebrate his taking of the bar exam (yay!) and then, joy of joys, he begins his first job in March. I am ridiculously proud. My husband is absolutely brilliant and I couldn’t be happier for him. It’s what he wants to do, for a great company, with a wonderful set up for us.

We have a lot to be thankful for in this last week of law school.

Busy, Busy Bee

This fall, I’ve been busy…

Planning weddings.

Spending time with my favorite nephew – by the way, HOW did he get to be five months old?!

Loving live performance. If you’ve not seen Straight No Chaser in person, you must. Must.

While I love having lots of things to do – it keeps me from getting bored – I am so done with a crazy fall. For some reason, fall is always busy with events but this one takes the cake. I’ve called it event-a-polooza because I feel like I just ran a marathon.

Now that things are settling down, I can focus on the holidays and enjoy the gift wrapping and Christmas card addressing, plus gift making. I’m determined to make something from Pinterest, as soon as I decide which homemade gift to make.

So how have you been this fall?

‘Tis the Season, I Guess!

I always seem to say this, but the fall is crazy.

Not only do you have the start of a new semester – but this is the last law school semester Hubs will ever start! Yay! – but you also have a bunch of work events. We have the usual events that are every year plus new special ones that got added to the calendar that cause me to twitch a bit. At one of them a few weeks ago, I ended up pulling a shoulder muscle and didn’t realize it until I got home and Hubs went to hug me and I started to cry because it hurt so bad. He tried to give me a massage that night but it was clear that I needed professional help. The bestest mama in the world hooked me with a massage at a local chain and I felt MUCH better after that. Almost human, even.

Then we’ve got all the holidays coming up. One of my work parties includes a Halloween dress up function, so that’ll be fun! Then there are conferences and more events and then the big annual dinner and then Thanksgiving. Then before we know it, it will be Christmastime (and maybe a trip to Vegas). That means Hubs finishes up law school (oh my goodness, it’s really here!), does the non-regalia ceremony thing, and then starts studying for the bar. Yikes.

I’ll be a single lady until the end of February when the worst road trip to Jefferson City and the two day bar test for Hubs happens. I think I might even be more nervous than he is – if that’s even possible.

That’s why I’m really glad we’ve been able to spend time together…

Late night Ted Drewes run the other day…

An afternoon in the apple orchard in Illinois a few weeks ago…

And a weekend with my mama and brother in Texas a few days ago.

Best times ever.

I’m saving up the moments because come bar-prep and then (hopefully) full-time-job-land, our dates will be fewer and farther between. Not that I’m going to complain about my husband starting his law career and going to a job every day that he (hopefully) loves as much as I love mine. It will be hard – students loans scare me – but the idea that he can start up his career is really exciting to me.

So here’s hoping to more time hanging out on the couch, snuggling in the fall and into the winter, drinking new pumpkin beers, and enjoying our last semester as a law student husband and law school wife.