Weekend Recap

It was my second full weekend in Columbia and it was a great weekend. At least this early in the semester, I can spend part of the weekends relaxing and hanging out with friends.

Friday night, Sara came over for dinner. We typically get together on Thursdays but Greys isn't back on yet and we were both swamped with homework on Thursday night. We pushed our get together til Friday. I made homemade fried catfish. It was delicious. I had never made it before, but it was sooo yummy. I will definately be doing that again. We paired it with cubed potatoes with melted butter and spices (one of my favorites), green beans and rolls. It was a great dinner. We watched a Lifetime movied I had on my DVR from earlier in the week, "Bond of Silence". It was such a good movie. I even convinced Chris to watch it Sunday night and he liked it too. We also watched some other TV after the movie. We made fresh and homemade rice krispie treats. They were perfect. It was a good night. I crashed around 10:30. I feel like such an old lady.

Saturday was a wonderful day. I got up early to do a little shopping and studying. No luck on shopping in Columbia but got a little studying done before having to get ready for our girls day. Aroung 11:30, Sara, Claudia, Maggie and I headed to Rocheport. Rocheport is a small little town just west of Columbia. It is such an adorable town with great little shops. We had lunch at the winery. This winery is beautiful and it sits overlooking the Missouri River. Steve (one of the attorneys that I work for up here) and his wife Tracy met us for lunch. We had a great time. After lunch, we took a few pictures outside. Here are just a few

View from the winery

The whole lunch group

Us girls with the winery in the background

After lunch, we spent the afternoon hitting up the antique shops and other businesses in town. We stopped by for homemade ice cream at the General Store. We stopped by Steve and Tracy's on our way out of town. They have an adorable house that is 150 years old and have 2 super cute puppies. It was a great day but we were all exhausted by 5:30 when we go back home to Columbia. I watched a little TV, ate a little dinner and hit the sack early.

I got homesick when I had to miss my grandmother's birthday. Her is a picture of my two grandmothers. Noma is on the right and Opal is on the left. (We lost my grandmother Opal in July 2009)

My grandmother, Noma, turned 88 on Saturday. My mom planned her a big birthday party. Two of my brothers and their families were there. Chris went to represent our portion of the family. I hear that it was a great time. Grandma cried becuase she never had anything like that for her birthday. She is a special lady and I wish that I could have been there. I hate when school gets in the way of my family obligations. I know they all understand that I am doing what I need to do, but it still doesn't make it easier to miss those things. It does make me happier that Chris went. I love that he had gotten so close to my family that he goes to family functions when I cannot be there. Gosh, I love that boy!!!

Sunday was a homebody day. I stayed in all day. I did laundry, dishes, cleaning and studying. I got lots done and even had time for a little nap. It was nice to just stay in. I was in bum clothes all day and just stayed at the house. I only wish that I could have got the ambition to go outside to go for a run. Oh well.

It was a great weekend. Next weekend is Labor Day weekend and I am sooooooo looking forward to going home to see Christopher, my puppies and the rest of our families.

Getting to Know You Sunday

It is Sunday morning. I have laundry going, started the dishwasher and getting ready to start on homework for the week. But before I did, I thought that I would post for Getting to Know You Sunday by MannLand5.

1. If you accidently knick a car in a parking lot..Do you leave a note or do you get the heck out of there? I would definately leave a note, but I would also take pictures of it so no one could come back at me later


2. Love your body or plastic surgery? For sure, there are things that I do not like about my body, but I don't think I would ever go through plastic surgery

3. What about your favorite blog(s) continues to drive you back? Just following the life of that person. You feel like you know the person and you want to follow up to see how the stories unfold

4. What percent of your blog is BS just to make your life seem more interesting than it really is? None, I tell it like it is. If things are boring, I say that. I would never lie to draw people to my blog

5. If you had to give up one type of meat for the rest of your life, what would it be? Fish - there aren't many types of fish that I like so I'm pretty sure that I could live without it

6. How often to you eat out? Probably about twice a week

7. Skinny jeans or boot cut jeans? I look terrible in skinny jeans so for me, definately boot cut

8. If you caught your spouse cheating would you forgive, divorce, or plan your kill? Gosh, I hope that I never have to deal with this issue and it is hard to say what I would do. I would definately be pissed and not speak to him for quite a while and probably want to kill him and whoever he cheated with. I cannot imagine just working through it, but who knows. I'm pretty sure I'd go for the middle line and just leave

5 Question Friday

Well, here we are again. Friday at last!!! Time for another 5 Question Friday.

1. How many pets do you have?  Christopher and I have three pups. Kit-Kat - our pit bull and she is 4; Dozer - our little mutt with a big attitude and he is just over 7 months; and lastly but certaintly not least, Boots, our bird dog and he is just over 6 months. These are our children and they are sooooo spoiled!!!

Here are our babies

Kit-Kat and Dozer

Boots

2. If you could switch places with anyone in the world for one day, who would it be? Just someone in a country far away, just to see another culture for a day
3. What is your favorite money saving tip? We follow the rule of not putting anything on a credit card that we cannot pay off at the end of the month. We only use credit cards because of the rewards and when you pay it off every month it is just like making money to shop

4. What do you want your kids to be when they grow up? Whatever makes them happy will be great for me. I don't want to be one of those parents who force their children to follow in the parent footsteps or join the fmaily business. Not every career is right for everyone. I just want them to be happy
5. What is your favorite quote? Failing to prepare is preparing to fall. My dad preaches this all the time but it rains true. I'm a huge planner. I try to be prepared for everything that I do though sometimes that I probably over plan

Hope that you have a great weekend. I have tons planned for this weekend so it should be great, especially with the weather. If you want to play along, head over to My Little Life and link up!!!

Getting back in the groove of things

I could not tell you how ready I am for it to be Friday and then the weekend.

I have been back at school for 4 days now and already feel like I need a break. I have had each of my classes at least once, and at the end of today (with a make up class) I will have had Estates 5 times this week.

It never ceases to amaze me how draining school is on me. I have been going to bed earlier than I did when I was home, staying in bed at least 30 minutes more each morning and I am still more drained in the evenings that I was at home. I think part of it is the schedule that I have.

Most nights it is at least 6 or later when I get back to my house, which doesn't leave a whole lot of time to eat, read and relax to get ready for the next day. When I am home, I get off work at 4:30 and typically have dinner done by 5:30 and usually i get time to relax with Christopher and play outside with our pups.

I guess that my body is just having a hard time adjusting to the change as it does every year. My heart and body want to be back in Howell County with Chris and my furbabies. But I know that all I have to survive is the next 11 months and we will be good to go!!!

Do you really just not care?

So, as many of you know, I am in my final year of law school. I currently only have classes with people in their 2nd and 3rd year of law school, and most of my classes are with my fellow 3Ls.

I am been amazed so far this semester at the lack of people caring about their school.

I have had people show up to classes as much as 20 minutes late (and these aren't even 8:00 a.m. classes). I mean come on. It is the first week of class. There is no way that you are so tired that you cannot make it to a 11:00 class on time. I understand sometimes traffic can mess with you or you have to handle other things in life too, but it is the same people over and over again. People who I see will be sitting in the hallway an hour before the class starts. So, please tell me why it is that you find the need to show up and disrupt class 20 minutes into the 50 minute class.

Secondly, in my Conflict Management class today we had a paper due. It was a simple paper. We only had to write a 2 page paper about a conflict in our life that was non legal related. Hello, piece of cake. Plus, it was posted as an assignment at least a week and a half ago. Law school has all been run the same. All assignments are posted online and you will have an assignment/reading due on the first day of class. By your 3L year, this should not be a surprise. However, in my class today, while I was standing in line to turn in my paper, I heard no less than 3 people make a comment like "Oh shit!" or "There was an assignment". Things such as this. Really?

Law school is not cheap. We are spending about $8,000 - $9,000 per semester (yes, only 1/2 of the year) on tuition. That doesn't include my books, computer and living expenses. How could you possibly be spending that much money and not care??? And if you aren't paying for it and somehow managed to get a scholarship, please tell me who is giving those out to such slackers because I would like to hit that person in the head.

Thank you very much and this is the end of my rant as I have to prepare for my Estates and Trusts class.

Weekend Recap

This weekend has been pretty uneventful.

Friday, I left home to return to Columbia. I left town around 9:00 a.m. and arrived in Columbia around 12:30. I was sad to leave, but tried to think of the positive. I got my last hug from Christopher around 7:00 a.m. before he went to work. Of course, I cried, but I took it worse when I had to say goodbye to my puppies. It is just hard becuase they do not understand why momma is leaving. They just know I left and won't be back for 2 weeks. My mother tells me that Dozer is looking for me. Every noise in the evenings, he runs to the window to see if it is me coming home. As pathetic as it sounds, I have talked to Dozer on the phone. He just listens, licks the phone and then tries carrying it off. Gosh I miss my little boys!!!

Friday afternoon I spent cleaning the house (sitting for 3 months makes it really dirty) and unpacking. I also took a trip to campus to pick up my books and parking permit. This semester, I got off with only $500.00 of books instead of the typical $900 that I have been spending since I was in law school.

I had a wonderful dinner with my Columbia girls. I had missed them all and we had a fantastic dinner. We were catching on life that we had missed (a lot of details are not sent in text messages and facebook). We all met up at Macaroni Grill and had a great meal. It is nice to go somewhere that WP doesn't have. After dinner, Maggie and Sara came back to my house. We spent the rest of the evening talking and watching TV. Friday night, Columbia had two rounds of storms. Geez, I wish that rain would happen down in WP. It needs it bad. My field is sooooo dry.

Saturday I was up early. My body has trouble sleeping in. I waiting around for a bit for the internet/phone guy to come by and fix my phone and internet. I was dying Friday with no internet. After that guy left, I went to the grocery store. My house was so void of food. I had to stock up on all the basics and good school snack food. I had lunch with Maggie and we went shopping to look for a headpiece for my wedding and looked for shoes to the bridesmaids. We struck out looking for both. I spent the rest of the evening at the house finishing unpacking and reading for Monday classes.

Today has been a pretty boring day. I have been cleaning, doing laundry and reading. Nothing too exciting. I am almost happy that school starts tomorrow and I will be more busy again. I don't do boring well.

Well, I am off to bed. Hope that you all had a great weekend. Sorry I had no pictures from this one.

Semester #11

This is it. The final year of school for me. I am so excited. It seems so hard to believe that it is finally here. Graduation is so close. Time had flown by the past few years in school and I hope that this year continues to speed on by!

I have been getting some reading done for classes this week. I am pretty excited about the classes this semester too. All of the classes but one are classes that I wanted to take. The only required class is one that I would have chose to take anyway too.

So here it is, classes for this year.

 - Criminal Procedure
 - Family Law
 - Estates and Trusts
 - Conflict and Conflict Management
 - Pre-Trial Litigation

Plus 18 hours of work and wedding planning, I will be keeping busy.

Weekend Recap

It was my last weekend in town so we tried to make the most of it.

Friday night we attended a wedding. For being at a bar, the wedding was actually not too bad. It was for a guy that works with Chris. It is definately not my venue of choice, but it was a pretty ceremony. I only took a picture of Chris and I before the wedding, but didn't take my camera to the wedding. I didn't think there would be anything to take a picture of, but I was wrong, I really wanted a picture of the cake. We just didn't stay too long since the bar was really smoky and I don't particularily enjoy being around a bunch of drunks. The wedding festivities started at 6:00 p.m. and there were so many people already wasted when we got there. After the wedding, we headed to get something to eat. We ate with my parents and picked up the boys. My parents are great for watching the pups. Gosh, do we have spoiled pups who don't have to stay at the house when we are gone. After dinner, we went to the house and relaxed with the boys. Here is a picture of Chris and I before the wedding.

Saturday morning. I let Chris sleep in. I was up early with Dozer of course. But I didn't mind too much. It was our last Saturday together. Once Chris got up, we got around and headed to town. We had a few errands to run. Chris went gun shopping while I had lunch with my mom, sister, nephews and grandma. We went to the Fish Shack. It was so yummy. I'd been craving fish. Stac's boys were extremely active and were trying to run all over the resturant. Boy is she going to have her hands full in a couple of months when baby #3 arrives. Here are a couple pictures of the boys.

Saturday afternoon, I napped a little with the pups. Chris and I ordered a pizza for dinner and had a night in watching movies. It was nice just to spend time together.

Sunday morning, I was up early again. Dozer believes that sleeping in on the weekends means getting up at 6:oo a.m. instead of 5:00 a.m. We went to visit Chris about 9. Chris and I spent quite a bit of time outside Sunday morning. It was a nice morning and not too hot, so we decided to take advantage of it since the weather had been miserable. We headed into town for lunch. Then at 1:00, we headed to his dads for a birthday party.

For those of you  who do not know, Chris has younger brother, Corey, who is 24 (as of Sunday). Corey was born autistic. Normally in Chris's family, once you have turned 18, you do not get birthday parties anymore. Not Corey. He still has the mindset of a child and expects birthday parties and gifts. For example, from us he wanted either the complete set of Home Alone movies, Back to the Future Movies or Toy Story 1 and 2. Corey was happy to get all his presents, even the few cards he received with money.

I also took advantage and snapped a few pictures of Sadie, Megyn and Caden (the children of Chris's brother and sister in law). They are some of the most adorable kiddos that I know.

Sunday for dinner, we had a small get together since it was my last weekend in town. My grandmother, great uncle, nephew Justin and niece Gracie all joined us for dinner. We had steaks, baked potatoes, salad and bread. It was soooooo good. For dessert, we had fresh peaches and homemade banana pudding (one of my favorites). After dinner we just sat outside for a few hours just talking. It was nice until the mosquitos started attacking us.

Chris and I finished the evening with our typical Sunday ritual of watching "My Fair Wedding with David Tutera". It amazes me how much he tells everyone that he hates when I make him watch, then while it is on, has an opinion about everything.

It was a great weekend, but I am sad the summer is drawing to a close. I will be back in classes next Monday. Oh well, it is the last year (wohoo) so it shouldn't be too bad.

Hope your weekend was just a wonderful!

Getting to Know You Sunday

I haven't posted a Getting to Know You Sunday in quite a while, but I was up early this morning, so I thought what the heck. Dozer woke me up at 6 and Chris didn't want up until 9. Today will be a busy day but its still too early for me to get ready. Here we go:

1. What kind of athlete has the hottest body? I'd say swimmers or runners


2. Are you a planner or a procrastinator? Definately a planner. I plan everything and probably more than a person should.

3. Diet or regular (soda)? I don't drink soda anymore, but when I was, I would never touch a diet soda. Gross

4. What's your one "must have" for Fall? Cute flats.

5. What's your favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Bell and Jimmy Johns

6. What do you think is the sexiest profession for a guy? Construction worker, fireman and for Chris, a dump truck driver :)

7. Did you wear braces? Nope, never had to. I got lucky enough to have straight teeth

8. Would you rather have a guy that's super sexy or kind? Kind for sure. 50 years from now, that sexy man might not be so sexy, but his kindness will likely remain
 
Want to play along? Head over to MannLand5 and link up!!

Prayers Needed

There are a lot of heavy hearts in the Howell County area and beyond today. We lost a truely inspirational woman last night, Mindy Lahey Hughtson.

Mindy was only 23 years old.

Mindy had been battling cancer off and on for about 5 years. Mindy was always fighting and tried to maintain her faith and strength through it all. Despite having cancer, Mindy lead a full life as an OB nurse. She was married to her high school sweetheart, Dereck and they had an adorable daughter Madison.

It is days like today that I sit and ask myself why God would do this? Why give cancer to someone some amazing and inspiring and leave some scum of the earth here? It is a question that I deal with every time I hear of someone close to me having cancer. Why the good people? Maybe because they are more capable of handling what they are going through. Maybe because their life is right with God and they are ready? Maybe God wants to test the strength and faith of the rest of us. Whatever, the reason, it is just hard to understand at a time like this.

Please keep the Lahey and Hughston families in your thoughts and prayers today and through the next few weeks, months, and years as they deal with this. I know Mindy is now in heaven looking down over us and will continue to serve as an inspiration to all of us here on earth. Mindy you will be missed but thank you for setting an example!

Dozer getting attacked!!!!

Last night was a pretty rough night for Dozer. He was attacked by a dog about 10 times his size. He made out with only a few little scratches, but needless to say I was one unhappy momma. Dozer is doing fine now and was actually back up and playing within 30 minutes after the incident. Here is a picture of the little guy. He's got one mark about 1/2 inch on his lip that you can clearly see in the picture and then he has one other small puncture just to the right of his eye from a tooth.

I am still a little frustrated about the situation, so I need to vent a little bit.

First off, the dog that attacked my little guy was not a stray dog that walked into our yard or a neighbor's dog. The large dog that attacked Dozer was one belonging to Chris's dad.

Chris's dad came over to visit for a bit last night and without telling us in advance brought along their dog (Frost). While Dozer was just walking around on the deck, Frost jumps up and grabs him. No reason whatsoever. I start yelling/screaming and grab Dozer (who is crying and shaking) and run into the house (where I continue to scream and now I am crying) I was so worried that he was hurt worse than he was. Frost is sooooo much larger than Dozer and had the attack lasted longer than 2 seconds, Dozer might not have survived.

Chris and I stayed in the house for a few minutes cleaning his wound and putting some ointment on it to help seal it (not that it helped, he just licked it off). Probably 5 minutes later, Chris's dad and step mom decided to come in to see how the little guy was doing. I am at a point where I am still crying and not feeling like talking to anyone. I just sit on the couch cuddled up with my pup who is still shaking.

I understand that things can happen, but the thing that made me the most frustrated is that Chris's step-mom just sits there and goes "Well, Frost is just like that". Um, HELLO, if you know your dog is aggressive towards other animals/dogs, then don't bring her to another person's house where there are dogs (or in our case, 2 puppies). People seriously never cease to amaze me.

Needless to say, Chris has told his dad to never bring Frost to our house again.

This morning, Dozer is doing just fine. He has been up playing with the other animals. I spoiled him with extra attention last night and this morning. We are going to call the vet this morning to see if there is anything that we need to do, but I think everything is just fine. One of the best parts was that after the attack, Boots was on the defensive. Despite himself being about 1/4 Frost's size, Boots was still ready to get her back for hurting his little brother.

Ah, I feel better now.

5 Question Friday

Well, it is Friday again. Thank goodness. Even with having a day off this week, I was ready for Friday to get here. There is so much that I still want to do before I leave town in two weeks and it is hard to get some of it done in the evenings after Chris and I get off work. But before I get started on the work day, here is 5 Question Friday hosted by My Little Life.

1. Are you a neat sleeper or a messy sleeper? Depends on the night. Most of the time, I am a pretty neat sleeper, but then there are mornings when the blankets are all messed up and I'm not even laying straight in the bed

2. Fill in the blank. I wish I was more ________________. of a gardner. My sister got me potted plants for my birthday and my uncle did some landscaping at our house and the flowers are all now dead. I see people all the time with beautiful flowers all around their house, and I love it and with I could have it, but I just cannot seem to keep all my flowers alive. I think it is the heat (and maybe Chris lies when he tells me he waters them)

3. What is something that you wish you had been warned about? How fattening bread was before I loved eating it so much I have to have it at practically every meal

4. What was the best thing you ever found at a garage sale/flea market? Oh goodness, I go to flea markets all the time. I wouldn't even know where to begin to tell you the best thing that I have got. I love my little red bench, Chris's old Ford tools, old barrel  and the list goes on and on

5. If you could have any meal brought to you right now, what would it be? Biscuits and gravy with a side of bacon, yum!!!!
 
Hope you have a great Friday and an even better weekend! Don't forget to head over to My Little Life to play along for 5 question friday!

Adventures in Dog/House Sitting

Beginning last Thurday night, I was dog/house sitting for my boss. He and his family headed to Oregon for a wedding  (yes, traveling from Missouri to Oregon for a wedding, crazy, I know). My boss had asked me a couple of weeks ago. I was nervous about staying there. His house is huge!!!!! Being so big makes it creepy. I definately slept with my loaded pistol next to the bed. I didn't sleep well and am so glad to be home now.

Please meet Sam

He is a mini yorkie and full of spunk. He loves to run and play.

But being there made me really sad. Now, I will preface by saying that I Sam is very well take care of and I know the entire family loves him and plays with him, but it makes me really sad how much he is in his kennel.

The little guy in is this all day and has to sleep in it at night. So, he is only out of it like 5-6 hours a day (well, depending on what time they go to bed).

This litterally breaks my heart and I don't think that I could ever force any of my pups into that. I know and understand that not everyone can be like us and the dogs go to work with their owners, but I would want my dogs to have space during the day. Yes, Boots and Dozer occassionaly chew on things when we aren't home and we are constantly puppy-proofing the house before we leave to go anywhere, but I would rather let them roam the house.

Our dogs even sleep in the beds with us. Most people find this crazy, but its not a bother to us. We just joke now that we will have to have a California King bed to fit us two, Kit Kat, Dozer and Boots.

It has been nice the past two nights to be back home every night with Chris and the pups. I missed sleeping with Dozer. It was good for him though since I will be leaving him in a couple of weeks to go back to school.

I'll post later about the wedding planning I got done yesterday.

Weekend Recap

It is beginning to feel like crunch time. Classes start back in exactly three weeks from today, which means I have about 2 1/2 weeks left to finish before leaving town again, including things at the house and things for the wedding.

This weekend was time to work on the house. I wanted to get paint on the walls in one of our spare bedrooms. Here are a few pictures of the room from when we first got the house.

The door was painted this same color. It was just awful and Chris and I both hated it. This bedroom is at the front of the house and right off of our formal living room. The living room had a neutral color on the walls so I wanted there to be a pop of color in this room.

Friday night, I started with painting the window trim and the inside of the door. All of the trim in this room will be white. We bought new baseboards as the ones there were not in good shape, but we decided to keep the trim on the windows and around the door. All of this is now white.

Saturday morning, we got around early and headed to Meeks to buy baseboards and crown molding for our formal living room and the bedroom we were working on. Man, is that stuff expensive. For just those two rooms, we spent over $300. Normally in this house, since it is just our starter house, we would not have put up crown molding, but our contractor messed this up. He had the ceiling down in both rooms and didn't put the ceiling back at the height it had been and how we have this lovely 2 inch gap at the top of the walls between that and the ceiling. The only way to cover it up is crown molding.

Saturday afternoon, Chris and his dad worked on putting the baseboards up in the living room. His dad had to leave early to go pick up some grandkids. So the only thing there that got done was 4 pieces of baseboard. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy. I know I should be grateful for our free help from his dad, but his dad was supposed to come at 8:30 and didn't show up until noon. I didn't take any pictures of the work that was done as there are still stacks and stacks of baseboards and crown molding laying in the floor.

I painted the first coat on our room on Saturday. Although the room is small, it was very time consuming since we had to trim all of the corners and the 2 windows and the door. Plus I was working alone, so that always takes longer.

Sunday was spent putting the second (and sometimes third) coat on the walls and trim. It looks really good and I am so excited. So, here it is:

Wednesday, I will be picking out carpet and I am looking to do some black and white bedding like this:

Or This

Well, I hope that you all had a great weekend too.

Prayers Needed

My niece Sadie is in need of some prayers and I thought you all might be able to help out.

Sadie is a 5 year old full of spunk and life. She was born with Spina Bifida and will never be able to walk. But her disease has never got her down. She has always been one of the most happy kiddos I have ever seen and I love this little girl.

Last week she was having some issues going on the bathroom and was taken to the doctor. The doctor was concerned about had Sadie sent by ambulance to the hospital in Little Rock, AR, where she has been since Thursday. The doctors are running more tests on her today and she is possibly looking at surgery on her kidneys. Bless her heart, she just wants to go home. She has been trying to take out her IVs and has been insistent to her mom and dad that she needs to go home.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

Thanks