Happy New Year!!

As is the norm, another 3 months have gone by and I am just now updating our site. So much to cover and catch up on. I know I promised pictures from my trip home in Sept, but I'm having trouble getting them loaded, along with some pictures from Halloween and Thanksgiving. So those will have to come at a later time.

In October Ross had his Trial Advocacy competition down in San Diego. Both teams did an amazing job but unfortunately the judges thought differently. For Halloween this year we dressed up as Red Riding Hood and the Wolf and we got to celebrate it with Judah, Michelle, Morgan, and Bo at Disneyland. The workers at the park liked our costumes so much, we were invited to participate in the parade!

In November, Ross found out his article for Law Review is going to be published!! YEAH! The final publication should be out sometime this semester. For Thanksgiving we headed to Las Vegas and spent the long holiday weekend with Mom and Dad. For me, November brought great news regarding my new job. I started out as a temp doing HR Assistant work and within two months I was hired on permanently as the Executive Assistant to the Vice President and General Manager of the company! So many prayers were answered with this job and things have been going great.

December brought finals for Ross which thankfully involved only 2 exams this year. After finals, we headed to the Mexican Riviera on a cruise for 9 days! We spent Christmas and New Years out on the Pacific Ocean and had a very relaxing time.

Ross started classes again on Jan 2. This week he is taking a 1 week course over the last week of winter break. The Spring..and final...semester officially starts on Mon, Jan 8. In addition to the final semester of classes starting, Ross will also be starting an externship at a private defense firm in Long Beach. He is super excited about this opportunity since this is the path he wants to take.

Graduation is Saturday, May 12th! Unfortunately for Ross, the celebration will be short lived since Bar prep classes start Monday, May 14th and lasts until mid July. He will sit for the Bar July 29-31st with the results being sent out the middle of November.

So that was a short and sweet summary of the last 3 months of 2011 and a quick overview of the next 7 months of 2012. This year is going to be not only exciting but full of a lot of unknowns. But without those two ingredients, life would just be boring!

Enjoy some pictures from Halloween, Thanksgiving in Vegas, and Christmas and New Years on our cruise to Mexico!

Back on the ship after the day in Ensenada.

All dressed up for Christmas!

We go to watch this giant fish get hung up for a photo op while we enjoyed our margaritas, beer, and guacamole.

A black Jeep with Colorado plates in Cabo?? Shaun did you miss me for Christmas?

The Nativity made entirely out of sand from the beach in Puerto Vallarta!

Santa Claus and a Christmas tree "sand castle".

Enjoying lunch at Pipi's in Puerto Vallarta. The best margarita and guacamole!

Happy New Year!!  Taking a minute to pose next to the 2012 ice sculpture

Where did the summer go??

So it has officially been over 4 months since I last posted on this website and so much has happened that I don’t even know where to begin.

Ross ended his second year in the top 3% of his class…again, which means he was awarded another full tuition scholarship! This year he has quite a full schedule. He is on the honors board for Law Review as an Executive Editor. He is also on the honors board for Trial Advocacy as the Treasurer. He is also a member of Trial Advocacy and will be competing in San Diego October 13-15. And he is the President of the Criminal Law Society. In addition to be involved in all the above groups, he has two other classes he attends. So needless to say he is busy again this year. Once the competition is over, his time will free up a lot more. And this summer Ross got a lot of court room experience thanks to his externship at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Besides school, we were actually able to take a few small trips or mini-vacations. In June we did a super quick trip out to Las Vegas to see Shaun and Amanda. Our entire trip ended up costing us $40 thanks to my luck on a slot machine. In August we came home to Colorado to celebrate a cousin’s wedding. Even though it was a short 3-day trip, we still had fun seeing family. The following weekend we headed back to Las Vegas to celebrate Aileen’s birthday. This time I wasn’t so lucky, but we still had fun.

Once we got back from our last mini-vacation, things changed for us. Ross started his last year of school and that same week I was laid off from work. As disastrous as I thought it was, it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was unemployed for about 2 weeks and had already made plans) to go back home to Colorado for 3 weeks (per Ross’ suggestion). However, those plans were quickly changes when I was offered a job with a start date in a little over a week. Thankfully I was able to find a last minute flight home and I spent an entire week in Colorado catching up with friends and spending some time family. Unfortunately I had to do this trip solo as Ross was busy with school and getting ready for the Trial Advocacy competition.

So now we are finally to the present and I have spent my first week at my new job. Right now it’s hard to gage and explain what it is I really do considering it’s only been one week and things are still being worked out. But so far I have no complaints, maybe except for the commute. Going from 5 minutes to 30 minutes is a change. But I’ll get used to it.

Hope this is a good summary of the last 4 months. If you’re wondering about the potty training deal with the cats, we had to start over because one of them is a little stubborn. But so far things are going good.

I’ll post a few pictures from our two trips to Las Vegas, the wedding in Colorado as well as my week stay back at home. Enjoy!

It’s been almost another 3 weeks and I only have a few things to write about. Finals are over which means Ross is now officially a 3L (third year law student)! To help celebrate the end of another year, we took a mini vacation to Carlsbad. It’s a city about an hour south of us before you hit San Diego. A co-worker of mine has a timeshare down there. And his week of ownership just so happened to be the same week we were looking to get away! So I took a day off from work and we hit the road after Ross’ last final. We stayed in a cute little resort with a gorgeous view of the ocean. We relaxed by the pool and enjoyed some shopping at the nearby outlets. Even though we were only gone for about 3 days, it was needed and very nice!

After our short trip, Ross had a week to himself where he didn’t have to focus on school or work/externship stuff…which means he was able to catch up on some video game playing. This past Mon he started his summer externship with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Since they have been EXTREMELY busy his first few days, I don’t have much details of what this summer is going to look like for him. But as soon as I get some, I will make sure to include them in my next post.

As for this next item, I’ll let you make the call as to whether it’s exciting or not…but on Sunday we started the attempt to potty train our two cats. That’s right….we are training them to use the porcelain bowl just like people. I’m tired of cleaning two litter boxes every week and buying litter every other month. Ross is tired of our office having a not-so-pleasant odor (especially in the summer) and not being able to use that room when people come to visit. So after much research, we are making the attempt. The first step was to move the litter box next to the toilet and train ourselves to keep the lid up, seat down on the toilet. This task has been hard for me because I grew up in a house where the toilet lid was ALWAYS closed! Anyways, back to the process. We currently have two automatic litter boxes in our office. To start this process we emptied one automatic one and placed a regular litter box next to the toilet. Being the smart cats they are, they had no problem using the new litter box. So the plan is to remove the other automatic one so they are left with just the one regular one next to the potty. After that, we will slowly start raising the height of the litter box a little at a time until the bottom of the box is the same level as the toilet bowl. After they master using the box at this new height, we place a metal bowl filled with litter into the toilet and hope they continue using it. Here is where the tricky part comes into play. We have to make sure when they use the “litter bowl” set in the toilet they have all four paws on the toilet seat….not in the bowl (if that makes sense). Basically they need to learn to balance on the seat and not stand in the bowl…because once that metal bowl is gone they will be falling in the water, or using a corner of the house as their “litter box”. So, if they can balance on the toilet seat with all four paws, the next step is to slowly reduce the amt of litter in the bowl until there is none left. You then replace the litter with water so they get used going in water instead of sand. After they master that, you remove the bowl and in theory, the felines should be potty trained! Ideally this should take quite a few weeks so are hoping to have them trained by the middle of summer. Wish us luck and I’ll keep you posted on the status.

Playing Catch Up...Again

I find myself yet again creating another long post to sum up the last month. I’m not real good at being a “blogger”. I guess when you stare at a computer for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week; it’s hard to get on the computer once you get home from work. But then I guess that’s just another excuse. Either way, I finally made time and here is what has happened with us since Spring Break. Oh…and I finally got the rest of the spring break pictures loaded up online. I ran into some problems with the site. Apparently the size of my pictures are huge because it said I used up all my free space. So I had to delete some old ones and reload the new ones…and it just took forever! But they are finally all loaded and should be viewable in the slide show at the top on the side.

Things were exciting that first week Ross went back to class. For one class, they had to put on or participate in a mock trial…from start to finish. Everything was as authenticate as could be from an actual court room layout, a real judge, witnesses, and even jury selection. And what made this more exciting was that I got to participate! The case was about an armed bank robbery. There were four attorneys total (two for each side). Ross was one of the prosecutors and I got to the play bank teller who was robbed. Even though the students had to do most of the work, I felt like I was more nervous than they were. And to add to the nerves, I was the first witness called! Thankfully Ross practiced with me (since he is the one who questioned me) which made me feel a little better. However, during the cross examination I started to get nervous again afraid I was going to say something wrong. But on the re-direct examination, Ross was able to fix anything I messed up. Once my part was done I got to watch the rest of the trial (which was more fun). Once the closing arguments were done (which Ross did awesome at), the lawyers and judge waited in the hall while the jury deliberated. I stayed in the room to listen to the jury. The final verdict was a hung jury (8 guilty, 4 not guilty). But a couple said they were swayed by Ross’ closing argument and that he presented a good case that the guy was guilty. While the lawyers/students waited in the hall, one of the student’s father was there watching (who is an attorney also) and told Ross that he did an amazing job and that he could walk into a court room that day and have no trouble winning a case. At the end of March, Ross attended a National Law Review Conference down in San Diego for school that lasted 4 days. So while he was down south learning ways to improve the Law Review program, I got to spend time socializing with my girl friends…which meant happy hour and coffee time.

A week and a half ago we got all dressed up, nice and fancy to attend the annual Barrister’s Ball. This year it was held at a hotel in Costa Mesa which was about 5-10 minutes from us. Last year it was about 20 minutes away. The week before the event Ross took me out shopping to quite a few stores to find a new dress. I eventually found one for a reasonable price…a cute little red dress which worked well with the theme; Sin City, black white and a little bit of red.

Last Friday was the last intramural sports event which happened to be themed volleyball. Ross' team dressed in 70s attire and had an awesome time! This past Saturday we went to a Law Review Awards Brunch. It was mainly to honor and recognize the graduating students. But it was still fun being. Ross had a great time dressing up and taking pictures.

For Easter, it was just the two of us again. But this year we actually cooked an Easter dinner which included a 10 pound ham. That’s right….10 pounds. Tonight will be the third meal I make with left over ham. After our big meal and kitchen clean up, we relaxed for a few hours to let the food digest and then we continued with the Easter tradition of coloring Easter eggs. Yes even at 28, I still like coloring Easter eggs. Brings back great childhood memories and sparks good conversation.

This week we have one last big event to look forward to…FINALS! Ross has three finals this semester. Two are on the same day and just happen to be scheduled for the first day of finals (Monday, May 2). His last final isn’t really something he needs to study for which is good so he can focus all his time on the two big ones coming up. After finals are done, he will start his externship at the District Attorney’s office this summer. So until more excitement happens, that’s all that has been going on with us. Enjoy the new pictures.

Spring Break

I can't believe it's been another three weeks since I last posted. Time is going so fast. Well the majority of our excitement took place last week during Spring Break! Not only did Ross get a break but I took the whole week off from work to enjoy it with him. And to add to the fun, my parents came out for 4 days to visit. So we not only got to relax but we got to play tourist, which was a lot of fun!

We wasted no time starting our vacation. After work on Friday the 11th, Ross and I headed up north to Long Beach and went to the Night Dive at the Aquarium of the Pacific. First time ever going to an aquarium (besides Sea World). The Night Dive is a special night time event for adults only with live music as well as a variety of art on display. We also got to walk around the aquarium and see a lot of the exhibits all lite up at night. And to top things off, we even got to dissect a squid!! The only thing I dissected in high school was a chicken wing (like the kind you eat) and an earthworm. So that was a lot of fun.

Sunday morning we picked up my parents from the airport and to start the trip off we walked around the classic car show that was near our place. After walking down memory lane, we headed to the beach to relax in the sun where we got to see a handful of dolphins swimming along the coast. To end the night we enjoyed an AMAZING dinner cooked by yours truly...(which would be Ross) followed by a trip to Yogurtland (frozen yogurt) and a game of cards.

Monday we found ourselves down in San Diego walking around the world famous San Diego Zoo....all in search of the panda bears. Thankfully they were out and we got to see them do what they do best...eat. The weather was perfect...warm and sunny with an occasional light breeze. And thanks to my awkward sunburns, I was proof of the nice weather. After a lot of walking, we had dinner at the Old Mission Mexican Cafe (which was referred from numerous people) and it was fantastic. I think everyone left feeling a little overstuffed.

Since we spent Monday south of where we live what better way to spend Tuesday than north. We started the day off at the Getty and walked around the amazing museum! Hadn't been to an art museum in a long time and it was just breathtaking. Unfortunately we were all hungry and so we didn't have time to see the entire place, which means we have a good excuse to go back. After lunch at the cafe, we headed to Mulholland drive to try and scope where the stars live.

Unfortunately, they do a pretty good job of tucking their mansions away from the public eye but it was still fun to do the drive and see an overview of the city and a view small glimpses of the gorgeous houses. After our Mulholland drive, to avoid heavy traffic on the way home, we made a stop at the Santa Monica Pier to enjoy a drink, some people watching as well as watch the sun set.

After two days of walking around and site seeing, Wednesday was a nice lazy relaxing day. We didn't leave the house until about 1 or 2 and guess what we went to do?? You guessed it....more walking. This time it was for a purpose. While Ross and my dad enjoyed the pier in Huntington Beach, my mom and I went shopping!! And boy did I do good. I got new sunglasses, jewelry, clothes, and new pair of shoes. I do have to admit I miss my shopping buddy.

With everything that we did in the last four days, Thursday came fast and we found ourselves saying goodbye to my parents at the airport. After we got home later that morning, we found ourselves wanting to do nothing but relax. We thought about going out to celebrate St Patty's Day but decided it would be more fun to just stay home and enjoy each others' company. And somehow that same feeling carried over into Friday and Saturday. But it was well worth it as we both felt relaxed and refreshed. Which is a good thing because these next two weeks for Ross are going to be CRAZY! But all that fun is for a later post (otherwise I wouldn't have anything to write about). I posted some pictures from our Spring Break for you to enjoy and I am working on updating the slideshow with new pictures. Check back soon to see all the pictures from Spring Break.

Catch Up

I know it's been over a month since I last posted something but there hasn't been much going on to post as often as I'd like. However, a lot of excitement took place last weekend....and Ross was the one with all the excitement. So since it has been awhile let me recap what Ross has been busy doing with school this past semester. In addition to his regular classes, he is a member of Trial Advocacy (like moot court) and Law Review (kind of like a school newspaper but is public).

And now for a quick summary of what Trial Advocacy is. It's a group of students that argue a case in a competition against other schools. To be part of this group the students had to try out. Unfortunately not all the students that are on Trial Ad get to compete but they still get school credit for being apart of it. Ross did not make the competing team but was considered a "shadow" so he still had to be apart of the "training" sessions/meetings to get school credit. These meetings were held on the weekends for about 6-8 hours each day. Last weekend was the competition and even though Ross wasn't competing, he still wanted to attend to support the school and see what it's all about. One of the big surprises that happened at this competition was that Ross and two other "shadows" got to actually compete because there wasn't enough teams due to some schools dropping out. So Ross got to experience what it was like to prepare and argue an entire case! Just confirmed for him how much he really enjoys this and can't wait to be done with school.

Another exciting thing that happened (again for Ross) was his new position on Law Review. There are a variety of positions that make up Law Review and this past semester Ross was one of the Site Checkers. He would review articles to make sure the sites that are used as support in the article are correct. A few weeks ago they held try outs for the other positions that are currently held by 3rd year students. So Ross tried out and got the position of Executive Editor. It's the second highest position on the board and he will oversee and mange 3 articles. Basically the site checkers come to him whenever they have problems or questions and he reviews all the articles after the site checkers do their part. Just one more thing to add to his resume of achievements.

And to sum up the excitement of everything that took place these past few weeks, Ross found out that his class ranking changed from 8th to 5th. He is in the top 3% of his class! Oh, and he also had 5 interviews for an externship position this summer. We are still waiting to hear back as to where he will be "working" this summer but he feels like all his interview went really well.

Not much excitement going on with me except that I get Ross back on the weekends now that he is done with Trial Advocacy. Work is still work and I get to take a week vacation in two weeks to spend Spring Break with Ross!

Crazy Schedule

Getting back into the habit of everything didn't take too long. School started for Ross on Mon the 10th and this semester is proving to be the craziest schedule to date. Out of the 5 classes he is taking, 4 of them are in the evening. So once I get home from work, I see him for about an hour or so before he goes to class. And to top that all off, being part of Trial Advocacy (similar to mock trial but for law school) he has to attend the meetings/practices...and these happen to be all day Saturday and Sunday. Since I will be spending a lot of time by myself this semester I plan on starting my scrap booking again. The first step is getting all the stuff organized.

Other than school starting and getting used to the new schedule, not much else is going on. Work for me has been really busy but at least it helps make the day go by fast...at least most of the time. I'm just thankful I have a job. Well, not too much to write about...keeping it short and sweet!

2011

2011 sure did come fast. December was so busy for us that I didn't have time to post anything. We survived finals and both of us were happy when the semester was officially over. Ross had a few days to relax before we packed our bags and headed home to Colorado for Christmas to surprise the family. We spent 10 days at home visiting family and friends and making tons of holiday memories.

We surprised Ross' family Christmas Eve and spent the evening at his aunt and uncle's place. It was so much fun walking in and being able to wish everyone a Merry Christmas in person this year! We spent Christmas Day at Mom and Dad's where Shaun got a pretty exciting gift from our Uncle Tim from North Dakota. I posted the video of him opening his gift. Later that evening we went to Shaun's place where we played the new Kinect. It's a video game where your entire body is the controller. The entire family got into it and we had a blast watching each other move about trying to play this video game.




While at home we went to our first Broncos game, which they just so happened to win. Watching the game live in person is completely different than watching it on TV. The atmosphere and experience was great and now that we got a taste of it, we want to go back for more! After the Broncos game, we enjoyed some amazing homemade Mexican food at my Uncle Randy's in Parker. And nothing goes better with Mexican food than margaritas!

One of the more relaxing things we did was head to the mountains and do a little 4-wheeling. We rode with Shaun in his new jeep and my parents followed behind in one of the jeeps from Dad's lot.
Our goal was to find some snow since the last time we saw snow was before we moved. I was so happy when we found snow that we had to stop so I could make a snow angel. I kind of forgot how cold snow really is. Either way, I still wanted to make my snow angel. We found a small stream or river of water that we had to drive through. I posted a video of both jeeps going through. Ross and Shaun are in the first one and Mom and Dad are in the second one. What a great time with awesome scenery!



The rest of the week was spent driving all over the place to see family; Colorado Springs, Denver, Fountain. Even though we weren't able to see everyone, we still had a great time. In addition to seeing family and friends, we got to see our two dogs we had to leave behind when we left. They didn't look the same considering they are about 15-20 pounds heavier. At least we know they are in good hands and living the easy life. To top it all off, it even snowed the last two days we were there!

We got back home to California late January 1 which meant nothing but laundry and relaxing from travel the next day. Ross had one more week off from school before classes start on the 10th. I however, had to go back to work on the 3rd. After being gone for 10 days it sure is hard to get back into the swing of things.

I've posted a few pictures from our trip, the rest of them can be seen in the slide show on the right. Enjoy!

One Down, Three to Go

I think Ross and I have officially discovered the most stressful 2 weeks of our lives so far. We thought planning our wedding, buying our first house, or evening moving to a different state was stressful. Those events don't even compare to last week and this week. We both knew that finals this year was going to be more intense than last year, but not this intense. And then throw in two audits for me at work and you have the perfect storm.

Last week Ross had his first of four finals. Usually his finals were split up pretty evenly between the two weeks. But this year had to be different. One final was one week and the other three are the next. And to make things even better, two are back-to-back. Which makes studying for them even more difficult. Last week for me was filled with my first audit. To keep the details at a minimum, the audit was to review our Technical Files of all the products that are manufactured. Each product is put into a Family and each Family has a Technical File. So, one of 30 files was selected to be audited. Well, what made this audit more stressful was that these files hadn't been reviewed and updated for quite a few years. Which meant I was the lucky one who got to spend a lot more time at the office making sure they were as current as possible and ready to be torn apart by an auditor. So you can imagine the extra stress I brought to the table. But after seven and a half hours of overtime in just three days, we passed the audit with no issues! Too bad I didn't have much time to relax and enjoy the feeling of passing because we had one day to get ready for another audit. Thankfully I wasn't too involved in the second audit but I still had plenty of work to get done that would be reviewed. And good news is that we passed that one as well!

So now the focus goes back to Ross and finals. The last few days have been filled with reading, outlining, going through flash cards, and just flat out talking through the outline to make sure all points are covered and memorized. There have been some late nights but he feels pretty good about the one today. Which means tonight is going to be another long night of flash cards and talking through the outline to get ready for the final tomorrow. The last final of the year is on Friday. And after that we are planning on movie marathon weekend and nothing but relaxing. We are also planning an evening in Disneyland since the last time we were there was when Mom, Dad, Shaun, and Amanda were here back in October. I think it's time we visited the Magic Kingdom again.

Once finals are done I think it will be easier to get into the holiday spirit. Although the weather out here has not been very helpful. This past weekend the temperatures were in the mid to upper 80s! That's right 80s. Thankfully they are are slowing starting to get back into the low 70s and upper 60s (which is cold for people out here). I guess you take what you can get.

December Already

It's hard to believe that December is already here. It feels like last week we were figuring out Halloween costumes and looking forward to Thanksgiving. December not only brings Christmas and holiday events but finals and the end of another semester of school. But before we get into December, we need to talk about how we spent our Thanksgiving weekend since it was filled with a lot of firsts for us.

As this was our second year as orphans, we found other orphans just like us and had our own Thanksgiving. Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving early when my parents came out but we didn't do anything on the actual day. So this year we actually helped cook. If you were to look at just the food alone that was spread out on the table, you would have thought there was going to be about 12-15 people getting together for dinner. Really there was only 7 of us, so needless to say there were tons of left overs.

Friday night we went out bowling to celebrate a friend's birthday. This was the first time we have been bowling since moving out here. And all I can say is that the bowling alleys out here are nothing compared to what they are back home. You are basically going to a fancy restaurant/bar that just happens to have pools tables and a bowling alley. Oh yea, and a live DJ playing music. So the atmosphere is nothing like the old bowling alley feel but more of a bar/dance club where they serve you food and drinks at your lane. Something you don't see at home.

Saturday night we went out yet again to celebrate another friend's birthday. This birthday celebration, however, was held at an Indian restaurant. So another first for Ross and I. Thankfully there was a large group and most of them have eaten there before so they were able to give us tips on what was good and what to stay away from. Can't remember what my dish was called but it reminded me of chicken wings. Ross' was more of a sauce/gravy you have over rice. The taste was pretty good but the portion was small.

And finally, the last first for us that took place Thanksgiving weekend was the we put up our Christmas tree and some holiday decorations! We have a fake tree that is 7 and a half feet tall and worked perfectly in our house with the vaulted ceilings. But out here in the small apartment, the ceilings are only 8 feet. So we improvised and removed one of the center poles so the tree is about 5 feet tall. I think this is the first time I was able to put the angel on top without having to stand on a step stool or ladder. I posted some pictures below of how our modified tree came out.

After our Thanksgiving weekend filled with a lot of firsts, we move into December which brings with it something that is very familiar.....FINALS!!! The first of four finals takes place this Wednesday. The last three are all next week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday). All Ross can say about finals this year is that they just plain suck. Things are so stressful that it's even harder to get motivated to study. And what makes things worse is when we have technical issues and Ross loses 2 and a half hours worth of work on his outlines he uses for studying. Sometimes it feels like when it rains it pours and nothing seems to go right. All I know is that we are both counting the days til finals are over with and we can both relax and enjoy three weeks of no school!

Too Long

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone?? Things are always busy and never seem to slow down. And lucky us, things are going to just get crazier! The last time I posted was right before Ross' birthday. With the huge paper Ross was required to write for Law Review and me getting sick (again), updating our website got pushed to the back burner.

Unfortunately because of how busy things have been, we haven't actually been able to put Ross' birthday gift to use...well at least the gift I got him, which was 3 races at the indoor go kart place. Hopefully with the Thanksgiving break next weekend we can enjoy some down time and get in a few races. One of the other gifts he got for his birthday was the Play Station Move that has been getting quite a bit of use.

As of this past Thursday, Ross is officially done with Law Review for this semester. The day ended with him turning in his 72 page paper. That's right, 72 pages! And I was the lucky one who got to help proof read it! Thankfully the margins were larger than normal and EVERYTHING was double spaced. If the margins were at their normal size, the paper was only about 38 pages. So now we get to wait until sometime in January to find out if it will be picked to be published this time around. If not, he will be able to work on making changes/edits with the hopes of it being chosen for publication in the next round.

Now that the giant Law Review article/paper is complete, the next big event is finals, which is coming up in just a few weeks. So that means studying all weekend and pretty soon each night during the week. There is some light at the end of the tunnel though. After this semester Ross will officially be half way done with law school! And he will get to enjoy a couple weeks off before the Spring semester starts. We are already starting to plan a vacation after graduation (in 2012) to enjoy some relaxation. Always need something to look forward to.

Work for me is going good. Things are really starting to get busy at work which makes the days fly by. If you don't remember, back in Oct I had to take a notary class and pass a written exam. I finally received my results about a week ago and I passed!! The next step now is to get sworn in at the courthouse and receive my official notary stamp. But before all that can happen I have to wait for my background check to clear which can take about 2 months.

So besides the usual school and work, we are doing good. And since I never posted any pictures from our Halloween party, here are few to enjoy. And in case you aren't sure who Ross dressed up as, he went as Ted "Million Dollar Man" DiBiase. A bunch of guys from school all dressed up as 1980s wrestlers.


Ted "Million Dollar Man" DiBiase

Surrey Bike Ride

Here are some pictures from our bike ride along the beach and our pit stop at the bar.

Family Trip to Disneyland

Here are some pictures from our trip to Disneyland. Since we took a lot of pictures of our trip, the rest of them can be viewed in the slide show on the side.

Two Exciting Weeks!

These last two weeks have been busy but full of fun! First we found out something very interesting when it comes to carving pumpkins. Unlike back at home, you can't carve them 2 weeks before Halloween and put them on display. Ross and I carved our pumpkins on a Sunday and two days later they started growing hair and mold. So they only lasted 2 and a half days before we had to feed them to the trash. But we still had fun!

Last week we got to enjoy a visit from my parents and brother. The visit with family started on Saturday the 23. After a quick trip to the airport and a quick lunch that consisted of pizza and beer, we packed up the back pack and were off to Hollywood to hike up to the famous Hollywood sign! The weather couldn't have been better considering we had rain everyday the previous week. So after an hour and a half of hiking to the top, we enjoyed a small picnic of wine, beer, cheese, crackers, and meat (you know....the typical picnic you take hiking). To relax after a 5 mile hike, we enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner with margaritas and then off to the beach to listen to the sounds of the evening surf.

After a 5 mile hike what would be better than walking around Disneyland all day?? Well we got to enjoy just that....something Shaun and I haven't done with our parents for 20 years!! Minus the light mist/rain that moved in later in the evening, the weather was nice and we all had a great time! We even got to see the new water show, World of Color!

And if a 5 mile hike and walking around Disneyland an entire day wasn't enough physical activity, we decided to do a 10 mile bike ride along the coast. But this wasn't just any regular bike ride....we rented a 4 person surrey. Basically it's a bike that looks very similar to a golf cart. Since Shaun and Amanda had to leave that morning, Mom, Dad, and Ross and I got to enjoy this one on our own. We started in Huntington Beach and rode south along the beach to Newport Beach. To replenish ourselves after our 50 min bike ride, we enjoyed lunch and drinks at a bar overlooking the ocean. After an hour of relaxing, we had an hour ride back up to Huntington Beach where we started, but this time with a strong head wind that made it all the more difficult.
Even though this last visit from family dealt with a lot more physical activities, it was tons of fun and we can't wait until we see them again.

To finish out this past weekend, we enjoyed our first costume party for Halloween! Ross and a couple guys from school all dressed up as 1980s wrestlers and I went as the referee. After enjoying a few drinks at the house party, we all headed down to Newport Beach to one of the bars on the coast. I have to admit you feel a little goofy walking down the street going to a bar dressed in a costume. Thankfully we weren't the only ones dressed up so that makes things feel less weird.

And now that October is officially over, the next big even is Ross' birthday! Details on how that plays out will be in the next posting. So for now, below are some pictures from the last few weeks, more to come later.