Adventures in Internet Clothes Shopping

So have you heard of this company called Stitch Fix? I’ve seen a few bloggers talk about it in the past few months and finally decided to try it last week.

The basic idea is that you fill out a style profile – what kind of clothes do you wear to work, how often do you dress up, are you casual or preppy, what sizes of clothes would fit you, etc. It takes about 20 minutes to fill everything out if you’re not paying a bunch of attention to every question like I was. I get distracted, even when talking about clothes!

They charge a styling fee of $20 to get your fix mailed. But if you like what you get in the fix, you apply the styling fee to your new clothes!

I asked for a mix of casual and work items, and for them to be towards the less expensive end of the spectrum. I got five items – four pieces of clothing and some earrings. Here’s what came in my first fix!

A gorgeous peach silk top with buttons that are sort of military inspired. I can see myself wearing this at work or even just hanging out on a beautiful spring night like tonight.

This is a sleeveless silk top which the styling tips said could be worn loose…

Or tucked in. I didn’t like either way.

Ick. Ok on the color but the buttons down the middle made weird bunching up.

Oh my. This cotton wrap dress is amazing! I loved it – AND it has pockets!

Hubs came in during my trying on sessions and saw the purple dress on me. He said, oh you need that! You can wear it to Disney and it will pack great for the summer. I told him I liked it and the peach silk top and he said I should keep both of them. The peach is unlike anything in my closet and I’ll wear the dress all the time during the summer. So for just over $100, I got two awesome items that were handpicked for me from my very own stylist!

I definitely think I’m going to be getting more Stitch Fixes in the future! What a fun site to get clothing delivered to my door especially for me!

Adventures in Passing the Bar!

I am on cloud nine today.

My husband passed the Missouri Bar.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I can’t even really put this into words. Since we started this whole journey back with his application for law school, the LSAT, all the classes and papers and late nights, the studying for the bar and the bar prep classes and then the AWFUL experience taking the exam. It’s all been for this day. When the exam results get posted. So he can be called esquire and sworn into the State Bar next Friday.

All day long, I’ve been obsessively checking the website. When all of Hubs’ friends took the bar a few months ago, the website posted the results earlier than the stated time. This go-around, it was scheduled to post AFTER 5 pm today. So naturally, I kept refreshing the site all day long. In between meetings and setting up for a few work events this week, I kept checking. During lunch, I kept refreshing and refreshing just in case they posted earlier! Nothing. Just nothing. GAH!

Then I had to attend a co-worker’s retirement happy hour at a local micro brewery. It started at 4:30 pm. I checked the site one more time before leaving the office and nothing had been updated. I loaded up the mobile site on my iPhone so I could refresh it from the road and again when I got to the party. We ordered a round of drinks and food for everyone, did the present thing for my co-worker and still, no updates. Thank goodness my colleagues distracted me.

At 5:00 pm on the dot, I checked the site. NOTHING. You have got to be kidding me! They said after 5 pm and nothing was posted. Back to my beer. At 5:08 pm, it occurred to me check the site again.

There was a new announcement posted.

“February 2013 Examination Results Released” – that’s it. It’s posted.

I just stared at my phone and said “ohmygoditposted" under my breath. My co-worker who has been on pins and needles with me all day waiting for the results looks over and says, “READ IT. Or gimme the phone and I will.”

A literal hush fell across the table – or maybe I just blocked everything else out as I clicked the link that shows all the names of those who passed the bar exam.

I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled, looking for our last name. I think I even forgot the alphabet at one moment because I could NOT find the first letter of our last name in the list.

But then…

Name

Name

Name

Name

Name

Name

Name

HUSBAND’S NAME

 

Tears just came pouring out.

 

HE PASSED! 

 

I started sobbing and looked around the table and said he passed the bar. My friends cheered and told me to go call him!

Unfortunately, he was still at the office! But of course, he found out when a friend texted him that the results were up and congratulations. I told him I was so so so so so proud of him. I don’t think I’ve been a prouder wife.

These journeys we go on are amazing. They make us change and force us to grow. We are not the same people, not the same couple, that we were when he applied to law school. We’ve learned to work together when things are getting kind of tough, we learned to make money stretch. We learned to deal with stress in more healthy ways and we learned to celebrate with the best of him.

I loved our law school journey but I am so very excited to see what our next journey might be.

Hats for Easter!

We celebrated Easter with brunch with our in-laws at a beautiful restaurant, the Historic Bevo Mill. What a fabulous place to brunch, even when not on a holiday! We ate until we were almost sick to our stomachs!

But what got me was the hat that my in-laws gave to my nephew for Easter. It matched his little golfers outfit with sweater and corduroys perfectly!

 

When we went back to our townhouse to open Easter baskets, our nephew found the Moroccan drum that a friend had given us a few years ago.

He was amazed. When he hit it, it made noise! We might have a regular musician on our hands. In addition to being an amazing football, baseball and soccer player, of course.

 

There had to be a picture with his Aunt Jessica, even though we could barely get him to sit still, after he switched into his pjs.

Isn’t he ADORABLE?! I can’t stand it.

Sometimes You Don’t Realize Something Bugs You Until it Does

You know how you always have those little things that bug you? Like a little bump on your cheek or a funky angle on your knee. No one else seems to notice them, but to you, they stand out like a sore thumb.

Over the past few months, I started to notice one of those things. A little bump on the end of my nose. It was red one day and I thought it was a pimple. I tried to pop it (ew, gross, I know, but sometimes you just gotta do it) but it definitely wasn’t a pimple. After it bled a few times, I decided to just ignore it. I guess I should have gone to the doctor at that point but it was easier just to ignore it.

I was at the dermatologist for another check up a few weeks ago, right before we went to Disney, and I had finally decided to ask the doctor if there was something he could do. He took a quick look at my nose and said it was a fibrous papule.

I suppose it’s better to have the doctor look at you real quick and say, yup, it’s no big deal, it’s this thing I’ve dealt with all the time and I can take care of it right now. It’s better than being “interesting” or something he’s never seen before! The doctor told me that he could cauterize the thing right off, in the exam room.

Yup, that means he was going to burn it right off. Given where it was, he said it was easier just to cauterize without numbing it. So I leaned back in the chair and he burned the thing off. It didn’t really hurt, just kind of pinched real quick.

Afterwards, it just looked like it did before, a bit red as if I scratched the end of my nose. And now, it’s totally gone!

~~~~~~~~

In any case, that’s not what was so surprising about the whole thing. At Disney, when I mentioned the procedure to my mom and that I didn’t think anyone would notice but at least I would feel better about it, she said that she was glad I got it taken care of. She had noticed the bump in high school and had been keeping an eye on it. I guess she was worried that it might be skin cancer or something. But the funny thing is, I only really noticed the thing a few months ago, maybe a year. I didn’t realize that it was there YEARS ago. Looking back through Facebook pictures, I can see it in pictures from a bit ago but I don’t have good close ups of my nose that far back. ;)

She said she noticed it because she’s my mama and mamas know everything about their babies. My husband said he of course noticed the bump too. It didn’t bother either one of them, of course.

But for some reason, it bugged me that she noticed it and never mentioned to me that I could have it removed! It’s a totally cosmetic thing, really, but still.

Now it’s gone and it was so incredibly simple to have done. I don’t have to worry about the bump anymore!

Adventures in New Jobs!

This morning, my amazing husband is starting his second week of his real job. And I am beyond proud!!!

When we got back from Disney World, he spent a few more days with his friends at Spring Training. I know, Disney and then baseball in Florida? How did he get so lucky? I’m just glad he was able to have some fun on vacation with the family, some downtime with his friends and then a day by himself at his favorite place – Epcot!

But inevitably, all vacations must end. He came home and had a few days to unpack and get set for his big week.

Monday morning, I dropped him off at his office. I cannot believe the day was finally here. Three and a half years ago, in August of 2009, we drove to SLU for his first day of law school (maybe the car was broken, I don’t remember why we drove together!). It’s been a long, long journey but he was finally done with school and starting his grown up job!

He’s now a full time employee, doing international tax at a firm. That’s about all I can say – mostly because that’s all I understand. ;)

Classes are done, diploma is received and waiting to be framed, the bar exam is behind us and the job has started. Now, I can start planning his graduation party for May!

First up? Invitations…

 

I can’t wait to work on the other details! What else would a party planner do when her husband graduates from law school?!

Adventures in Ridiculous Faces

So my dear husband is officially done with law school and the bar. At the end of February, he took the big scary test and got through to the other side. Thank goodness we’re done with that part of it!

He came home after the test and then we got to head to Walt Disney World. Our favorite place. :) There will all kinds of family members that were able to join us for the celebration and we had such a good time. I didn’t take as many pictures as I was hoping for, but we did take some fun ones.

Husband and the nephew on waking up in Walt Disney World on the first morning. I think they’re pretty darn excited.

It was really cold the first few days we were there, so I ended up having to put on all my warm clothes! Since that wasn’t warm enough, I bought a fun Figment winter hat. I got lots of compliments on it!

The family had brunch at Raglan Road – that’s me, husband, BIL and his girlfriend and our nephew, MIL and FIL, my mama, and husband’s cousin and wife and little girl. Whew. We had fun!

 

The great and powerful Oz landed in Epcot while we were there!

Mom took our picture in front of every topiary they had set up for the Flower and Garden Festival. I think this one was my favorite!

Our special meet and greet with Mickey and Pluto happened because we have a Disney credit card. I love that my mom was so happy to meet Mickey again!

He had to get in on the warm hat fun.

We took my mama out for her special birthday that she celebrated on our trip. Dinner was at the African and Indian restaurant at the Animal Kingdom. SO GOOD.

I got to meet Rapunzel!!!! This was the first time I saw her in the parks (Epcot) and I ran up like a little kid to get in line. SOOO excited! She was really pretty. ;)

Ok, I had fun at the Festival center. I didn’t buy either one of these things, but aren’t the pictures great?

My nephew is a little flirt. Even the waitresses can’t keep their eyes off him! This lady at the Italy pavilion kept checking on us, over and over again, just to see our sweet boy again!

The kid loves his pins. We’ve started his collection already! Look at that tongue. HEHE!

I got to eat lunch at the new Be Our Guest Restaurant. Nothing like a croque monsieur at 10:30 am, huh? We waited in line at 9:45 am and were the third in line for the restaurant. It’s crazy popular and we couldn’t get a reservation for lunch so an early lunch it was. It was so worth it. JUST like walking into the movie. I may have even cried a little bit. #DisneyDork

We had the family join us for the second weekend and little A met her cousin L again. She was more excited than he was.

After two diaper blow outs (one before the bus to the airport and one after getting through security), me and my favorite nephew had to let off some steam. Silly faces in the iPhone did the trick. I love that kid.

####

So yup, we’re already counting down the days until we can get back to our happy place. Maybe January? Here’s hoping!

Adventures in Not Taking a Test

I’ll give away the ending before I start, though. He made it safely to the conference center and took the six hour day one of the Missouri Bar Exam. But it wasn’t without a ton of freak outs by the crazy wife back in St. Louis throughout the day.

Here’s how the day played out yesterday….

6:01 am: His text - “I’m awake.” I asked him to let me know he was up, because if not, I was going to be his wake up call.

6:45 am: My text - “Good! Break a leg today!” And off to work I went.

7:14 am: His text – “We got six inches of wet slushy snow. The guy parked across from me pulled into the driveway and is now stuck. I can’t move.”

8:11 am: My text – “Are you serious? Oh no!”

8:12 am: My text – “Are you going to walk to the test?!”

8:13 am: My text – “I hope everything worked out in the hour since I got your text! I love you! Let me know how it goes!”

 

So cue the first freak out of the day. I presumed that no news was good news and he was just too busy once he got to the testing site to text me back. So I was stressing all morning, but hoping for the eest.

 

1:14 pm: He calls and I’m in a meeting. I text him and let him know I’ll call him in a bit.

1:15 pm: His text - “The power is out at the conference center and my hotel.”

1:16 pm: My text – “Oh no!!!!!!!!! What are they doing?!”

1:17 pm: They were told to come back at 2 pm and hoped the power would be back on.

2 pm: They arrive to start the second session, and the power is still out. Come back at 2:30 pm they say.

2:05 pm: The power is back on surprisingly, and they all sit to take the test.

But then they have to sit there until 2:30 pm, because some people weren't there, and they were told to wait.

3 pm: They finally start the test.

3:02 pm: They’re told to stop what they’re doing and step back from their laptops. Apparently the power outage has messed up the test taking software and they can’t continue with the electronic test taking. They continue taking the essay portion of the test via long-hand after some long back and forth with the IT support on staff and the proctors for the exam.

6:47 pm: He finally calls me to tell me know that Day One is finally done. And he’s heading for dinner and a relaxing evening, to get ready for tomorrow.

 

What with a fire in his original hotel, a freak blizzard the morning of the test, cars not able to get out of the parking lot, power outages and then software mishaps, I really think the whole group needs to get t-shirts that say  “I survived the MO Bar Exam of 2013!”

Because REALLY?

Did I mention that the television in his back up hotel room doesn’t work? Lovely.