Adventures in Traveling with Only Your Husband

When you are traveling just the two of you, it’s a bit awkward to get a picture with Santa.

But you make him do it, or else give him this look all night long…

You find a spot to sit on Main Street to watch the big parade and giggle like a little girl when it snows when the soldiers come marching by…

You put up with the groans when the wait is over an hour to get this one picture with the 7 Dwarves…

And then take all the other character pictures you can find, especially Scrooge McDuck! Because they’re special for the parties.

You make him take pictures of your sad face – this might be the last paper FastPass we ever get. It must be documented.

You hang out at Hollywood Studios and take fun pictures of the scenery when people have left for the evening.

And then stand in another really long line to get a picture in front of the lights on the Streets of America.

 

You do all of this and have an amazing time at your favorite place on Earth, with just the two of you. Happy lawyer and happy wife!

Law School Graduation Party Details

I jokingly said that I had been planning this party since Husband’s first day of law school. In reality, I started the Pinterest board sometime last year.  I ended up hiring a caterer to do the heavy lifting and had specialized cupcakes delivered to the apartment’s club house for the big day. That saved us a LOT of work. Having someone set up the food, ask my guests if they wanted another drink, and clean up at the end of the day? Totally worth the price.

You have to display the diploma! Plus, beautiful white carnations in a SLU blue vase.

White carnations with blue and white beans made a perfect centerpiece.

Diploma cookies!

What’s a St. Louis celebration without toasted ravioli?

Food set up.

Blue pom poms and crepe paper to complete the look.

The congrats banner made a great backdrop for photos.

Vanilla bourbon cupcakes from The Sweet Divine. Custom made flavor the graduate!

He even got special cupcakes just for him.

Chocolate raspberry cupcakes were the other flavor of the day.

Most of his presents were cards… and beer. Very apropos for a law school graduation.

Adventures in Law School Graduation

I am going to go out on a limb that I was the most proud wife of all time on Thursday, May 16. At the Chaivetz Arena, my husband officially accepted publicly his diploma as a Juris Doctor. An official lawyer.
It's beside the fact that he already had his real diploma at home, framed, and his gold bar membership card in his pocket.

This was Graduation Day.

It was a big deal! We had family in town - his parents, my mom, my brother, my cousin from KC and the nephew. Unfortunately, his brother and girlfriend had to work but they ended up coming to the party over the weekend so we could celebrate. But to be surrounded by all the SLU blue and the excitement for a graduate school commencement ceremony, it was amazing.

And yes, there were tears. I have never been more proud of my husband. He looked SO handsome in that beautiful black robe with blue and white master's hood. And that mortarboard! That's what did me in. That cap and the tassel. It was so official and final.

Although, I will admit, it's a bit strange that he had to take off from work that day to come to the ceremony. Kind of funny, but pretty darn awesome that he had a job already!

Now on to our next big adventure... :)

A Very Serious Oath

If you are lucky enough to pass the bar exam, you are invited to the Supreme Court of Missouri to take the oath of admission to the state bar exam. The oath was scheduled for last Friday in Jefferson City at the Supreme Court building itself.

I expected to enter the courtroom and see just one judge at the front. As we were waiting for the ceremony to start, the clerk of the court explained to us that the judges (plural!) would enter soon, there would be remarks, then the oath would be administered, then more remarks. After that, the president of the Missouri Bar Association would read each name and present the new lawyers with their license. Then more remarks and then we’d be done. It was a pretty involved ceremony!

I was so happy that we were finally at this point in the process. Of course, I took a ton of pictures.

Waiting for his parents, contemplating the oath. Or something.

His lawyer ad pose.

It was a beautiful law library in the court building.

Waiting for the justices to arrive.

Even though they spelled his name wrong, we still got the license.

A blurry picture, but it’s official!

The new lawyer and happy wife!

And his happy parents.

I have never been more proud of my new attorney-husband!

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.

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 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.

Adventures in the Bar Exam

"Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, 'Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary'."
- Martin Luther King

Right now, my law school husband is taking the Missouri Bar Exam in Jefferson City, MO.

And I’m freaking out.

Let me explain. I am a ridiculous planner. My wedding day timeline had bathroom and snack breaks in it for our 15-person wedding party. I live by my calendar and my check-lists. I plan events for a living and then come home to work on weddings part time. I run our household, pay the bills and make the doctor’s appointments. I call for the scheduled maintenance on the townhouse and plan our daily activities for a Disney vacation six months in advance.

To be blunt, I like being in charge.

And today and tomorrow? I’m not in charge. I can’t do anything while my husband is two hours away, taking a twelve hour exam that he’s been preparing for since August of 2009 when he started law school, and ever more intense studying since the end of December. I can only sit at my office, go about my business and my doctor’s appointments, and wait for his call.

It doesn’t help that Jeff City is getting hit with another Midwestern winter storm. He was hoping to walk to the testing site from his hotel but due to the layout and his original hotel catching on fire (YUP!), he has to drive. Which just adds another layer of complexity we didn’t want to deal with in addition to the exam itself.

So I will sit here. And wait. And pray. And wait some more. And freak out because I can’t do anything. Then I’ll get to hear his voice after he’s done with the Day One of the test. He gets to do it all over again tomorrow.

I don’t like it when I’m not in charge.