Summer Reminiscing

Things have both slowed down and sped up for us this past two weeks, making it difficult to 1) find time to write on this blog, and 2) live lives interesting enough to be documented in pictures, cute little stories, or short video clips on this blog. Adam has been spending all of his days studying for the Bar which he will take at the end of July. I am going crazy trying to keep on top of the lectures I have to write every single day for my class. I'm counting down the days until the summer term is over at the end of June!

Since we're not having much of a fun summer around here so far, I thought I'd take a minute to reflect on the good times of summers past. Join me in a short trip down memory lane as I reminisce about being a kid during the summertime once again ...

What ever happened to those sweet days of summer when you could just sit around in your pool with a good friend ... (Mexico, ca. 1980)Or stay at the beach until the sun went down and your teeth started to chatter (Huntington Beach, 1982) ... And you couldn't sleep at night because you knew you were going to Disneyland after school got out in June (Disneyland, 1984) ...And all you had to do in a day was meet up with the neighborhood kids to ride bikes (Chicago, 1982) ...Or lounge around in your underwear with your cousins on your grandpa's lap? (California, 1980)
AH, THE GOOD OLD DAYS!

26 Weeks

I just started teaching a summer class this week at Duke. Adam asked me if I had mentioned to my students that I was pregnant. I told him that I figure that if they can't work that one out then they shouldn't be at Duke in the first place. Just look at that belly!

Adam's Graduation

He did it! After three long years of hard work and a truckload of student loans, Adam is now officially a lawyer. After he passes the Bar in July he'll be authorized to handle all of the traffic tickets, medical malpractice lawsuits, and accident claims of our family and friends ... Just kidding, Honey!

Adam's parents and grandparents drove up from Beaufort to attend the hooding ceremony. (Too bad the law professor performing the hooding put Adam's hood on wrong!)

All eight of the LDS guys graduating from Duke Law this year gathered for a picture around the infamous K-Ville sign where the Cameron Crazies (the undergrads) pitch their tents for months every winter to get into the basketball games.

Where's Waldo? Adam marching in with the rest of the Duke graduating class for the Baccalaureate Ceremony on Saturday morning in Duke Chapel. Yes, indeed, I desecrated this holy space by standing up on the pew to get this fine shot of my husband.

Rock-A-Bye Baby

Now that graduation is over, Adam's got a new baby ... His bar review books that are making themselves at home in little Charlotte's cradle!

Ain't She a Beauty?

Adam and I have spent our entire married life (okay, just a modest 2 1/2 years) sleeping on what has to be one of the worst beds of all time ... An old queen-size mattress set that I purchased at Deseret Industries (the western equivalent of a Good Will) six years ago while I was still living in Provo. The bed was not a good bed then, but I have slept on used mattresses my entire life and I only had $50 to my name at the time so that's what I ended up with. You can only imagine what kind of shape it was in when we got rid of it this week after seven more years of use! On the upside, it was very, very easy for us to find a new bed that we liked since our previous standard was so unbelievably low. We bought this new Sealy at Costco and feel like we have been floating on the clouds every night since!

The Munsters, People!

Okay, I need to clarify that 1313 Mockingbird Lane is NOT our new address in Houston. (A whole bunch of people have asked me that since my last post.) I don't know why I remember this and nobody else does, but that address was the fictitious residence of The Munsters from the old TV show. There are too many weirdos and perverts out there for me to post our real address on the internet!

1313 Mockingbird Lane

I keep having these moments this past year when I have to stop and pinch myself because I can't believe that I'm actually doing something so spectacular and mind-blowing. "Wow, I'm in Italy!" "Holy cow, I'm going to be a mom!" "We're really going to move to Houston!"

This week I can add a new one to this list of this year's wonderful and unbelievable events. It doesn't look like much right now, but above is the sight of the future Laughton Manor. That's right: we're building a house! Adam and I went to Houston this week pretty sure that we would be lining up a rental for this next fall but were ultimately swayed by the great housing prices there and the prospect of only having to move all of our stuff once. (We were also repulsed by the very high rent prices of apartments there--around $1200-1500 for somewhere decent.) We had been looking online all year at a certain house plan and when we walked through the actual model we fell in love. The price was right, the timing was right, and the commute for Adam is just right. And it is going to be the perfect place to raise some little Peanuts!



Oh, and did I mention that the community we are moving into has two world-class golf courses? (We hope this will entice Adam's dad, who doesn't like traveling, to come visit us often!)

Our Double Holiday

Yesterday we celebrated two significant life events. First of all, I turned 32. I felt somewhat depressed about this, but Adam keeps reminding me that I'm not going to be an old mom, he's just going to be a young dad! We celebrated by stuffing ourselves "family style" at one of our favorite Italian places.The second landmark event was that Adam finished his last day of finals. He is now done with law school and will officially graduate on Mother's Day. Some friends of ours threw a little gathering Friday evening to celebrate.Here we are with some of our best friends, Jarod and Brianne Stewart and little Isaac, who are also graduating from law school and moving to Houston for work. But while we are going to sweat out the whole summer here in Durham, they are moving to Houston next week. Don't grow up too much this summer, Baby Ike!Yeah, you just wish you were pregnant again, don't you, Bri? Spending the ENTIRE summer being hot and fat is every woman's dream!

My 23-Week Glamor Shot

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Sometimes I don't look so pregnant ... This was not one of those times! Still, I think I look pretty hot here for a pregnant lady. :)