Thursday, December 31, 2009
Resolutions for 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
I know its early to have resolutions but I have already prepared one. My mom is diabetic and horrible about eating sweets, particularly chocolate. She just will not stop eating it even when it makes her sick, she said that she would stop though if I would stop also, so to help my mother not kill herself I will go off chocolate next year to help her. We will have to monitor this since it will be really hard for me I am addicted to Chocolate, but I did it before in High school and I can do it again especially for my mom. So good bye my comfort friend.
New Semester
So I will be starting my second semester of my second year of law school and my classes will be: International law, sales, secured transaction, lawyering skills, and an externship working for a federal judge. This semester John will also be taking a class, he has decided to take a class called game development. He has always wanted to take a class to teach him how to make video games and here is his chance.
Flooding
So for those who dont know Arkansas has outdone itself and has received more rain this year than ever recorded. As one can imagine this means there has been flooding all year long. Crops have rotted and it has seem that the rain would not stop for weeks. Nature had a last kick and we spent much of christmas break trying to go around the flooded spots. Main roads and Highways have at times been closed.On our way to Christmas we got stopped at jacksonville which is so flooded areas are evacuated, the interstate is closed and rerouted. The sad part is that the rerouted part is in water that is a couple feet. I was kinda scary trying to get through moving water that deep or deeper in spots. I felt bad for the homes and cars we drove by on christmas that flood waters had enveloped. The water was so bad in some spots that cars and levels of homes where under. We have some good pictures and I will post them as soon as I get ahold of Johns phone.
Christmas Eve/Christmas
Christmas Eve is when John and I exchanged gifts. Santa brought us Pampered Chef, clothes, sleeping bags, and movies. Santa brought the kitties a stocking full of toys which they played with all night. They seem to favor the feather toys that toss up the most, that is until they eat them. I was so scared that I called our vet to make sure it was okay that Javan swallowed a fake feather whole, he seems fine so I over worried. On Christmas we battled the bad weather(see flooding post) and had lunch with Dad and Donna. After one meal we headed to Marthas to stuff ourselves again. John's Uncle Billy was in town and this is the first time I have ever got to meet him. After dinner we played Apples to Apples and Mad gab till every one was rolling on the floor laughing. We ended up not getting home till midnight but it was so worth it. Christmas was wonderful as always with family.
Christmas in Jonesboro
After Branson for a few days we headed strait towards Jonesboro to spend the weekend with my family for Christmas Parties. We first caught up with on of my high school friends I havent since since I got married and got to see her cute new baby boy. On Friday we had my fathers family over and spent time with my aunts. My aunt Mandy is pregnant with her second child and we spent time guessing the gender-which we found out this week will be another girl, sorry dad guess he lost the bet. That night we spent at my brothers new house which is really gorgeous and I am really happy for him. I love the fireplace in his bathroom. We exchanged gifts and I guess I will learn my lesson you cannot buy nerf guns without someone getting hurt. My dad ended up shooting my nephew in the eye ending the Christmas spirit with crying, screaming, and everyone mad. Well at least the kids still enjoyed playing with it after that. John also revived his childhood dream of owning a nice remote controlled car after playing with my brothers.Maybe Santa will bring him one next year if good. My mom got pots and pans so she will actually want to cook. And I got in trouble from my dad for throwing away a rusted over bent tin pan we had taken home from the cabin. Even though it was probably hazardous to a persons health it apparently belonged to my great grandfather and should have come back to the cabin. I did not know this when I threw it away but it was in such bad condition that I dont think my great grandfather would have taken it, it seems I will never hear the end of it from my father for getting rid of it. The Christmas Program at Church the next day was amazing with singing and musical solos, my dad had a narrative part. I do miss living in a ward that is musically blessed and inclined. After church my parents had my mom side of the family party in which mom crammed over 20 people into her house and served a massive feast she had been preparing for days. Dirty Santa was as fun as ever and we ended up with a cake book and other miscellaneous stuff. It is always fun to go home and see the down to earth family I came and all the hard work they do. It is also so humbling for me to go home and remember that I used to sleep in a dining room with a curtain for a wall and that my parents still live paycheck to paycheck trying to pay the bills. I love how my family has so little but gives so much. My parents are always giving even when they really dont have anything. That is one of the best legacy my parents will leave me.
Anniversary
Yeah, on December 16th, John and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. We celebrated by going to Branson Missouri again. We had gone in January for a few days and went to dixie stampede and the titanic museum. This time we did a time share thing, which ended us up in a not as fabulous motel, and a morning of talking about real estate on the spot. We are not compulsive buyers so this did not happen. We spent most of our time like last time shopping. This time we went to see the chinese acrobats which was cool, and to see the trail of lights on Shepard of the hills which has over two miles of lights and displays themed around Christmas which was really beautiful. It was not our best anniversary but hey we had oreos as tradition mandated so it was good enough for me.
Thanksgiving
I am behind on posting but since I have finished finals and that pesky paper I kept putting off it is time to catch up on the last few months events. For Thanksgiving John and I did some traveling. We went up to my family cabin in Melbourne, Arkansas for a few days. There is nothing like an outhouse and no running water to make you be thankful on thanksgiving. It was fun cooking with my mom and hanging out in the middle of nowhere as my dad hunted. My dad got a new four-wheeler so John and I took it for a spin down some fun back roads. On Thanksgiving day after we stuffed ourselves with my family we headed down to Searcy to eat with John and Donna. They had a large house full with all John's stepsisters and their kids in along with us and Philip. It was wonderful getting to meet Megan's new husband and later that week have them over at to see our house. We only get to see her every so often since she lives in Texas now, but it is worth the wait. The next day we went to Thanksgiving at John's Mom and got stuffed again. Our family sure feeds us well. That weekend we went to a family photo shoot Megan put together from her cousin in Jonesboro who came down and took Pictures in Dad and Donna's back yard of the entire family. John and I like the group photo but are a little disappointed with our individual photo, we wish we had been facing forward towards eachother so the picture didnt look so awkward. Oh well we did get a large family picture which hasnt happened for some time so I am excited about it. Now we will just have to make the rest of our family get one.
Halloween
Sunday, November 8, 2009
John and I got to hand out candy from our house for the very first time this Halloween!!! We had about 20 groups of kids come by, and even though i had tons more candy, I was glad we got that. We dressed up javan as a vampire, he is such a bitter, and jasper as a ghost. Note I also dressed up jasper as a vampire to see how he looked and they both looked cute. John's mom, Martha, and his sister, Victoria, came over and we made pizza and watched scary movies all night. We said Boo and then went to bed.
volunteer work
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Okay, I lied when i said John and I got to come home and enjoy tv at night. This is not always true. John is a teachers advisor at church so he helps teach young men ages 14-16 on sundays and do scouting projects with them on wednesday nights. I am the beehive advisor at church so i teach young women ages 12-13 on sundays and do activities with them on wednesday nights. I have also been trying to be more involved in my community so I have signed up for some volunteer groups. The first group that I have worked with is Arkansas Association of Women Lawyers. In participating in this group I have helped remodel and decorate women's shelter rooms and walk the 5k Little Rock Susan Komen Race for the cure. I wish i taken pictures I did the race a few weeks ago and it was an amazing experience i hope to do again next year. It is the 3rd largest breast cancer race in American and over 50,000ish women come out to walk it. It is women for the most part-men have a separate walk- and it is more of a parade over downtown little rock and the bridges. There where bands, cheerleaders, bellydancers, frat houses, stripping firemen, pink water fountains, confetti, and bikers all along the edges cheering and serenading us on as we walked. Everyone wore a ton of pink and lots wore wigs and costumes. It was amazing to see all the survivors walking, and sad to see all the women's names of women lost or currently fighting the battle on the participants shirts. My recent project has been to join a group our school along with catholic charities has created called rapid immigration response team. It requires me to attend training in immigration law and assist in deportation raids when they happen across the state of arkansas. I know im a conservative what am i doing helping illegal immigrants. The real truth is that not all people deported are illegal, and my particular problem is with all the legal us born children we deport, or worse hold indefinitely in deportation centers. There is just alot of inhumanity that if most people knew the basics of would not agree with. I do not believe illegals should be allowed to stay, but I think we need to make sure they are illegal first. Well that is all I can think of that we have been doing volunteer wise and it has been keeping us a bit more busy. As always, Love, Brianne
Work
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Since I have not talked to all of you recently I feel I should update you on what we are doing. John is still working at UALR main campus as a software developer and loving it. I am in my second year of law school and am working this semester as an intern for a judge on the ar court of appeals. We keep busy from 8-5 and come home to enjoy time in front of the tv.
Our Kitties
In May of this year we got two wonderful additions to our family Jasper and Javan, our Kittens. We got them from my parents, we just wanted one, but Jasper was unhappy alone so Javan his brother quickly followed. Jasper is the short haired one and Javan is the Long haired kitty. They have been growing up fast and striking cute poses along the way. Here is a ton of kitty pictures if you would like to see our boys.
Our House
It has almost been a year since we bought our house! Our home is 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We love living in Alexander/Shannon Hills just below Little Rock. Since we come from the south our commute into town is not so Bad. We also live on top of a Hill in a new subdivision called Emerald Mountain. For those of you who have not yet seen our house I am posting pictures of our home before we moved in. I will have to take future pictures of our house with furniture and post soon.
House Pictures
New Blog
So John has talked me into starting a blog about what is going on with our life. Since I am bad at emailing, and failing at journaling I think this will have to do for both and staying in touch with everyone. We are just allowing family and invited friends to view this post so it should be private. Love you all, Brianne
