Here it is...

Well, we're moving! To Oxford, Mississippi! After much, much prayer we feel that Ole Miss is where the Lord wants my husband to get his law degree. I know it's not a complete surprise, but we've been waiting to "announce" it until we knew for sure that's where we were going. Here's how it went down...

Jason took his first LSAT in December of 2010. He didn't do as well as we'd hoped and it was evident that he needed to retake it if he wanted to get in to UNLV and other schools. He worked his butt off. Seriously, he studied harder than I've ever seen him for the next 6 weeks. He retook it in February of this year and his score improved by 9 points, which is huge. He started the application process. He applied to 9 schools, including UNLV. He was admitted to 6, some with partial scholarship offers, he was denied at one (Forget you, Louisville!) and wait-listed at two- and UNLV was one of them. We were a tiny bit devastated. We knew we had some serious decisions to make. Since there is no ranking of the wait system, we were pretty sure UNLV was out. It had basically become between Ole Miss and Washburn (in Topeka) at that point. Washburn had offered him a really decent scholarship and we were looking that way, but something kept telling us not to count out MS. We looked into the school districts and Oxford has an amazing one. The town is tiny, which I love and we'd be insanely close to campus. The tuition is also cheaper at Ole Miss and if he lost his scholarship over at Washburn we'd be kind of in a mess so this was another plus. We continued to pray and feel we have our answer.

We don't know where we're gonna live, how we're gonna pay for it, or what is going to happen but we are turning to the Lord and trying to trust completely in Him. I know it's going to be extremely hard, but I have faith in our little family and our ability to find joy in the little things and to make this an adventure. We would like to publicly thank all of you for your support and the many prayers that have been offered in our behalf. I'll keep this updated as regularly as I can as we prepare for our trek to our new home in "Missippi".

Change

Evidently Jason isn't any better at this than me.

I don't have it in me to do a real post.

Big changes are headed our way.

I'll post about them soon.

That's all.

What Seana Missed: November

Okay, so we've all had times in our lives that kind of suck, yeah?

November contained a day kind of like that for me. The 4th of November, actually. It started out good enough. I was busy at work when one of the partners pulled me into his office. He cut straight to the chase:

"Jason, this is a termination meeting."

I was floored. I hadn't been laid off since right after 9/11 decimated my former employer's New York City headquarters. My boss did a very good job at comforting me and telling me that I wasn't being fired, but laid off. See, I worked at a Construction Law firm. In Las Vegas. During the worst economic downturn in Las Vegas' history.

My LSAT-taking friends will be able to follow the logical reasoning that's about to come up.

I worked at a Construction Law firm. If the economy is good, people are building stuff. If people are building stuff, they are hiring subcontractors. If they hire subcontractors, sometimes the subcontractors don't get paid. If the subcontractors don't get paid, they hire attorneys. If they hire attorneys, they would usually pick our firm. If they pick our firm, I get enough work to justify my employment. I did not get enough work to justify my employment.

So yeah, that hurt a bit. But it was all for the best. I got to hang out with my family, study for the LSAT (more on that in probably next "month's" post. Epic fail.) and just generally chill out for the first time since I graduated high school. PLUS I get to collect unemployment. I figured I have paid into the system for the past 12 or so years, so now I get to reap all the benefits.

But enough about me.

We discovered something REALLY cool about November...

No one takes their kids to see Santa.

Seriously. The opportunities abound but people refuse to take advantage of them. They'd much rather wait until right before Christmas and spend 87 hours in line to see a Santa who may or may not have their kids' best interest at heart.

But not us. We took our kiddos to see not one, but TWO Santas.

(For those of you who have children who can read and still believe in Santa, that should read "We took our kiddos to see Santa not once, but TWICE")

Once at the Santa's Village at Bass Pro Shops at Silverton and once at the Cactus Garden at Ethel M's... we waited a total of 5 minutes combined for both.

Because we're awesome.

And because people don't realize Santa is just as likely to get you a gift if you ask for it in mid-November than if you ask in late December.

Also, our girls were not terrified of Santa. This wasn't a shock as far as Kate went, but Reagan was like, 10 months old and in the middle of her stranger danger phase. Yet she didn't freak out. I wouldn't say she LOVED Santa, but she didn't scream.

Here's the proof.

And of course other fun stuff like Thanksgiving happened, but we got zero pictures of all that. I know, I know, bad blogger.

As a way to make it up to you all, here's a picture of Reagan being naughty.

Ciao, suckers! See you all in December,

What Seana Missed: October

Okay, so I guess since LSAT stuff is all done with and I'm not gainfully employed and I only do school 2 days a week, I can afford to commandeer the blog from its neglectful owner.

So what I'm going to do is this: Go through the pictures on my laptop by month and make a post per month. Counting October through this month, that's 5 posts. So enjoy it. Enjoy me. And enjoy...

OCTOBER!

First thing: We went to Disneyland. Yeah, it's no big deal. Our girls were cute. We brought Seana's mom and dad along. Being able to pay for your parents to come to Disneyland feels cool... like you're a real live grown up or something. Anywho, good times were had.

Reagan went through a stage for a few months there where, if she saw a mirror at her level, she would go to the mirror and begin to make out with it. Like, graphic making out. As in, if the mirror were a boy, it would be talking to the business end of my 12-gauge by now. Apparently she's just that cute. She can't even resist herself.

Katelyn was very happy to be there, obviously. She proudly rocked her Tangled shirt.

Oh, and she met Tinkerbell. Again. This was like her 4th time. It's getting to be old hat at this point.

What wasn't old hat, however, was riding Splash Mountain... I need to say, I've ridden Splash Mountain countless times before. I love the ride. One of my favorites. I had never gotten all that wet before.

And then I rode it this time. I don't know if they put more water in the ride or what, but I got absolutely soaked. Katelyn, too.

And it wouldn't be a trip to Disneyland without a visit to Ariel's Grotto for the Princess Lunch. This time around, we had Reagan. They loved them some princess dresses. And some Snow White.

Seana had a great time. It's always fun to see a baby on their first trip to Disneyland.

Well, that was pretty much it for October. Please join us next time for November. Thanks for stopping by.

Updates.

Seana's not very good at doing them.

Yell at her.

And...she's off!

I already put one of these pictures up on Facebook, but we have a crawler! I am so so so so so so sad. I am sad that she is growing. I am sad that she is mobile. I hate this stage. I don't enjoy the "dumping everything out that I can get my hands on" stage. She is cute enough to get away with it, though. Here are some pictures I snapped the other day...









A real update soon. Maybe.

Big Girl...

Katelyn turned 4 yesterday. I am old. I am also tired. Too tired, in fact, to do an extensive report on yesterday's activities. Suffice it to say, she had a great day. Jason took the day off. He does that every year. She got a bike and a bunch of other crap. We went to breakfast. She took like 2 bites of her food. We went to the Adventuredome at Circus Circus. It was crowded and ghetto. But it was fun. We hung out at home and she played with her Tag Reader. We went to Applebee's for dinner. They sang to her. She was happy. She told everyone in sight that she was 4. I love her. We are having her birthday party in a couple of weeks and she is excited about that. Here are just a couple of pics from yesterday.


Here's her loot before she dug in...




Here is when she saw it all. Also, I did NOT put her in that train wreck of an outfit. She dresses and redresses herself before we get her up in the morning.




After she opened her gifts we all got ready to leave. She looked really cute. Obviously.




We ate and then went to the Adventuredome. One thousand pictures were taken. Most of them have me in them and they are horrifying. Here are just a couple.








Here we are at dinner watching her enjoy her cake.




Reagan missed the whole thing. Lazy.




Also, how cute are my parents besides very?




That is all for now. Remember when I said I wasn't doing an "extensive" review of the day? I surprise myself sometimes. Anyway, Katelyn is big. And cute. And crazy. And loud. And frustrating. And really funny. And sneaky. And I wouldn't trade her for the world. Happy Birthday, beauty. We love you.