New Kids on the Block

Well, hmm, this is why I like to blog more frequently than once a week - I end up with too may things I want to write about and can't find a cohesive way of composing a blog post.  So I'll just skip over a lot of things with a broad "Thanksgiving was fun and spent with Paul's family" and "We made it to California after being stuck at Donner Pass for three hours" and tell you about the latest.

It is now official - today Paul and I drove to Oakland to take the oath to practice as attorneys.  So we are lawyers.  Insane, right?  I felt so, just, ... full swearing to support and uphold the United States Constitution - you know, proud and humbled and hopeful all at once.  One of the judges who spoke said that this was a "mountaintop moment - when your dreams and realities come together" and I got a little verklempt.  It was very cheesy of me. 

Poor Paul caught a cold the day after Thanksgiving and hasn't been feeling so hot.  But despite that, we have made some good progress moving into our new place.  Wanna see pictures?  You got it.  But just so you know, we aren't finished painting and unpacking (although we are getting there) so I only have bare "before" images for now.  Once we get squared away, I'll post some "after" photos.  And for those of you in the Bay Area, give us a call and come on by.  I'll bake some cookies.

It took us all day last Saturday to tape and paint the living room and kitchen.  But it looks awesome now and I'm so glad we decided to go for it and paint. 

Sleeping on an air mattress for a couple of nights before our belongings got delivered was not so much fun.

This is the view from the guest room.  Jr. olympic size pool you guys.  And 60 degree weather.  Anybody from Utah want to come stay with us for a few days?

This is our kitchen and laundry room.  See the built-in rack for wine glasses in the shelves on the left?  We are using it for our ice cream sundae dishes.

Our back patio rocks.  It overlooks the pool and provides storage.  Plus, it is just cool to have a patio.

Proof that we have been hard at work.  Kind of looks and feels like an early Christmas morning.  And you can see the color we went with on the kitchen and living room walls - Behr "chateau". 

My firm paid for a moving company (Bekins) to load a huge truck with all our stuff and drive it out to California.  I am SO grateful for that perk, because I did not want to carry couches and boxes and mattresses up to the second floor where we live. 

So that is what we have been up to for the last week.  Now that our internet is up and running, we are back in blogging form.  And really, really, really enjoying having our own place again after almost five months of being homeless.