Our Apartment

We're trying to find someone to move into our apartment so that we can break our lease early. Here is a quick video I took that shows everything...including the not-so-clean side of Kat Dahl. Pardon the mess...just look at the great place we have! Any takers?

Time for a Celebration!!

This past week Spring Time was in the air. We had a few days of simply gorgeous weather, so I took Canon outside to enjoy the outdoors. As I mentioned in my previous post, we walked to and from the BU Law School a couple times, meeting Mark on campus or just walking with him. On Saturday the whole family went to the park for the first time. Mark usually plays football with guys from church on Saturday mornings, so I went along to "watch" with Canon. It was actually Canon's nap time, so he slept practically the whole time we were at the park, and I laid on the blanket doing some Pilates exercises, reading a book, and talking with a friend who was also there while her husband was playing football.

(I didn't take any pictures of Canon at the park because he was asleep and covered in his stroller, but I took a few when we were getting home. I thought these were fun!)

After football, we went to the church to clean and set up the chairs for Sunday's meetings. Since we had been out all day, we felt like staying out... so we went out to dinner to celebrate the coming of Spring. Honestly, before moving to Boston, I never really made a big deal out of good weather. I thought people here were so funny in that the sidewalks and grassy areas would be crazy-busy when the weather was nice. Now, after over 2 years of living here, I totally understand! It's as though we need to take advantage of the nice weather days while we can because no one knows when the next one will come. Even yesterday was breezy and a bit cool, and now today is pretty cold and cloudy. It's a good thing we went out and enjoyed it while we could. I can't wait for the next good weather day now!

After getting Canon home from dinner (because he wasn't napping very well away from home, so I knew that he needed to be put to bed), I went out grocery shopping to get the last minute preparations for our next celebration: Mark's Birthday. Sunday evening we had plans for a fondue party with chocolate and caramel dips, just like last year.

It was a pretty fun party with several friends from church, school, and neighbors. Canon was pretty well-behaved too. With so much going on, and so many adults giving him attention, I felt like I could go around and be the hostess and mingle without worrying too much about the baby. (I don't think that's a luxury I should get used to!) Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a fun event for us. Here's the video of Mark blowing out the candles. He actually blew all the candles out in one shot this time. I think it's the first time I've ever seen him do that!! :)

I really love being able to find joy in and celebrate the little things! Another thing that we were excited about this past week, and totally worth celebrating, was that I received a letter from the masters program at the University of Utah stating that they wanted me to come join their program. Technically it wasn't an official acceptance letter because the university's Graduate School has to concur with the department's decision to offer me admittance, which seems to be based on whether I had at least a 3.0 GPA (which I did) and that I'll have a completed BS degree before the start of the program (which I also have as of 5 years ago!). So, we're making plans to go back to Utah. Mark still doesn't have a job, but he just might be able to find a clerkship (not terribly likely, but possible), and if not, he's planning on trying to start his own firm with some other law students we met out here. So, life is getting exciting!

The only thing now that's making it difficult for me to go back to school full-time is finding a babysitter for Canon. Anyone in the Salt Lake Valley want to help out next fall?

Hakuna Matata

We didn't even think about Valentine's Day much this year, but we were looking forward to St. Patty's Day for over a month. Why? Because Mark bought us tickets to this!

Yeah, he totally splurged and bought premium seats and everything. He didn't know it at the time, but our tickets came with vouchers for free souvenir programs and V.I.P. baseball caps. We were so excited because I was planning on buying a hat anyways because I know how much Mark loved his Jeckle & Hyde hat that he lost right after our wedding. The vouchers also offered a discount off a t-shirt, but we really didn't want a t-shirt that would just fade. We considered buying a stuffed animal or hanging head souvenir thing, but we decided that the free hats were enough. Check out our seats too!

Front and Center...well, about 5 rows back, and lucky us, didn't have anyone sitting right in front of us either! :)

It was a BLAST!! Apparently there was a reviewer who wrote a pretty critical article on the performance. Honestly, I guess I might be able to see what he was talking about, but it was still really amazing. I thought that there were a few points where it felt like the actors were giving their lines too quickly, practically on top of each other, as if they really didn't have enough time to react with the line they were giving. Mark says that if they took any more time to react, then it would be dragging. I also remember thinking a couple times that I only understood what they said because I knew the Disney movie so well. Other than that, we have no real complaints. Rafiki was AWESOME!!! The costumes, lighting, music, and choreography is what totally makes this show. I thought that my favorite part of the scenery was the rising sun in the background. Mark listens to the Lion King cd sometimes, and I found the chanting songs interesting and fun, but I never really knew why they were in there. Now that I've seen the show, I know a little better about what is going on during those chants. SO AWESOME!!

I was pretty bummed that we didn't see Wicked when it was showing here right after we moved to Boston. We're SO GLAD we went this time to The Lion King. SO FUN!

Sorry about Mark's demon eyes. The red-eye fixer made him look really strange, so I just left them red. Who knew I was married to the devil?

We took Canon to a babysitter's and totally expected him to just fall right asleep since I knew he was super tired. Turned out that he didn't fall asleep for another hour and only slept for 20 minutes. Other than those 20 minutes, he was awake from 3 to almost 11pm. CRAZY!! He apparently wasn't crying or upset, just awake. That made me feel a little bit better. Ever since that night, we've been dealing with a late bedtime and lots of night wakings. I'd blame that late night, but I think it's another growth spurt. *sighs* The joys of parenthood. Gotta love it!

We've basically been on a high ever since the show. The weather has been so nice that we've been taking advantage of walks in the stroller. I walked with Mark to school yesterday and today, just for the sake of walking. Canon's been pretty good too with all the strangers he's meeting on campus. Tonight Mark and I are planning a Subway Sandwich picnic for dinner because he needs to stay on campus for a meeting. Yeah for good weather!!

Wild Spring Break

Beware: This is a bit long!!

This week is Mark's Spring Break from school, and we've really been enjoying the time he's been home. (I can't even tell you how wonderful it is to be experiencing such nice weather. Spring is definitely here, and I'm so excited!) The past couple of days have definitely been ones to remember, and it's not because we've gone on a trip for break like we would've wanted. It's because there have been a few odd things happening to us.

Monday nothing terribly strange happened. It was Mark's court date. He's been working on a case all school year for the clinic he's been participating in, and this Monday was when his case went to court. It was his first big chance defending someone on this asylum case, so he was preparing for it for a long time. Apparently the judge didn't rule for or against them, but he's just kind of "on the fence" about the case. Mark's team has to do more research and come up with more information that the judge requested before the next court date, which is in June, before the judge will make a ruling. So, I guess that means that Mark did his part well enough, knowing that it was a fairly difficult case to win.

As for me, the strangest thing to happen on Monday was that I went visiting teaching and stayed at her house for about 3 hours. I wouldn't normally impose on a person's time for that long, but she's a new mom too, and I think the both of us just needed some social time. The three of us were just chatting away, talking about our little babies, watching them dose in and out of sleep, and just enjoying time together. I think she needed the time just as much as I did... I figured that I didn't really have anything waiting for me at home since Mark was in court and he hadn't called to let me know how it went yet... so I stayed there. Turned out that Mark had gotten home just after I left, so the whole time he was wondering how long I would be gone... no harm done... other than throwing Canon's sleep routine out the window!

Now Tuesday was a bit more odd. We slept in a little later than usual because Canon let us. We were just enjoying some time at home as a family when suddenly we had to make an emergency trip to the doctor. I'm not going to tell you why, so don't ask! I'm still embarrassed about it! Then, since we were out, and we didn't really get to eat lunch before we left, we went to Burger King and then out to buy Mark's birthday present. Really, it turned out to be a long wild goose chase... that's still not over. Mark made a New Year's Resolution to do something constructive with his hands each month, and so he decided he wanted to build a model. Do you even know how difficult it is to FIND one of those around here? We went to about 3 different stores right in our area. None of them sold the kind of model Mark wanted. Then we drove an hour west of here to a place we found online, and that turned out to be a place where a bunch of guys come to race the remote control cars they built themselves... not what we were looking for. We then went to the Natick Mall to see if there might be something there... nope! Then decided to check out Toys 'R' Us, but they didn't have anything either. After all that, we just went home and watched LOST. (We finally got all caught up through Netflix. It was the first time in 5 1/2 seasons that we actually watched an episode as it aired on TV.) For some reason Canon had a REALLY hard time going to sleep that night. He woke up from me putting something away in his room, and then he was screaming for over 10 minutes. I guess we threw him for a loop with our outing for the day.

Wednesday I was planning on staying at home, but then Mark found some good news online regarding the Utah Bar Exam Application process. (He needs to submit an FBI background check, and it takes 8 weeks. So he didn't finish all his application stuff because he was waiting to get that back. Turns out that they'll let you register without the background check completed!!) So we were rushing around to get the last bits of his application together so that he can try to make the first late fee deadline, which is this next Monday. We drove out to Quincy to get a certified driving record, and if we had known how simple it was to do it there, we would've never even tried the other 3 RMV locations he already went to. Sheesh! Once we got back, Mark was going to go through all his application materials to make sure everything is there and then go to the Post Office to send it off.

While he was doing that, I decided to go grocery shopping. Canon was still sleeping in his car seat, so I figured I could get everything done while he was still napping and then I can get him home with all the groceries and everything would be hunky-dory. Well, that's what I thought until I got to the check-out line and discovered that someone had stolen my wallet...right out of my diaper bag in my cart!! I thought that there was something suspicious when I got a phone call from Bank of America verifying a strange transaction on my debit card. I wanted to call Mark to make sure that it wasn't him before I just said that I didn't authorize it, so I took down the information that the automated-call sent me and proceeded to the check-out lanes. It never occurred to me that my wallet was not in my diaper bag where I left it at the beginning of my shopping trip. Ugh! The worst part of the whole ordeal was that I was so stressed out about all the phone calls I was going to have to make to cancel the cards and go to the bank and everything... I went to the service desk to talk to them about the food in my cart... but not once did I think about calling the police until after I got home and Mark mentioned it. Ugh, again! So I called to file a report, but they said they'd call me back. I returned to the grocery store to talk to them about it, but they couldn't really do anything until the police filed the report and asked the store for the surveillance footage. I wanted the whole thing to just be over, but the police were taking their sweet time in calling me back. So, Mark suggested that we go out to eat dinner... to make me feel better. (Did I mention that I have a really sweet husband?) I was in no mood to cook after that, so we dined at Uno. It wasn't until after we finished eating that they finally called me back to take the report.

Not only have I managed to mess up my son's sleeping schedule (no matter how hard I tried to stick to it) for 3 days in a row (and bad nights' sleep to pay for it), but I've also managed to lose my wallet while I was no less more than 10 feet away from my cart at any moment. Oh well...what's done is done. I did all I could do about it today, and I'll have to the rest tomorrow... including grocery shopping again. I wonder what the rest of the week will bring us!