Law School Decision

We made a decision on where to go to law school!

This fall, Jake will be attending George Washington Law in Washington, D.C.

We'll be vacationing out there in May and then will move there sometime in August!

Rex Lee Run

A couple of days before the race, I decided to do the Rex Lee Run with Holly. It was my first 5k, and I really enjoyed it. Since I decided to participate basically last minute, I didn't have a chance to do any training or anything for it. I went pretty slowly, but Holly was nice enough to keep pace with me. My two goals for the run were: 1. Finish 2. Not be last.
Both goals were definitely met.

This is Holly and me before the race. We both look way too happy for how cold we were.



All of the proceeds from the Rex Lee Run go straight to BYU's cancer research. You can make an extra donation in honor of someone fighting cancer and then run wearing their name. Our cousin Jenny was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer, so Holly and I ran in her name.


Good luck, Jenny. We're rooting for you!

Linguistics Senior Thesis Paper

Jake is currently working on collecting data for his Linguistics senior thesis paper. Please help him out by taking this survey. It only takes about 10 minutes.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=OkgdDxHUsWI7_2b9jTXZJ_2f8w_3d_3d

Thanks so much!

Reasons to Celebrate

We've had quite a few reasons to celebrate this month.

For one, it was my birthday! Jake made it a really special day. He took me out to dinner (twice actually...not on the same day though), surprised me with cinnamon rolls at work, and bought me Pride and Prejudice (the really long version). A lot of other people helped make it a special day too.

I applied to present my thesis research at a few different professional museum conferences and we had more reasons to celebrate when I heard back from them . I was accepted by the American Association of Museums and the Visitor Studies Association! Because of the cost of travel I had to pick just one, so I'll be presenting at the AAM conference in Philadelphia this May.

Jake also started hearing back from law schools, which gave us the best reason to celebrate. We've heard back from six (of the ten) law schools Jake applied to. He's been accepted to all six!
So now we just have to decide which one to pick.

Overall, we have lots of reasons to celebrate and many more reasons to be grateful.

Christmas Break

We had a fantastic Christmas break this year. We spent a week with our families in Colorado and then spent the second week in Utah. Overall, the break was filled with much needed relaxing. We read a lot and slept even more. In between our inert periods we did some really fun things.

We had dinner at The Roof in Salt Lake for Jake's staff Christmas Party. The food was good and the restaurant has a great view of Temple Square.


While we were in Colorado we spent time with our families and then did other things as well. We went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Denver Zoo, saw some movies, ate at Johnny Mac's, and just relaxed.


For Christmas this year I made my dad a bunch of sugar cookies, like he used to have each Christmas growing up.
Jake and I bought each other books for Christmas. Of course we left our shopping until the last minute (seriously, we tried to do it on Christmas Eve after everything was closed) so we got our presents to each other a couple days late. We didn't mind though, and we learned some valuable lessons on when stores close on Christmas Eve.

Overall, it was a fantastic Christmas Break.

Life's Little Cycles

A few weeks ago we finished another semester. We only have one more semester of undergraduate work to go!

The best news: I finished my thesis! Enough said.

Funny story:
During the week of finals during my freshman year our heater stopped working. While we waited to get it fixed, several of my roommates and I studied in the kitchen with the oven turned on to heat the room.
This semester past semester our heater went out, again during finals. Once again, I stayed warm by working in the kitchen with the oven on.

Life's little cycles amuse me.

Jake had a pretty rough semester because he was applying to law school. He has the applications all submitted now and we're just waiting to start hearing back from schools. These applications were stressful because the schools expect you to have outstanding LSAT scores, a stellar GPA, numerous extracurriculars, work experience, volunteer experience, a sensational personal statement, and personal relationships with professors enough to get fantastic letters of recommendation. Jake pulled together his application well, but it can be depressing to see all of your life's work reduced to a few sheets of paper.

After the whole process it was encouraging to get this email from one of Jake's professors:

Jake,

Thought you might want to know that you received the highest overall grade in 410 I have ever seen. You set the curve for every assignment.

Yes, you earned an A.

If you ever need a recommendation from me, I will be happy to write one.

Prof. Dant

No one deserves praise like that more than Jake does. He's awesome.

Thanksgiving Break Highlights

Last week's Thanksgiving Break provided us with a much needed break from classes. Jake spent a good portion of it creating a computer game, which is turning out to be one of my favorite computer games. In this game each player is a cannon and your purpose is to blow up the other players. I'm so good at it, I beat Jake every time.

Actually, that's not true. He destroys me unless I get a few lucky shots in.

We also spent some of break working on law school applications. That was not an enjoyable highlight, but it's awesome that they're almost out of the way!

My family came to Utah to spend Thanksgiving here and we did some things with them too.

Erik and I jammin' before dinner:
This piano can do back flips.


Dad carvin' the turkey:

All of us at dinner:
I think Aunt Peggy is poking out Rusty's eyes


Pictures of "broom" (rolled up newspaper) hockey later that night:


Holly is posed and ready:

My good-looking husband and me: