Another Day in Denver

Apparently it is not enough to pass the bar exam. Before you are able to be sworn into the bar association, you have to trek back up to Denver and attend a day-long course on professionalism.

We dutifully set out to fulfill this requirement at 5:30 am when the alarm went off. In spite of some horrible Denver traffic, we made it to downtown just in time for Tom to make his mandatory appearance for class registration and then class attendance.

9:00 am to 3:00 pm. That left me with six hours to fill with a soon-to-be one-year old and a stroller.

We started out at the Children's Museum. Constance woke up from her peaceful slumber at 9:00 am sharp, just when the museum doors opened. We went upstairs to the "Big Backyard" exhibit which featured a play space constructed to look like a wooded area complete with stuffed animal wildlife. Constance absolutely refused to leave my lap for a while and just wanted to look around and eat her grapes. But then some other kids started filtering in and she became interested in what they were doing.

She made friends with one of the ducks. He quacked whenever we squeezed him, and Constance was a fan of that.

 Then we went downstairs to the area especially for babies and toddlers. Constance was in heaven. There was a large carpeted area to crawl around on, lots of fluffy pillows shaped like waterlilies, giant teddy bears, a hallowed out log to crawl through, a tree trunk with little doors to open and close.

Constance was most interested in the other kids around her though. She watched them with great fascination and befriended any who would come near her.

We left around noon because I was starving, though I think we could have spent the entire day there and Constance would not have minded. For lunch, we ended up at a vegan bakery where I discovered the best vegan sandwich I have ever eaten. Constance loved the fact that the sandwich filling was very crumbly so she could sneak hand fulls of it in her mouth while I was enjoying a bite. I probably shouldn't have eaten all of it, but I did.

 To make up for the delectable sandwich, I found a place to park the car and we walked over to 16th Street Mall. It was then, after 5 minutes of walking down the street in the open air, that I realized how freezing cold it was outside. I had only brought a knit sweater but the cold wind went right through and my fingers were frozen. Luckily Constance was bundled up in her fleece hoodie and a blanket. So I walked as quickly as I could to H&M and used my birthday money to purchase the most expensive, thick, luxurious hoodie I have ever had the privilege of owning. It definitely paid off on the walk back to the car.

Tom came out of his class proudly toting a mug that said something about the Denver Bar Association and a banana for me. Now that he knows all there is to know about being a respectable member of the bar association, we just need to get him a fancy suit to complete the effect.

Next up is Halloween Trunk or Treat (with costumes which we still need to finish), a Murder Mystery Party (which we still need to finish writing), and the swearing in ceremony. All in one week. No big deal, right?

How the Bar Exam Ended

Thursday morning, October 10, 2013

Tom began the day by playing his newest game purchase Final Fantasy XIII in an attempt to get his mind off of the inevitable. Doing technical QA just wasn't going to work on a day like this. The exam results were supposed to be posted online in the afternoon so I figured I had plenty of time to go and run some errands then return home in time to be present for the news. Wrong.

Tom decided to check at 11:30 am while I was gone. He didn't think they would be posted that early but they were. Everyone else was unavailable as well and he was just dying to talk to someone. Finally, his friend Bryson called to congratulate him so they were talking when I returned home.

Tom didn't just pass the bar exam; he passed it by a pretty significant margin, as we discovered later when the letter with his actual score came in the mail.

To celebrate, Tom had Taco Bell.

Then the next day I made a special trip to Olive Garden and brought him back this.

He has to take a day-long course in Denver on how to be a professional. Then the actual swearing in ceremony will occur on November 4, his birthday.

For those of us who have avoided taking such a horrible exam, it is sometimes hard to understand the level of stress, emotional tole, and difficulty that bar exam takers must endure. For even the brightest students, like Tom, a small mistake or an unlucky spot on the grading curve could have resulted in a vastly different outcome. We are very thankful to be able to move on to other tasks now--such as finding a job and burning all the bar exam study outlines.

Visiting Utah

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit Utah this month. It felt a little surreal returning to our old neighborhood and seeing friends--like we had just taken an extra long vacation and were coming home. Unfortunately, our to-do list while we were in town was extra long so we were literally on the go every day. Sadly we missed seeing some people and hope they will forgive us until we visit again and can make it up.

When we told Constance that she would be going on another road trip and she looked a little scared. This baby does not like road trips.

 But then we told her we were going to Utah.

We started out around 9 am. Ten hours later we were in Provo. For the first two nights, we stayed with my friend Jessica in West Jordan. This gave Constance and Kaylie a chance to play. They had a blast. Constance played with Kaylie's toys and Kaylie played with Constance's toys. And they both squeezed each other's faces while Jessica and I moderated the interaction to prevent an inadvertent poke in the eye.

 We stopped by Kiwanis park in the evening and did our usual walk around the perimeter. That was when I realized that we needed to buy Constance shoes. It was a pretty chilly evening and all Constance had were some sandals so I wrapped her feet in the blanket. Later that evening we went to Shopko and bought her a pair of cute black and pink shoes and some socks to go with it.

Kyle and Amy treated us to dinner at Olive Garden.

Constance was craving something long and stringy. So she chewed on my hoodie string until the real food came.

 Tom got his usual chicken parmigiana. Meanwhile, Constance gnawed on the camera case. I promise, we did feed her actual food. . .

.

See?

 To top it off, she got to play with the napkin.

 We stopped by my mom's house for a short visit. Constance was very shy. In fact, she was shy with everyone during the entire week. It took her around 2 days to warm up to someone.

Meanwhile, Tom was able to attend a 4 hour work meeting, enjoy the traditional Taco Bell rendezvous with Kyle, and get over 4 hours of recording work done at Heftel Studios. During the 4 hour recording blitz, Constance and I wandered around University Mall. We were all dead tired when we retired around midnight that night.

We watched General Conference with the Merkley's on Saturday and Sunday. Constance was quite attentive for all four sessions and refused to take a nap until it was over.

On Monday, we drove back home. Constance missed her toy box so much that when we arrived home, she immediately crawled over and began going through all her toys and inspecting them one by one.

Jobs and Callings

This past week I had the pleasure of delivering a grueling 90 minute-long training to an audience of one. It really shouldn't have been that bad. But it was. Problem #1: my one and only attendee was not a native English speaker and I could barely understand him over my laptop's speakers. On top of that, factor in a horrible echo from his computer's speaker/microphone. Problem #2: he kept on insisting that I let him follow along with everything I was showing him in the system. This is definitely a problem because when he should have been looking at what I was doing, he was instead staring confusedly at a system error message and trying to tell me about it. Problem #3: the system wasn't loading properly; so I couldn't really show him everything I was supposed to train him on how to do. It was the perfect disaster. I was so glad it was over.

Needless to say, I have a job though. It's not really a job because I'm not a company employee, but they are giving me work for an indefinite period through my small business license Namiko Editing. Basically I train school teachers, administrators, and counselors on how to use an online platform. Lucky for me, it's mostly all old knowledge since I worked in these systems for over 3 years. The one downside is I never know when I'll get paid. I started working on this "project" in mid-August and my paycheck did not come until 4 weeks later. I was seriously starting to stalk the postman.

Tom also has a temporary job. And no he's not a real employee either and it all goes through my small business, but it is full time and he's doing some fun stuff. Most days he is translating children's stories into Latin for the new Elementary Latin course that he is helping to build. Other days he is writing original children's songs about grammar. 

In addition to temporary jobs/projects, we also now have church callings. Tom is assistant scoutmaster and I am a Young Women's Laurel advisor. I am really excited to be in a different church auxiliary; and after just the first Sunday, I've decided that being in YWs with a baby is 100 times better than being in Primary with a baby and 50 times better than being in RS with a baby. Not that I have anything against Primary or Relief Society, but it is just a relief to not have to chase after kids with a crying baby in one arm and to not have to worry about Constance ruining the seriousness of a RS lesson with her loud screeching. Constance crawls all over the YW room and can make whatever noise she wants and the girls just giggle and pick her up. Tom is a little less excited about being in Boy Scouts, but at least he does have a shirt ready for him from his dad who spent 17 years in scouts. 

Meanwhile, Constance is making friends with all the other little babies at church. She is always eager as ever to reach out and hold their hands. Last week I noticed that she is learning the concept of "giving" instead of just "taking." Instead of just grabbing her toys and playing with them, she started picking up a toy and giving it to another little baby and even holding it to the other baby's mouth so she could chew on it. 

Around the house though, she is intent as ever to take things apart and, for example, pull all of the clean laundry out of the laundry basket and throw it on the floor. 

She is learning many things from Grandpa such as how to fix a plumbing leak (she crawled into the bathroom to see what he was doing). She even tried on his glasses....for about 2 seconds before yanking them off.

 Grandma and Grandpa bought her this little baby gate which allowed me to enclose part of downstairs as her play area. It made watching her 100 times easier since I can now sit on the couch and do my work while she plays with her toys. I don't have to worry about her crawling off and pulling cat hair, and she can crawl over and join me on the couch whenever she wants.

Speaking of cat hair, here is Cheeto. I decided to take his portrait one day. He just rolled his eyes at me, like so.

What a cat!

Important Updates

Approximately two weeks ago, we waved goodbye to Grandma, Jessie, Daniel, and Melanie. Since then, Constance has learned a few new tricks that we should probably warn them about before they return.

#1. She graduated from scooting and now crawls . . . everywhere. Not only that, she walks around the room while holding onto furniture. She is mobile and can get practically wherever she wants. Nothing is safe. Nothing.

#2. She has made friends with the living room plant. One morning I caught her conducting a soil test. The other evening, she was tasting the leaves. 

 #3. She pushes buttons. The entertainment center is in grave danger. Her favorite place to stand is, of course, right next to it. Also, she knows how to turn on the stereo.

 #4. She's technologically up to date.

 She is starting her first novel. . .

 . . . about what it is like to be a baby.

 #5. Remember how she used to squawk in the bathtub and eat her duckies? Well, now all she seems to want to do is splash all the water out of the bathtub and onto Mommy.

#6. And finally, her Daddy and Grandpa are in a fierce competition all the time to get her to say their name. Meanwhile, I'm convinced that "Ba ba" is "Ma ma."

Life in Colorado

I think it is safe to say that the initial shock of moving is over. We still have piles of boxes of books in the basement but Constance's crib is up and I have located most of the items that went missing during the move. We've settled down to everyday life again.

Constance is 9 months old this month and has discovered how to get around. She doesn't crawl the right way; instead, she scoots across the floor at an impressive speed. She will be in one corner of the room one minute and on the other side turning on the stereo before you realize it. She never wants to sit still anymore. Instead, she always wants to stand and hang onto your knees then inch her way along the couch toward the remote so she can put it in her mouth.

 Luckily she's getting better about not pulling my hair. Unfortunately, she's traded that habit for sticking my hair in her mouth and sucking on it. I don't know what it is about my face but she always wants to eat it. I'm trying to teach her how to give kissies the proper way but she is still quite adamant about doing it her way, which is to open her mouth wide and lick my lips or cheek while squawking loudly.

She loves taking things out or apart. A look of great satisfaction appears on her face after she has pulled absolutely everything out of my bag and thrown those items in every direction. She doesn't want to put them back in the bag. Oh no, they must be out of the bag. I have a little box of cards that I keep on her toy "shelf" and usually the first thing she does in her play corner is snatch that box and either pull the cards out by the dozen or tip the box upside down and dump them on the floor all at once. I will start gathering them up and putting them back in the box, and she immediately she grabs the cards out of the box and out of my hands and tosses them on the floor again. It's like that with all of her toys.

This past weekend Tom and I spent our Friday evening taking numerous mug shots of him. It was quite the date night. He had to have a passport-like photo of himself for the test he took on Saturday. The requirements for the photo were pretty ridiculous: had to be certain dimension, had to have a white background, no shadow on face, no shadow in background, no pixelation, head NOT tilted, and head perfectly centered. The shadow requirement was what turned out to be the hardest to meet. Tom finally went into Photoshop and edited out the small shadow behind his head from the flash. Here was the final product:

 We celebrated Tom completing the test with Taco Bell, of course.

I finally scored some work with my old company. Now I will be training their customers on how to use the course administration platforms and putting together documentation on functionality. It will be nice to have something to put in our bank account again. As a result of me working a bit here and there during the day, Constance has had some time to bond with her Daddy. I came upstairs one morning to find her like this, fast asleep.

What a great Daddy!

A Night of Romance and Roses and Wedding Cake

After the horrors of the bar exam, we were happy to turn our attention to more joyful matters: the wedding of Daniel Stone (Tom's older brother) and Melanie Rowe. In preparation for the special day, Tom dusted off his guitar and strummed a few chords; I rummaged through our piles of boxes and recovered all of my most romantic music; and Constance, well, she sacrificed her sleep for almost an entire day just to be sure she didn't miss a moment of it. Meanwhile, Grandma Stone went over her emergency contingency plan in case Constance decided to cry, scream, or squawk during the ceremony.

Everything was a flurry of purple, organza, roses, screaming toddlers and babies, and white lights up until late afternoon when all the tired decorators retired home to get dressed for the special night. As one of the bridesmaids, I had attempted to find a suitable purple dress in the Provo mall but none were in our budget. So the first thing I did once we were in Colorado was put my sewing machine (a special gift from my Grandma Van Ornum) together and make a couple trips to Joann's to get a pattern and material. I cut all the material one night when Constance went to bed early (for this baby, that is anytime before midnight). Then while Grandma Stone was watching Constance the next day, I quickly sewed the dress together. Unfortunately, we didn't really get any good pictures of me in it, but it was nice that Constance and I matched.

Constance's dress came from Grandma Stone who went on a special search with Jessie for the prettiest purple baby dress in Colorado Springs. I think everyone who saw Constance in the dress would have to agree. It was gorgeous.

She doesn't know how lucky she is to have pretty dresses like this. All she wanted to do was chew on the beads in the front of her dress. I guess they must have been pretty tasty.

The dress came with a little bonnet of sorts which made Constance look like one of those porcelain dolls people sometimes collect.

She ripped that bonnet off so fast before I could get more than one picture. Clearly she was not a fan.

We were lucky enough to beat the rainstorm and arrived at Church just before the downpour. Tom and I were also privileged to make it into some of the wedding pictures (Tom was the best man and I was one of the bridesmaids). Constance's responsibility was to be cute. She did a pretty good job at it.

Before we knew it, wedding guests were filing in through the doors. I quickly fed Constance, passed her off to Grandma, then hurried to the piano in the chapel to start the prelude music. I was tempted to play different versions of "Love One Another" for the wedding music and see if anyone noticed, but decided to play it safe and use some William Joseph music instead. Unfortunately, while I was up there playing the piano, Constance decided it was simply unacceptable that I was not holding her and burst into loud wails. Luckily, the bishop's wife kindly offered to take her so that Grandma Stone could join the wedding group in the chapel. A few minutes later, Constance was fast asleep and stayed asleep until the start of the reception.

How Constance woke up is quite the story. Jessie and I were standing in the line and greeting all the people wandering into the reception. It was getting pretty hot and we decided that if we were feeling hot then Constance must be uncomfortable in all the layers on her dress. So we decided to get some air flow under the dress by taking her shoes and tights off her. Mind you, Constance was fast asleep when we began this endeavor. First, I removed her shoes. Then Jessie began slowly pulling off her tights. She got them halfway off when suddenly Constance's eyes popped open and she looked up at me with the most startled, confused, and puzzled look. And that is how Jessie and I ended up giggling for two minutes straight. Ok. Maybe you had to have been there to understand how absolutely hilarious it was.

Back to the blissful couple--here they are cutting the cake.

 And here they are smearing cake on each other's faces. Awww, how cute!

 The first dance.

 Mother and son.

Unfortunately, Tom was put on a very unexpected and inescapable babysitting duty during the dancing so we didn't get to do the family dance we were hoping to do. But a little later on, we tried to make up for it.

Constance is quite the dancer when she's not trying to eat my hair or necklace.

Congratulations to the wonderful bride and groom! We hope they will forgive and some day forget the loud, wailing baby who will be sleeping one floor below them under the same roof.