Updates and Pictures

I have a number of pictures to upload. The first are from Colin's Birthday. And then some from when we visited Black Butte Ranch with Bridget's sister Tracy, her husband Jim and their 2 1/2 year old Jacob. And finally Ryan holding his sister right after the Maddie's blessing.







Now that the pictures are posted I will post the news.

Jack is loving Kindergarten. Bridget and I noticed that he is much more talkative about it than Ryan is and was about school. Ryan likes school as well, but when you ask him he usually just responds with, "Fine" or "Good." We have to struggle to get details out of him. With Jack once you ask him a question or two we find out so much more than we ask for usually. It is great that he likes school. One of the reasons that he does enjoy school so much is out of his familiarity with his teacher. She is the mother of Ryan's best friend, Reed. So Jack has been to their house a few times and is very comfortable with her. I believe he has bragged to his new school friends that he has been to his teacher's house before.

Ryan, is doing fine in school. This year he is in the same class as his best friend Reed. Last year they were not together. They were split up after Kindergarten because they were the two strongest boys in the schools kindergarten we were told by a teacher. Reed's mom asked if they could be together last year,but she was told that they needed to balance out the boys. I suppose that is a nice thing to hear. Both are good boys and read very well. They are also on the same soccer team. Oh, and Ryan still has his favorite girl, Lucy, in his class. He quite likes Lucy. He says she is very smart. And he would like to date her when they are old enough to date he says. Yeah....moving on...

Soccer is in full effect right now. And it is a pain in the butt. Baby, kids in soccer nearly everyday of the week...it is a pain. Mainly for Bridget though.

Bridget is still really tied to Maddie. Maddie is a good baby, but she can't really leave her for long. Bridget is the meal ticket after all. Bridget is frustrated by her inability to work out much because of this. However, she does not have the holy grail of workout aids when you have young children. At least for around here...

It's the BOB Revolution Dualie. It is freakin' sweet. It rolls so unbelievably well. It even has little shocks to absorb the bumps in the road or trail. It is made very well--Bridget plans on taking it on the trails soon. Thankfully, I was able to get a deal on it, but it was still spendy. But, I think it is totally worth it.

She is also enjoying her status as former Primary President. I don't think she misses that church calling too much at all.

Cyclocross season starts this weekend for me. And I actually have weekends clear to race finally. Which brings up the subject of why I have weekends clear. I have a new job. Finally working at a law firm. I am basically a very experienced lawyer's assistant. He is very very busy and I will be handling all the basic remedial things for him within the firm. Lots of paper pushing. Lots of tying up lose ends. Lots of things that law school does not teach a student at all. But these are all things that will be invaluable in the future. While I am a glorified paralegal and paid as such it is a great improvement over my prior position at the bike shop. Plus, I have been promised growth should I perform. Others I talked to confirm that this is a firm that is growing and one of the partners made somewhat similar transition when he first started. And truth be told, I would have taken a position cleaning toilets at a lawfirm if it would have allowed me to start to use my degree and learn my chosen profession...finally. The increase in pay comes in a timely fashion. A huge law school loan enters repayment early next year. We could not have made ends meet at all if this or something had not happened for us. I was starting to stress just a little bit.

By the way, I did get this position because of the bike shop. I got to know a customer whose girlfriend came in a bought a bike from me. After helping her a bit I mentioned in passing that I was a lawyer, but not practicing. She started sending me all of the open positions that she learned about in her circles. Nothing panned out though for the main reason that I had virtually no experience. Then we were talking when she came back into the shop last month and I told her that I would consider a legal assistant or paralegal position just to get me foot in the door and gain some experience in a firm. Then the lightbulb went off in her head. She said that her assistant "sucked" and that another assistant was leaving soon. She said she would talk to the managing partner. I sent off an email to her explaining in further detail what I was thinking in order create a place for myself there both now and in the future. She liked it what she read and passed it along to the partner. He liked the ideas I proposed. I had an interview and then two days later I was extended an offer. This is a simplified version of the events, but you get the jist. The offer came on Bridget's birthday and it definitely made the day better.

Oh and the firm is here: www.hittandhiller.com

I work mainly with Mr. Hitt.

Basically, I feel pretty lucky. I just finished my second day on the job and there is just so much I am clueless about. I worry about screwing something up, or not asking the right questions in order to do something correctly. I really have to stay on top of a number of cases at the same time. Currently, I will be working on about 15 cases that are in varying stages of completion. That is just for one lawyer in the firm. And I only have about 1/2 of his load. Another person helps out on the rest. Crazy.

Anyway, more soon I hope.