THE Week

Well, THE week came and went. There were moments of complete breakdown and moments of complete peace, but at last it is OVER.

I am of course speaking about the Alabama Bar Exam. As if three tortuous years of law school is not enough to be a member of this profession, JUST graduated law school students must further continue their stress by preparing for and taking the Bar Exam. THE week began last Sunday (July 25)...here is a short version of what the week entailed.

Sunday, July 25 - Drive to Montgomery. After a run-around dealing with broken room key making machines and the realization that I had left all of our credit cards in Mobile, we finally get settled and Mr. Hawk is able to get in the zone for tomorrow - Day One of THE test.

Monday, July 26 - Short day of testing - only four hours. I spent the day in the hotel room (pictures looking out over downtown Montgomery as well as sunrise - yes we were up that early - and sunset are below) and we put in an official counter-offer on the home with which we have fallen in love.

Tuesday, July 27 - Long day of testing - eight hours. Again, I spent the day in the hotel room working on ideas and plans for the upcoming school year.

Wednesday, July 28 - Another long day of testing - eight hours, after which we drove home.

I will say that I felt honored for Robert to have wanted me to accompany him to Montgomery for these three days. I assumed that the stress level would be unbearable and he would want absolutely no distractions, thus I would stay at home in Mobile. But I walked him down to the testing room before each session and was waiting for him at the end of each session. I am glad that I had the oppotunity to be supportive of my wonderful husband.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday have been super busy as I have been working, trying to understand all the legal mumbo-jumbo involved in buying our home (I feel like I know more about buying and selling a house now that we are buying our second one - I've done this once before, but I am still quite confused most of the time) and missing my dogs - they have been at Grandma and Grandpa's since July 18th.

Robert has one last portion (the professional ethics section) of the Bar Exam to take next Friday, August 6th and then we will be able to focus our attention on the other important events of our lives.

With our lives whirling around us at the speed of light, I am continuing to focus on keeping a positive attitude and a peaceful state of mind - long deep breaths have been helping too. :-)

Sunset, Sunrise and A Beautiful Clear Day in Montgomery, AL

Patience

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a planner. It is in my nature. I do not like being faced with last minute situations where I have to make a quick decision as I want to have time to contemplate all of my options before making a choice. Now, don't get me wrong, I am fine with spur of the moment outings and such when I have no schedule or list of things to get done. I just prefer to know if there are things that I HAVE to get done and what my time frame is.

Well all that to say that the good Lord is teaching me patience this summer. I began the interviewing process for teaching jobs here in Mobile last October. At that time, both schools I interviewed with indicated that they would have openings.

Fast forward to early/mid May. Both schools then began to waver -they might have a job for me, they might not. GREAT - the planner in me began the job search very early and now I am having to look at other options in case these two jobs fall through.

Fast forward to early July - both schools told me there was a slim chance of a job opening. GREAT again.

Continue on to this past week - both schools submitted my name to the Board of Education for hire.

This rollercoaster has had me physically sick for the last few weeks and I am just now beginning to understand that throughout the whole process, there was a lesson to be learned. It took me completely releasing my control and realizing that what is meant to be, is meant to be.

Additionally, with less than 72 hours to go before Robert takes the bar exam, stress still has its ugly grip on our household, but reminding myself that a positive attitude can go a long way is key.

My hope is that this next week will provide a sense of calm and that the world will return to a normal pace instead of the whirlwind speed of these last few months.

Summer in Mobile

So far this summer, we have been quite reclusive. Robert is busy all day every day studying for the bar (he takes it July 26-28) and I have been working (back at Ware Jewelers) to keep myself busy. The dogs are enjoying being in the air conditioning as it is consistently 95+ degrees with 100% humidity and we are beginning our house hunt.

Three things have been keeping me busy in my spare time - JAG, the TV show, reading and cooking.

I have become addicted to JAG. Robert and I have been NCIS fans since the first season. Since NCIS is a spin-off of sorts from JAG we decided to give it a go and I now finding myself watching two or three episodes at a time.

Reading has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while, but since I got a new library card (the public library is 2 blocks from our apartment) I have been keeping myself busy reading. First I stumbled across Tori Spelling's book Mommywood. Definitely not a book I thought I would even consider reading, but as I read I saw some parallels between her life and mine - not the rich, famous celebrity part, but more the rocky relationship with her mom and the heart felt desire to have babies and raise them to be intelligent, well-rounded people - a desire I am sure most moms and dads have. Then I picked up the 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time. This one again was quite odd for me, but I read it more from the perspective of how relationships have changed (yet stayed the same) over the 100s of years that some of the letters were written. I am currently reading The History of Barton Academy. Barton Academy is the oldest public school it the state of Alabama and is currently in desperate need of repair as it is literally crumbling away. Next up on my reading list is Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson (author of Three Cups of Tea - an AMAZING book) and Back Home: Journeys through Mobile - a collection of different perspectives on the things that make the city of Mobile so unique and the events in the history of the city that have defined those of us who call it home.

Cooking. Ok, those who know me, know that I try - I really do and I am ok at it, I am just not great at it. First up was two pies - chocolate chip cookie pie and peanut butter pie. Both turned out really good. Then it was time to try my hand at sausage balls - again, turned out great. Today was homemade potato salad - which I am sure is hard to mess up, but as the other attempts, turned out well. Next up is chicken and dumplings...as this is the first major entree that I am trying my hand at doing 100% from scratch, we will have to keep our fingers crossed.