Sweet Finds/ Stress Rant

I just added a playlist to my blog so now you can rock out while you peruse my pearls of wisdom. Let me know if you have any suggestions of songs to add, or you can create your own playlist for your blog.

On another note, why is life so complicated sometimes? I realize that I am super fortunate and actually quite blessed but some days I just don't want to deal with my stuff anymore. I have no idea how women with kids and jobs and hard church callings and real obligations do it. I am just trying to go to school and really nail down what I want to do with my life and it has really tested my limits. Any thoughts on how all you gals (and guys, maybe) deal with your stress? I would love to hear it. Nate will probably tell you that I am not very graceful or fun to be around right now. I really need to get it together.

On a fun note, we are going on Saturday to get our puppy! We cannot wait!

I recently found (and maybe I am way out of the loop, like WAY) a blog called seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com. Don't read it if you don't have a sense of humor about Mormon women or if you hate blog lingo. I laughed out loud a lot. It is such an accurate picture of a lot of the women in SLC and "The UC."

Great News!!!

We found out this week, about a month earlier than expected, that Nate has passed the Utah Bar Exam! We are so thrilled. Nate is officially not only a doctor, but a lawyer as well. He is very smart and handsome but I might be biased. Thank you for all the well wishing and prayers.

Insight

I stole this from a friends blog. Its pretty funny.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) – Hooch Accord
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) - Praline Missouri
3. YOUR “FLY GIRL” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) - Asec
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) – Green Elephant
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) - Kristy Orem
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Secal
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink, put “The”) - The Orange Grasshopper
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Lark Coleman
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy)- Pure Grace Skittle
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) - Lobdell (my mom doesn't have a middle name)

I just hope none of these is the answer to my password questions... you know the ones you pick on the banks website in case you forget your password: What is your high school mascot, etc. Enjoy!

Cute!!!!

The breeder named him Alexander but we are not keeping that.

Weekend Trip Home, etc.

Nate and I went to Utah for Labor Day weekend. Daniel had his farewell before he heads off to Georgia in a week or so. Daniel did a fabulous job on his talk and Holly, Laura, Jon, and I didn't do half bad on a really impromptu musical number.

After a wonderfully uplifting farewell party, Nate, Nancy, Jon, and I headed off to the Bob Dylan concert in Deer Valley in a torrential rainstorm. The venue is a lovely little outdoor amphitheatre in the mountains that was turned into a very respectable mud pit by all the concertgoers. It was super cold and none of us could understand a word that crazy guy was saying but we had a great time.

You can almost see him down there. It was raining pretty hard the whole time so we didn't see much of him, but he sounded good (as good as he ever does).

Nate is helping me keep my feet warm. I forgot to bring socks or real shoes. Brrrr.

Since it was the last time the Sechrest family will all be together for about two years, we took the opportunity to have a family picture taken. Those kids are sooooo cute!

I will post the newest pics of our puppy as soon as I have them!

Quick Update

Good News!! We had choosing day for our puppy yesterday. This means that everyone on the waiting list sends in their choices of which puppy they want and then the breeder doles out the dogs. We wanted the only boy in the litter and we got him! I will post updated pics soon.

Getting back to school has been ten thousand times harder than I thought it would be so I feel like never have a moment to spare. I have other things to post and will try to get to them soon. I know all my millions of faithful blog fans are just waiting anxiously... soon my friends, soon.

Yet Another Puppy Update

I do realize that most people have enough in their lives that they don't have to get THIS excited about the arrival of a new puppy, but we really don't. We have been planning and waiting for over a year for this moment and our excitement level is reaching ridiculous proportions. The puppies are now a little over four weeks old and so cute it is not even right. We get to drive to Spokane in about three weeks to bring ours home for good. Enjoy!

These are the girls. It is still possible that we may end up with one of these gals but we are still leaning more towards the little fella in the next picture.

This is the lone male in the litter. Our breeder says he is very playful and cuddly. I think he is just about perfect!

Puppy Update

We have a new picture of our puppies. We get to take ours home in about a month now!

Our Puppy is here!

Our super cute puppy was born last Tuesday, July 29th. The litter includes four females and one male and we are hoping to take the boy home in about 6 weeks. We are supposed to have first choice so it shouldn't be a problem. We could still end up with a girl based on how we feel when they get a little older and how their personalities fit ours. We are so excited!

Who doesn't love a good dog pile!

The Bar, etc.

Nate takes the Bar exam this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. Things are getting tense and he is studying like mad. Once he passes he will finally be a real live lawyer! It has been a long road and we will both be glad to be done with this last major part.

I recently went, somewhat against my will, to Boise State orientation. It was good to see the campus and I was excited to get signed up for my classes. After I went through the whole "don't steal, don't walk around campus alone at night, make sure you study" spiel I tried to register for classes. They informed me that I had been discontinued and that I was not actually a student at Boise State. I yelled and waved my brand new student ID in their faces and said "I beg to differ!" enough times that they finally called the deans office and had someone with special clearance re-enroll me. Of course I had to wait until the next day to register for my classes so everything I need is long gone and I am showing late enrollment so I am not eligible for financial aid. Needless to say the day was not fun and I still have an endless list of people to yell at before everything is fixed. For example, even though I took AP English Lit in HS, Honors English Composition and Advanced Persuasive writing at BYU, I apparently have not filled the English 101 requirement at BSU. BS-U is right so far. I am trying to stay positive and take my mom's advice that yelling gets you nowhere, but it makes me feel better to yell. Finally, after all this, I did get some fun classes--not ones I really need, but fun all the same. I am excited to get back in the swing of things, and I'm sure things will look up any time now. Rant over... well, paused. I'm sure I will have more to say in the future. I can just tell.

Hawaii

We recently took a trip to Hawaii with my family for graduation. I graduated, Amanda graduated and Daniel graduated so it seemed like a good time to go. It was a fantastic trip and we all had a lot of fun. We spent a week on the North Shore of Oahu and spent a lot of time lying on the beach, golfing and seeing the sights around the Island. The Polynesian Cultural Center was definitely a highlight. Visiting the various exhibits about the islands was a lot of fun and very educational. We recommend it to anyone who is considering going. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Here we are at an overlook in the mountains. It was pretty.This you can almost tell is us at the sunset on Turtle Bay. It was awesome.

Here are all my siblings at Pearl Harbour. It was powerful.

Here we are in front of the Hawaii Temple. It was Beautiful.

Nauvoo

On our move from Indiana to Idaho we made a little stop in Nauvoo. I had never been there and Nate hadn't since he was little. We stopped by Carthage and then stayed in a cute little motel. I was surprised at how tiny the town was. The first night we grabbed some burgers at a little "family" diner full of drunks that scared me a little but the trip was uphill from there. The historic town was really cool. We loved the blacksmith and the brick maker. We also went to the show that the senior missionaries put on that was really cute. It was so great to see part of the history of our church. It made me a little sad but it was good to see. We got to go to the temple and we went to the Nauvoo hotel buffet which was delicious. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't been.

Graduation

Here are some pictures from graduation. This was over a month ago but that is how I blog. We are already moved and settled in Boise but for those of you who wanted to share the moment of Nate's graduation here you go. It was pretty spectacular. The robes were ridiculously cool and I was so proud of my little graduate. He is now working hard to live up to that fancy diploma by studying for and passing (fingers crossed) the Bar.

The Proud Moment.

Here's me and Nate with our great friends Kasey and Skyler from Law School and our ward. We miss them!

This is me taking Nate's diploma and telling him that it is half mine and he can have it back when he passes the Bar. I'm not worried. He's a smart fella.

Boise

We're finally set up in Boise so I can concentrate on the wonderful experience that is studying for the bar. Alayna has done a great job of setting up our house and it looks great! I take the bar at the end of july so until then I will be sequestered in my bedroom listening to lectures and reading bar review books. My only reprieve is going to a wedding at the end of June. After the bar I start work on the 4th of August then its clear sailing until we get Bowie (our puppy) at the end of September.

We're Going to Boise

Just a quick update to let everybody know we got a job! I will be working for Judge Thomas Neville in the Idaho 4th district court. We are really excited for this especially to come back west to the dry desert air. We graduate on the 18th then pack up and move 3 days later. We'll take about a week to make the trip back and stop at some of the sights along the way like Navoo, Des Moine, and North Platte. We'll spend a little time with our families on Memorial day then go move in to our new apartment. We hope everything is well. We'll write more soon.

Utah Bar...

After an excruciating application process we are officially signed up for the Utah Bar exam this July. We still don't know where we are going to be but the best options are either in Utah or are Utah adjacent so that's what we have settle on so far. If we get the job in Idaho then he may have to take the Idaho Bar as well which is endless hassle but would give us a lot of interstate options.

On another note we listened to conference today and I had many thoughts and feelings, most of which were good and all of which were encouraging. Hopefully many of you listened and will have a better week because of it. We love President Monson!!

Puppies!!!

I'll start by saying that no, we don't have any job information or decisions yet. We are still considering options in Boise, ID, Boulder, CO, and Salt Lake City, UT. Hopefully we will have a destination soon because Bar deadlines are approaching. We only have nine weeks left here before graduation and I am starting to, as Nate says, get trunky. I want to start packing now but we still need our stuff, and I have pretty much checked out at work and in our ward.



In other news we are getting a puppy!! We have wanted one for years, pretty much since we got married, but we have always lived in apartments that don't allow pets. This year I have been working in an animal hospital and Nate and I have been helping with the puppy kindergarten class there. It is pretty funny to see Nate crawling around the floor with five or six puppies and we love it. Almost daily I have people come in with their new puppies and get so jealous. So finally, and after MUCH research, we have picked a breed and a breeder and we have first pick of this year's litters. We probably won't get to bring it home till the end of this year but that works well since we don't know where we will be living yet. The breed is schnoodle, which is pretty cute in itself. It is a mix of a miniture schnauzer and a miniture poodle and it is unbelievably cute. They look a lot like McGruff, the dog I grew up with, just a little smaller. It will be a little pal for me to hang out with while Nate works long hours. If you want to check them out go to uptownpets.us. I haven't decided if I want all black or if I want the black and brown (phantom).

These are puppies of the kind Nate wants. They are Irish Wolfhound puppies. They will grow to be over 6'6" tall on their hind legs and over 120 pounds but they will stay this sweet. We will probably need to wait a while before we get one.

Sad Stories

I know I'm a bad blogger and it's a little sad that this is what I am blogging about but here goes. I am surprisingly sad about Heath Ledger's death. I didn't realize I was so attached. I suppose it makes sense; he was my first real movie crush in Ten Things I Hate About You and A Knights Tale. I just didn't think I was that affected by pop culture but I am really sad. I am also sadder than I thought about the recent death of Brad Renfro who was in Tom and Huck. It's things like this that make you wonder why talented and blessed people destroy their lives. It is even more sad when you realize that these people often have children that they are leaving behind. I know this is a sad thought but it should just remind you to hug your kids and do what's right. Until I blog again (could be weeks, could be months)...

Christmas time!

Merry Christmas everyone! I didn't quite have it together for all my Christmas cards this year but I did try to send some to the grandparents at least. For the rest of you, we are thinking of you and we do love you. As you bloggers already know Nate and I have had a crazy and wonderful year. We have done more traveling than most people get to do in a lifetime and have moved three times (not our record, by the way). Nate is finishing up his second to last semester of law school and I have a job at an animal hospital. My job has been great but hard for both of us because we want a puppy so bad. I see the cutest little puppies every day at work and I see people who don't take care of them very well and I think I would be so much better at it. We have big plans to add to our family next year (puppies, not babies. Sorry Moms). I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! We love you!

Here we go again

I have been remiss. I have discovered since coming home that I am only a blogger borne of boredom. When life gets busy the blog takes the hit. Nate and I have up and moved again. Deep down (or maybe just right on the surface) I wish we could have gone back to London, but South Bend seems intent on charming us. The first week we have been here we have not seen the sun and we have experienced gale force winds and rain on a regular basis. There is a constant drizzle and no matter how many times I run my chi iron down my hair it is desperate to show just how curly it can be. This may not sound charming to some but to us it has the homey feel of Hammersmith. I feel as I drive Nate to and from campus each day through the haze that I am back in foggy London town. Yesterday as we were returning home, however, we saw the price payed by the decreased visibility on the roads. As we pulled through the pretty tree lined drive to our apartment, in the middle of the road lay one of our beloved geese, dead. These geese cross the road many times a day and even the morning rush waits for them to pass but some incredibly impatient person decided they couldn't wait. I think the stress of moving and unpacking and job hunting all came home at that moment and I just started to cry. Nate, while not a heartless person (he truly was sad for our goose), seemed conflicted as to whether the scene was funny or not. He consoled me but I still feel sad when we drive by the flock.

I have new pictures to post from yet another adventure (this one to Pheonix). I will get right on that.