Update on Law School Search

Amid the craziness of planning a wedding, I'm still waiting to hear from law schools.  I have been accepted to a couple more since my last posting...

So, I have some options. . .I have a scholarship to Chicago-Kent and I'm waiting on Ohio State's decision letter for any word on scholarships there.  I'm quite excited, but it would sure be nice to hear from Utah and/or BYU.  Someone call them up and give them a little heads up about how tubular I am.  Yes, I do use 90's vernacular at times.  Don't judge me.

The Much Anticipated Waiting Game

I feel like I've been doing a lot of waiting lately.  Waiting to get married, waiting to look for apartments until the wedding date gets closer, waiting to hear from law schools (especially Utah and BYU so that I can figure out whether or not to sign a year lease on an apartment), waiting to go to Cancun with Kelsey.  There is a lot of waiting in my life right now.  Maybe I need to stop thinking about it like waiting and start saying preparing.  Then it will sound like I'm more active. . .and trust me, I am.  We have been planning our wedding like crazy and it's very fun.  I love it.  I can't wait for the big day on March 29. As for law schools, I'm still waiting to hear from the majority of them.  I would really like to get inside the head of the admissions staff at these schools.  What are they thinking?  Why did some respond so quickly and why are some holding out.  So far I've been accepted to the following schools:

Two schools in California and one in Arlington, Virginia.  For those familiar with law schools, George Mason is probably the best of these three schools overall, however, I got a scholarship to San Diego so if Utah and BYU reject me and I don't get any other acceptances, I will probably take San Diego.  Anyway, I'll just have to WAIT and see.   Speaking of waiting again, just today I got waitlisted at American.  I've been waitlisted there and University of Washington now.  I can understand getting waitlisted at UW but at American?  George Mason is much more competitive it seems.  I'd rather go to Mason anyway so it doesn't really matter but I just want to know how these decisions are made from the inside.

I'm excited for the weeks to come and although I'm waiting on a lot right now, the engaged life is great.  Really it is.  People always ask me how it is being engaged and when I tell them it's great they look at me and say, "you don't have to lie." I mean, certainly married life will be much more awesome and once the wedding is here that will be awesome too, but I've enjoyed myself so far.

Oh and Happy Valentines Day! I have the best girl to share it with.  And what are we doing to celebrate?  We're going to Star of India!  I'm so excited.  I have never been and I've heard it's fantastic.

Yes is My New Favorite Word

I'm engaged. Yep, the amazing Miss. Kelsey Chandler agreed to become a Mrs. with me.  We went ring shopping last Monday and Tuesday and found a ring she loved.  She wasn't expecting me to buy it the next day and then propose on Thursday, but that's what I did.  On Thursday, I was planning on going to Cedar City with her and her grandpa.  I knew that SUU was the most appropriate place for me to pop the question as we both are quite proud of that wonderful school, met there, dated there, etc.  I called an old SUUSA advisor, Jake Johnson, who put me through to Donna, the VP of Student Services.  She got on the phone and asked what she could do to help out.  She was very excited as she worked with both Kelsey and me quite a bit last year.  So, I told her I wanted to propose in the Great Hall, where Kelsey and I had attended a dance together last year and is one of our favorite spots on campus.  Thanks to her and Kelsey's brother/family, everything went off without a hitch and Kelsey was very surprised.  It was perfect.  I certainly consider myself quite lucky to be getting an amazing girl like her.  She's beautiful, smart, funny, and my best friend.  I couldn't be happier.  And, as if saying yes wasn't wonderful enough, she gave me a new camera for Christmas the next day!  Yep, she's amazing.

Of course that was the highlight of the year for me but to make the day even better, I received a call from George Mason Law School congratulating me on being accepted into their Fall 2012 program.  The stars certainly aligned for me last week. Hopefully that is just one of many acceptances I get over the next few weeks.

Life has always been good to me, but it was especially good to me this week.

Merry Christmas.

Life is Good

It's late and I have to get up early tomorrow but what's new.  That's how my life rolls.  Life is tough sometimes and for that, I am grateful for the principles taught in the following gem of a video.  If you aren't familiar with the LDS church, you may not know that we believe there are 12 living apostles on the earth today as there were when Christ lived on the earth.  They speak every 6 months to all the members of the church so it feels like I have gotten to know these fine gentlemen even though I have only met a few very briefly.  Through their words, I have learned so much.

The weird part is, that as I have listened to them speak so often, I have started expecting them to fill certain roles and I can identify them by the characteristics they exude while speaking.  For example, Elder Bednar is the amazingly even-tempered teacher, Elder Scott is reflective and just makes everything clear, President Monson can always be counted on for a story and a smile, Elder Holland (I might get in trouble for this) is the enforcer.  Ok, so that sounds really bad, but you know how he is, he's the guy who you go to if really want to know the truth about how you look because he's not afraid to say it.  He is an amazing example of courage, that's for sure.  I could go on but I'll just move on to the man of the hour.

Elder Nelson has always had a unique role in my view of the apostles.  I feel like he is the sweet grandpa who always gives great advice and little tidbits of wisdom when he speaks.  Maybe I see him as a grandpa because I know a bunch of his grandkids but he fills that role for me and the principles he shares in this video were quite comforting to me tonight.



Although the world may seem to be crashing down around us with natural disasters, personal trials, family struggles, etc, it's nice to know that, if we stay close to Him, our hearts will not fail us and turn to fear.

Law School Applications

It's 1:41 currently as I begin this blog post.  It will be short, but I had to just get my excitement out somewhere.  I finally finished my personal statement and resume today.  I mean, I had other drafts that I revised a billion times before I decided it was as good as it was gonna get but finally, today I finished them.  And so the applying process begins.  I applied to the University of Utah and Arizona State tonight.  I'll definitely be applying to more tomorrow and Saturday.  Hopefully on Saturday I can get all of them in. I'll have to have a little tab on the side of my page keeping track of the status of my applications.

Anyway, just had to let someone know how excited I was about this.

World Series - Game 6

Go Cardinals.  I just watched the most exciting and crazy baseball game of my life.  I know some of you might rather lick rocks than watch baseball, well, at least one of you.  I know the season can get a little long sometimes.  But come on people, it's America's favorite past-time!  It's part of our history!  Ok, the point of this post was not to give you all a lecture for not appreciating baseball.  The point of this post was to remind those who watched game 6 of how awesome it truly was!  If you didn't see it, find it and watch it!  I was literally jumping up and down screaming with excitement when David Freese tied the game up with his triple that he hit to right field.  That right fielder will forever hate himself for that error.  However, to give him credit, and Freese credit, it wasn't necessarily an easy ball to catch.

Anyway, GO CARDINALS!  Last time they won the world series, I was in the MTC.  I'm excited to see this one.

Also, Pujols is a funny last name.

Look at this box score!  Isn't it amazing?  Seriously guys, this game was one for the books.

	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11		R	H	E
TEX	0	1	1	0	3	0	0	2	0		9	15	2
STL	0	1	0	1	0	1	2	2	1		10	13	3

10 Minute Brain Drain

Ok, I have ten minutes to write a blog post while on my break.  I'm just going to dump everything that is in my brain right now into this little blog text box.

First of all, law school.  I can't stop thinking about it.  I'm excited, nervous, stressed about getting the appliations all finished up, nervous, excited, excited.  Did I say I was excited?  Yeah, I am.  I can't wait to get back into school.  I am so grateful for my job, but, I just feel like I'm in this transition period of my life and I just want to move forward. 

I'm ready for a change.  I like changing it up, learning new things, taking risks (Kelsey's trying to get me to jump out of a plane with her and I'm still trying to decide if I like risks that much), seeing new places, meeting new people, etc.  Of course I love the few static things that I can and do rely on like my family, my home, my friends, the gospel, however, I feel like sitting still at a cubicle is killing me.  I love the people I work with and the experience I have gained so far but it's hard when you know it's only a temporary thing.

Next brain dump item: halloween.  If you haven't checked out Gardner Village lately, maybe you should click on the link.  You will see a witch that is a silly looking 70s diva on the left and that would be my mother.  She is a witch at Gardner Village this year and is loving it.  I'm proud of her and thought I'd share what she's doing because it's awesome.  Here she is below.

I have the coolest mom ever.  Well, I'm out of time.  Man that went fast and my brain is still full of stuff.  More for later I guess.

Toodles!