plans change.

remember how we were going to go to law school?  well… as the great robert burns so aptly wrote: “the best laid plans of mice and men [often go awry]."

despite having many things go our way, planning tirelessly, even being admitted to schools we wanted to go to, we’re just not convinced it's a good fit at this time.  we were admitted to Santa Clara – the school we felt would actually be the best academic fit for us, with its focus concentrating on High Tech Intellectual Property law.  only days later, after excitedly planning where we would live, when we would move, seth came to me expressing his doubts about law school being the smartest move for us.

quite honestly, i was rather shocked.  for as long as ive known seth – i thought this is what he wanted to do.  id been so supportive of law school up until this point because the most important thing to me is that seth is doing something he loves.  if this was his dream, of course i was going to be 110% supportive. 

after discussing all the pros and cons – we could find very few pros for attending law school, and a plethora of cons.  additionally, the cons were things that actually got us excited about our future – whereas the pros were based on possibilities, not necessarily actualities – and in and of themselves did not seem very compelling.

for those who know me well, who better to understand seth's decision to reconsider law school than me?  as i heard him working through it, i was reminded so much of my own struggle regarding law school.  i think we can both see that although a fascinating field of study, we may both be better off by knowing we could, and choosing not to. 

after we discussed things, we felt it best to not make any rash decisions and have continued to pursue law school as an option while we labor to determine what is the very best thing for our family.  just the prospect of law school is stressful, whereas this other option fills me with excitement for the future.  i know the future wont be perfect – bringing with it any number of challenges that may change our plans.  but i feel good about this. happy about it. excited. 

it feels to good to be married to someone who has a good head on his shoulders – willing to change his plans, even after putting so much of himself into something (stressing about the LSAT, stressing about the application process, etc.) i am so grateful that he truly is looking out for the best interest of our family and doesn’t want to put us in a stressful position for nothing. 

being able to reevaluate your plans and adapt for the future isnt usually the easiest course of action.  most of the time, its just easier to move forward with a plan, just because its been the plan for so long.  if we arent constantly asking ourselves what is in the best interest for us and our families, i think we may really be missing out on making great things happen.  how many opportunities for growth are missed because we simply want to maintain the status quo?  seth so rightly said, "what is life all about anyway?" i think if we ask ourselves that question more often, we will find more of God in our lives, and be able to rejoice in the many ways we are blessed through His guidance.   

could we really have put all our school years behind us??? stay tuned!

xx

DISNEYLAND!!! (oh and graduation)

so when seth graduated, i wanted to do something fun to celebrate. although he didn’t feel like graduation was a very big deal, janae looooooooves finding things to celebrate, so i planned a trip to our very favorite place: DISNEYLAND!!!

many of you already know that our relationship (or at least the final stages) was a long distance one.  i was in los angeles and he was finishing his computer science degree at BYU.  we only had one weekend a month to spend with each other – which usually meant he came to the city of angels (because utah is not fun.)

having season passes, we spent much of our courting time in the magic kingdom. we sort of joke that at one point in time, half our dates had been to disneyland.  truth be told, that probably 

wasn’t too far from the truth. my first trip to disneyland was only in the summer of 2009, so most of my disney experience has been shared with hubby.   we have a running joke of calling significant places in our relationship “our special place” (thanks to a very funny story told once by my boss in los angeles). the ghetto apartment complex where seth lived when we first met; the domino’s pizza we ate the first time we met; DISNEYLAND. disneyland is our special place.  so, naturally, for Christmas, we bought season passes once again, so the magic wouldn’t end in 2011. 

we spent 4 sun-filled days at disneyland and disney’s california adventure, with momma rogers and family coming to join us on the last day of our trip.  We stayed at a hotel that is suuuuuuuuuuuper cheap.  i didn’t want this trip to count as our REAL vacation (i plan on big vacations – costa rica, hawaii, etc. – disneyland is just a weekend get-away.)  i was a little concerned about how dirty this hotel might be.  i even brought our own sheet, just in case.

Picture of the pool - found online

it wasn’t bad at ALL!  we will seriously stay here any time we go for these weekend trips.  clean (albeit a little old), HUGE swimming pool.  i really felt i had nothing to complain about here.  and it was close to the park, so we went back to the hotel for an afternoon swim or rest (usually both ;)) every day.  it was a good pick. and saved us loads of $$! For what I would guess most people spend on one night a lot of places – we paid for all three nights.  what a deal.

we usually go to disneyland with others (my parents came once, his mom comes with us often) and it was nice to be there together for a change.  BUT. by the third day (when his mom came into town) WE WERE SO BURNT OUT that we were glad some fresh blood had come.  this way, our last day had some renewed vigor and we were our happy little disney-selves :)

all this happened to celebrate seth's graduation, so here are some pictures from that day:

this has to be the cutest picture ever of a graduate.
dont i have the cutest hubby???

seth with his grandfather

seth with his parents 

seth and janae

seth’s parents and grandfather came up from arizona to celebrate with us and be there to see him graduate.  momma rogers went with us to the mall one day and talked us both into buying Keen’s for our disney adventures.  most people who know me know i have a rather strong affinity for shoes and its like pulling teeth to get me into an athletic pair.  i like cute sandals, ultra high stilettos, fun wedges. running shoes are definitely not my thing (i have a hard time spending $100 on a pair of shoes i will ONLY wear to the gym). so uber outdoorsy shoes, like keens are so beyond what i can rationalize myself into buying.  they are not hideous or anything – but i feel like such a dork in them and really out of my element.  anyway – momma rogers is a good convincer (although it probably took her an hour and a few walks around the mall to do it) and seth and i both bought a pair. 

my feet still hurt a lot after 4 days at disney – and i relished the time i spent soaking them in our pool – but all in all – i think they were a good purchase.  and they’ll be fun to have on some of our other adventures to come (like hiking through the rainforest in costa rica!)

see more pictures of our california adventures here, where seth forgets what letter he's supposed to do on  our  my favorite ride ever.

and in particular here, where my artistic abilities are clearly expanding due to disney's animation studios.

LOTS more updates to come.  just wanted to post some of these pix – i hate how bad i am at blogging.

xx