New Moon Trailer!!

The New Moon trailer was released last night...check it out here! I am beyond excited!

Graduation

Sunday, May 17th marked one of the biggest events of Kevin's and my life - Law School Graduation. I had built the event up in my mind for 3 long years and had made every attempt to make it a perfect day. In anticipation of the many pictures we would be taking, I had gone shopping and picked out a new dress and had spent quite sometime in doing my hair, but it was to be all for naught.

After a week of blue skies and high temperatures, I was expecting to be hot and sweaty all through the graduation ceremony (hence I had chosen a cap sleeved dress). Instead, it was pouring, I was freezing, my hair was ruined from having to hike up a hill in the rain, and my feet were soaking wet from having to step through so many puddles and sitting through a ceremony taking place in the partially flooded "sunken gardens."

I was looking forward to taking some great pictures of us in front of some of the cool locations, but alas, these interior shots will have to suffice!

The brilliant people at William and Mary closed down the main road leading to the Commencement Ceremony, leaving us with no other option but to trek up a hill through the rain in our heels. We didn't arrive early enough to get a good seat or for Kevin to participate in the "Walk of the Graduates," but you can tell by the smile on Kevin's face that it was all worth it!

Doesn't my graduate look great in his regalia?

After Commencement, we walked over to the Sunken Gardens (such an ironic name considering the weather) and tried to grab seats under the tent and not sinking in the mud. Everyone was really great - such troopers! Meet my wonderful mother-in-law, Artis, and Karen, my beautiful sister-in-law.

My parents, Jeanette and Perry, were also able to be there for the festivities!

Again, the brilliant people at William and Mary did not have enough covered seating under the tent, so tons of people had to stand in the rain. I couldn't let my favorite little guys Liam and Sam and of course their beautiful mother, Kelly, stand in the rain, so we piled in! I love these little guys!

Kevin receiving his diploma :)

The rain lightened up just enough for a picture in front of John Marshall and George Wythe (the law school's namesake).

We took the rest of the pictures inside the law school - this is Kevin and his favorite (and only) niece, Kate. She was SOOO good through the whole day!

The proud wife of an almost attorney!

Kevin and his good friend Josh Steward

With my parents...
With Karen, her husband Mike, and Kate...

With Kevin's parents...

Watch out legal world!

What a Month!

This has been the craziest month! I apologize for not posting at all lately, but I have been a bit busy! I have so many things to post about and way too many pictures to edit!

In summary, Kevin graduated from law school and we packed up our little apartment and moved to Dallas. We were fortunate to have family in town for the big event and spent our last week in Williamsburg revisiting all of our favorite tourist sites and sharing them with our family.

We are finally settled in Dallas and I have at last located my camera cord to download the hundreds of photos I have taken in the last month. Be prepared for an onslaught of posts!

Just Another Reason to Miss Williamsburg

I am going to miss so many things about Williamsburg! Just one of them is taking a scenic drive along Colonial Parkway to Yorktown Beach. Sadly, Kevin and I have only lately discovered one of Yorktown's greatest treasures, the Carrot Tree Restaurant, and its delicious baked treats. We took a drive down the other evening just because it was so beautiful outside and stopped for a yummy piece of carrot cake. In a word - HEAVEN! Nothing will ever compare - I will never again be satisfied with average carrot cake! I find myself thinking about that little (or not so little) slice of heaven WAY too much! Yum!

Isn't this the cutest little restaurant?

A perfect evening at Yorktown Beach :)

Easter Pictures

Happy Belated Easter!

Goal Achieved!

Some of you may have noticed either from the pictures posted on this blog or from seeing Kevin around that he has lost a bunch of weight. 60 pounds...yeah, that's a whole person (a small person I might concede, but a person nonetheless). If you read Kevin's confessions a few posts ago, you learned that we have been dieting since January and have tried, somewhat successfully, to kill our "inner fat guy," as it were - but dieting alone does not bring weight loss.


I hereby introduce to you the half marathon diet! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, weight loss can be yours by simply running disgustingly long distances several times a week in order to train for a half marathon! Well, that's what Kevin has been doing since February to get ready for the Dismal Swamp Stomp Half Marathon in Chesapeake and yesterday was race day (cue "Eye of the Tiger" music). After weeks of training, Kevin competed in his very first half marathon and he is happy and proud to report that he jogged the entire 13.1 miles! I couldn't have have been more proud :)

In order to adequately celebrate this tremendous achievement, I have documented his entire experience this weekend with copious amounts of pictures - enjoy!

Kevin was so nervous that we would miss the race if we tried to drive down in the morning that we got a hotel room just a few minutes from the race.

Here is Kevin holding up his bib the night before the race.

A champion has to eat like a champion! Champions eat delicious hamburgers at Red Robin!

On our way to the race...Kevin was really nervous!

Frantically pacing around waiting for the race to start

Lucky number 335!

Getting into "the zone"
The herd starts to move!


It begins...

Can you still spot Kevin?

This is the guy who won the race - yeah, if you do the math, that's under a 5 minute mile for 13.1 miles. That's insane! It was amazing to watch him finish! Kenyan's sure know how to run!

This was the first woman to cross the finish line - she was also from Kenya.
This was the first white guy to finish...good for him :)

Here comes Kevin!

Running towards the finish line
Go, Kevin, Go!

After Kevin finished, he got a little light headed, but all he needed was some water!
Give the poor man some water!
Much better :)
Back at the hotel and after a nice long shower, Kevin looked triumphant (and skinny, I might add) wearing his medal.
I am so proud of you Kevin! A special thanks to Kelly Crawford for dragging her two boys down through horrible traffic to be there to support Kevin - you're the best, Kelly!

“Why Are You Makin’ It Complicated?!...It’s Easy!”

Warning: This post may offend all those that are (1) devoid of a sense of humor; (2) uncomfortable with the use of well-crafted hyperbole; or (3) overly sensitive to the plight of the undereducated and their misguided attempts at self-improvement.

To fully understand this post, please follow the link below and watch this sublimely eloquent and thoroughly persuasive advertisement for Everest College:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZipLIoRqm8&feature=related

If you have ever felt lost, I am confident that after having reveled in the genius of this stalwart life-coach you are now found. I don’t know about everyone else out there, but before I saw this commercial I did not have a five year plan, the future seemed bleak and scary, I didn’t know what direction my life should take…now I do.

Before everyone starts thinking I’m uppity, I would like to say that I am sure Everest College is a fine institution. Furthermore, I respect anyone who pursues an education and I am certainly NOT an academic snob who looks down on a person for attending community/online college. That having been said, it’s not the message being offered (get an education) that I find ridiculous—it’s the messenger and the method of delivery. To elucidate my position, I have enumerated several qualms with the aforementioned advertisement:

Qualm 1

Call me crazy, but as a general rule I try not to take career advice from anyone wearing a sideways baseball hat. People who insist on maintaining a drunken frat-boy persona by cleverly tweaking the angle of their hat are morons. I’m not sure if this guy is trying to rebel against an overly burdensome, straight-laced and pernickety society by intentionally looking like a slouch, or if he was cool in high school and just hasn’t been able to let the dream die. Either way, I’m hesitant to blindly follow the academic admonitions of a person who, by twisting his hat, has marked himself with the international symbol for “tool.”

Qualm 2

For me, general rule number two includes questioning the validity of any career advice given by anyone preaching to me at night in what may or may not be “da hood.” I’m not in marketing, but if I were to put together a commercial for Everest College or any institute of higher learning, I would not use as a backdrop a neighborhood reminiscent of where one might acquire fake Prada bags, hot Rolexes, and adult herbs. Again, just me, but I might film the commercial in a school, at a place of business, or in a beautiful park on a sunny afternoon—you know, somewhere I might want to be instead of somewhere I would only find myself if my car broke down while picking up a hooker.

Qualm 3

Has this guy even been to college? If so, is this what I can expect from an Everest College education? I have to assume that as the spokesperson, this guy exemplifies what it means to be an Everest College graduate. I’ll concede that perhaps he received superior marks on his capstone research paper delving into the psychological degradation associated with hat-cocking, but would emulating this man really lead to success?

Qualm 4

For this one you may have to watch the video again and pay particular attention to the body language of this silver-tongued salesman. Is it just me, or does he roll his eyes as he turns away from the camera? Where does this guy get off being disgusted with me? By the end of this commercial not only have I been lambasted for wasting my life, evidently sitting on a couch relentlessly talking on the phone, but by the end, this man can no longer stomach looking into the face of blinding incompetence, aka, the viewer. Fully exasperated and no longer able to feign patience or even mask his broiling condescension for television viewers like myself, he rolls his eyes and turns away having accepted as fact that we viewers are perpetual losers lacking the tenacity to reach for the phone and change our life. I understand it’s this man’s job to motivate us to allow Everest College to help us achieve heights which we could not attain alone, but I’m not sure that this guy has a sufficiently impressive resume to treat all of us humble, late-night television viewers with pure, unadulterated contempt.

In short, despite this man’s undeserved hubris, he’s right; I am making it complicated when it is, in fact, easy. I’ve spent an undisclosed amount of time writing a post in defiance of this commercial, when next time I could just change the channel…but will I? No. Complaining is just too much fun!