Last Look at Georgetown

Laugh for the day

Zach dropped his cell phone in the toilet.
ewwwww.
And it still works!
The screen doesn't though...

Husband Tag

So this is a new kind of tag that I thought was an interesting change:)
Thanks Natalie for tagging me.

Zach is a fantastic daddy, that's not on the tag list so I thought I would add it at the top.

What is his name? Zachary Taylor Champlin
How long have you been married? 6 years and change
How long did you date? not very long! Honestly our first date was July 4th and we were married December 29th
How old is he? 28
Who eats more? Zach, by a loooong shot. Unless it's cereal....
Who said "I love you" first? Zach
Who is taller? Zach
Who sings better? Zach does, he's got a pretty good voice.
Who is smarter? As much as I hate to admit it, I'm pretty sure Zach's smarter- But I can hold my own!
Whose temper is worse? Hmm, that's maybe a toss up. He'd probably say me!
Who does the laundry? both of us
Who does the dishes? both of us (he saves me from my most hated chore often!)
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me
Who pays the bills? both of us do
Who mows the lawn? (ditto from Natalie) one benefit of apartment dwelling - no lawn to mow!
Who cooks dinner? we both do but Zach cooks MUCH better than me. And he always improves upon my recipes. Lucky huh!
Who drives when you are together? Both, but I like for him to drive. Acutally- lately I would prefer he DIDN'T drive, since he rides the metro everyday he's a little out of practice....
Who is more stubborn? Me
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Zach
Whose parents do you see the most? Right now neither. But probably mine when we are "home"
Who proposed? Zach
Who has more friends? Probably me, Zach gets a little lost in his school stuff:)
Who has more siblings? We're even! 7 kids in each family.
Who wears the pants? We'd like to think we are soooo even on this, but I'm pretty sure I do. Or at least I get my way more often. I hate to admit that one too!

Ok, I tag.... Angela, Kelly, Dani and Raegan

something old, something new...

Nope, no one is getting married. I just have a few thoughts I had running around my brain I wanted to let loose here:)

First, something Old. I don't think I ever announced our decision for where we will be spending next summer. After a very busy and crazy process of interviews for Zach during the first few months of school this year we had narrowed down our choices to three places that he had offers. Sorry, to clarify- offers to work as a summer intern for a law firm. One of the three we were deciding between was here in DC, one was in Phoenix and the third was in Charlotte. After much weighing of the options and trying our best to decide which firm and place was best we came to the conclusion that all three were really good choices! We prayed about it and thought about where we really want to be living the first few years or more our of law school. That's important because generally after your summer internship you get an offer to work at the firm as an associate once you finish your third and final year of school. Well, unless you did a horrible job :P So after considering all that again, and then again, Charlotte was the winner, I mean answer. Now that the decision has long since been made, I've been feeling really good about it.
We will spend 7 weeks there this summer and then the remaining half of the summer we will be going to Logan! Zach was just very recently offered a position to clerk for a law firm in Logan for the second half of the summer. We are really excited because we will get to spend the summer with family again. Plus I will be welcoming the helping hands of family members this summer with our new baby:) Thank goodness for Grandmas.

And for something New.
Today I took Naomi to have some blood drawn to test her lead levels. Her pediatrician wanted me to get it done sometime before she turned two. I had her hematocrit (iron levels) tested a while ago, it was just a toe prick and Naomi didn't even cry. So I wasn't' too worried about this today.
When the nurse came in I asked if she would be drawing blood from her finger or foot. Silly me. The answer was "her arm."
Oh.
I realized then that they needed a little more blood than I had anticipated. Naomi sat on my lap and I held her arm. They took the blood just like they would for an adult, using a rubber band thing to stop blood flow and then slid a little needle-type thing into her little inner arm, and collected the blood into two little vials. She screamed and cried and told us it was "owie, owie, owie!" I felt sooo horrible, but it was over pretty quickly. Once she was done the nurse taped the guaze pad on and we were out of there. Naomi was over it instantly, because if you've ever had your blood drawn you know that it stops hurting as soon as the needle is out, usually before that even. She was pretty brave afterward:) Once we got home I put a cute sesame street band aid on it.
I'll get the results at Naomi's 2 year well child appt next month. Hopefully it's all good.

Weekender

We went to Charlotte this last weekend. Zach had an interview with a Charlotte law firm for a summer internship position (for NEXT summer.) The firm was paying Zach's way and I had some ticket voucher and sky miles random flight and miles that we used to get me tickets. We left Friday and came home Monday and I am soooo exhausted!


I've been meaning to post about our little trip but I think I've been avoiding it because it made me so dang tired!


I flew alone and it was kind of hard, the hardest part wasn't the plane ride itself but parking the car, getting on the shuttle and off again and then through security with all our stuff was tricky and an extra set of hands would have been nice. People were always helping me though, it's funny I must have a sign that says "I can't handle this, help me please!" That's what I felt like anyway!


But really it wasn't' too bad, all loaded up I had Naomi in her stroller, a diaper bag tucked into the basket and a small carry on and her car seat hanging from the handles of the stroller. It's just disassembling the whole ensemble that takes a bit of effort...
We have some friends who live in Charlotte, Heather and Rob Jenkins, and they were so nice to show us around and have us for dinner. They have a little girl, Claire who is about 6 months younger than Naomi. Rob was a mission companion of Zach's and he just graduated from Georgetown and was hired on at the firm Zach's interviewing with.


We had a great time with them, Heather came and picked me up and Naomi up while Zach was in his interview and we hit up the local Farmers Market.


All I can say is "WOW."


It was three huge barn like buildings filled with produce, bread and crafts. But the crazy thing is that the produce market is EVERY DAY! I bought some strawberries and peaches and sampled some very good bread and salsa:) yum.


I wish I had more pictures of this trip to post, I was just so busy I forgot to take pictures! It seems like that happens to me a lot. The more interesting and exciting it is makes me forget all about my camera.


So we made it back Monday evening all in one piece. Zach is actually going back to interview with a different firm this Friday. Hopefully one will make him an offer! Charlotte is a much more affordable place to live than D.C. and the firms there pay surprisingly close to the same as here. It was really a pretty place, the downtown was clean, reminded me a little of Salt Lake City that way.

Alright, here are a few pictures from the little weekender.

Naomi watching the airplanes, and trucks and "trains" of baggage cars go by while we waited for our flight. Her glasses are pretty stylin'!

Naomi watching cartoons in our KING sized bed! I'm converted, we need a king...

The Charlotte airport had a row of ROCKING CHAIRS for people to sit and relax in while waiting for a flight! I didn't try one out but they looked comfortable. It seems so Southern, charming:)

Congrats!

I'm taking the liberty of congratulating my own husband for a job well done! Since he would never brag himself I get to do it all:)
He found out the results of the G-town law journal write-on competition today. He got an email telling him the results were in, from there he needed to log into the school website to see them.
Well, he was so funny, all nervous and he made it after all! He was "invited" to be on the Georgetown Journal of International Law. There are several journals and he is very excited about this one.
So, Congratulations Zach!

Bath time...

We got home from a fabulous over-nighter at Bear Lake yesterday at about 6:30 p.m. We mulled around and I got most of our stuff unpacked and put away, (it was an over-nighter, you'd think we could take our p.j.s but no.)
After the mini clean-up and put-away I was being gloriously lazy and sitting on our bed reading a novel, actually to be more accurate, I was totally sucked into this dumb book- Harlan Cobin, The Woods.
Anyway, Zach was being so great as to get Naomi ready for bed. They were in the bathroom rinsing out the tub for a bath and Naomi was dutifully dropping her tub toys into the tub one by one. I was actually listening to them and reading. Weird but I do that. So I hear the tub water stop and then all of the sudden Zach is laughing, really laughing. He has this funny laugh that he doesn't let escape all that often, I love it. I pulled my head out of the book to listen for what was going on. Zach walks into our room with his hair, face and shoulders totally soaking, dripping wet.
What tha......?
He was still laughing when he could finally tell me what happened:
"I was rinsing out the tub and then I went to plug the tub for the bath. I flipped the plug and the water stopped!"
So then he leaned his head in further, looking at the faucet to figure out what happened to the water? We live in a old and more than a little run down 1970's apartment so maybe the water just decided to turn off.....
All of this took just a few seconds - then WHAM the water hit him.
He pulled the shower plug thingy up, not the tub drain plug.
Sometimes I swear law school has sucked up about 1/2 his brain by now!

BIG Helper

-plus another cute shot, Naomi's little pool is in our living room....

December Times

On Thursday afternoon Zach did "The Blazin' Challenge" at Buffalo Wild Wings. He had to eat 12 wings in 6 minutes. No water, no wiping and all that topped with the HOTTEST of HOT BBQ sauces ever invented. He's either insane or just really cool:)


I had wings myself with the 3rd hottest sauce: Mango Habanero. It was not smart. My mouth was permanently on fire, burning. My lips, my mouth, my tongue. So yeah, I got a to-go box since I couldn't eat them all and uh... "forgot" to bring it home with me.


Ah well! Zach got his picture on the wall and a free T-shirt! He was so proud of himself. He actually finished all the wings with almost 3 minutes to spare but on the last bite of the last wing he flicked sauce IN HIS EYE!!! He was bawling but couldn't wipe them until the 6 minutes were up. He sat there with his eyes pinched shut and could barely talk it stung so bad. I couldn't' help but laugh, he looked so funny. Even with all that he was feeling "hot" about his accomplishment.

I'm just glad it didn't blind him.

On Tuesday we are leaving for Utah for 3 weeks, leaving Cheetah here. The Pet Nanny, Judy will be coming over every few days to feed her, clean her litter and give her loves. I hope Cheetah will be ok, I'm sure she will, I guess I just feel bad leaving her for so long. But I feel it's better than boarding her at the vet where she'll be anxious and out of her element. She should be just fine and Judy will call if there is any kind of problem at all.



That's all for now, I'll be posting later..
Merry Christmas!!!!!




These last two pictures are of Naomi contemplating the grapefruits. She tried to carry them around, they were too heavy for her....

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