Mountain Lion

I was informed the other day by the Pepperdine Dean of Students that there is a mountain lion on campus.  Great.  As if law school isn't bad enough, there's now the potential of death as I walk into to take my final exams.  How often I've heard classmates say, "That Corporations exam was so hard I thought I was going to die!"  Well, this year, that last part just might come true.  I know going to school in Malibu has it's pros and cons (pro = you're on the beach, con = you can't afford to live anywhere near campus) but a roaming mountain lion just shot the con column through the roof.  I've seen a coyote on campus before, and I see small herds of deer roaming around campus about once a week, but I did not expect to have to deal with any predatory cats.  Grrrrr.

6 Months

28 weeks down, 12 to go.  I've completed 6 months of this pregnancy and am working on my 7th month.  The next challenge is going to be convincing the little Peanut to stay in the womb until at least 38 weeks.  I am making a risky move and have decided to take one of my required courses over the summer.  We have 9 upper division required classes at Pepperdine and one of the hardest is Evidence.  If all goes as planned, I will complete Evidence in 7 weeks (far less painful than the full 16 weeks it would take during the fall semester) and take the exam at 38 weeks pregnant.

I have gained 20 pounds so far, and while I'd like to blame it all on the Peanut, it's really my latest obsession with Weight Watchers Ice Cream Bars that's to blame.  I've learned that Weight Watchers food isn't magic food, and eating two of everything kind of defeats the Weight Watchers purpose.  Oh well.

28 weeks (less than 3 months to go)

Finals, again.

I am in full finals study mode.  I have four this semester, two this coming week (Family Law, and Ethical Corporate Practice), and two the next week (Corporations, and Advanced Wills & Trusts).  Finals freak me out.  They are so unpredictable and are pretty useless in measuring one's actual knowledge.  They do, however, do a really great job of measuring one's ability to memorize. 

In other news we've completely moved out of the condo and are in our "new" apartment.  My commute is now only 30 minutes (Yay!) but BA's commute has increased to an hour at the minimum (Boo!).  We just can't win here.  At least BA will hopefully be working from home 2 or 3 days a week, which will make up for the long commute in gridlock traffic on other days. 

I am also finished with my sixth month of pregnancy.  I have less than three months left to go and so far we only have baby clothes for the Peanut.  No crib, no stroller, no car seat, nothing.  We had to wait on getting all of that fun stuff until we'd moved out of our condo and into the apartment.  Now that we have two bedrooms and some extra space, I can actually picture how Peanut's room will be set up, and it makes me so excited.  I can't wait to decorate her room and fill her closet with clothes - I didn't allow myself to get excited about that before because we just didn't have the space.  But now we do, and I can't wait to fill it up.     

Bonus Belly Photo

Bonus belly photo.  Taken at 26 weeks!  It's getting harder to tie my shoes.

Perfect Storm of Stress

We are currently stressed out to the max around here.  We are selling our condo, a process that could easily be described as a nightmare  We are moving to an apartment this weekend.  My law school final exams start one week from Monday and I'm so behind I'm actually skipping school tomorrow to stay home and outline.  Oh, and we're having a baby.  Most people take on these major life hurdles one at a time - we're not that lucky.  We get to do all of them, all at once. 

One day, I'm sure I will look back on this time in our lives and say, "it really wasn't that bad."  And BA, observing that I must be completely inebriated to come to such a ridiculous conclusion, will remove the margarita from my hand, and say "yes it was."

L.A. Dodgers

On Friday we went to a Dodgers Game with my Law School Journal.  If you've been following sports news, last weekend a San Francisco Giants fan was attacked by Mexican gang members in the Dodgers parking lot and beaten into a coma.  It's a really tragic story and very scary.  Apparently, Dodgers games have become popular among L.A.'s gangs.  But we have thick skin so we were determined not to let a little nuisance like gang violence keep us away from the ball game ... uh, that and the fact that the L.A. police force doubled their presence at the game and you couldn't walk 20 feet without seeing an officer.  It was a fun evening topped off with fireworks after the game.

BA and me with some of my law school friends

Two Whole Bedrooms

Between countless doctors visits, trying to sell the condo, and trying to lease an apartment, I've gotten so busy that I'm (conveniently) forgetting to do homework.  The good news is that it looks like our condo might actually sell.  We are in escrow, the inspection is complete, and there are no red flags.  BA and I got so excited about the prospect of a sale, that last weekend we went out and put a deposit down on a two bedroom apartment - that's right, two whole bedrooms!!!  And it's only going to cost us $1860 a month!  WOW - what a steal, right?!?!  I realize that outside of LA and NYC, $1860 a month is outrageous (ridiculous, unacceptable, a scandal), but here it is actually considered "affordable."  The thing is, in LA, everyone pays so much more, for so much less, and everyone seems happy about it.  Of course, we don't consider it "affordable" because we still live in the real world and haven't quite been converted over to La-La-Land (translation = LA) price acceptance.  So at $1860 a month, I can forget about going out to eat or taking vacations.

Contrary to what you might expect based on our rent, our apartment is nice, but not luxury, and will still take BA one hour to commute to work.  It's by no means perfect, but I'm just so excited that the baby will get her own room.  It's common in LA for a middle-class family of three (two parents, and one child) to live in a one bedroom apartment.  I know, because we currently have a family above us doing just that.  So the fact that we can afford two bedrooms in Southern California, on one income, is incredible to me, and I am so grateful to BA for working so hard to make that happen.