The Bar Exam

Ben has been studying like crazy for the bar exam the past little while.  Back in the fall he bought some bar study books and ever since then the intensity of his studying has slowly gotten higher and higher.  Now I'm lucky to have him send me on my way to work each morning and then eat dinner with him and read our scriptures and say our prayers together at night.  He doesn't even come to bed anymore because it is usually late late at night and then he tosses and turns waking me up more than I already wake up on my own.  It's nice to have the entire bed to myself, but just feels weird to know that he's sleeping on the futon in the other room. 

Almost every conversation we have consists of one of the following: how his studying is going, how well prepared he feels for it, what the weather will be like on the day he actually has to take it (the biggest snow of the season is predicted for Tuesday and yes, Ben is concerned about driving to it), how they score it, how they write the questions, what his goal score is, what his plan for taking the test is, etc.  You name it, we've talked about it.

 We both keep telling ourselves it's just so many more days.  Well, now it's just until Wednesday.  Then Ben won't have to stress about studying for and taking the bar, just stress for two months about how well he did on the bar.

Ugh.

And, so I've spent many a lonely night with the tv or a chick-flick to keep me company while I try to find something to do to occupy my time.  Before we got married I asked one of my friends how being married to a law student was.  Being married to someone studying for the bar exam is far worse than being married to a law student.  I'm ready to have a husband back even if that means he'll be pestering me when I'm trying to get things done.  I've missed his pesterings.

By the way, the bar consists of written response questions, 1 pretty much asking you to do a lawyer-like task ie. write a memo and 5 based on Minnesota law on day one and then 200 multiple choice questions on day two.  If you want to join along with Ben, feel free to spend all day Tuesday writing essays and all day Wednesday filling in a bubble sheet. 

Daily life

Here are some random pictures from the camera files.  They pretty much depict daily life here.

 Ben is awesome at doing most of the household chores while I'm at work.  Like today for example.  He did the laundry because I didn't have any clothes to wear.  This is how he folds my clothes when he does my laundry.  He neatly piles up the like clothes together (see the socks are clearly matched in pairs) on my half of the bed.  Then he leaves them for me to fold.  He knows I like them folded in a particular style, so instead of folding them and having me refold them, he leaves them to be folded once.  Once I'm done, he helps me put them away :)  He is also really great about making dinner almost every day, and it's not an easy task because I never know what I want to eat.  However, he always does such a nice job serving them, right Mom?

This is a fun little prize I found today.  Can you tell what it is?  It's the smartest thing ever and I want to collect enough that I can send them with our children in their school lunches when they are older.  I was really excited about it when I found it.

And, here is a birthday picture.  Lauren and I look so excited.  Actually, I look a little drugged and Lauren doesn't look like she wants to wait for me to blow out the candles.  It was a fun day, though.  And, the cake was delicious!  I've been craving marble cake for months, and Ben braved the task and made me one (I did have to frost it, though...)

So, that's about it.  And by the way, that green thing is a kiwi knife/spoon.  And, it works.  I used it on my kiwi I ate with dinner tonight.

Survey

Not for you, for me.

Two weeks ago on a particularly snowy Monday, Ben and I went to the mall to go walking.  We hadn't been there too long when a lady stopped us and asked if I could do a survey for them.  I said sure, and then she made sure I fit into the age group they were looking for: female between the age of 18-34.  So, her partner took me into a back room in the mall and said she had a couple questions to ask me, then answer some questions on a computer, and then I'd take some shampoo and conditioner home to use for two weeks.  They would call me back, ask some more questions, and then send me a check.  I was very willing once I heard I'd be getting paid :)

For the past two weeks now I've been using their special shampoo and conditioner.  The only thing I've decided is that I can't wait to go back to my normal shampoo and conditioner.  And, I can't wait for that check to come in the mail.  Not that it has been any inconvenience, it's just that I use my shampoo for a reason.  It's good for my hair (and more so for my scalp, but that is beside the point since the survey was only about hair).  It was nice having the new stuff because it means I've got a few more weeks before I have to buy shampoo again.

Now it's just waiting to see how much that check will be.  I hope they send it out really quick.