Pantyhose and Pearls

Someone has got the right idea...Brenn got into my jewelry while we were getting ready for my cousin's wedding reception yesterday. She brought it to me and I put it on her and she was the happiest little girl in the world getting to wear her fancy necklace all night long.

This last month has been rather stressful/eventful.  As summer started coming to an end we were feeling like we needed to start figuring out what was going to be next for our family.  Jake has been working as a federal judicial law clerk and his term would be up in the fall. Well, there were a ton of options going around. He had the option to extend his clerkship, some job offers, and then there was the LL.M.

It all started about a few months ago when he let me know that the judge had encouraged him to think about pursuing tax law. Jake researched it (because thats what Jake does, he researches everything) and finds out that the deadlines for all but two of the schools that he would consider going to were open for just one or two more weeks to be admitted for this upcoming school year.  He applied to 5 schools just to keep that door open, but it didn't really seem like it was something to be considered too seriously. Anyway he was admitted to all 5 schools including Florida, which is the number 2 program in the nation (just a little brag blurb for that awesome accomplishment).

By this time some deadlines were starting to come where he had to let some of the options know whether or not he would be accepting their offers or not. We felt super confused as to what we should do.  It seemed like every time we would discard the idea of the LL.M. something would happen (like a law school professor emailing him out of the blue about it, the judge coming back from a conference that made him advise it again, or a scholarship being awarded, etc.) that would make the option be reconsidered. I was at my breaking point with the stress of not knowing what in the heck was going on and with the ideas of our family's future changing almost daily.

We had been praying about it and still felt unsure.  So we took a weekend and went to the temple and fasted.  I had the strongest feeling while we were in the temple that I needed to be supportive and do whatever Jake felt our family needed to do.  There were some things said in a prayer there that I felt like my Heavenly Father was talking directly to me and was so aware of me and the stuggles/stresses I had been experiencing. It was such a blessing to know with a surety how aware He was of me and my situation and of His love He has for me and my family.

The next day we fasted about it.  I talked to Jake later that afternoon as he was making a pros and cons list of the different options we were considering.  I told him he needed to just make a decision and take it to the Lord. He went into the other room for awhile and came out and told me that he had gone in thinking he was going to take one of the job options (because I mean come on we had gone through our undergrad and then 3 years of law school, did more schooling really make sense?!?  We have two kids, paying money to do work rather then getting paid to work didn't really make sense).  But when he brought that option to the table he said he just felt empty inside. So he did what he says he feared most and prayed about the LL.M.  Well, he came out and let me know that we were going to be moving to Boston.

This decision was made the last Sunday of July. Classes begin the first week of September, which means we would be leaving the end of August. So I had a little more then 3 1/2 weeks to prepare for a move across the country...BAH!!! There have been a lot of thought, prayers and tears (mostly on my part) that have gone into this decision.  Though monetarily/logically it doesn't completely make sense, for some reason this what we feel that we are supposed to do and we just need to have the faith that everything is going to work out.

The LL.M. is a Masters in Law.  Jake will be pursuing his Masters in Tax Law at Boston University starting this fall.  It is only a 9-month program, so that time frame along with the fact that my sister Brittany and her family are out there (her husband is at Harvard Law) have really helped me wrap my head around the whole situation and look at it as an exciting adventure rather than focusing on the stressfulness that comes with the packing up our house and moving across the country in a few weeks, and the dread of more schooling.

The day after we decided to go out to Boston we put our second car up for sale and it sold within 12 hours of being posted--for our asking price. We were also able to get our house rented in just a couple days since our contract wouldn't be up by the time we left, so we have been looking at those things as confirmations that this must really be what we are supposed to do.

So here we go into crazy packing mode to get ready for our move.  We will leave the 25th of this month (which also happens to be our 6th anniversary) it is rather fitting seeing that this will be our 9th move since we have been married. So I guess I will need to make sure I have all my pantyhose and pearls packed (because you know that's what all the Moms on the East Coast wear to take their kids to school), because its Boston or Bust!

Now just hope that I can get this place packed up...I am either having to pack boxes one handed since a little arm monkey is attached to me occupying my other hand or I get some really good helpers (Carder packs his own boxes always filled with the most interesting assortment of things...he is so proud of them though I have to wait until he's not looking to repack them, and then there is Brenn who's favorite thing as of late is to climb anything and everything she can (moving boxes are not helping that issue) and to load and unload containers which has caused for many of my packing efforts to be repacked numerous times). Did I mention since we are there for so brief that we just taking our car and pulling a trailer behind it and then putting everything else in storage...SCARED!