Tonight.

We Danced.

As a family. In the kitchen. Like nobody would ever know about it. And it was one of the greatest moments in my life.

Law School Sucks

Really, though. I try to be optimistic about it, but SERIOUSLY! Let me tell you what a normal day is like.
5:30am Drew's alarm goes off. I wake up, he sleeps through it because he's so exhausted from the late night before.
6:30am Drew's alarm goes off again. I've been awake all of this time because I can never go back to sleep after the 5:30 alarm. He jumps out of bed and showers quickly to catch the 6:45 bus. Yes, he takes the bus because I'm just not driving him to school that early every day.

Around 2 or 3 he calls to "check in" then runs back to studying. He comes home at 6 or 6:30, eats a quick dinner, and puts Grace to bed at 7. Around 11, on a good night, he finally crawls into bed.

If you calculated right that is 15 HOURS of schooling per day. He's only in class for 3 hours. When my Dad told us that law school would be 3 years of hell, he wasn't kidding.

Grace and I are home most days, but we try to get out of the house once a day to keep our sanity. We live in a neighborhood that's not the safest, and our neighbors are kind of scary. I don't like being home without Drew, and yes, I always carry a gun. Don't mess with this momma. Once or twice a month we go to the law school to have lunch with Drew, so that's a good break. Not to mention we are poor...........so, so poor.

 Honestly, we've been so blessed though. Somehow we haven't touched a cent of the money we've taken out of our loans for living. We've lived frugally off of our savings. We've had random income EVERY month that has helped buy diapers, pay bills, etc. How does that even logically happen? It's not logical, it's just blessings from Heavenly Father.

I'm not writing this to complain, because we have a wonderful life, but it's not perfect. When you don't see your spouse, it's hard to have a relationship. We go days without having a real conversation. I'm just glad I have someone out there sacrificing so that my family can eventually have a comfortable life. I'm all about paying my dues, but dang, this is hard! I'll probably feel this way until we get out of school and that is okay! I'm letting myself feel this way because it's normal to feel this way.

IS IT OVER YET?!

MRSA

Remember how much Grace loved swimming on the cruise ship?

Ya, BIG mistake. 

I feel so bad she's dealing with this infection. MRSA is a staph infection that is very difficult to treat. In most cases antibiotics will not entirely get rid of the infection. She is on antibiotics and hopefully she will be the small percentage that they help. Poor little thing. We have to do ointment and BLEACH baths as well. Yes, BLEACH. It's so sad to see your little baby in pain. Get better, Grace!

Christmas in the Caribbean.

We started our break by going through the Temple with Jacob. He will be serving his mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Her favorite part of the whole trip; swimming on the boat.

Our family Christmas picture.

Dunns River Falls, Jamaica.

We never got to see Santa. Sad day.

We flew down to Vegas and spent a few days there before leaving on our cruise. My parents moved out to Summerlin in Las Vegas. Their new house is beautiful. Then all 11 of us flew to Florida where we went out of Fort Lauderdale. First we went to Key West, Florida. Then, we stopped in Cayman Islands, where we swam with the stingrays and snorkeled. It was so fun. Our final stop was in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This was everyones favorite stop! We went on the Jamaican bobsleds and hiked Dunns River Falls. Seriously amazing. Merry Christmas everyone!