My Sweet Husband

What's his name? Charles Edward Gates, Jr.
How long have you been married? 4 years
How long did you date? 10 months
How old is he? 31
Who eats more? Chuck. Except once he bet me $100 worth of new clothes that I couldn't eat a rack of ribs, order of chicken wings, and plate of fries all by myself. You better believed I downed that food and we went shopping a few days later.
Who is taller? Chuck
Who said 'I love you' first? I'm pretty sure it was me.
Who does the laundry? Me, but Chuck helps fold
Who does the dishes? We both do them
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Chuck
Who cooks dinner? Me
Who sings better? Chuck, He sang to me at our wedding!
Who drives when you are together? Chuck
Who is more stubborn? I don't think either of us are stubborn.
Who is smarter? Chuck is like a walking Encyclopedia. I am amazed at some of the things he knows.
Who kissed who first? I kissed Chuck
Who asked who out first? I asked out Chuck
Who proposed? I at least let him propose. We were driving back to Baltimore from NC really late at night. I had fallen asleep in the car and he woke me up while driving into downtown DC. He said he wanted to take a walk along the Tidal Basin. WHAT?? It was midnight, snow was on the ground, I was wearing PJs, was he nuts? I was a good sport and went for the walk anyways. Good thing because he asked me to marry him during our walk. It was great.
Who is more sensitive? Me - I cry at EVERYTHING.
Who has more friends? Me
Who has more siblings? Chuck has 5 sisters
Who wears the pants in the family? We each have one leg in.

Chuck is also a wonderful husband and father. He loves his one night a week (sometimes 2) alone with the girls. He works so hard at school for our family. I am so grateful for such a wonderful man in my life. I am looking forward to the eternities with him by my side.

Student Editor of Student Lawyer Magazine

Yesterday, I was named Student Editor of Student Lawyer magazine, which is published by the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association.

The magazine provides guidance on educational, career, and related issues for division members and others. It is published every month of the school year, September through May, and is available only by subscription or as part of the $20 annual membership in the ABA Law Student Division.

The magazine is run by the full-time editor, but each year a Student Editor is chosen and given a large amount of authority in planning the magazine. I am completely in charge of one section of the magazine and assist the editor in the other sections. If you go to the magazine's website, I will be taking the place of current Student Editor Kristi Lemoine, who is listed on the right side of the page.

Ashley and I have both really loved the magazine, since I first started receiving it in my first year of law school. I applied for the position in January after coming across the call for applicants. I really didn't think I would get it because I wasn't a journalism major and haven't worked full-time for a newspaper or magazine before. So I was thrilled when they contacted me for an interview last weekend and totally surprised when they offered me the position yesterday.

In general, my job description and duties include:

• Generating (through writing or assigning/editing) about 2,500-4,000 words per month for the Division Dialogue section (see website).
• Assigning articles to student writers as deemed appropriate by the student editor and staff editor, and ensuring their timely filing and editing
• Alerting law student section liaisons to requirement to write liaison notes, following-up on these requests, and editing articles
• Reviewing via e-mail all magazine copy (feature pages and Division Dialogue) prior to publication and alerting staff editor to any oversights or potential problems
• Informally consulting with staff editor on various issues involving the magazine, including editorial content
• Assisting in judging of the Law Student Division's law school newspaper contest
• Carrying out other minor assignments to assist the staff editor

I begin working immediately. Next week, I will be travel to Dallas to attend the Division’s Board of Governors meetings. I will have to travel to three other meetings over the next year. One in NYC, another in Chicago and another yet to be determined. It should be lots of fun and a great opportunity to meet lots of national ABA leaders.

The Deans of my school are really excited that this will be a great opportunity for me to represent W&L on a national level. They are already planning ways to promote it. I had to convince the website to wait to do a story on me until I get back from Dallas and having a better idea what I will be doing.

The only downside about this opportunity is that we had to cancel my parents' visit to Lexington next week. We hope they can reschedule as soon as possible because it would be fun to show them our fun town as well as for them to see how much our girls are growing.

THIS is Nature

While living in CA one of the things I heard Chuck say all the time was "I miss nature!" and of course the response of many Southern Californians would be "We have nature, we have the beach" I guess you can count the beach if you stay looking at the ocean and not turn around to face the million dollar homes stacked practically on top of each other and you forget about the crazy traffic you have to face to and from your drive to the beach. We loved our year in CA and are excited to visit as often as possible, but...

THIS is the nature that Chuck and I love and missed while living in CA. While standing on top of this ridge looking down at the gorgeous river, I said "THIS is why we chose to live here."

We reached this lovely view during our Sunday drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway a short 20 minutes from our home. The Parkway is the epitome of nature: gorgeous views, no road signs or billboards, no guard rails, no commercial vehicles allowed, and hiking trails. We love it! We love that we live in such a gorgeous part of the country that allows us to have such wonderful, peaceful Sunday drives.

Leland now instead of asking for the beach she asks to see cows and to throw sticks into rivers/creeks. Our little beach bum has turned into a good ol' country girl.

Barrister's Ball

This weekend we had the pleasure of attending W&L's Barrister's Ball - nicknamed Law Prom. It was fun to get dressed up, got out to dinner with friends, and dance (a little).

Anyone that knows me knows that I have stick straight hair that has always been impossible to curl. My sister thinks hair changes sometimes through pregancy, because my hair curled and stayed curly all night!! While I had rollers in my hair Leland kept telling me how beautiful I looked and made Chuck come back to the bathroom to see how pretty I was. She was very concerned when I took my beautiful hair out of the rollers. She even said "Mommy, put the clips back in so will be beautiful again."

We went out to dinner to with the J Reuben Clark Society to Tucany, an Italian restuarant in town. It was fun to be out to dinner with friends, but the food was not very good at all. Luckily J Reuban Clark Society footed the bill all but $5 per couple. So I guess maybe (MAYBE) the food was worth paying $5 for. According to the waiter (who was horrible) I ordered the best thing on the menu (lamb chops) so I felt bad for everyone else because mine was just okay.

After dinner we went out for ice cream before heading to the party. At the party there was GREAT appetizers. If we would have known there was going to be so much good food there I'm sure Chuck would not have eaten his meal at Tuscany.

I convinced Chuck to get on the dance floor even though we were the ONLY one's out there at first. Many soon followed. He's such a great dancer, I'm not that coordinated to do the swing steps and all that he does, but I can follow okay. I'm sure I looked silly, but almost everyone else had been drinking (open bar) most of the night, so I'm sure compared to others that came onto the dance floor I was alright.

I had a really fun evening even though dinner was a bust. We stayed for a while visiting with friends and dancing. Going to events like this just remind me of how old I'm getting mostly because I started to not recognize songs that everyone else was singing along to. Plus I was starting to yawn at 10pm ready to go to bed. So sad.

I just have to add how AWESOME W&L is. Like I mentioned J Reuben Clark Society paid for dinner, but we also will get reimbursed for any babysitting expenses from the Law Families Club. The party was of course free, so we paid a total of $12 for dinner, ice cream, dancing, and babysitting. I LOVE it! What a fun cheap date.

Note from Chuck: Although Ashley says the party was "of course free", it isn't that way at all schools. Tickets for a couple to attend Barrister's Ball at Chapman University (my old school) were about $80. Additionally, Chapman does not have anything comparable to W&L's Law Families Club, which obtains student fee funds to help students with families participate in activities. A comparable evening at Chapman would have cost us about $150.

The Crawl

"I may be able to get where I want to go, but I can't guarantee my pants come with me."
- Lucy