By the way...

I graduated! Feel free to call me Julie T. Baker Hansen, Esquire from now on. Muahahahaha! I've basically decided to make it a new fad for law school grads to actually use their hard-earned suffix! Haha ( : This is a pic of Rob and I doing the happy dance. Said happy dance will be much more happier in March after the stinkin, rotten, stupid, no good bar is over and done with... BUT... for the moment, graduation from law school required at least a small happy dance! Here are a few pics from graduation... of course, just when you want your camera to work is the time it DOESN'T work, so many of the pictures taken were blurry. These were the acceptable ones and I'll be ordering more from the pro photo guy who was flashin' everyone with his camera later. But for now, this is what you get!Recieving my diploma after getting hooded. Told you the photos were blurry. Smiling for the camera!December grads! There were actually about twice as many as this, but we were the only ones who wanted to dress up all fancy schmancy for a ceremony. The way I figure it?? I sacrificed sweat, blood and tears for that degree... you betchya I want to get my hood!Professor Gardner and I. He was the faculty professor in charge of the J. Reuben Clark Law Scociety with me.My fan club!Me and my sissies!They posted the names of all the graduates on the electronic announcement board in the law school. Whoopee! That's my name! (Although they left out the Baker part... grrr).Mary Barber and I at graduation. We bonded the first week of contracts... law school was never the same after that!

Anyway, that's the that on Graduation. About a million other things have happened before, during and since then... Thanksgiving, moving, Christmas, a wedding, you know... all that sort of stuff that requires a blog update or two. BUT it probably won't happen... I've basically given up on catching up. Sadly--barring some crazy event were I get either really bored or really ambitious--entries will probably just start here and go onward!

Memo to the blogging community: I am now back on the social networking scene! Hooray!

MIA

Don't worry, I'll be back after finals.

Expiration Date: Nov. 4, 2010

I just ate a thing of yogurt with that expiration date.

It totally tasted like lime yogurt... was it supposed to tasted like something else?

I'll let you know if I throw up said lime yogurt later. Yum!

Hilarious!

Harry Potter Cast tries to speak "America."

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Where We're Headed...

We finally got our location for Rob's new job (horray!) After graduation we will be headed to....

Houston, Texas!!Rob will begin training for his new job in January in Salt Lake City. This will be for about a month or two (depending on how fast he picks it up). We will be camping out with the inlaws for a few weeks while this takes place, which should be pretty fun. And then after training, we're headed to Texas for a year! Niether Rob or I have ever lived in or even visited Texas, so we're pretty excited about this opportunity to experience new things! After our brief stop over in Texas, we will be headed to Los Angeles:Which will be our "permanent" location. Permanent is relative, though, since we obviously reserve the right to change our plans at any time for any reason ( :

Anyway, thought you all would appreciate the update!

Halloween Weekend

In my crusade to keep my blog more updated, I decided I should probably get going and post the pictures from our Halloween weekend.

Rob has been traveling a lot recently. One of his trips was schedueled to take him to Salt Lake City at the end of October. Sick and tired of being left behind, I insisted on accompanying him! (Okay, actually it was HIS idea, he's such a sweetie!) So we bought me a plane ticket, packed our bags for the weekend and headed out west for some much needed R & R.

It started off with this:

It was $15 extra for a camero upgrade at the rental car place... honestly, what's a guy to do??Rob was quite thrilled. Here's me wanting in on the "hot car" action too:

We stayed at Rob's parents house. Ever wanting to bribe the grandkids into coming to stay, Gram and Gramp Hansen have built this monstronsity in their backyard:

For those of you thinking "Oh, cool, a treehouse!" Think again. Its more of a tree "boat" or a tree "pirate ship."

I'm certain there are probably some zoning violations somewhere along the line, but regardless, you have to admit, this is COOL!

I'm certain the use of this tree pirate ship will be employeed by more than just Hansen grandkids... 5 bucks says next summer Hansen family reunion will find Rob and Dave camping out up there. They might up cmaping out under the premis of "babysitting" the little kids sleeping up there, but make no mistake they'd be up there, babysitting or not. (Rob has a secret obsession with Swiss Family Robinson).

And what's a trip to Utah without a little J-Dawgs? On Friday, Rob and I went down to Provo to visit my little brother Mark, studying at BYU. We all went out for some good ol' J-Dawgs and were shocked that the "dawgs" were no longer housed in the little red shack, but had upgraded to a spiffy new building. (An actual buidling... for J-Dawgs... can you believe it?!) This is all three of us standing in frong of the poor, lonely red shack.

The food was delicious, of course! Mark ate two whole J-Dawgs, half of mine and insisted he could probably eat one or two more. I stopped betting against Mark and his stomach when I lost a bet to him at age 10, when he ate an entire chicken at Disneyland. Still, it never ceases to amaze me how much my brother can pound down! Even when at my BYU graduation he ate an entire length of party sub sandwhich (him and Rob were competiting) and then still had room for a huge slab of chocolate cake. Oh, and yes, he's still a skiny twig. Ever notice how the skinny twigs eat like line backers??

Later, we carved pumpkins. Mine was clearly the scariest:

Look at that face... if that doesn't strike terror into small children sleeping at night, I don't know what will! Rob and Mom Hansen had good pumpkins too, although the pictures didn't turn out quite as well:

I also helped my sister in law Amy decorate the totally awesome play house in their front yard (from which trick or treaters got their goods Halloween night). I thought the house was so cute all decorated:

We had a good time handing out goodies to trick or treaters. It was the first time I'd ever really done that! It was so fun to see all those cute kids all dressed up!

On Sunday we went down to Springville for the baby blessing of the twins, my niece and nephew, Sophie and Jonathan. They were just too stinkin' cute! I couldn't get a picture of both of them together (Jonathan was NOT cooperating) but I got a few cute pictures of them separately:

It was a VERY fun weekend! Our time was packed, so the "R&R" I spoke of earlier didn't actually really happen. We probably came back to Nebraska more tired than when we left, BUT we certainly had a good time!!

New owner of a...

Smart phone.Do I know how to use it?? Absolutely not! But it LOOKS pretty spiffy...

What would I do without my sissy?

I don't know what I'm going to do when Rob and I move away and Lisa no longer lives with us. I believe my blog will truly suffer. This is because Lisa is just FULL of plenty of funny (she would say "embarrasing") stories to write about (remember the burned boiled eggs??). When I move away I'll really have to put in the extra effort to keep up on the embarrassing story circuit. Her latest funny story involves this injury: We were making chicken curry last Sunday. Lisa was supposed to be steaming the chicken, carrots and onions in the big pot. The lid was on and the pot was steaming. I turn around for five seconds and all the sudden there is this huge crash as the pot lid falls to the flour. I turn around to find my sister half laughing half crying and holding her arm in pain.

Me: "Lisa! What happened?!"
Lisa: "I burned myself!"
Me [confused]: "How?"
Lisa: "I don't want to tell you, you'll laugh at me!"
Me: [death glare]
Lisa: "I wanted to make the pot look like a dragon."
Me: "Eh??"
Lisa: "Well, if I opened the lid just a crack, all the steam would come on the one side, and it'd look like a mouth blowing fire. Like a dragon!!"

Oh dear.

For those of you who don't quite get the visual, she wanted to make the pot look like this:Don't worry, I didn't quite get it at first either.

Apparently in the process of cracking the lid in order to make the pot spew steam like a dragon, Lisa burned her arm. Heehee. I know I should feel sorry that she has a huge burn on her arm, but I just can't stop laughing!

And in light of Lisa's mishap with the dragon lid, and this picture I took of Rob:I gotta wonder... are we all really just kids at heart?!

Alms for the Poor?

I'm thinking about starting up a collection... the "Help-Julie-Pay-For-Her-Astronomical-Bar-Application" fund.Seriously? $450 bucks just to process my Moral Character application? $700 more to take the bar?? That's not even including prep course fees (we won't go there, it's depressing). I'm thinking of selling a kidney. Anyone with black market connections is welcome to step forward. Until then, grocery bill, you ARE on the line for this month... and next month... hell, maybe forever!

Sorry for all the complaining. The bar application process will be over soon and you will not have to listen to me anymore.

Picture Vomit

Here are a whole bunch of pictures I just haven't had the time to upload until today. Enjoy!

I'm sorry Sherie and Trent, but Rob IS a Yankees fan ( : Luckily, the Yankees happened to be playing the Kansas City royals ON his birthday, so I took him to a game:

Unfortunately, it was a bad weekend for weather. After the game was delayed for rain three times, we finally left. Those other pictures were snapped JUST as the rain began. This is what the field looked like most of the time we were there:

You can't see it very well, but it happens to be POURING! Luckily, Rob was still able to enjoy his funnel cake:

Although the game was rained out and--unfortunately--the Yankees ended up losing, we still had a grand time in Kansas City. We stayed in this adorable little bed and breakfast and spent the next day shopping and sight seeing in KA City. Here's a picture of us in front of the art museum:

Later, we enjoyed cake and ice cream with friends back at our apartment in Lincoln! Yum!

In other news, Rob FINALLY talked me into reading glasses. I refused for so long because--of course--glasses are for OLD people!! But when my headaches wouldn't go away, I finally decided to give it a shot. He dragged me down to Walgreens and I picked out the cutest, NON-old person glasses I could find. Lucky me, I haven't had a headache problem since! An appointment with the eye doctor is pending.

We also had a big project sanding and staining one of our bookcases. This wasn't NEARLY as backbreaking and time consuming as the table we stained in April (didn't get pictures of it, but Lisa and I definitely did all the work on that one!! Rob was a lazy butt...) but it still took the better part of a Saturday. Here's the before:

And the after... TA DA!!

Pretty spiffy, eh? Yeah, I thought so too!

And, as it does EVERY fall season, the TV now seems to be on non-stop every Saturday for college football game day. I love my Cougars, I always will, but I have to admit the game day excitement is quickly losing its luster for me. ESPECIALLY after that heart braking, embarrassingly painful game yesterday against the Aggies. I probably won't show my head in public for a while, but nonetheless, we still love our boys in blue:

The Huskers, on the other hand, seem to be rolling pretty high on the hog, which makes miss Lisa quite happy, thank you very much: We went to her homecoming parade last weekend and I enjoyed snapping and editing pictures of her in her band uni.

I couldn't help feeling like my dad, though... I remember my good ol' days in the BYU Marching Band and seeing my dad scramble down the sidewalk trying to keep up with the parade march so he could snap pictures of me. Funny now I'm the one scrambling to keep up! Rob and I had a good time supporting Lisa:

And Lisa and I had a good time goofing off afterwards! I love you, Sissy!

Anyway, that's about it picture wise! Right now Rob is pretty busy with work. He'll be traveling quite a bit during October (I'm jealous!), while I'm pretty busy with law school, applying for the bar, editing my book AND tackling cub scouts (my new calling). There's hardly a dull moment around here anymore! We love it! I'll try not to let it go too long without posting pictures from now on ( :

Dear ABA, I hate your stinkin' guts...

I'm slowly growing to hate the American Bar Association and all its silly antics to get us poor lowly law students educated, registered and enrolled to take the bar. Everything from the BARBRI monopoly over good study materials to the extremely invasive background application to fill out before I can even take the test is just ridiculous. Did I mention I was fingerprinted before I could take the LSAT?! Yes. Quite ridiculous. Do I even need to start mentioning the legal geniuses in our country's history who never so much as sat through a law class? Now-a-days its jump through the hoop after hoop after hoop full of background checks that are more invasive than one of those bloody tests that sticks a rod up the you-know-where, and thousands of dollars of student debt just to get a reputable degree.

They're probably even monitoring this blog post right now... I guess if I get booted from law school tomorrow for a "lack of moral character" you'll know why...

Ridiculous.

Remembering

It was early. I mean like REALLY early... at least it felt really early, and as I look back on it I can't believe that I habitually forced myself to go through those early-morning rituals. But I did. It was early, and I was at marching band practice. It was a Tuesday, so we were at the Holt Arena. For those of you who don't know, the Holt Arena in Pocatello Idaho was the first indoor, enclosed football arena for college football and the second overall (right behind the Huston Astrodome). Anyway, early morning practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays were extra early, since we had to beat the ISU football team to practice. I seem to remember having a call time of around 5:45 a.m. Perhaps the early practice was why most of us totally missed the inital drama...

The actual practice was normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. We warmed up, marched, set drill and worked the kinks out of our show. We had a competition coming up so it was nearing crunch time. Around 7:30ish, our practice ended. I must have been listening to a CD... I don't remember hearing anything on the radio, which I'm sure I would have if it had been on. I remember racing another boy back to school. I can't remember who won, but it was fun. Just another day.

My first period was Spanish with "El" Senior Bell. I walked into the room and noticed the t.v. was on--it was odd. I don't ever remember walking into a class before that and seeing the t.v. on. I distinctly remember walking into the room and plopping my bag down onto the floor with a plunk and staring at the t.v. Senior Bell was writing something on the board and he turned to look at me starring at that t.v. with the oddest expression on his face... like he expected me to comment on the t.v. program... like I would have some profound opinion on whatever was going on. Looking back now I expect that he thought everyone already knew. Which, of course, I didn't.

Honestly, the biggest emotion I felt was confusion. As Senior Bell watched me--waiting for me to say something, expecting me to say something--I sat there staring at that television wondering what the heck replay movie Senior Bell was playing, because I definitely didn't remember any burning World Trade Centers from any of my history classes. I was wondering how I missed that lesson in all my 15 years of life.

That's when I saw the little word at the bottom of the screen that said "live."

It was about that point I finally did say something. It wasn't profound. It was in disbelief.

"What is this? Is this live?!"

He nodded with a somber expression on his face and told me of how early that morning two terrorist had hijacked some air planes and run them into the World Trade Centers. I was shocked. Dumfounded. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Wasn't it just a year ago that I stood atop those building in awe at their height, beauty and the sheer genius it took to build such incredible masterpieces? Wasn't it just mere months before that my brother and dad stood in those buildings? As the day unfolded I watched in horror as those masterpieces crumbled to the ground in a shower of debrie, choking black smoke and flame. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Questions surged through my mind.... Why? Who were those awful terrorists? Why did they hurt all those people? What if that had been me? What if it had been my family? But mostly just why.

I suspect we will all remember where we were and what we were doing on that fateful day in American history. In time we'll be able to look back and tell our children what happened and tell them that, "Yes, I lived through that." I knew so-and-so who was killed that day. I felt the pain of recovery as the nation mourned our great loss. I felt the hope as it pulled us together for a brief time. I remember the heros that immerged that day and in the days passing--those who went bravely in, while everyone else was trying to get out. We each have a story from that day. And we each remember it in our own way.

I don't know why I tell my story today, I guess its just my way of remembering.... my way of reminding myself of the percariousness of life and remembering lives lost and the heros who came forward on September 11, 2001. May we never forget.

"We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863

Incredible

This moved me to tears.

Rise and Shout!

Its that time of year again, Cougar fans!!

Rob has been eagarly counting down the days until college football like a little kid waiting for Christmas. He's glad its finally here so he can happily veg in front of the T.V. all day Saturday, completely saturating himself in football. I'M glad its hear so I don't have to hear the count down anymore! But we're BOTH glad its here because we LOVE BYU football!

Go COUGS!

Book Updates

Still posting updates on my book blog! I'm getting much better at writing and soliciting agents and publishers... I really feel like I'm getting the hang of it. Sometimes while I'm editing, I'll find myself getting lost in my book, even though I already know the storyline front to back. Makes me feel like publication is a LOT closer! Very exciting stuff!

And in other book related news, if you STILL haven't picked up the Hunger Games (even though I've recommended it AT LEAST a dozen times on my blog) GO READ THEM NOW!!! Third and final installment just came out on Tuesday last week. The Mockingjay:Was a fabulous ending to a fabulous series. If you haven't read them yet, get on it! You will not be dispointed, I promise!

4 Years and Counting!

Today is Rob and I's 4th anniversary!!Horray for surviving 4 years of...



..........flowers "just because"............




......."I love you" notes tucked in my sock drawer....




........the man who will politely put up with being second place (next to my teddy bear) as my cuddle buddy at night....






............my biggest fan.......



.......the guy who enjoys cooking dinner more than I do.....



.........footrubs.......







........a man who actually OFFERED to take me to the midnight showing of Twilight....




.....the same guy who actually read all 4 books of Twilight.....



......laughing til I cry.......






....and to my best friend in the ENTIRE universe!! I love you with the kind of kiss-til-it-hurts-cry-my-eyes-out-when-you're-not-around-foot-stoppin'-bear-hugging-his-and-hers-towels kind of love, babsey! Here's to another 4 great years to come!!