JOB JOB JOB!!

Last Monday I got a call from a friend about a judicial clerkship at the Jackson County Circuit Court that was opening up...and to apply fast.

Tuesday morning I came up to the courthouse, delivered my resume to the judge.

Wednesday afternoon I got a call for an interview. SO excited. (didn't even think I'd make it that far)

Thursday I interviewed.

Friday the judge called me. And I got it!!!

Monday I started.

Today I have completed my first week! And I love it! The only kicker is the dress code. Every judge is different, so not all law clerks have to do this, but I have to wear a full suit every day. And I only have one that is wearable, because the other one needs hemming. So I gotta get a new wardrobe. I've gotten a bunch of great deals on shirts to wear under my suits, ($12 shirts at the Limited, $16 shirts at Costco, yes, Costco, $15 shirts at Nordstrom after our discount) so that makes me a little less angry about this mandatory shopping that I can't afford.

I am so so so grateful and thankful to finally have my first job as a lawyer. It took awhile, but it all works out in the end, and no matter how much I didn't believe that a month ago...it's all good now. :)

HBMDC Pick a Pumpkin

A couple weekends ago Taylor, Amy and I went to the Heartland Bernese Mountain Dog Club's "Pick a Pumpkin" in Louisburg. (They are the Club with the Rescue organization we got Maeby from).

I was so excited to see all the dogs and take Shay and Mae to the pumpkin patch!
It was really fun, except when I had a minor freak out because Maeby wiggled out of her collar and was just sitting in a patch of burs and thorns and I couldn't get to her!!!

Here are some pics:

 Bad shot of everyone walking - there were probably about 20 or so berners and then a couple scragglers like Shamus, a couple Shelties, and one tiny Maltese or something.

 Okay, so there were two puppies there. And I was beyond obsessed. These pictures will never do them justice.

 There's Kelly and Cooper walking two of their dogs, Lemon and Jackson.

 Another puppy shot. Yes, I was stalking the puppies.

 Together! And I think it's their dad they are standing by.

This is either Isaac or Spencer....can't remember. But he was tired, and gorgeous.

 I'm sorry, you get the fact I loved the puppies and wanted to steal them.

 Our fam!

 I find this picture to be very humorous. Shamus won't move for Amy.

 I was the photog, not the walker. :) And as you can see, this photographer has no idea how to edit bad pics.

My two babies!!

We got three big regular pumpkins and three cute little white ones. We have yet to do something with them. But we had the experience, so hey! Fun. Fun. Activities.

Meet Miss Maeby Hartley!!

I've been missing from the blog world due to computer problems, but all is well and fixed....so I've returned!

SOOO.....we got another dog! Three weeks ago today. From the Heartland Bernese Mountain Dog Rescue Organization. She is the sweetest rescue dog in the world with the best personality. She is a purebred bernese mountain dog, however, she's the smallest one you've ever seen. 50 lbs full grown, where normal females are around 80. Her small size is probably due to bad breeding, since she's probably from a puppy mill where they don't care who has what puppies, so they don't keep up breed standards and all that. In her old life, she was left out on a chain in a yard all day, wasn't spayed, pretty skinny, tons of fleas and all that stuff, but now she's looking gorgeous and in excellent health. She loooooves anyone and everyone. I'm so glad we saved her!!!!! 

Shamus and her have a love/hate play-bite each other all day relationship. At first I thought he was pretty pissed off at us, but now they're madly in love. :) They don't like being without each other, which is good, but their playing leaves me with two slobber covered dogs all the time, so ...that's gross. Oh yeah, and she's not potty trained. Only down-side. She hasn't had an accident in a while though, so that's great!

So without further ado, meet Maeby!!! (Her name is a character from Arrested Development...if you haven't seen that show get the dvds, asap). 

This is from the day we got her, on our way to Des Moines to get spayed and all that good stuff. Such a pretty smile! (side note : I volunteered to drive her to Des Moines instead of the rescue group because I got to eat lunch with Kate and see her house for the first time! So fun.)

 Photoshoot!

 Fighting for dad's attention....(Taylor did not know I was taking a pic)

 She's so CUTE!

This is where they stand and bark at joggers. Ok, Shamus barks, she stands there like a perfect angel :) Hahah..

Anyways, we couldn't be happier, she is such a great addition to our family. She's playful enough to keep up with Shamus but super chill at the same time. Two dogs with an energy level like Shamus would be madness. This is only sorta madness. :) 

the -ings of sunday

I am currently:
Listening - to Bon Iver. On Spotify, which is amazing if you haven't downloaded it yet. It's basically itunes for free!

Eating - leftover Little Caesar's $5 hot and ready. we have no food. jealous?
Drinking - lots of water and OJ. I've been sick for a week!!
Reading - the second Game of Thrones book. It's gettin good. Really good.

Feeling - besides intense sinus pressure, pretty anxious, confused, and depressed about the job market for lawyers and where I'll end up
Wanting - to get healthy so I can get stuff done! and to finally see harry potter. :)
Needing - a VACUUM!!!!!!!! We have 3 vacuums in our garage - all broken. And Shamus has become a shedding machine this summer. Deee-sgusting. I'm breathing black dog hair. Anybody got an extra? I guess I could craigslist a temporary cheapo before we take the plunge into Dyson-land.
Enjoying - time off. It's bittersweet, since I want a job so badly, but I can't forget it's still time off to relax and try to do some things for me. (like get back into exercising :)
Laughing - at these adorable, hysterical pictures of Taylor dog-whispering! My sister Lisa and her dog Gertie are in town, so Shamus got to go over to my parents yesterday to sexually harass play with her. Gus of course didn't join in on the fun but Taylor did manage to get them all to sit in perfect formation in front of him! <this is me dying of delight>

 my two favorite aussies!

breaking news in gummy vitamins

I am a huge fan of the adult gummy multi-vitamin. Unlike their large, difficult to swallow, pill-form predecessor, they are delicious and easy to remember. (I never forget my daily free candy).

Now, of course, there are a wide variety of options to choose from. You can go for the brand names which are great, and even have sour patch kid-like varieties, or you can save some $$ with some generics.

Target's Up & Up? Wonderful. A+.

Costco's Vitafusion? Same. A+.

But consider yourself warned, CVS's are just disgusting. They taste like robitussin, very medicine-ish rather than delightful candy snack. I'm clearly upset. D-.

So the moral of this pointless post is take your vitamins, and even though CVS is selling these things buy one get one free right now, don't get suckered in. Not all off-brands are alike!

hi there!

I really don't have much to blog about, I'm just hanging out at home job searching. I find out if I passed the bar on September 13th, yikes!! I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a job before then, but here's hoping.

Oh...I must mention Pinterest. I am addicted. I am an addict. I can't stop!!! Join pinterest.com and experience the magic! Haha. Seriously. My dad the other night goes: "so is it like the beanie babies of 2011?" At first I really thought he was asking if it was some sort of website that sells cute stuffed animals, but I guess he meant: is it the new thing you and your friends are going to be psychotically obsessed with? So I answered affirmatively.

=

but pinterest is for grown ups and doesn't require my 12 year old self to have every hallmark retail store within a 20 mile radius' phone number memorized to call each tuesday morning and ask if a new shipment came in. 

some updates

1. i forgot to mention the fact that my sister amy is living with us this summer! she has an accounting internship at kpmg downtown so she's working long hours and our house is a lot closer than mom and dad's. and we're like, totally, like, fun. (noooootttt.....i'm in a terrible mood constantly b/c of the bar, but i do get in a number of study breaks with amy playing our favorite game, rummikub!!)

here she is bonding with our huge lapdog:

2. taylor got the soccer coaching job!! he starts camp this coming saturday, and the season starts in august. he'll be coaching c-team boys at shawnee mission northwest. i am so, so happy for him, i know he'll love it and put everything he has and more into being a great coach for the kids. a big piece of him has been missing ever since his knee injury(ies), so i'm glad soccer is back in his life!

exhibits a,b,c,&d - showing the progression of taylor's soccer studliness:

 so cute!

bahahahahaha!!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! (please don't kill me babe!)

3. as most of you are probably well aware, i have gained 20+ pounds since my wedding. not good. the stress of the final year of law school and not having 'something' to lose weight for (aka what the wedding used to be) really hurt me and got me to a place i never should have.
but...i'm working really hard to eat right and get back into exercising and i've lost 5, so i'm on my way. it's also really good to work out during bar study for mental health purposes, so even though it's taking time away from studying, it'll ultimately make me do better.

4. i got my diploma! it's huge and awesome. (sorry about the bad pic, i figured i'll whip out the big boy camera once it gets framed)

i miss everyone mucho!! xoxo - molly

unwanted blog break

thought i'd check in real quick and let you know why i'm not blogging.
here are a few phone pics (this stuff is not even close to worthy of being captured on a real camera) of bar prep.

the bar exam is in jeff city on july 26 and 27th...until then, i go to class every morning from 9-12:30, then most other days i also have class from 1:30-4:30, and then i come home and do practice essays to submit to graders, and practice essays to have conferences with teachers about, and make flashcards, and read for the next day!

see you in august :)

graduation and mother's day

I'm DONE! Actually done! On graduation day, I still had my R&W to finish....so I didn't exactly have that 100% feeling of accomplishment, even though I was still receiving my degree.

Bill and Cookie (my in laws) came up from Texas to celebrate the big day - on Friday night we we had italian food, cake and ice cream at our house:

then Mom, Cookie and I got pedicures on Saturday morning, followed by a great BBQ lunch from RJ's, then headed down to school to get pics before the ceremony since we had to turn in our *hot* (literally and figuratively) rented gowns immediately afterwards. Yay. Gotta love pictures. I look so awkward...I need to work on my "mom, please hurry" smile. Or I could work on my patience.

this picture is hysterical. no one can figure out the darned hood!!

Amy, I wish we could have found someone to take this pic so you could be in it! Also, I look like a football player.

My three best friends from school : Courtney, Nancy and Maggie. We all got to sit by each other during the ceremony and my family happened to be sitting right behind us!

I did it! And no, that purple thing around my neck is not a last minute scarf I threw on, it's my hood, choking me :). You carry your hood up to the stage and then the dean "hoods" you before you receive your diploma. This is all very surreal looking at these pictures. I can't believe it's actually over!

After gradumacation, we went to BRGR for dinner, and even though I fell out of the car when we got home and skinned my knee like a second grader, it was a great night! 

The next day was mother's day, and it was the first time in six or seven years that Cookie was with one of her sons on mother's day, so it was pretty special! Great brunch at First Watch, dog park, and then over to my parents house for dinner. De-lish.

Taylor and the ladies of honor - our moms. :)

The pictures I took of the whole meal are not good, but hey, I got one pretty one of the veggies! Hahaha.....random way to finish this post off, but there you go! Sorry for being blog absent for so long, it's been so busy, but I will be back soon! xoxo - Molly Hartley , J.D. 

:)

almost there....

I graduate in eight days, but before then I have a take home final to write, two other finals next week, an R&W to re-write (only 30 pages), a couple pounds to lose to fit into a graduation dress, and a bar exam application to get notarized, order a duplicate of my lost birth certificate to include, order a cashiers check for, and mail in.

I'm trying to stay on top of it all, but I might combust.

However, I have a really exciting post regarding Taylor, I just have to get my scanner to work because it won't be the same without some fun pictures! (Ok I have to spill it now though - he's interviewing as we speak to coach soccer at Shawnee Mission Northwest! My high school!!)

More to come...

Daddy's Boy

Funny/cute story: Taylor was playing with Shay the other day and they were getting a little rambunctious with some tug of war. Somewhere in the mix, Shamus accidentally got Taylor's finger in his mouth as he was biting down on the toy. Taylor yelled out, got really angry, and banished the pup to the other side of the room.

This dog is so human like it's crazy. 

He literally jumped on the couch, HUGGED Taylor, yes, his head was leaning against his chest, one paw behind, one paw in front of Taylor, and started licking his finger and kissing him on the cheek. Yes, he apologized. It was so cute I almost cried. And I'm really not exaggerating! 

They're in love.

(below: the cone returned for an evening to keep him from licking a nasty sore on his paw)

I'm sorry, I can't help myself, I just love my boys so much!

awards

Last Friday was Res Derelicta, the graduation party for 3Ls sponsored by the law school. It was at Terrace on Grand, open bar, great food, good times.

An award ceremony followed cocktail hour, with "most likely to" and "best blah blah" awards that I was always glad Shawnee Mission Northwest didn't do...as they're just another thing for 18 year olds to feel bad about themselves for not getting "most popular" or "most likely to be president". 

Listen to this though. I got "best hair." Are you kidding me? Ha. It was hilarious. I purposely sit towards the back of the room in class not to be far away from the professor, but to minimize the amount of people who sit behind me and might catch a glimpse of my nasty bun/half ponytail thing and awkward part in the middle of my head from just getting out of bed.

I think I got it either A) because no one in law school has extraordinarily good hair, and I certainly wasn't going to get some sort of law-ish award, so my friends noticed I was the only one in the group not getting an award and gave me this leftover or .... B) my hair honestly looks SO terribly bad in class that when law school people see me out at parties the gross disparity in how I look is so shocking it's like a 'She's All That' moment....the heavens part, my hair is straightened and down, and I look like a freaking dream.

Should I put this coveted award on my resume?

mission safari

not really.
but taylor snapped a couple shots with my camera through our kitchen window last week of a deer across the street!
they all looked like this:

 so i had to do the best i could editing in iphoto to see the deer.

 as you can see, i'm not the best editor yet.

and i also feel like a grandma posting this. but there ya go! excitement in our lives. :)