New Years Eve

Wow, it is hard to believe that today is the last day of 2008. It seems that this year has really flown by. I am thankful that 2008 has been, for the most part, a very good year for us. With the exception of Ramy's dad's stroke last January, it has been a happy and healthy year for us and all of our family. We've been blessed with a lot of time with our family and friends this year. Ramy got moved to the Pomona branch, which puts him a 5 minute drive from work, and my 2 days a week of work are also in Pomona. We both love the work we do, but we love coming home to be with each other and Rebecca even more. Rebecca has been joyful this year, full of excitement, constantly learning new things and more of a wonder to us every day. This year brought the advent of her walking, talking, running, jumping, dancing, singing, praying, eating, weaning... So indeed, 2008 has been a good year for us.

I pray that God will continue to bless us in 2009. We have much to look forward to this year. Professionally, the big thing for me is related to the rest of my internship interviews (I have 14!) coming up in January, and then Match Day is Feb. 23rd. Hopefully in the summer, I'll be defending my dissertation and maybe even taking the EPPP, before I start internship. Many changes will come with my transition into internship, but it is the last hurrah before I get my Ph.D., so anything will be worth it for a year! We're anticipating that Ramy will get a DCT position early this year, which would take him out of the courtroom on a daily basis. We anticipate lots of visits to and from Grammy this year. We have several friends with new babies or babies on the way. We pray that God will guide us, guard us, and bless us and everyone we love in 2009.

Speaking of blessings, what a fun lunch we had yesterday with Molly and Jack. Jack and Rebecca are perfect opposites, and they are so cute together, Molly and I can't even stand it. They had quite a time running around in Cahoots. We got a couple of cute shots, but they were constant motion, so it was quite difficult! We are looking forward to coming back to visit in the spring, when we can take Rebecca and Jack to the park and let them run and just have a great time playing together.

Other Random Christmas Pics

Here's a pic of me and Molly with Rebecca and Jack. As you can see, neither of the toddlers were cooperating, so definitely not the best shot. Hopefully we can remedy this when we get together for lunch!



On Friday night, we got together with my old friends Shannon and Jamie, plus our families. It was so much fun to catch up with them!



Here are some pics of the fam' at dinner at Ruth's Chris the night before Ramy left to go back home:

More Christmas pics

I used up all my space in my last post, so these are more pics of opening presents on Christmas.

Christmas Day

We woke up at a pretty normal time on Christmas morning (I'm sure we won't have many more years of that once Rebecca realizes what Christmas is all about). We went to mass at the Catholic Church in Fayetteville, then we came home and ate breakfast. Then it was time for us to see what Santa had brought. Santa brought so much stuff, we had to open it in two episodes, because it wore Rebecca out and we had to take a nap in between. So we opened some Christmas morning, took a nice long Christmas nap, and then got up to get dinner ready. Then we opened the rest of them after dinner Christmas night.

Christmas Eve at Aunt Margaret's

Christmas Eve was a busy day - my mom was up and out before we ever woke up. I met her at the cemetary to put flowers on my dad's grave, and then I had to pick up some last minute stocking stuffers at Walmart (which, surprisingly, wasn't even a madhouse). We wrapped and cooked and baked the rest of the day, except for a few minutes when we went to visit my old babysitters. Then we went to Christmas Eve communion at my mom's church, before going to my aunt's house for our annual Christmas Eve gathering with family.



Then we went home to prepare for Santa's arrival. I have to admit that we hadn't made any Christmas cookies, so we left Santa some Christmas candy and candy-coated pretzels and a glass of milk and we left some cheese for Santa Mouse. Santa loved it! We finished all wrapping and setting things out, and Santa finally left around 2:30 a.m., and he and Santa Mouse left Rebecca a note. While she didn't understand it this year, we'll keep it for her for future years.

A Girl Posse Christmas

Last Saturday night, the Girl Posse had their annual Christmas party. Unfortunately, we were down a couple of girls and one of the cutest children, because Kathy and Terry were both sick, as was Terry's son Will. We had an interesting but delicious dinner that I like to refer to as Mexico By Way of Italy, since we had lasagna, chili, Rotel dip, and garlic bread, plus plenty of snacks and desserts that reflected nothing other than our appreciation of cheese, sugar, and butter.

Rebecca really enjoyed playing with her gifts.


And all the Girl Posse enjoyed their gifts too! I've been trying to post pics for the last three days, but for some reason, it isn't letting me. I'll keep trying.

Christmas portraits

It's 2:30 a.m., and Santa Claus and Santa Mouse just left. We're all ready for Christmas morning! I'll be posting lots of pics over the next few days - hopefully some video too.

Here are some of the pictures from Rebecca's Christmas picture session.

Baby, it's cold outside!

We are here in Tennessee and it is COLD! I love it!

My mom's computer had died, so we just got her new one and got it up and running. All is well here. Rebecca and I had an uneventful flight - I got panicky about the weather on Wednesday morning and switched our flight to a direct flight, so we actually got in earlier than originally planned. This allowed us to meet up with Breda and Scott for dinner at Cracker Barrel (Scott had gotten in from NYC just an hour before we arrived). Thursday, we got haircuts, took my aunt to the doctor, had Rebecca's Christmas pictures done, and did a little shopping. On Friday morning, we ate at Cracker Barrel and picked up Ramy at the airport and did a little more shopping. Saturday night, we had the Girl Posse Christmas gathering at Brenda's, which was fun, as always. Yesterday morning, we went to my mom's church, ate dinner at the country club, and then my mom, aunt, and I went to Nashville to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Today, we've generally hung out at home taking care of various things, and then tonight, we're going to see Amy Grant and Vince Gill's Christmas concert. At some point, I have to make candy and wrap presents, but I'm not sure when that is going to happen!

I'll post some pics when I get a chance!

Rainy Monday

It's been a rainy Monday here in Southern California. I love days like this, but I don't like to drive in them here. It rains so rarely that the roads and freeways are slick, and people generally don't know how to drive in the rain, which is a little scary. I find the newscasts of the rain completely hilarious, because they make it seem as though a quarter inch of rain is a monsoon. I was supposed to go to a meeting in the department this morning, but I bailed out because of the rain, and because my friend Julie decided not to go. Then Julie and I were still planning on meeting up with the girls but she got stuck because of the weather. So Rebecca and I have enjoyed a lazy day at home.

I heard from a couple more sites today and got offers for interviews at both. I am feeling pretty good about the number of interviews I have. Statistically, if you get 7 interviews, your chance of matching is like 85%, and it doesn't really go up with more interviews. Since I've surpassed that number of interviews with just accredited sites, I feel like I've got a pretty good shot. Plus I have non-accredited sites that I have yet to hear from (they are less competitive).

Rebecca has really been acquiring a lot of new words lately. She's added ice, moon, car, Jesus, water, booo-boo, yes, dance, plus her spate of "oh my," "oh gosh," and "oh wow." She calls Ramy "daddy" now instead of Da-da. Sometimes it comes out more like "dah-ee." If she is looking for him, she yells out loudly, "Dah-ee, oh Dah-ee!" It's hilarious! They enjoy laying on the couch together watching sports and various Christmas movies. Ramy is an enthusiastic viewer of sports on television, and his watching of them is regularly punctuated by grunts and shouts. Rebecca has learned to cheer similarly.

I've been trying to start getting things ready to take to Tennessee. Rebecca has to have a full suitcase for all of her clothes and shoes. Plus, I have a suitcase. Then we need another suitcase for presents. And then Ramy will bring his own suitcase (though he'd really like it if I would agree to take his suitcase so that he didn't have to bring anything at all).

Party girl

Like I said, yesterday was a busy day for us. After we had breakfast with Santa in the morning, then we went to a party thrown by our friend Paul's law firm. It was at a really cool lounge/restaurant in downtown L.A. Their firm always throws a nice party for their family and friends, and we always look forward to going. It is nice to go to a pretty upscale place for a fancy party where everyone brings their kids! They also give all of the kids a nice present, and they have cool door prizes and great food. Plus, it is a great time to hang out with some of our good friends.

Rebecca thoroughly enjoyed the party. If she wasn't eating the prime rib or garlic bread, she was dancing like a mad woman.



Apparently parties make her very affectionate (I may worry about this when she goes to college), because she was continually hugging and kissing me and Ramy.



Here's Rebecca and her friend Ashley.