Happy Holidays!

I had good intentions of sending an update with my Christmas cards this year, but it didn't happen again...oops! Here's our electronic version:

2007 has been a great year for us! We made it through Brandon's first full year of law school and it wasn't as bad as we thought it might be. He did great and I am so proud of him. He had a great summer working for Judge Posner at the University. He also got an offer in Phoenix for a summer associate position next summer at Osborn Maledon. We aren't hardly half way through with this winter in Chicago, but we're convinced that Phoenix sounds great right about now - even if it will be the dead of the summer. We're looking forward to a change of pace in AZ.
I changed jobs in May and moved from Tag to Aon - great choice. I knew Aon would be more challenging and demanding on my time, but I have had amazing opportunities and experiences that are invaluable. If I'm not working, you'll find me at home hanging out with Brandon, out with my girlfriends, or with the Young Women. If Brandon's not studying, he's either watching sports, playing sports (ultimate frisbee, basketball, flag football), or being the best husband ever. 2008 has a lot in store for us as well and we are looking forward to our new adventures.

We're off to Utah this Saturday for the holiday festivities. Chicago to SLC for a few days and then to Oakland, CA for my brother's wedding, then back to SLC for me (sorry for Brandon who has to come back and start school again).

p.s. It snowed A TON today! I'm basically ready for our indoor parking spot - I think I'll go sign up tomorrow.

Don't be mad!

I know it has been way too long...hopefully these pictures will hold you over until I can post more this weekend!

Popcorn in Church

We have Young Women first hour and Sacrament is third hour. Not all of the YW come with their families - I have two that consistently need rides and come without any parents. During Sacrament Meeting they usually all sit together with one of the girl's family. Today was the Primary Program - the best Sunday of the year! And I couldn't see any of the YW during the meeting, so when the kids got up to sing, I went on my teenager hunt. First place I checked - ladies room. Likely spot, but no luck. Second place to check - YW room? no luck either. So then as I was walking by the kitchen, I smelt popcorn - bingo! The door was locked - very sneaky. I politely knocked and there they were - 4 of the YW making popcorn during the middle of the meeting. Busted! Pretty clever, really...and I have no idea where they got the popcorn either? All I have to say is that they keep me on my toes.

Brandon accepted his summer associate position with Osborn Maledon in Phoenix, Arizona. This will most likely be the place we end up after law school and we are really excited. It will be semi-close to family and we already have some friends there. Hopefully we (I mean, I) can withstand the heat next summer!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving Break! We are hosting Brandon's family - mom, dad, Chris, Kacie, Cannon, Kennedy, Rachel, Scott, Mason. They are renting an apartment here at Regents, so they will be in the same building as us. Wish me luck on Thanksgiving dinner!

Happy Halloween!

Brandon and I had a great time in Utah for Kennedy's blessing (thanks, Aon for paying my way). I put in my fair share of work too - on Tuesday, we did interviews all day and I never knew how exhausting it would be. Brandon and I decided that traveling back to back is exhausting and a very hard schedule to manage.

No updates yet on summer associate positions for Brandon. We will keep you posted.

Brandon's intramural team won yesterday and they got dirty! I hardly let him in the car / house. And I'm sorry for the gross pic - it is of the tub after he showered. Gross!

Have a good week!

It has been awhile...

We are clearly keeping busy, but did not forget about our online friends!

Brandon has been traveling between Chicago and Texas and Arizona for the last few weeks and has been doing very well on his interviews. We should have a decision by November 1. We have narrowed down our choices to Phoenix and Dallas...these cities will sound wonderful during the bitter cold this winter. On a side note, it has been pleasantly warm here - no complaints from me.

I also had the opportunity to travel to BYU on a recruiting trip for work. It was weird to actually be working when I was so close to home, but it was nice to stay with my parents and see many UT friends. I especially enjoyed seeing the niece and nephews (Mason and Kennedy pictured below).

Brandon and I also were lucky enough to go to a Notre Dame game a couple weeks ago. It was practically a spiritual experience for Brandon and I thought he might cry when we walked into the stadium. I was surprised that they squeeze you on the wooden benches like sardines. We had a great time and laughed our heads off when it took almost 6 times to have someone take our picture with Touchdown Jesus (below). We think it is so funny when you ask a stranger to take your picture in front of something, in this case, Touchdown Jesus, and then they somehow miss whatever is in the background and miss the focal point all together. It almost became a game, but we found a successful stranger-photographer finally!

Brandon's intramural team started today and came away with a victory (41-14). The boys are very serious and also informed the wives that we will need to plan a banquet for the end of the season and that it would be appropriate to show a highlights tape. I am the official camera-woman. Brandon scored 3 touchdowns :) and he had a great time.

Football Season is here!

Intramural Flag Football. College Football. Professional Football. Fantasy Football. Yes...football season is officially here, and Whitney will be the first to tell you that I am pretty excited. The most exciting news of the season is that several of the LDS students here at the University are forming an Intramural Flag Football team. I am very excited! I think we should have a very good team and a great shot at winning the championship. I am especially excited about our quarterback, Drew Galvin, who played quarterback in high school in California. He and I have gone to the park a few times already and thrown the ball around. He has a great arm and I think we should be able to do some serious damage.
The Bears season also started last week. Even though we lost, I am excited for the season. The defense looks very good, but the offense has a long way to go. Hopefully Rex Grossman can get something going. I could talk about football for hours, but I'll spare you the details.
The other exciting news is that I am currently interviewing for internships for next summer. Over the next few weeks I will be traveling to Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix to interview with a few firms in each city. I am excited to visit the firms because they always treat the interveiwees very well, but at the same time I'm sure that the traveling will wear me out. School starts in about a week, so I will have that to deal with as well.
Anyway, that is about all for now. I'm sure Whitney will have a lot more to say, but I thought I would just get everyone know what is going on in my life right now.

Brandon

Boston

The pictures below are from our weekend trip to Boston two weeks ago. We had an amazing time and it was such a fun city to visit. The highlight for Brandon was the Red Sox game- they lost, but we got to see the Sox fan's in full force. The entire city wears Red Sox gear - it is an incredible sight. I loved the freedom trail that takes you through the tourist spots. There is literally a red painted line or red brick that takes you through the city. I never had to worry about getting lost! We ate a ton of yummy food - cannoli's, pizza, clam chowder...yum. We also made a quick visit to Harvard, just to be able to say that we had seen it. It's a perfect city for a weekend trip and it was absolutely beautiful.

This week was a fun week for me to enjoy Chicago! For a team event for work, we got to go sailing on Lake Michigan. It was very relaxing and the weather was perfect (I think I'm getting used to the humidity). On Saturday morning, my friend and I rode our bikes to Millenium Park for a free Pilates class. It was a great workout (especially since the bike ride roundtrip was 14 miles)! (See picture of the park.) Brandon also enjoys his Saturday morning workouts- he plays Ultimate Frisbee with some guys from the ward and then he usually ends it with a swim in the lake. We've had a great time here this summer - it's beautiful.

Hooray for a three day weekend! Happy Labor Day!

New niece and lots of sports

The good news is that we have a new baby niece, Kennedy Hale, who was born on Wednesday and weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and she is a doll. It is times like these that we momentarily miss being in Utah, but then we remember that Chicago is the best place for us now and we couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Here's a picture of Brandon's brother, Chris, and then the whole happy family. We are excited to hear about the funny big brother, Cannon stories! Note: No one should look as good as Kacie does after having a baby...it's just not fair to all of the other women out there! :)

This week has also been full of sports! Brandon and I played soccer in the rain on Monday night with my co-workers in a park downtown. It was the second soccer match in one week and I didn't think it would make any sense to leave Brandon out while I play sports with a bunch of guys from work (and you may be wondering why I even go - our group is big into team events and when your boss and the CIO are going and they encourage you to come, then you wouldn't make excuses either). It was so fun with Brandon there and he did awesome! He is really fast! Brandon also plays ultimate frisbee every Saturday morning. This week, he dove for the frisbee and whacked his head on the ground while wearing a hat. It left a pretty funny mark, but he loves going and playing with the guys from the ward. In addition to playing sports, there has been plenty to watch/listen this week. First of all, we don't have cable anymore (long story), so if the Cubs games aren't on TV, Brandon will try to listen to them on the radio. The Cubs are playing for 20 days in a row (crazy if you ask me), so the radio has been on almost every night this week. The funniest thing happened during one of the games this week. It was 8:46pm and all of a sudden, Brandon starts changing his clothes and getting into his Cubs jersey and hat. When I inquired about what the heck he was doing, he informed me that the Cubbies were not playing well and that he needed to get on his gear for good luck. Hilarious! I laughed so hard and took some pictures of my superstitious husband.

Hooray for weekend trips - we are going to Boston Friday-Sunday and will be going to a Red Sox game and seeing all the Boston sights; we've never been before and are looking forward to it!

Nauvoo, the beautiful

Brandon and I went to Nauvoo for the weekend and had a spectacular time. I was devastated when I realized that I had left my camera at home :( so we stopped on the way and bought a disposable camera, but I'm guessing it will be a much longer process to get the pics posted on the web. I included a picture of the temple that I found online.
We were going down to see the Pageant (closing night), the Nauvoo sights, and to go to the temple. The drive is about 4 and a half hours from Chicago and it was a nice opportunity to get out of the city. We wanted to go "cheap" so we booked a hotel 15 minutes outside of Nauvoo in Fort Madison. We got to "Budget Host" and I couldn't help but laugh and duck my head because it was so ghetto (hey, this is what you get for $50 a night) and when Brandon went to check in (I refused and stayed in the car) there was a slight problem and their system had not recognized our reservation online and they were all full. Thank you for that, but we still didn't have a place to stay, so we drove around Fort Madison to find a hotel. "Santa Fe" had vacancies (wa hoo) but I was sure that they would rip us off since we were looking for a hotel that very night. The owners were the some of the most humble people and in Brandon's words, they were not business-saavy enough to know to charge us more, so we got a night's stay in Fort Madison for $42. Brandon is all about the one-star hotels (he claims that Budget Host was a 2 star online, but there is no way)...me, I'm a little more high maintenance than one star, but it makes for hilarious stories.
The pageant was a great production and the sights were very impressive. It gave me a great appreciation for all the the early Saints and all they did in the early days of the Church. It was a great experience! We also got to attend the Nauvoo Temple - it is so beautiful and very meaningful to think of the Saints and all that they sacrificed. All in all, a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Brandon!

Brandon is turning the big 24 tomorrow! We have been celebrating all weekend! Brandon was a very good shopper last night and we bought him three things - two pairs of short and a pink polo. This is huge folks! #1 he was ok with pink #2 he let me buy him more than one thing #3 one of the shorts was pattered/plaid. BT (big time)! We also went to the movie, Transformers, and were pleasantly surprised with how good it was. In fact, Brandon absolutely loved it. Happy Birthday!