Monday, March 26, 2007

72.4% of My Problems are Solved

My life has greatly improved in the last week. Things got really crazy for a while because I was interviewing for a billion jobs, looking for a new place to live, and trying to keep up with my school work at the same time. There were quite a few more problems added to that, but I won't go into those.

You probably guess from the title of this posting that 72.4% of my problems got solved recently. I'll start off with the small news and lead into the big stuff. I just took my Federal Income Test final, and right now my butthole hurts. To start off, the test was on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. Who gives tests on a Friday night? I guess I shouldn't be complaining… I am in law school. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I passed that test and I'm just glad to have it over with.

The better news is that we finally found a place to live, so I don't have to worry about being homeless with a pregnant wife anymore. The place we found is really nice. It's a 2 bedroom condo/townhouse with a 1 car garage. We're only paying about $50 more per month for this new place than we're paying right now for a 1 bedroom apartment with no garage, so I'm happy about that. The only downside to this new place is that there is no pool. I've been grieving over this detail for the past week. We've been packing up all of our stuff and getting ready for the move, which will take place on Saturday. I really wish we had enough money to just buy our own place, but with the number of foreclosures increasing in Las Vegas, I think it's best to rent for a year and watch the housing prices drop like a hammer.

So now for the biggest news of the week: I finally got a job. You have no idea what a relief this is. Once again, I don't really want to be homeless with a pregnant wife, and getting a job is a good way to prevent that. I'll be working for a pretty large firm here in Las Vegas. They mostly focus on insurance defense. So when a personal injury lawyer decides to sue an insurance company, this law firm is there to protect them. I'll be getting paid really well, but I guess it's all relative. Compared to my pay at UPS, I feel like Christopher Walken. Anyway, the nice thing about this job is that I'll be able to work part time during my last year of school, and if they like my work, they'll hire me as an associate once I graduate and pass the bar. That does mean that we'll probably be staying in Las Vegas for a while unless something unforeseen happens in the next year.

So that is the update on my life. Kiley's doing really well. She cut back on her hours at work because she's had high blood pressure lately, and that's not so good for the pregnancy. Other than that, we're going to have to start buying all of the baby stuff now that we'll have an extra bedroom to put it all. It's going to be quite an adjustment spending money on somebody other than myself. It's a good excuse to buy a nicer camera and a camcorder though. So I'll still get to buy my toys even though the rest of our money will probably go into buying things for the kid.

I need to start including photos in these postings because I know it's always more interesting when there are pictures. I'll probably end up just adding them to these posts later when I'm not sitting in class. That is all…

Friday, March 09, 2007

More Comings and Goings in My Life

So, as usual, it's been quite a while since I last posted. Quite a bit has happened since then, but not much to write about. I am passed my half-way mark in law school, which means I have just over a year left to go before graduation. School has calmed down for me, since this semester I decided to only do 12 credits instead of 15. If I had decided to do 15 credits I would pretty much be forced to graduate early. I don't really have a reason to graduate early, so I just decided to take it easy this semester.

Kiley is still pregnant. She's now 25 weeks along. That means we have about 3 ½ months to go. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but I'm going to have to be. We were a bit worried last week after Kiley went to the doctor, because they said that her blood pressure was incredibly high. High blood pressure during pregnancy can be a sign of toxemia. I won't explain what toxemia is, but it's a condition that's about as bad as it sounds. The doctor said that if she gets toxemia, they will be forced to deliver the baby early. So that's not a good thing. Anyway, Kiley got some blood tests done and they determined that she doesn't have toxemia, but she still has to go see a high risk OB from now on.

Other than that little problem, we also have the added stress of finding a new place to live. Our lease is up on March 31st, and we're currently living in a one bedroom apartment, so we have to move either way. My dad was actually looking into buying a house down here and we would just rent it from him. This was mostly for tax purposes, but it would work out nicely for us. However, with the housing market looking the way it does, we were cautioned not to buy in Las Vegas right now. Plus, I'm still looking for a summer job (more on that later) and we could possibly move after I graduate. So any house that my dad could buy would have to either appreciate in a year and a half, or at least keep from depreciating. So that was too risky for us. And now we're back to looking for a rental. Which sucks.

I was getting a bit worried about finding a job for this summer. Things are starting to actually look up for me. I got some interviews with several law firms here in Las Vegas. I got a call back to one of them, which is my first choice right now if I were to get an offer. I also have a law firm that is almost sure to offer me a job (I have some inside connections), but they probably don't pay as well as this other firm, so I've got a backup plan. It would be really nice to actually have a paying job. I've forgotten what it feels like to receive a paycheck. Plus, it would be a big relief to have an income since we don't know how much longer Kiley's going to keep working.

Anyway, I'll be posting again soon. Which means check back in about 3 months. That is all.