First Day Of School

The kids have been wanting to go back to school for the last month.

They're starting a new school this year, and don't know many kids there, but were still beyond excited to do it.

So here they are.  Drake a second grader, and Gwen a fourth grader.

Drake insists on socks with his Toms

I die at their cuteness!

Also new and exciting for the kids is that they get to ride their bikes to school!

 In all their excitement, we got to school way early and had to wait for the gates to open.  Then once inside, we had to wait for teachers to come out and get their students.  They didn't want parents going inside the first day, so I didn't get pictures of them in their classrooms.

And then I worried all day that they'd get lost, or not make any friends, but they both were all smiles once school got out.  

It's going to be a good year!

I'm back!

So I took a six month hiatus.  NBD.  Life has been cra-zy!  But some exciting things have happened.  Maybe some of these will get their own posts, but let's be honest.  Probably not.  So some fun things that have happened since I last posted:  

I did finish Ironman!  One of the most incredible days of my life, and if you like to read, you can read more about it here.  

 Ryan started a new job.  He is now a prosecutor for Maricopa County.  When he gets home from work, Drake likes to ask him "how many bad guys did you get today?"  It's pretty cute.

We found out a new McPhie is joining our family!  This has been a great surprise, and we couldn't be happier.  Baby McPhie is coming some time around October 4, and Gwen and Drake are so excited to have a baby brother or sister!

We bought a house!  We had been renting ever since Ryan started law school, and most recently we spent a few months living with my parents while we were house hunting.  While we loved being there, Ryan was anxious for a place of our own, so we sadly left Mesa, and moved to Gilbert.  We love the area, and love the house, and someday will furnish it.  ;)

Gwen and Drake have been killing it in school!

They're sad to be leaving the school they've been attending the past few years in Mesa, but are excited to maybe get to ride bikes to school next school year.

And I GRADUATED!!!!!

   This I can't take all the credit for, because I would not have made it without the support of my family and friends.  This last year has been especially hard since so much time was spent doing my schooling, I felt it was keeping me from being the kind of mother I wanted to be for my kids.  Often they'd ask me why I have to go to school, and if I could just quit.  Ugh!!!  I wish I could have.  I'd tell them McPhies don't quit, and it'd be over soon.  Mostly I was convincing myself.  But it turned out to be true.  It's over!!  Now on to bar prep.  :p

Ryan threw me a lovely graduation party.

 The kids helped decorate.

Love these signs Drake made!

And now, perhaps life will slow down a little.

Besides preparing for the bar, I'll be running the babes to swim, and eating watermelon all summer, so hopefully I might be able to resume blogging as well.  

getting schooled

Today was my first day of my last year of school!  And since I don't have a wife or a mother to insist on first day of school pictures, I have no visual proof to show you.

But since I am a mother of kids who already started school, I do have back to school pictures of them!

 Drake - 1st grade, and Gwen - 3rd grade

The first day of school their bus was 1/2 an hour late getting them home!!  And the worst part of it, was that they were stuck on their bus for an hour, and their bus DOESN'T have air conditioning.  It was 115º that day people!!!  Both of them had just sweated through their shirts and had their hair sticking to their wet little faces. 

So this has become the after school routine.  Drake loses his shirt (and eventually his pants too) and eats a popsicle.  They deserve it!

[And he's wearing pants because he has to as part of their school dress code.  Cruel?  Yes.]

It was oh so nice having them start school two weeks before me and getting to be a stay at home mom.  I loved getting my work outs in (Ironman is only 12 weeks away!!!), having a clean house, and baking all sorts of yummy after school snacks for them.  And sadly it's come to an end.  This last year might be the death of me, but it's only a year.  And that's not that long, right?

 Oh, and their first day of school also just happened to be our anniversary.

So their first back-to-school night, they got to stay up late at Gigi's while we Benihana'd it up, celebrating 9 years of putting up with each other.

I seriously love this guy!

and in other news...

So I have been away from the blogging world for the last couple of months because things have been crazy busy.

I'm finally finished with school, and the last thing I want to do is get on my computer.  In fact I haven't even turned it on since I finished school until now.

So here's the Reader's Digest version of the last few months.

Where I left off I was just about to take the MPRE.  That was crazy.  See this little adorable boy got a raging case of pink eye days before the test.

 Then the morning of the test I woke up with the worst case of pink eye I had ever seen.  My eye was swollen almost shut, and there was so much pressure on the eye that I spent the first few hours before the test in the ER getting medication for my eye.  Then I took the test with one eye.  That was hard.

But luckily I PASSED!

Then I went to Nebraska for Spring break.  I took a class out there.

 Pretty, no?

 Then Drake started baseball.

He's pretty good at nailing the ball!  Generally he hits it on the first or second pitch.  And his outfield dancing is to die for.  He may have even caught a ball in his hat rather than his glove.

 I did the El Tour de Mesa.

Tres fun.

Marquee Olympic Triathlon.

The Taylors were in town and we did some family pictures.

 Just look at these adorable kids.

Then finals started.

Would you like to know how to add even more stress to law school finals?  Go run Ragnar SoCal right in the middle of it.  But as much stress as it added, it was also a good brain break.  

80's Ladies and Some Dudes rocked it!  

Gwen did her first duathlon.

So cute I could die!

At the same time Drake and Ryan were camping for fathers and sons.

You know, just catching mice and killing snakes.  Fun man stuff.

Then I finished finals and also my paper that I spent months procrastinating.

Holy cow, I can't even put into words how elating it is to be finished with my SECOND YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL!!!!!!

I've celebrated by going on a crazy cleaning spree.  

My house is in a constant state of deterioration throughout the semester, so come the end of school I have major cleaning to do.

To reward myself, I did the Rio Salado Olympic tri yesterday.

My BIL Gavin did it too.
I know that nobody looks good in a swim cap.  I'm embracing my inner ET.

 It was a super fun way to kick off the summer!

So here's to summer break!!

No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks.

Hahahaha!

MPRE

It's not ethical for a lawyer to have sex with his client. Unless they were already doing it before she was his client.

That's the kind of stuff I'm studying right now.

I take the MPRE on Saturday morning. Let's hope I only have to take it once!

My School Budy

Drake woke up with a horrible sounding cough and sore throat. So he didn't go to school today, but joined me instead. This is how he kept busy. And the class was entertained by his random little bursts of excitement when he did particularly well at one of his games.

Been busy!

I've been out of commission. Scrambling to get things done before the end of the semester. That's right the END of the semester!!! Today is my last day of classes and then the dread of finals. This is always about the time that I'm tempted to just drop out of law school. Not really. But kind of. ;)

Ryan started a new job, the Taylors were in town for Thanksgiving week, and my washing machine broke. That's something I've taken for granted. When was the last time you hauled off eight loads of laundry down to the laundromat? Me? Saturday and the Saturday before. But my new one is super sexy, and it comes tomorrow!!!

Also, remember a couple of posts ago when I was running like crazy? I did the Nike Women's marathon, then five days later Ragnar Las Vegas, and then the following weekend the Red Mountain Half Marathon. It was a lot of running. Well wouldn't you know it, my crappy osteoporosis bones didn't love it. I tried to run hard for the half, but after four miles, couldn't keep up my pace because of the pain. Why? oh, just another stress fracture. This one in my left FEMUR!!! Yep, the biggest bone in your body. While stress fractures to the femur are not nearly as common as other bones, it's almost always because of endurance running.

That means it's time for a break. And while it's hard to come to grips with the fact that I won't be running the new course for PF Changs Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon this year (tear), I can at least still ride my bike and swim. And I really need to be serious about resting and getting healthy because I'm signed up for this:
IRONMAN ARIZONA 2012!!!!!!

I'm so excited, and scared, but mostly excited!!
So excuse my absence from posting again, but I'm going to buckle down and study and hope to not fail out of law school.

Ryan McPhie Esq.

Guess what!?!?!?

This man worked off his little tush this summer, studying for the dreaded bar. And I am pleased to announce...

he passed!!!!!

Congratulations Ryan, I love you!

ughh

This morning I was in a hurry to get to school. So for breakfast I just threw some strawberries and raspberries in a ziploc and figured I'd eat them while studying. Plan was working out great until I scooted away from my desk and saw a smashed raspberry on the table. I thought "wow, that's close!" Then looked down at my shirt and realized it was closer than I thought.

Poopy!!!!

Do you think anyone will notice?

Where is a Tide wipe when I need one?!

Hopefully it will stay cool enough that I can just zip up my hoodie and wear it all day.

first day of school 2011

Getting the kids into school this year was quite an ordeal. I accidentally enrolled them at the wrong campus... after Ryan woke at the crack of dawn and waited in line for hours, and then found out they got in, only to find out later they're supposed to go to another campus - the one where all their friends go.

Well we wrote off all chances of a transfer this semester, but by some small miracle it happened! We got them in a week before school started.

They started 10 August.

Drake in all day kindergarden, and Gwen in second grade.

Doesn't my baby boy just seem too little to be in kindergarden?

It's so sad to realize that he's now on the path...that will last just about forever.

No going back to days of just us at home.

But at the same time, the freedom of the kids being at school has been unbelievably nice.

Cute Gwenny really misses the Montessori House, but also loves her new school. In fact she was so happy to already have three friends in her class.

And both of them were so excited to get to ride the bus home!

Look close and you can see Drakey in the bus.

They made it.

Next up, me.

I have one more week of freedom.

Ryan McPhie, J.D.

Five years ago, Ryan decided he wanted to go to law school. He applied late in the application process and got in to some schools, but decided he wanted to try again, to get into ASU. He did LSAT prep classes this time, took the LSAT again, and applied. He got into ASU, but got into McGeorge (University of Pacific) too. That one was in Sacramento, where Ryan really wanted to be. So I got a new job in Sacramento (I was working at Progressive here at the time) we got rid of almost all our stuff, and moved to Sacramento. A week later, Ryan decided he wanted to go to ASU. He packed up our now decreased amount of belongings, I put in my two weeks at my new job, and he moved out here just in time to start orientation. We joined him two weeks later. That was hard! But he was starting a journey that'd be even harder. Law school.

Ryan really did do well. He balanced school and family better than I can. He'd come home and play, and didn't even do homework over the weekends. On top of that he's held a couple of jobs to help support us (since I decided I would NOT get a job after moving back to AZ), participated in several competitions, and even has grown so much spiritually too. I'm so proud of Ryan and all of his hard work. To prove it I got this sweet sign that's still in our front yard-

These kids are pretty dang proud of him too. It was funny to think about how when Ryan was trying to decide if he should do law school, one of the things kind of holding him back was the thought that Gwen would be almost SEVEN and Drake almost FIVE when he graduated. I told him "well, in three years they'll be almost seven and five and you could be done with law school, or not." Well here they are, almost seven and five - and Ryan's finished with law school!

Ryan and his mom.

Ryan and brother, Gavin.

Ryan and sister, Emily. And Drake jumping in there too.

Gwen and Drake so happy to finally be out of the ceremony and see Ryan.

Ryan and his proud wifey.

Getting the party started! Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of his party. But thanks to everyone who came out and made Ryan feel special. It was a lot of fun!

Now on to the BAR!! He'll be studying like crazy for the next two months and will take it at the end of July.

lovers day

Well, I checked my phone, and unfortunately I only got two pictures from Valentine's Day. But they're good ones!

Here I was so excited to see this young man exiting the light rail on his way to school. He made my day even better (and mind you I woke up to my Valentine giving me a watch and perfume!!). This gentleman is probably about 6'3", but maybe you wouldn't have guessed by his 18" legs!! I mean his femur is almost non existent! His bum sits on top of his knees. Oh, wait, maybe his pants are just falling down? Anyhow, this made me happy.

Next up: Valentine pizza for my Valentines. Drake especially. He will poo poo just about everything I make, except for pizza and cookies. This was so yummy. If you can, never make pizza unless you use fresh mozzarella. It makes such a difference!

Okay, now back to school work.