Shroons...

I told you about my "Ryan" moments here. My brother calls me "the dumbest smart person" he knows, and the other day my friend Amanda said something similar, though in a much nicer way. I'm not sure why I'm so dingy sometimes, but there's no stopping it, really. I just accept it and try to share the funny things with you so that you can at least have a laugh at my expense. :)

But this post isn't about me.

It's about my husband, who always thinks things through before he says them ,but occasionally has his own ditzy moments (maybe I'm rubbing off on him?).

The other day, we were driving home from dinner, talking about our backyard. For some reason, we've got ENORMOUS mushrooms growing back there. Like a lot of them. So, anyway, as we're driving, Micah suddenly says, "we've got to do something about those shroons."

I let it go, because occasionally Micah just does that. He'll say something in a weird way, or with a weird accent. The other day he randomly blurted out "sheet pile" in a Hispanic accent, and I was REALLY confused for a minute (say it out loud in such an accent, and you'll understand why) until I saw the metal on the side of the road - apparently they're some engineering thing I'd never heard of. Though I still can't really explain the accent.

So, like I said, I let it go. But then he said it again later on in the day. I think he was making some joke about how we needed to smoke the "shroons" and get crazy (but I'm pretty sure you eat them, don't you?).

"Are you saying shroons? Like with an 'n'?" I finally asked.

"Yeah. Shroons. That's what they're called," he replied, a little indignantly.

I giggled. A lot.

"No, baby," I said. "Shrooms. As in mush-SHROOMS."

Apparently he never put two and two together. Don't worry. He's got it figured out now.

**UPDATE**

Apparently my husband would like to offer a rebuttal. He doesn't remember saying anything about smoking the mushrooms. Apparently, only an idiot would say something like that.

In the interest of a peaceful household, I'm going to refrain from making a surrebuttal. But, when you're making this tough decision in deciding who to believe, I simply implore you to remember which one of us thought they were called "shroons." This wife rests her case.

Wow...

I shouldn't even be awake this early today, but I think my body is still coming out of the study/panic mode and can't quite accept that there's nothing left to study/panic about.

It feels so incredible to be done. There are really no words to describe how wonderful I felt as I was walking out of that testing room yesterday. It was just a crazy mix of pure exhaustion, elation, disappointment, joy, and terror. But the sheer panic I'd been feeling was gone... thank goodness.

And it's strange, because I'm generally not the type to have exam anxiety. I am, for the most part, a fairly chill and relaxed person, and I take most things in stride, including every other exam I've ever taken. And I even managed to keep the panic about the bar at bay until the night before the last day of the exam. Wait, have I even explained how the Texas bar exam works? Alright... let me back up for a minute.

The bar exam is taken over a three-day period. The first day lasts three hours and consists of two parts: the multistate performance test (MPT) and the procedure and evidence exam. The MPT is the practical part of the exam, and we had to write a memo (something that took me a month to do during my first year) in 90 minutes. The procedure and evidence exam is a set of 40 questions about the mechanics of prosecuting crimes and filing civil suits in Texas. The second day, we took 200 multiple choice questions spanning six different first-year law school topics. And yesterday I answered 12, 30-minute essay questions over approximately 12 different topics (depending on how you look at it). Ugh, it's exhausting just writing it all.

A lot of people rent a hotel near the exam site, just so they don't have to worry about driving back and forth or being late or any other nightmare-ish thing that could possibly happen. I wasn't going to, but I ended up biting the bullet and just paying for a room for the second two nights at the Holiday Inn Express near the exam site. I'm glad I did, because it sure was nice to be able to go back to a quiet, clean room each day and just study.

Okay, so back to my panic.

The night before the exam I was just ready. Ready to get started so that I could wash my hands of all of it and be done. I woke up early on the first day, drove downtown listening to "Defying Gravity" from the Wicked soundtrack on repeat. I got to the exam about an hour before the exam was supposed start (and about two hours before it actually started).

I won't get into the nitty gritty because, let's face it, no one should be subjected to boring lawyer stuff, and I already bore you enough. But I'll just say that I didn't feel wonderful after the first day. When it was over, I went back to the hotel room, got some yummy lunch, took a long nap, and had a fairly relaxing night studying the next day's topics.

The next morning, I walked over to the convention center feeling pretty okay. I was obviously a little nervous, and I kept having crazy visions of looking for my name on the pass list (they post it on the internet for everyone to see) and not seeing it. But other than that, no craziness. And after I finished on the second day, I actually felt fairly decent. I hadn't nailed it by any means, but I wasn't horrified by my performance.

It was when I got back to the hotel that night that things went south. I ended up meeting Micah downtown for dinner, which was a nice break, but when I got back to the room and started to look over the subjects for the next day, I just started feeling overwhelmed.

The sheer volume of the material was horrifying (TWELVE subjects!). And I kept looking at things, things I'd read over several times, and I couldn't recall anything! It was like I was reading everything for the first time and that I hadn't spent the past two months trying to cram it all into my brain. I started feeling queasy. I took a bath to relax. Then, I decided to go to sleep because the studying wasn't helping anyway.

Of course, I absolutely couldn't sleep. I got into bed around 10:00, and I just couldn't make my brain be quiet. Every fear and every worry just keep swimming around my head. Every time I started to pray for peace, I just kept worrying that I didn't know enough. The panic was debilitating.

The next morning, after getting about 4 hours of sleep, I woke up feeling the same way. I was queasy and jittery and panicky and horrified. And the worst part was that I hated the feeling that I couldn't control the way I was feeling.

But, amazingly, when I walked into the testing room, it all disappeared. Clearly, the Lord was providing the peace I had asked for (or tried to ask for). I just sat down, listened to the seemingly never-ending instructions, and began typing (I took most of the exam on my laptop, which provided another layer of stress - wondering whether or not it would die or crash or explode into oblivion... because that's my luck). And while I certainly didn't know all of the answers, my brain recalled many of the things I had shoved in there. :)

So, the bottom line is that I survived the Texas Bar Exam. Who knows if I passed, but I feel proud to be standing on the other side with my sanity, my marriage, and my good nature intact. :)

Hallelujah!!!!!!!

I am officially finished with the Texas Bar Exam... for now.

I'm so exhausted and mentally drained that that typing that last sentence was almost more than I can bear, and I'm going to just sit and be still and not use my brain for ANYTHING for the rest of the night. I promise I'll write more tomorrow... I just need a few hours to become a normal, functioning human being again. :)

Free Photography Session!

The dreaded day is almost here.

Tomorrow I take the Texas Bar Exam.

I've studied about as much as I possibly can, and I'm taking the rest of today off. I figure my brain would benefit more from a day of rest than trying to cram any more last-minute information in, so I called it quits a little while ago.

So I'll be MIA until Thursday afternoon, after which you should expect a delirious post of happiness from me. :)

Until then... here's a treat for any interested Dallas-area readers!

My best friend Lauren, who is interested in starting a photography business, is giving away free photography sessions to the first five people who respond to this post!

With it, you'll get: 1-2 hours of Lauren's time at a Dallas-area location of your choice, approximately 150 pictures taken, and images on a CD with 10-20 of the best shots digitally edited.

To set up your FREE session, email Lauren at laurenammermanphotography@yahoo.com.

And, until at least Thursday, over and out!

My favorite grilling recipe...

Today I'm posting my very favorite grilling recipe in honor of Show Us Your Life Friday.

Now, technically, this recipe is more about the blue cheese sauce than anything else, but it does go on top of a grilled ribeye steak, so I felt okay linking up. :)

Now, if you're not a fan of blue cheese just trust me on this one. My husband, my sister-in-law, and my stepdad all "hate" blue cheese but LOVE this recipe. Plus, it's a Pioneer Woman recipe - so how could it be anything other than absolutely delicious?

(Picture from Pioneer Woman's website... um... you might want to wipe up that drool.)

Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion-Blue Cheese Sauce

Ingredients

2 whole Ribeye Steaks
2 Tablespoons Butter
Salt
Pepper
4 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Very Large Yellow Onion, Sliced
1 cup Heavy Cream
½ cups Crumbled Blue Cheese

Directions

Salt and pepper both sides of the steaks. Grill in 2 tablespoons butter until medium rare.

Saute onions in 4 tablespoons butter over high heat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, or until dark and caramelized. Reduce heat to simmer and pour in cream. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. Stir in blue cheese until melted. Serve steaks on generous portion of sauce.

Faint.