Bar Mode...again

I haven't wanted to write negative remarks so I've been keeping my true feelings from the blog for the last two months. Many of you know Chase has been studying for the Maryland Bar exam. After our horrendous summer last year of Chase studying for the California Bar, this one didn't seem nearly as bad. The biggest difference is that Jack is now a 9 months old sleeping through the night and not a newborn baby who sleeps 3 hour increments at best. This also means I am much more capable of handling matters at home whereas in July of last year I was a basket case. The other difference is that Sadie is relatively more normal these days and I can see Jack has finally become a part of the family rather than a rude interruption into her once "100% Mom" life she was living before. Another difference is that being that it's not summer, Sadie has had preschool which gives me a break twice a week when last summer we were going out of our minds with boredom.

With all these substantial differences out of the way, it has been REALLY hard these past two months. Chase has been studying like CRAZY and I have been left to entertain the kids throughout the day, night and weekends all by myself. It's a rough job and it wears on you after a while. The worst week was when we were all stuck inside during the snow storm with nothing to do. Chase had to study so we all just tried to be as quiet as possible in the basement while he wore his Bose earphone upstairs. Why couldn't we have been hit with the biggest snow storm of the year when he was actually working and could play with us? I held myself together until about a week before he was to take the bar and totally broke down. I just wanted to be free of the kids for an hour....that all...just an hour. I was going berserk. It didn't help that the night before he was to leave to Baltimore our neighbor's car blew up.

However, trying to be positive again, I got to have lunch with Chase every day which could never happen if he had been working (he took the month of February off to study). Also, another perk was being introduced to Netflix and 30 Rock. I've never laughed so hard. I was also at liberty to watch as many chick flicks at my disposal after the kids went to bed. No more fighting over ESPN!! It really wasn't too bad. Chase definitely had the raw end of the deal. I am so proud of him for studying even when we would peek into his room for a little chat (we couldn't help ourselves sometimes:-).

We drove Chase to Baltimore on Monday and ended up swimming in his hotel's pool for a little while. It was Jack's first time in a pool and despite the unhappy face in the pictures, he actually had a great time splashing around. Sadie had a great time too. After everyone turned into raisins, we left Chase in his room to skim over his material one last time. In no time at all we were on our way back to Baltimore on Wednesday to pick him up. Another advantage to Maryland's bar is that it's a two day exam, not like California's three day "want to kill yourself" exam. We don't find out until the first week in May (torture) but until then we will dream of the summer to be had that was missed last year.