We did it! We finished our first year of law school! Now that we are 33.33% done, we compiled our list of the 33 things that we discovered that helped us survive this past school year. Some were to help me survive, some were to help Brett survive but all of them made for a memorable first year in grad school.

1. Frozen yogurt runs. Gotta have my Orange Leaf.
2. Sunday night board games with our friends!
3. An episode (or two, or three...) of the West Wing to break up hours of studying.
4. Going to the mall to play with the puppies.
5. Quadcoptering.
6. Going to our favorite restaurant Dats when we were too lazy to make dinner.
7. Driving Brett's lunch to him on campus because he forgot it at home... again...
8. Taking day trips to Indianapolis.
9. Driving around Bloomington window shopping for dream homes.
10. Walking around Brown County Forest.
11. Driving two hours south to Louisville to visit the Temple.
12. Regular RedBox runs.
13. Tennis to help get the pre-test jitters out.
14. Joining the intramural ultimate frisbee team.
15. Learning we had to filter our tap water during the summer.
16. FaceTime with family.
17. Cleaning the church building every few weeks.
18. Getting passes to the IU Gym to swim laps.
19. Weekly Hobby Lobby runs. I think they know me by name at this point...
20. Having to drench our house with insect spray regularly (we live in a dark basement apartment).
21. Taking walks through Dunn's Woods in between classes.
22. Rock climbing.
23. VITAMIN C. Every. Night.
24. Picking up every quarter we can find to pay for laundry.
25. Aldi. The greatest grocery store ever! Seriously.
26. Visiting family in Wisconsin & Michigan.
27. Supporting our Pacers in Indianapolis.
28. Making homemade laundry detergent.
29. Frozen pizzas. Ya, we're lazy.
30. Brett's winter coat. It's huge, it's yellow and it's uuugly but I'm pretty sure it saved his life this winter.
31. Dressing up as Simon and Garfunkle for Halloween.
32. Painting my nails. All the time.
33. Shrink wrapping every nook and cranny of our apartment during the winter to stay warm.

Here's to two more wonderful years! We love IU and Bloomington and we're excited to start this next chapter of our lives! Go Hoosiers!

On Saturday we celebrated Brett's 26th birthday! We went to dinner at Red Lobster and came home to our front door decorated by our friends! It was a great surprise. We decided to go rock climbing to celebrate his birthday with a couple of friends and it was a blast. The weather was perfect and Brett finally got to put his harness and shoes to good use. We ended the night with cupcakes and ice cream with all our friends at our apartment. It was a great day and we have great friends and family who spoiled us both.

We made it to Bloomington! After approximately 1500 miles in the car, 1 speeding ticket and a bag of Sara Lee bagels later, we made the trip from Utah to Indiana!

We've only been here for less than a week, but we're already really starting to enjoy it. Everyone here is SUPER nice - like we stopped at Walmart for a minute and our cashier was like the happiest person ever. Then we went out to dinner and our waiter was like, the happiest person ever. And I emailed someone in the city government, and she was like - the nicest person ever. People here are AWESOME!

It's hard getting used to the flat landscape, we definitely miss those mountains. And I've never appreciated the grid system in Utah more than I do now. But we've done a little exploring around town and campus and its so awesome!

Campus is like this massive Hogwarts-esque campus tucked back into these gorgeous, lush woods. We've tried walking around campus twice and both times we've been too exhausted and hot to do the whole thing- but we'll get there. And can we talk about this humidity? Maybe they're just experiencing a humid spell, but MAN it's crazy humid here. As you can see from the picture below, my hair does not react well to humidity. Our car always has this perpetual moisture on the windshield. It's great :)

We are really excited for our ward! We've only been once, but everyone there is so warm and welcoming and there are several other couples moving in this month to start grad school, so it's comforting knowing we'll have friends who are in the same situation. I love how going to church makes me feel like I'm at home, no matter where I am. We are so blessed to have the Gospel in our life.

We're just starting this new adventure, but we're so excited and grateful for this opportunity!

We've prayed, fasted, prayed some more and have made the decision to pack ourselves up and move on out to the thriving metropolis of Bloomington, Indiana. Brett was offered an incredible scholarship to study law at the Maurer School of Law at IU! (side brag note from Abby: Brett applied to 14+ law schools and was accepted and offered scholarships at 13 of them! He's so smart!)

We had a tough decision to make. Brett was accepted to schools in Utah, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland and Arizona. We would have loved to stay in Utah because so much of our family is here. Michigan would have been great as well because that's where my parents live. But after weeks and months of praying and attending the temple, Indiana just felt like the right decision.


I had an experience a month or so ago when we were helping someone new move into our apartment complex. We started talking with a man who was an attorney from Oklahoma, and we shared with him that we were preparing to attend law school in Indiana. He looked me in the eyes while shaking my hand and said, "they NEED you in Indiana" and I just got chills. I knew that it was the Spirit confirming our decision to move to Indiana. I received further confirmation when I was sitting in the Temple praying about our choices of schools.



We're nervous for sure, but just excited for the opportunity to be in a new culture surrounded by new people. What an awesome opportunity it will be for us to not only grow together as a couple, but for the many opportunities to be a missionary as well.

We did it folks! We made it to 100 days of marriage! We're basically veterans now, so feel free to ask us for any advice because we're basically pros. Just kidding :)

We're still learning how to be married, and probably will be our whole lives - but we've had a blast these last 100 days. Learning to live with someone of the opposite gender has presented some challenges but mostly just a lot of laughs. Here are a few of the things we've learned about each other from each of our perspectives.


I've learned that the phrase "Are you still hungry?!" is going to be commonplace in our lives. Even after a hearty meal of vegetables, meat, rice and fruit Brett still forages through the cupboards about an hour after dinner. I always knew that boys ate more than girls, but I never realized how much. I've had to learn to adjust our grocery budget a little bit to accommodate this new discovery of mine and I've realized that we're never leaving Wendy's without ordering at least 6 items off the dollar menu for Brett. It's a learning curve, but a fun one :)

Brett's gas tank never seems to be at more than a 1/4 tank, even though he fills up all the time. And it somehow lasts him forever! It doesn't matter how far we have to drive, it seems that his 1/4 tank will get us anywhere.

Also, Brett puts ketchup on his tacos.

No matter how weird his eating habits are, he's still the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. I'm so grateful for the last 100 days, and I can't wait for the MILLION MORE!