Catching Up

Needless to say, the lack of blogging indicates that we've been a little bit busy over the past few weeks. A lot of cool stuff has happened but I'm going to keep this short and sweet so that I can get us all caught up as quickly as possible...because being behind and not up-to-date in the blog world bothers me!

So, I think we left off at Aaron's birthday. Aaron wanted a pretty low key birthday, much to my dismay, but I tried very hard to respect his wishes, seeing as though it was his birthday. On his actual day o' birth, he had to work at the legal aid clinic and go to class as usual. He decided that he wanted to go to the fancy Malibu establishment of La Salsa for dinner and so we did and we had a good time since Jerren was able to join us. After dinner, I did manage to sneak in a little special surprise for dessert--clown cones from Baskin Robbins. I ordered them ahead of time and picked them up at lunch on Tuesday. Our closest BR is in Pacific Palisades (about 20 minutes away) so I was driving as fast as I legally could up PCH with the clown cones in a bag next to the A/C vent. True story. It was all worth it to see this little birthday muffin face light up.



The day after Aaron's birthday, sadly, Aaron flew to Vienna for an international arbitration moot court competition. We had decided back in the fall that I would go to Germany and not Vienna since the Vienna competition was much longer. As great as it is to get a 2 for 1 deal since Pepperdine pays for Aaron to attend, it seemed a little silly to spend a ton of money for me to tag along. Also, things were crazytown at work because this year, for the first time ever, Pepperdine Law decided to have alumni-hosted admitted student receptions around the country. I was in charge of planning these receptions and so I was going to be traveling a ton while Aaron was in Vienna. So, Wednesday night, Aaron left for Vienna and I packed for a quick trip to DC. By quick, I mean 15 hours. I flew in, attended the event, flew out. I had to get out of town so that I could fly up to San Francisco for another work event. It was nice to spend the weekend with my family, especially since Aaron was gone. Of course, they all spoiled me up there with homecooked meals and I came home with a much fuller suitcase.

Sweet little cupcakes for my birthday (28) and another month of marriage for me and A (11).



Love the fam...wow, DC really wore me out, ha!

I flew back to LA on Sunday morning because I had to attend a Delta Gamma event at the Pepperdine pool, Anchorsplash. It was a beautiful day out (78 degrees) and it was a perfect excuse to sit in the sun and watch college boys make fools of themselves.



That brings us to last week. I had events almost every night and so the week was pretty much a blur for me. On Thursday morning, I flew to Salt Lake City for an event and returned to LA for an event in Calabasas on Friday. It didn't matter what my crazy schedule was because Aaron came home on Friday night, hallelujah! 10 days is a long time...especially when you can't talk on the phone or anything. I'm still grinning ear-to-ear that he is home. He came home just in time to celebrate Easter, whew! I love Easter and so I'm glad that we were done with all of our travels this past weekend. In line with our new birthday breakfast tradition, Aaron prepared breakfast for me on Sunday. It was going to be pretty simple, per my request--sprouted wheat sesame bagels and cream cheese but my sweetie managed to make it special.

I had to look twice because I thought maybe the bagels were coincidentally heart shaped! After breakfast, we went to church and had lunch with a very special family from church who had invited us to their house following the service. After a very long nap, we woke up and dyed eggs while we ate some Easter candy. As I was setting up the egg dye stations, I thought it might be fun to display the Easter goodies we received from our families.

Yep, those are 2 identical bags of Cadbury mini eggs...Aaron and I brought each other the same Easter candy!

My favorite egg, of course.


As for my birthday, I decided to work a half day because I had a lunch meeting that I could not miss. Aaron and I slept in, did our workout, and I enjoyed sweet surprises from friends, co-workers, and family throughout the day. Aaron and I enjoyed a nice dinner in Santa Monica and we came home to watch Duke pull out the big win last night. It was a great birthday and I can honestly say, Aaron being home was the best gift I could have asked for!

Things have not really slowed down at the Echols this week, however. Aaron and I are speaking at Bible study tomorrow night so we are busy preparing for that. Also, Aaron will leave on Thursday night for a boys' weekend in San Diego with 2 of his childhood friends. I will keep busy too--so far, I will be chaperoning the Delta Gamma formal on Saturday night and attending a sleepover with some co-workers after the formal. On Sunday morning, I am going to a baby blessing for my sweet friends' new baby girl. We will try to relax at some point too!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

One of my very favorite verses: "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23-24