One Year Ago

One year ago today, I was supposed to report to my new office near downtown Dallas.  My law firm had announced 10 days earlier that 6 of the partners were leaving to open the Dallas office of a national law firm, and I received the invitation to go with them.  The days that followed the announcement were horrendous. I was told by some that the decision to leave and go with the new guys would "ruin my career," while being told by the other side that doors to new opportunities would be opening on all fronts. Why do these things happen when you're content where you are?  After more than a week of flip-flopping (I must be a politician at heart), I made the executive decision to start fresh, leave my old firm, and start the new Dallas office with 6 partners and 3 other associates.  The office was set to open on February 1, 2011, but then Snowmageddon 2011 hit Dallas.  What a disaster.  I think Dallas has 1 snowplow for the entire Metroplex, so when my backyard looked like this, I made the executive decision to not even bother showing up to the office.

 

 [Please note that we still had Milton, the goldendoodle, at this time.  He hadn't been fired from the Meredith family yet.]

Paul's school was also closed, so we lit a fire, snuggled up on the couch, and turned on TV.  We soon figured out that there's only so much TV and Wii you can take as an adult, and we were bored by 2:00 p.m.  We had eaten half the fridge/pantry as well, and decided to go make a food/beer run at the nearest Kroger.  Before we walked out the door, however, I told Paul I'd been feeling kind of funny and that maybe I should take a pregnancy test.  He kind of shrugged so I dug one out of the back of a bathroom closet.  I was confident that most of my symptoms were caused by the anxiety of the major life changes that had occurred over the past 10 days, but figured I better double check before I start boozing it up mid-afternoon.  Sure enough, that magical blue line turned pretty quickly into a cross.  AMAZING!  I was giddy as can be and so excited, but Paul was semi-hyperventilating and convinced that the test wasn't good enough.  I think he may have actually referred to the test as "ghetto."  He demanded a test that read either "pregnant" or "not pregnant."  So we climbed in the car, slid our way through the Kroger parking lot, and purchased a six pack of Sam Adams and 3 digital pregnancy tests.  The look on the checkout guy's face was classic.  And, of course, all the digitial tests read pregnant!!!  Little did we know what a blessing our little baby would be!

Can we say Paul Meredith clone?  Minus the overalls, he looks JUST like his daddy.

We've had such a blast with this almost 4-month-old, and can't wait to enjoy this next year [and many after that] with him!

And just because I think he's such a stinking cutie, here's a picture of the little guy this past weekend, all bundled up for our Saturday afternoon walk!

I could just pinch his cheeks right now.