Some things change – some things stay the same. The Burketts were ready for 2005 to be a year FULL of change. But here we are on the brink of 2006 and the rate of change has been, uh, a bit slower than expected.
The first two months of 2005 were a complete blur of studying 12-14 hours a day 6 days a week (plus some on Sunday too) and then taking the SC bar exam. Hardest three days of my life, no doubt. I think I spent all of March on the couch watching HGTV, trying to recover. By April I was scrambling to finish my 403s, courtroom observations you must do before you can appear in court as an attorney. April 29th I learned I passed the exam and on May 14th I became an attorney. Finished up those 403s and in June found the perfect job, doing EXACTLY what I went to school to do – Family Court!
In the Spring we took a class at church – Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey. After thirteen years of marriage (yes, 13 already) we finally learned how to get a grip on our finances and the results have been nothing short of miraculous!
Alan continues to ride mountain bikes, and his big ride of 2005 was on our (almost) annual July 4th camping trip to Colorado. He rode with a Texan who neglected to factor in altitude when planning the length of the route. To recover, Alan had to trout fish three straight days. If only the trout fishing was a good in the Great Smokey mountains.
We have made good use of my graduation gift – the bright orange tandem. 1200 miles so far. Our first big ride was the After the Bridge Run ride in Charleston the first weekend in April. 40mph wind made it less than total fun. But we thoroughly enjoyed our first Georgia Tandem Rally in Madison in May with about 150 other tandem geeks on some cool bikes! In October we rode 60 miles with the Governor of SC and had lunch at his house (see pic).
No surgery for anyone this year, thankfully. Alan is still working at Fuji, although digital is hitting them hard. I am working at Cate & Collins in Spartanburg. Still commuting as far as I did to school, but I am loving it. My firm practices exclusively in Family Court. I have tried three cases so far - and won the third. I told Alan for weeks that you don’t win in court – you “prevail.” But once I prevailed I noticed how much it felt like winning. I’m sure I’ll get over it soon. I do pretty much every type of work you can do in Family Court – guardian ad litem for kids, defense of parents involved in DSS cases, divorce, custody, alimony, child support. Mostly I like my clients, especially the kids. My partners, co-workers and colleagues have all been terrific!
My client in the case I won taught me a new response to “How are you?” “I am blessed and highly favored.” Well, yes, as a matter of fact, we are! And we hope you have been blessed and favored this year too.
Merry Christmas and Happy 2006!
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