Another birthday!

Today is Meredith's birthday! She is a five year old. Five years ago, almost to the hour, she looked like this:

Of course, now she's in kindergarten! Meredith loves football. She makes all sorts of artistic creations with paper, crayons, glue, tape, and ribbons. She loves learning about weather and animals and dinosaurs. Meredith can skip and dance and do a mean air-guitar. (Sometimes she can do air-guitar at the same time as air-drums and air-trumpet!) Meredith loves playing with her friends and has become a kind and fun big sister to Elaine. She's so much bigger than the 7 pounds, 3 ounces she was five short years ago.

Last night we celebrated Meredith's birthday early with the family. I made her a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and raspberries on top. She unwrapped her presents, which included science books, a light-up globe, a pirate hat, Connect-4, a pretend cell phone, a piggy bank (since we're starting an allowance), and a Meredith-sized broom. Yes, she had asked for a broom.

Next weekend we'll have a party with Meredith's friends and classmates at the Como Zoo. It will be reptile themed per Meredith's request. We'll be sure to take pictures and post them here!

Seven years of bliss

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. According to one internet source, it is the wool or copper anniversary!

We celebrated our anniversary a little early during our trip to Missouri this summer. (Incidentally, if you find yourself looking for a good Italian restaurant in Springfield, Missouri, be sure to get in touch with us!)

It's hard to believe it has been so long. It seems like yesterday that we got married in a hastily reconstructed ceremony after being chased indoors by a torrential downpour. Those who were there can attest that ain't no exaggeration!

Since then, we moved to Minneapolis. Got a cat. Got new jobs. Got a house. Got a kid. Got another kid. Got a law degree. Got a new career. Got a dog.

So we've been busy these last seven years.

Does the seventh anniversary mean that we'll have a lucky year? I hope so. Although the last six years have been filled with good fortune too.

My gosh, we look so young!

Seasons Greetings!

Seasons' Greetings and Warm Wishes for a Joyous 2008!

The Reise Family

Jen, Derek, Elaine and Meredith Reise

Jen's work bio

Now that Jen has been a licensed attorney for a week, her firm has put up her impressive professional bio on their website here. She just wants you to know that even though her bio has her full name "Jennifer Randolph Reise," she still prefers to be called "Jen." Call her "Jennifer" or "Jenny" and you're liable not to get a response.
There is a PDF link on the page to her "Extended Biography." If I may say so, it's very impressive.

They will soon put her professional headshot on the page, but are still awaiting that from the photographer. She also got her business cards finally this week and I think is starting to feel like a real professional.

So, you've seen it here first!

• Jennifer Randolph Reise, Briggs Associate, Biography

Blog updates and features

Frequent visitors will notice that a few additions have been made to the website.

1. Now there is an easy way for you to include this blog's new entries in the RSS reader of your choice. Basically, if you have a Yahoo! or AOL welcome page, you can click on the relevant button on the right to "subscribe" this blog. New updates would automatically appear in a section on your home page. Internet Explorer and Firefox Mozilla have RSS features that allows you to subscribe to websites, where all the new entries are compiled in one place. You can also do this with Google or the Google Reader, which I use myself.
2. You can elect to subscribe to receive new blog updates via email by clicking on the link. The service is provided by FeedBurner and your information is kept private. The only emails you would receive is subscription confirmation/activation email and email updates for each blog entry. (Currently averaging 10 a month.)
3. This isn't a super new feature, but each entry has the possibility to comment on. Anyone is invited to make comments by clicking the link at the bottom of each entry. We love to hear from you!

That's all for now. If you have any moderately simple ways that this site can be improved, please let me know at derekreise@yahoo.com.

bar news

Good news, loyal readers: I passed the bar exam!

The letter finally arrived yesterday. I took the bar 2 1/2 months ago, and had managed to not be too anxious about it until about two weeks ago. But since then it's just been interminable. Derek was even having anxiety dreams that I didn't pass it, or that he didn't pass it. (He did not, of course, take it, but I appreciate the implicit solidarity.) But I did pass, and will be sworn as a Minnesota lawyer at the end of the month. This has been a long journey, and it's pretty exciting to have only a formality left.

Mer was a little confused, but I told her that I "won" the bar - she's very into winning and losing right now - and then she was really excited. I'm glad it's not in fact a winning thing, though. I hope all my friends and classmates did what they had to do and passed.

Safe and sound

After tonight's tragic bridge collapse in downtown Minneapolis, we've received a few inquiries as to our well-being. We are fine. We do travel over that route on occasion, but fortunately not at that moment of time. It is frightening to see one of the most traveled bridges in the area just a couple minutes from our home to completely collapse into the river.

We were hosting our friends Brad and Erin this evening when we found out about the tragedy. It turns out they just missed the collapse by mere minutes. We are thankful they are okay and are hopeful for the most minimal harm possible for all.

Announcing the new arrival!

We are pleased to announce that Elaine Catherine Reise was born Friday, March 30, at 6:25 PM. She was born at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Elaine and mother are doing well in their recovery. Elaine was 6 pounds, 15 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long. She was very alert the several hours after her birth and had a lot to say to her parents.

Jen went into her appointment for an induction in the morning, but it appeared that her labor had already begun. After a long ramp up period, the final stage of Jen's labor quickly picked up and ended with a perfect new bundle of joy.

Big sister Meredith was very excited to hear the news and will meet her new sister on Saturday morning. She thought her new sister's name was silly.

We'll post more pictures in the coming days, but here are a couple from her first few hours.

New Website

Greetings friends and family. Due to the constraints of the old-school Geocities website, we're trying to switch over to the blog style at Blogger. Our intent is to put future updates on this site and to preserve the old Geocities site (http://www.geocities.com/derekreise) as is. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

Since this is an easier format, we should be able to post more frequently. Time will tell.

In any case, welcome to the Reise Household Happenings blog!