Sally & the Sea Lion

The Albuquerque Rio Grande Zoo is pretty impressive, especially for a city the size of Albuquerque. Shortly after moving to Dallas, Steph and I went to the Dallas Zoo, and although it was decent, it wasn't nearly as cool. The Albuquerque zoo has sea lions. Like these:



One day while we were there, I thought, "Hey, this is kind of weird, but that sea lion sort of looks like Stephen & Jamie's dog, Sally, if you cover the flippers and look just at the face..." Here's what I mean:

Black & Whites

I was going through some pictures this morning, looking for something else, but I came across some pictures I took in 2005 during my first few months in New Mexico. I've posted some of my favorite black & whites from that time below.

Enjoy,
Nathan



















...and COLOR!

Marshall Trip

We took advantage of the long weekend (for me at least - Stephany was back at work at 5:00 AM this morning) to head out to Marshall, Texas, for an overnight visit to see my sister and her family (now constituting five after the recent addition of Hart!). We were just getting used to the idea of Owen being Hudson No. 4, and now there's a new one! It's really awesome, and Hart is obviously much loved by his older siblings.

Tish and Joey served us King Ranch chicken for dinner and migas for breakfast, which was awesome. Stephany cleaned up at a game of SpongeBob SquarePants Monopoly with Krusty Krab Shacks (the equivalent of hotels) on nine properties. Yesterday, we braved the cold and headed out to Caddo Lake State Park to do some hiking. We had a great time.

Here's us:





Here's the rest of the family: Tish, Joey, Sophie, Owen, and Hart (comfortably tucked away in the sling):









And here's a few pictures I took of the area:











I haven't had much time to do much photography since we left Albuquerque. I really prefer to shoot nature, and I haven't quite figured out how to extract the beauty from the area surrounding us in urban Dallas. But then again, I haven't exactly taken my camera out on the streets, so to speak. And the law library just isn't THAT exciting - I mean, once you've seen one South Western Reporter 2d, you've really seen about all you need to see.

We really didn't get away from Dallas last semester other than a 24-hour trip to Tyler to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. This semester, we're hoping to be able to get out of town every now and then and visit some of you.

Our love to you all,
Nathan

The Holiday, New Babies, and a New Year!

We've been meaning to publish an update for a while, so our apologies to those who have been waiting with eager anticipation. First off, a quick summary of the holidays. I finished up my final exams and had a few days to relax before Steph and I flew out to Albuquerque on Christmas Eve (she worked that morning). We had a big Christmas dinner with her family, Stephen & Jamie and the boys, and some family friends (including our Jewish Guitar Hero, Bill) at the Sheltons' home.

While in New Mexico, we were able to see some friends, and I was able to catch up with some coworkers from MIOX Corporation where I previously worked for two and a half years. It was good seeing some people I'd worked with and hearing about some recent successes, but I left town feeling very satisfied with my decision to attend law school.

Towards the end of our five-day visit, we loaded up a big moving truck with all the belongings of Steph's sister Malory and hit the road Sunday morning to make the all-day drive back to Dallas, the girls in Mal's car and me driving the truck. Malory starts school tomorrow at Dallas Theological Seminary, and we're so glad to have her here in town with us now! Stephany had been sick for a few days, and the drive back did not treat her well. After a couple days out of commission once we got back, we finally found out she had bronchitis. The first several days back in town involved the three of us celebrating New Year's at home with some pizza and a movie (by the way, in my opinion, Stardust is the new The Princess Bride), moving Malory into her new apartment (just 10 minutes away), and helping Steph get better.

During the holidays, four new babies were born into our lives! They are:

• Joseph Hart Hudson (to be called "Hart"), provided by my sister, Tish, and her husband Joey in Marshall, Texas


• Hope Elizabeth Paxson, whom we met in Albuquerque while visiting our friends Alex & Stacey


• Lillian ('Lilli') Belle Goode, born to our friends Julie & Scott of Arizona


• Ryland Shay Witt, a beautiful little gal belonging to our friends Kyle & Sherah here in town, previously of New Mexico

We're absolutely excited and can hardly wait to get to know these little ones!

Well, it's now back to school and work for us. Steph went back to work at Starbucks last week, and I started my second semester of law school last Thursday. We're excited about the new year and having Malory here with us. For me, the excitement was temporarily "jacked" when my laptop crashed during the second day of classes. Fortunately, I was able to recover most of my data and Dell is sending me a new hard drive for my troubles. I've been using Steph's Apple PowerBook for the past few days as a substitute - she says it makes me look "cute".

We're going to put some pics up soon.

The Law School Experience Thus Far

With finals now over and the first semester of law school officially under my belt, I've done a bit of reflecting. Here are some of my thoughts this weekend:

• It really is a lot of work. You can't get behind a bit or else it snowballs (in a "I-just-got-hit-in-the-eye-with-a-snowball!" kind of way). However, if you go into it with that mindset (or one similar to it) and put your head down and just push through, it's quite doable.



• I have been quite impressed overall with the quality of the students in my class. I've heard that things get more competitive after the first semester (when grades are tossed out like blood in the water - okay, maybe that's a bit much, but at some schools, I'm sure it's like that). Honestly though, most of my peers are quite nice, and my section (100 students taking the same intro classes together during the first year) has developed a bit of camaraderie, which is nice.



• Good grades = good internship = good job = $$$ (or, in some cases, $$$,$$$). Thankfully, I have the blessed benefit of not having to subject myself to much crazy pressure in order to feel some sort of self-valuing purposefulness to my studies and endeavors in law school. And that's a big thing. We are much loved by God.



• Maintaining balance between school and personal life was just as important to me as school! Stephany and I determined at the beginning of the semester to commit to meeting with our church home group every Wednesday evening (my busiest and most exhausting school day of the week), and it was definitely rewarding. Meeting people and seeing our friends has been such a great weekly thing for us, and enriched personal life means more ability and freedom to study determinedly.

Those are the thoughts so far. I have a few weeks off between semesters, which is fantastic. During the break, I'll begin working on applications for judicial internships for Summer 2008, so if you are a judge, I'd like to speak with you. Likewise, if you know any judges (particularly, in the DFW area), I'd like to speak with you.

Stephany, my coffee sugar mama, is puttin' in some extra hours at Starbucks this week in order for us to travel back to New Mexico to visit family for Christmas. She'll be back blogging soon. In the meantime, our love to you all.

-Nathan

Christmas Pics

My exams for this semester lasted about two weeks - easily enough time for one to drive oneself mad, if cramming for subjects like torts and civil procedure was all one did (I say "all", but of course I was drinking quite a bit of coffee during that time as well, if that counts as an activity - and I think it does). Fortunately, during that two-week period we actually managed to do a few normal things, like see some friends, do a bit of Christmas shopping, and watch Ugly Betty.

One night we took some hot chocolate over to the SMU campus and walked around for a while, taking pictures and admiring the lights my tuition money had contributed with putting up. It was definitely a fun time - and a good break from studying. Here are a few pictures.







After we left campus, we drove around some of the neighborhoods around Highland Park to see how they do Christmas lights around here. We were not disappointed. In fact, we saw some truly amazing productions. One home, built on at least several lots, had wrapped all its trees in lights (green on the bottom, white on the top), had installed giant Christmas jack-in-the-boxes in the front yard, and was played New Orleans jazz Christmas music on loud speakers. It was both really cool and sort of hard to believe (but in a merry sort of way I think).

It was a good time.

-Nathan

Goodbye 2007 & Hello 2008!

Nathan and I have had a wonderful year. We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary, moved to Dallas, and had some fun adventures. We are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us this next year. We love you all! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

~Nathan & Stephany