Spring - April/May

I actually have a good reason for being MIA most of the springtime.  My January through April was filled with nothing but STUDYING for the PE Exam.  The PE Exam is basically the hardest/most stressful, crappy, (insert your own expletive here), soul crushing, confidence killing, mind boggling, unbearable experience in all existence. 
Bless Aaron's heart for not divorcing me (and taking the child with him) during my 5 month hiatus from life.
The PE Exam is a 10 hour test.  An engineer will take this test after working 4 years of qualified experience (basically, before the PE exam you are completing the equivalent of a doctor's residency).  Then if you pass the exam, you are legit.  A registered Professional Engineer.  This test is about ALL things engineering, not just one's field of work.  AND, it has an average passing rate of 37%  YIKES.

So our life went something like this:
I wake up early and go study in my office until Aaron wakes up.  Aaron wakes up.  We have a brief and distracted breakfast together, I make him lunch, and he goes to work.  I work.  Isla and I have a distracted lunch of reading textbooks mixed with a few bites of PB&J.  I go back to work.  Aaron and I meet somewhere off the freeway to hand off Isla.  I go study for the night, come home, go to bed.  Aaron and Isla are left to scavenge dinner for themselves. Repeat. Occasionally I would try to slip in a run or a bike ride as I was also trying to train for both a century bike race and the Ragnar.

But alas, the day came for the test.  Months of stress-induced acne and throwing up would soon be over one way or another. Aaron drove me because I was way too nervous to get myself down to the city at 5:00 am.  And I knew once I was done, the last thing I would want to do is drive an hour back up the canyon.  10 hours, a lot of water, and all my stash of chocolate later... I dragged myself to the curb to meet Aaron where he described "a herd of nerds piling out of the convention center".

Then I had to wait.  2 MONTHS of waiting.  But finally the news came, I PASSED!  I cried.  I called Aaron, my parents, my boss, then my grandma, in that order.
It. Was. Awesome.

I could not have done all of this without an amazing support system. Of course Aaron was the most understanding, patient husband of all time.  He took on waaay more responsibility to cover for me, acting as both dad AND mom. Then my parents and best friend Whitney were constantly babysitting, bringing me dinner, etc. 

Anyway, here is a picture of my books.  This is a GIGANTIC rolling bag in real life.  Like, I could probably fit inside comfortably.  I think there were about 18 or so books in all.