School Update: Classes

This semester I am taking 4 "real classes" and it is safe to say that I am enjoying most of them!

Evidence 2: Is a really interesting class with a really interesting professor, which makes for a great combination. Not only does he break up the reading by giving us writing assignments (and not assigning reading when they are due) but he just does a great job of presenting the material in class and keeping it engaging for everyone.

Constitutional Law, Liberties: This could be a really interesting class, except that the professor is soooooo boring. I try really hard to pay attention, but some days it seems pretty impossible. The subject matter is really interesting, so I am pretty disappointed at how this class has turned out!

Advocacy: Despite all of the busy work, I like this class. Some weeks we have writing class and others we have skills exercises which keeps it interesting. The only thing that I don't like about this class is the grading. Each week we have a different professor grading us on our skills exercises (think direct examination, cross examination, etc.) and so it is hard to know what each professor is looking for because they are all different! Overall I am enjoying this class though.

Criminal Procedure: I could pretty much write the same thing here as I did about Evidence 2. Interesting subject matter and interesting professor = awesome class that I really enjoy. Yes this class is held on Thursday and Friday nights, but it is so interesting that I don't care!

This semester has taught me that the professor can really make or break the class. No matter how interesting the subject matter, if a professor isn't engaging then the class is a bust. So now I have a handy dandy list and I will only take classes from those professors from now on.

9 more weeks until summer . . . hooray!

Bagel Date

A while back Chris and I were in Maple Grove for various family activities. We had a couple of hours between activities and we decided to use that time for me to get some homework done. So we headed to starbucks and grabbed some snacks and I did homework while Chris messed around on his ipad.

(my Criminal Procedure Homework, Chris's ipad)

We were surprised at how fun this little study date was. I was able to get some studying done, but we were also able to spend some time together and hang out a bit.

Ever since then we have made it our little Saturday tradition. Normally Saturdays are my day "off", but since this semester has been so crazy I always have to do something on Saturday. So these little study dates of ours have been a great way for me to get something done while spending some time with Chris.

We usually go the Brueggers on Grand. This is because it isn't super busy, and I LOVE their bagels. Because of that we have started calling them our "bagel dates"

(mmm . . . bagel and chai tea at Panera)

This week we went to Panera (because the fresh snow made us depressed and we needed some delicious soup . . . yes needed :))

(soup in a bread bowl and a mocha . . . with "fake" whipped cream that Chris had to complain about!)

I think it's safe to say that we love our new little bagel tradition!

The Things that Arty Ate: Week 3

Well Arty was a good boy this week. Nothing major was eaten. Could we be done with the teething phase early??? I'm not going to count on it :)

So for this weeks post I thought I would show you another reason why I should never buy nice decorative things.

I previously posted about how I like to decorate my whole house for Christmas. Every year after Christmas I hit up all of the sales and try to find new things to add to my Christmas decor. This year I fell in love with some red and white plaid throw blankets and pillows that Target had. I waited until after new years to buy them (because that is when they go on super sale . . . and let's face it, i'm cheap when it comes to decorating stuff) and then I snatched them up. I spent most of my days trying to keep the dogs from laying on them (cause gosh darn it, ALL of my blankets were not going to be for the dogs) but then I gave up.

I realized that Arty had been using the pillows as toys when he ran into my office on day with one of them in his mouth. I assessed the pillow and blanket damage, and while not too bad or noticeable it was still enough to make me a little annoyed!

There are many of these little holes in the blankets:

And most of the seams on the pillows are a bit shredded.

Oh well, they were cute while they lasted :)

Look at the little deer. He would never think of destroying anything on purpose . . . never! (and yes he is wearing a training collar, those who are anti-training collars can chastise us if you want, but then I will challenge you to try training a big dog with out one!)

School Update

Well since this blog is titled "lawschoolcraziness" I suppose I should write about school every so often.

This semester has been pretty uneventful, but incredibly busy.

I am really enjoying my time out of school at the public defender's office and at my externship. It is nice to see the law at work outside of the classroom and to be a part of it.

The public defender's office has been such an amazing learning experience. I get to meet with clients, negotiate with prosecutors, and be on the record in front of judges. I really enjoy this side of the law (as compared to the reading and writing side) because it is more hands on and moves quickly. Although I have made my fair share of mistakes, I am learning more and more everyday and I think I'm getting better at this stuff!

My externship has allowed me so many opportunities as well. These are less hands on and more observational, but I am getting the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing people and the chance to see what behind the scenes of a courtroom looks like. It definitely has secured my goal that I want to become a judge some day. It seems like such an amazing and challenging job and I can't wait to have it :)

Researching for Professor Hilbert has been awesome as well. He has me on some really interesting projects that involve civil rights and they are my favorite things to work on.

I'll have to write about my classes later, as I have run out of time for blogging for today.

Christmas Photos

For our Christmas card this year we had some professional photos taken. It is something that I hope we can do yearly because as a person who loves having photos all over my wall, these make me happy. We had them taken by Meghan Doll Photography and she finally sent us the low resolution photos of the ones we ordered prints of so I thought I would share:

Our Arty boy:

This next one was not one that we needed for the house ( I had places for all of the others) but it was such a great picture of their relationship that we had to get it. Dart being king, Arty just hanging out:

Our little D'artagnan . . . such a cutie

And finally the one we ordered a huge print of to put on the wall . . . I love it, it captures our little family so well:

My sister-in-law, she rocks!

Why my sister-in-law is awesome

yes, that's right. 2 days after I posted my blog she had already "whipped up" another one for me. Is this girl amazing or what? I can't imagine how long that would have taken me!

The Things that Arty Ate Week 2

Come Friday night of last week I was thinking about this post. I thought about how good Arty had been all week and how he hadn't eaten any of our things. I was so proud of him (or us for watching him . . .). I thought I would focus this post on some of the things that Arty had eaten in the past, to catch everyone up to speed. But Arty had other ideas . . .

Come Saturday morning I was sitting with Chris on the couch when all of the sudden I saw this:

yes friends, that is our couch. You would probably think that I gasped in horror and anger. But no. I have long learned to not become attached to our things.

You see, this couch of ours has been through a lot. Our cat used to pee on it and leave us little presents (think small animal organs) atop of it. Despite getting it professionally cleaned we had long given up on taking this couch with us when we make our big move to Texas (14 months and counting . . .).

So I was only mildly annoyed when I came upon Arty's first couch handy work:

Thankfully, Chris made it look a little more presentable by stitching it up:

So when I found his saturday morning present for us (it had probably happened earlier in the week and I just hadn't noticed) I just had to laugh it off.

My sister recently told me that Chris and I needed a nice comforter for our bed, rather than the cheap one from TJ Max that we currently have. I laughed when she told me this and replied, "we can't have nice things right now."

This is the nature of having puppies (3 in 3 years my friends) . . . rugs, comforters, couches, every thing is up for grabs with teething puppies (but they are SOOO worth it!). One day when the puppies are grown then I think we can invest in some nice furniture (leather furniture that can withstand child and dog accidents) and nice rugs and a nice comforter. But for now I am happy with my "Arty proof" (or should I say "sanity proof" because technically Arty can chew through it, it just doesn't make me mad . . .) things!

he looks so innocent here, happily chewing his bone!

The Things that Arty Ate

I've decided to start a new weekly feature, let's see how long I can keep it up :)

As you can see from the title, I'm going take pictures of all of the things Arty ate in the past week. You see, Arty fancies himself a billy goat. And despite me telling him how bad this is for his stomach, he doesn't seem to listen :) So this will be a way for me to chronicle and remember all of the things that Arty eats over the next year, and for you to see it too!

Let this be a warning to you: if you get a puppy, he better be really cute, or else he couldn't possibly get away with all of these shenanigans.

Warning 2: If you tell your wife that you want a wild and crazy dog and that you will always take care of his things, be ready for a lot of sewing!

Alright, let's get started.

First a preview of what most of our blankets look like:

We call these the cookie bites. When Arty wakes up early on the weekend, to eat and go out, we let him on our bed so that we can sleep for a little longer. If he feels like chewing then the culprit is usually our blankets and sheets. This means that quite a few of our things have cookie bites. When it comes to the comforter, Chris has to sew it back so I can wash it.

This week he decided to move onto the corners:

Next we have the worst victim of the week. I would be lying if I said that this one didn't make me really angry. I locked myself in my office after this one so that I wouldn't yell at Chris or Arty :) My sister-in-law made me an awesome rice bag for my neck for my birthday. This thing has been an awesome life-saver since I have been having a lot of neck pain this semester. I use it every night and I love it!

And then this:

Chris has a lot of sewing in his future!

Speaking of Chris, he was laying in the bed when I took the comforter pictures today. He asked what I was doing and I told him about this post. Here's how it went down:

C: "did you get the sweatshirt?"

L: "what sweatshirt?"

C (with a really guilty look on his face): "oh, well you were really stressed this week and I wanted to wait until you weren't to tell you, but Arty put a hole in one of your sweatshirts."

:)

I just had to laugh it off :

So there you have it. This week was a doozy, hopefully next week will be better!

Why he can get away with it:

Feeding a Starving Weimaraner

Feeding your dog, as simple as buying food and putting it in their bowl right? Well not when you have a STARVING Weim. You see Weimaraners are at risk for something called bloat. If they eat too fast and exercise afterwards then something crazy (that I will not try to explain) happens with their stomach. It can be fatal, and if not that, then it will probably cost you about $2000 in emergency vet surgery bills. So it is something that we want to try and avoid.

What can we do to help? Well step one would be to keep Arty from eating so fast and step two would be to keep him from exercising after he eats. Since two is mostly out of the question (he's a 10 month old weim, which means boundless energy ALL THE TIME!), we have tried our hand at getting him to eat slowly. But with Arty, not only does he eat, he inhales. 2.5 cups of food gone in literally 30 seconds. So we came up with some solutions:

1) The Target Tug-a-jug:

The concept is that you put the food in the jug and then the dog has to pull it out. This worked all fine and great, for about a week. Then it slowly became this:

Yes, he slowly ate the plastic rope (or I threw the little bits away). So we went to plan B:

2. The rope tug-a-jug:

It has a nice sturdy rope that cannot be eaten, and look, this cute little puppy is showing you how to use it:

But alas, this one lasted for about 2 weeks and then this:

yeah, he broke it. And what happened to the rope you ask? Well here you go:

It got Arty shredded! (this picture is also for a future post about finding Weimaraner proof toys, hence the other Arty shredded rope) So now we are on to plan C.

3. The Kong Wobbler:

The bottom unscrews and you can put the food inside. It is bottom heavy so it wobbles around as Arty paws at it and rolls it around so the food will come out. There is nothing for him to grab or shred so we are hoping this one will last us for some time. I'll keep you posted on if that happens or not. Note: His first time using it today he somehow got the bottom unscrewed, I am hoping I just forgot to tighten it all the way, or else we could be in for some trouble!

Well there you have it folks. A lesson on how to feed a starving weim, and a reminder not to get a dog that is possibly smarter than you unless you are up for the challenge!

Settlers Weekend

want to read about our awesome weekend away? If so, click here.

Thanks Jill for being in charge of the pictures!

my week

If you ever wonder why you don't hear from me:

and the night time:

At least I have a massage on Friday (during a make-up class that just got scheduled today, I decided to still go and show up to class late, I need that massage!)

Three interviews this week :

Phone interview with a federal judge in Texas!

On campus interview with Hennepin County Attorney's Office

Law Review Interview to be on the Board next year

fun stuff!

4 years old . . .

is hands down the best age for opening present reactions. I figured this out on Christmas when I watched Brooklyn open all of his presents and get so excited over every single one of them. I knew from my experience with kids that this kind of excitement over presents wasn't going to last forever (the "thanks mom" from a teenager just isn't the same . . .)

Since I missed the moment at Chrismas, only catching this blurry picture of the initial excitement:

I was bound and determined to catch the fun on video when Brookies birthday rolled around. I found the perfect present, and with the help of some family members, we were able to get it for him. Safe to say Brooklyn didn't disappoint with his stellar reaction:

I'm glad the entire good day cafe got to share in the fun :)

Half Way Done: The beginning of spring semester

Well I am officially half way done with law school and to me that is pretty exciting! On Monday I started in on what will probably be my busiest semester yet. Although I am taking really interesting classes that I think I am going to enjoy, I definitely have a lot going on.

Here is the break down:

Monday: Federal Judicial Externship from 8-5.

Although I haven’t had my first meeting yet (that will be on Thursday) I hoping to get 8 of my 10-12 hours per week on Mondays because I don’t have any class on that day. This is one of the things that I am most excited about this semester. I get to extern for a Federal District Court Judge, and that sounds like a lot of fun to me!

Tuesday: Evidence II from 10-12; Con Law Liberties from 1-3, working for LexisNexis from 3-6 and then Advocacy from 7:30-9:30.

Long day of class and work! Evidence II is with an awesome professor that is really engaging so that is fun. Con Law thus far is pretty dry, but we are talking about personal liberties so it should take a turn for the interesting. Working for Lexis for 3 hours means I have to sit in the lab and help those that need it. I usually can get a good amount of homework done unless we are tabling. Then comes Advocacy. My final required writing/skills class. This class teaches us how to be advocates in the courtroom, it should be interesting, but a lot of busy work.

Wednesday: Public Defenders Office from 8-5.

I am volunteering for the Public Defenders Office in Dakota County. This involves helping the lawyers by representing clients in pre-trial and bail hearings. Yes you read that right, I will be representing clients in court . . . it is going to be awesome!

Thursday: Advocacy 10-12, Judicial Externship 1-5, Criminal Procedure 6:30-8:30.

Another long day. This will be our large group advocacy class, so it shouldn’t be too much work. Then I will get the rest of my externship hours in the afternoon. In the evening I have criminal procedure, which is kind of self-explanatory (how the criminal court system works). My professor for this class spent last summer in a Rwandan jail (He was representing an unpopular person and they threw him in jail, eventually he was let go for medical reasons) so I think it should be really interesting and engaging.

Friday: Lexis Nexis 12-2, Con Law 2-3, Lexis Nexis 3-4, Criminal Procedure 6:30-8:30 (every other week).

This day will be rough when I have crim pro, but on the other weeks it should be a nice short day!

On top of all of that I will be doing one credit of research for a professor which will involve some really interesting work with the Southern Light-rail line and its environmental impact statement. I will still have the same law review duties as last semester (minus the long paper).

All of that to say that I am probably going to be MIA for most of the semester, I have to squeeze in studying and my family somewhere and so that won’t leave much time for blogging!