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!

Oh Picture Tree Oh Picture Tree

Well one of my big projects this summer (that extended into the fall, and then the winter . . .) was my picture tree. My dad bought this picture three at an auction because he though I might like it. Here is how it came to me:

I thought that I had gotten a good before picture, of what it looked like all put together, but I can't seem to find it. So you are just going to have to guess (think light wood and symmetrical branches that went straight up the tree making it look somewhat like a spider)

My first step was to paint it. I choose Esspresso Brown spray paint from Menards and I went to town (Arty was helping me out :))

Next I ordered some pictures to put in the frames and then came the hard part. Hanging it up and deciding which branches to keep. I ended up with only half of the original branches:

Now you can imagine what it used to look like. Wherever there is a branch on one side, there used to be a branch on the other. Plus two more coming out of the bottom two trunk pictures.

Once I got this up I decided that it still wasn't complete. I wanted it to look more like a tree. So I took the extra unused branches and made some of the branches longer(okay, Chris did most of this part).

That, along with the leaves from dali decals (which were really easy to put up) and I finally got a tree that I love:

And there you have it. My big project, FINALLY done! And I love it.

Christmas

Well Christmas has come to town in the Larson household, in fact, it has been here since mid-October. What can I say, I LOVE Christmas :)

Here is the village this year. I finally bought the grass and brick mats to go underneath it. And the growing "real" snow to go on top of it. The snow hasn't been watered in a while, but you get the idea :) I love the way it turned out.

And here are the annual Nephew Santa photos. this years is classic, Bayler is looking up at Santa and he looks a bit terrified :) Gotta love catching the moment!

We changed around the house and the bookshelves are now by the window. The snow globe collection is slowly growing

And then we have the tree. I am not one of those, get everything matching with bows and white lights kind of girls. I LOVE multi-colored lights and my dream is to one day have a tree filled with sentimental ornaments (everyone, including the dogs, gets a new one every year!)

And then we have the new addition to my snowman kitchen: Love this shelf full of snowman goodies!

And there we have it, Christmas at the Larsons!

MIA

I was being such a good blogger for a couple of months there, and now it has almost been 2 months since I last blogged! I would love to say that I have been super busy with school, but I haven't. Apparently I only blog when I am slammed with things to do at school and need something else to throw in there :)

I will try to be better now that school is wrapping up and I really have nothing else to do!

With that here is a list of what we have been up to the last few months:

Hanging out with some pretty awesome puppies

Celebrating one of my great friend's marriage (obviously this one is not from her wedding day, I was too busy running around playing personal attendant to take pictures then:))

Taking the newphews to the como zoo and to a day in the life of an elf

And many more fun and exciting things!