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!

Kids??

The other night I came home from shopping for Ella. It is her birthday this weekend and she is turning one! Lucky me one of the things on Ella's "list" for her birthday was clothing (for next year when she is bigger).

So . . . I went to TJ Maxx and had at it. They had some pretty cute girl things! When I came home and was showing Chris all of my cute finds our conversation went something like this:

Me: Oh man, I love shopping for little girls.

Chris: yes, I can tell.

Me: I think I want a baby

Chris: No, I think you want a doll.

Me: That's not true, I want a baby

. . . fast-forward to the next morning . . .

I had an appointment with a nutritionist (to talk about my high cholesterol) and I had to wait in the pediatric waiting room. It was fall break, and that place was filled with small children screaming and yelling and carry-on . . .

Me (in my head): yup, I want a doll

:)

Fall Break?? More like Fall work your tail off to get everything done . . .

I figured I hadn't posted about school in a while, so I should probably do that. They have a saying about law school. Maybe I have told you already? but I can't remember, so I am going to tell you again. It goes something like this:

First Year they scare you to death

Second Year they work you to death

Third Year they bore you to death

Now, I'm not sure about that last one, but I'm pretty sure the first two have held true so far.

On that note this is what is on my to-do list for the next week:

1. Finish Long Paper (14 pages and lots of editing to go)
2. Prepare for Con Law on Monday (I am on-call)
3. Finish reading for the rest of classes
4. Prepare oral argument for moot court try-outs.
5. Finish 2 Authority Checks for law review
6. Study for the Multi-state professional responsibility exam (MPRE) that I am taking on November 6
7. Apply for summer jobs (this one never gets off the list . . .)
8. Prepare judicial externship interest letter

Actually, when I write it all out, it doesn't look so bad now that I have finished all of my mid-terms.

Maybe I should explain some of this for you non-law school folk.

1. Long paper is a graduation requirement, but Law Review students are required to finish it their Fall semester of second year. It will be nice to have it done, but it is killing me right now! Okay, not really killing me, but slowly sucking all of my time away.
2. no explanation needed
3. . . .
4. Moot court comes in many forms. They usually consist of a first round where your school picks a team or two to represent them, next those teams write a brief and practice, practice, practice. Once the competition roles around the school pays for your team and coach to go out to the competition and, well, compete. The competition involves lots of judges judging you brief and your team giving an oral argument (sometimes multiple oral arguments) as if you were in a real trial. Our school sends teams to quite a few different competitions, but the one I am trying out for is the Hispanic National Bar Association one. I made it through the first round (of submitting a writing sample and letter of why you want to be one the team) and so now next week I have to give a short oral argument on my writing sample. I would really love to get on, I know it would take up more of my time, but it would give me some great experience (and the competition is in New Orleans this year!).
5. my weekly law review assignments . . . slowly sucking away my time, but again, totally worth it!
6. This exam is required to get admitted to the bar in any state. No, it is not the bar. It is just an exam to test how well you know the rules of professional responsibility (you know don't steal from your client, don't sleep with your client, etc etc). Me and some friends are taking it because we are taking our required Professional Responsibility class this semester. Turns out our PR professor SUCKS and isn't teaching us anything, so we are left teaching it all to ourself before Nov. 6th, fun!
7. ah, the never ending task, hopefully one will come along eventually
8. Every semester the school has spots for a couple of students to be judicial externs for some federal judges in the area. You have to apply to get the spots, but if you get it, you take it like a class and get credit for it. So of course I am applying . . .

As much as I long for the days of free time in the evenings and on the weekends to spend with my husband and puppies, I wouldn't trade this time for anything. I love being challenged and I love being able to have some awesome friends to spend every day with. And well, lets face it, I love being busy, because I am a busy body :)