Just Keep Swimming

The Baby Buckaroo had his first swimming lesson.

He is terrified of the water. 

Not. 

I've never seen that kid giggle and smile as much as when he was in the pool~

I was a bit envious that I was standing on the side of the pool while everyone else was splashing and having so much fun.

Next week I'll have to join him in the pool too, and will, thankfully, have no photographic proof! :) 

Baby Quilts

Since the law semester has ended, I've been making quilts like crazy. Although, I'll admit I have NO pictures of all my works in progress. Sad. But the majority of the quilts that I've been making are baby quilts.

The best thing about baby quilts, is the fact that babies will actually play with them. Case in point, my baby, above, caught in the middle of a rousing game of peekaboo. 

I love making quilts, but I hate to see the quilt folded and put away so it won't get dirty. Granted, I won't let my baby drink cool aid on his quilt, but I want him to use it. 

This scrappy cowboy quilt was made by my mom, and it is Bebe's favorite quilt to play peekaboo with. 

Why does the simple game of peekaboo bring so much joy? 

Maybe that is the answer to world peace, we just all need a quilt so we can play peekaboo with each other instead of fighting. 

Bed Head

I love my job.

No really, I do.

Because of my job I'm able to attend law school in the evenings and take advantage of the 20 credit per year tuition waiver my job offers. How awesome is that?! Ok, no more gloating over the limited law school debt I'll be forced to graduate with.

Another reason I love my job is that I have to wake up horribly early in the morning to get ready for work. By the time I'm ready and have drunk at least one cup of coffee, I'll hear my little munchkin stirring in his room.

I'll go pull him out of his crib, cuddle him, and get him ready for the day. Then he lays on my bed drinking his morning bottle while I finish my makeup. 

Then I ask him, "Are you ready for the day?"

And I get this milky, loving smile in return.

I melt.

Happy Friday!

So, You Want to be a Law Student? Part One.

Recently, my cousin asked me what I thought about him going to law school when he finishes his undergrad program.

I couldn't answer him. My first gut reaction was, "No! Don't do it! Run screaming away from law school!"

Of course, this was immediately after my D grade on my Corporations midterm, and I was feeling a bit jaded and bitter about the whole law school experience.

Since then, I've been pondering my answer, and have decided to spend some time writing a series of blog posts about this.

So, you want to be a Law Student?

Part 1: Why do you want to be a lawyer?

I think every potential law student should have a firm and well thought out answer to this question before they grace the esteemed halls of the law school as a first year student. 

Don't go to law school because you couldn't get a job out of undergrad. Don't go to law school because you majored in Philosophy and English and the only jobs that hire those majors need you to ask, "do you want paper or plastic?" or "would you like fries with that?"
 

Trust me I know, I was an English major.

Go to law school because you want to change the world. Or because you have a desire to  help people, or to defend the law, or whatever. Have a good reason.

Me? I'm going to law school because I love to research and write, and I'm hoping that those skills will help me get a position in a natural resource law firm/office where I can research and write to my heart's content. I'm passionate about water law, agriculture law, and am starting to do more research in the land use law area.

Second, you have a reason you want to go to law school, but now you have to seriously consider the financial ramifications of that decision. Sure, lawyers are all supposed to be rich, but that's not really the case anymore. There is a glut of lawyers, and as you all know, the economy isn't the best right now. In 2004 the number of legal jobs peaked at 1.23 million, and since then the market has slowly been shrinking, despite the ever increasing number of students applying to law school. In 2010, more than 87,900 students applied to law schools, competing for the 60,000 seats in ABA-approved law schools.

“More than 78,900 have applied for 2012 spots… youthful over optimism, bleak job prospects for college grads, and the entry of several more universities and for-profit business into the legal education business are some of the root causes for the supply-and-demand imbalance in entry-level lawyers.” – William D. Henderson and Rachel M. Zahorsky, “The Law School Bubble.” ABA Journal: The Lawyer’s Magazine. Vol 98. Jan. 2012.

The economy is still slow and there seems to be a glut of law school grads, and I’m not even going to mention law school student loan debt now, except to say that in Henderson and Zahorsky’s article, they highlighted this statistic:

“In 2010, 85 percent of law grads from ABA-accredited schools boasted an average debt load of $98,500… At 29 schools, that amount exceeded $120,000.”

I don’t want to be a killjoy. I am loving my law experience, and (most of the time) think it was a good decision. However, I think future law students should go into it with their eyes wide open.

Beginning Gardening: Rhubarb

When my husband and I bought our little house back in the summer of 2008, the yard and gardens were in shambles. Really, trust me, it was nasty. There was no lawn, just dried up weeds and dirt. The for sale flier promised a "landscaped" back yard, but that in fact was just a bare weedy patch with a lower area fenced off by broken down fence posts and wire for a garden. I guess the retaining wall holding up what would be the lawn was installed by a landscaper, but except that, the whole back yard was a blank slate ready for me to draw upon.  (See before and after pictures of the back yard after a year's labor.)

And draw I did. I borrowed my boss's chain saw and took down the six foot fence on top of the retaining wall. I used pliers and wire cutters to pull down the crappy wire fencing the previous owners used to keep their huge dogs in the yard. I talked my husband into buying me a tiller, and I, yes I, literally tilled up our entire yard, front and back, so I could plant a lawn. The chef installed an underground sprinkler system and I cast the grass seed out of my hand like an old time farmer. I put in a stepping stone sidewalk in the back, and I planted trees, rose bushes, and created flower beds.

I can almost feel the blisters rising on my hands just thinking about it.

My garden and yard still need a lot of work, but I love working in the dirt and watching things grow.

The best surprise occurred early in the spring after our first winter in the house. In the cleared garden area, I saw lovely thick green leaves appear. This was too hearty and gorgeous just to be some exotic weed. I did some research and was thrilled to see that in the midst of the neglected desolation of our backyard, a rhubarb plant thrived.

Rhubarb is one of the few perennial vegetables (asparagus is another one). These hardy plants, once established, need minimal care (as mine received absolutely no care, and probably no watering for at least 4 years before we moved in and it's still thriving).

In the spring, when rhubarb sends up a flower stalk, seen in the picture above, simply cut that stalk off as soon as you can. You want your rhubarb to concentrate on creating more leaves, not on growing seeds.

To harvest rhubarb, merely cut or twist off the stalks near the ground. The younger stalks are usually more tender, however, I usually pull the big stalks to make room for new growth.  My mouth waters as I think of rhubarb and strawberry pies, crisps, cobblers.

What a treat to be able to find this lovely plant growing in our garden! (I won't talk about the scads of mint growing in my garden as well, that's another volunteer plant that is not quite as welcome!)

.

Law Review Write On: Sanity of Law Students Questioned

Law school finals finally ended last week, on Thursday actually. On Friday I was forced to sit through a 3 hour mandatory orientation for an externship I'm doing this summer.  During the orientation I learned very little, except that apparently common sense is lacking among some of my peers.

(Yes, I know that no one wants to go to a mandatory training at 9 a.m. on Friday, after you just finished your torts final the day before, but really, don't complain about it loudly in the men's bathroom, when a judge, and your orientation presenter, is standing next to you.  Common sense equals professionalism, in most cases.)

Despite the short weekend to recover from the two and a half weeks of finals, on Monday, at 9 a.m., the Law Review candidacy opened. Because working full time prevents me from following the traditional law student route of summer clerkships and summer associate positions, last year I tried to write on to the law review to help make me somewhat more marketable.  I was so scarred by the experience that I couldn't write about it for an entire year.

 (Please, God, let me get a job when I graduate!)

Since I decided to attempt the Law Review write-on competition, I expected to spend 20 or so hours during the two weeks after the semester ended to complete the packet.  Then I downloaded it.

The case comment was 20 pages long.  The  sourcing section was immense.  The bluebooking exercise crazy.  Seeing the reality of the candidacy process, I readjusted my schedule, knowing that I'd  be spending 2 hours every night after work and the baby was asleep working on it, and my entire 3 day Memorial Day weekend was suddenly going to be one long writing fest.

The Chef was at a kung fu performance in Moab, so I spend the entire 3 days on the couch, with my laptop and trusty bluebook, and attacked the candidacy packet. I labored, I struggled, and finally had the sourcing and bluebooking section finished. I started reading the cases I'd need to incorporate into my 20 page case comment for the final section.

And then, at 11:30 p.m. on Monday evening, knowing that I'd have to go back to work at 8 the next morning, and knowing that no matter how many John Wayne war movies played in the background, this candidacy packet was going to defeat me. I wasn't going to be able to finish the case comment in time to submit it. Why was I torturing myself like this? 

 

I was driving myself crazy trying to finish this case comment, and then even after all that blood, sweat, and tears, completing the packet doesn't even mean an automatic acceptance onto the Law Review board.

 So I shut down my computer, plumped my pillow, and fell asleep to AMC's Memorial Day war movie marathon in the background. I didn't complete the packet, and thus didn't get onto the famed Law Review. But that fall I completed the write on competition for another law review at my law school, one focused on natural resources law and water law in the West. I completed the packet and was accepted onto the not-so-elite journal. I'm thrilled. But it has caused me to work harder than ever. For no grade, but the hope that the little line on my resume that says, Staff Editor, "A Law Review" will actually help me get a job. Maybe.

My heart goes out to all the students who are right now pulling out their hair, hoping that their attempts to get on the Law Review will pay off.

This is why law students are crazy. The law semester just ended, we're still recovering from finals, and then we have to rush for the next two weeks to complete a crazy competition to earn the chance to work like a slave for free for two years.

 

But, we're smart, right? We chose this exquisite torture.

We may be smart, but we're certainly not sane.

.

The True Value of Our Mothers

Happy (early) Mother's Day!

I wanted to share an article I read with you. While you know how I cringe and break out into nervous sweat when I even mention politics on this blog (political debater I am not), I thought this brought up some interesting points about mothers. In particular, the recent studies that show that if we paid stay-at-home moms what they were really worth, that they'd be earning over $117K a year!

My mom was an incredible example of the super-power strength and awesomeness of being a stay-at-home mom. Below is a picture of us in 1985. I still love my mommy, and while it isn't financially possible for me to give up my job (with its benefits and tuition waivers) to stay at home with my little buckaroo, being a working mom has shown me it's own brand of awesomeness.

"This Sunday, in the U.S. and elsewhere, we will take time out of our busy schedules to stop and honor some of the most important people in our lives: our mothers. While this is certainly a moment for celebration, it's also a chance for reflection. How are we treating our mothers the other 364 days of the year?

"It turns out, we could be doing a lot better. Studies show that if we paid stay-at-home mothers an appropriate salary, they'd make $117,000 a year. And the political debates of the last year have only magnified how undervalued and marginalized our mothers really are.
"Recently [Newsom] wrote a piece for the International Museum of Women called "A Revolution, Stalled," in which [she] addressed how we are especially failing our mothers in the workforce: 

'The lack of proper respect and assistance for working mothers is a major factor in the lack of equality for women across the board. The pay gap still exists...Furthermore, even though studies have shown that working mothers pose fewer burdens for employers than their co-workers, the stereotype persists, and women with children make 7 to 14 percent less than their childless female peers.'"  

"We all have a responsibility to mothers, and one way we can support those in our community is by raising awareness around these issues. Regardless of whether she works at home or in an office, the greatest gift we can give our mothers is a transformation of our culture's unfair expectations of women as primary caregivers and household managers. By raising consciousness around the issues faced by moms, we are closing the gender gap and expanding the opportunities available to all women and girls." -- Jennifer Siebel Newsom, CEO and Founder of MissRepresentation.org

Happy Mother's Day!