Friday, December 23, 2011

Today Was a Good Day

Today was a good day; not in the 1993 Ice Cube sort of way, but in the I have the best family sort of way. Seriously though, the whole week has been good.

The kids and I spent two days in northeast Ohio visiting grandparents and great-grandparents. I went to a holiday party and had a blast! A good friend from Kent State, who I had not seen in over five years, hosted a holiday party with her brother. It was a great night of catching up with old friends.

Today, Scott and the kids and I braved the swarm of last-minute shoppers and went to Target to spend some gift cards the kids received from Quin and Zoe and money from Gigi and Aunt Sandy (I only yelled at one lady to "smile" after she glared at Jackson and me...true story). The kids purchased some great gifts including: A cabbage patch doll and keyboard (Ivie), barbies and playdough (Aida), and a shot gun and battleguns (Jackson). Thank you Zoe, Quin, Gigi, and Aunt Sandy and Uncle Steve!

The kids spent the evening playing with the various toys. Tonight Ivie is sleeping with her cabbage patch doll, Aida with one of her barbies, and Jackson has his shot gun under his pillow. No joke.



Aida surrendering Dinosaur to Jackson. Dinosaur took a bullet to the mouth. Poor thing.


Isn't she lovely?
Sharp shooter Jackson taking a break from his hunt to smile for his mother.

Jackson aiming at our refrigerator. I promise you, it was NOT my idea to buy a shot gun with styrofoam bullets that actually discharge from the gun.


Ivie's cabbage patch doll looks like her: Blue eyes and curly blonde hair!

Aida eating edamame. Doesn't she look grown up?

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Civil Procedure v. Life

Have you ever thought about how someone gets into federal court?


Didn't think so. For most people, this question is completely unnecessary and irrelevant to daily life. But for me, a second-year law student who just spent three weeks intensely studying civil procedure, that is all I have thought about. Even as Scott is discussing work, football or the kids, I'm thinking, "Now if I filed a lawsuit...against Scott... for $80K...for negligently watching football all of the time...and then I move to MI, would I be able to sue Scott in the Southern District of Ohio?"


Seriously!?!?


Yes. Seriously. These are the typical thoughts that go through my head.



Tonight I took my civil procedure final. Boo. Hiss. Thumbs down. CRAP...that was a hard test. Even though I have been dreaming about civil procedure for the past three weeks, I still do not feel like I knew the material well enough to do well on the exam. After three intense hours of twenty multiple choice questions and one essay with two questions worth 100% of my final grade, I walked out of the room in tears. I think I shed a few tears because of the let down of intensity and I also shed some tears because of my classmates "post mortems".



I usually leave right away to avoid getting trapped in any how-do-you-think-you-did conversations. However, tonight I had trouble uploading my exam file and had no choice but to listen to a few post-test conversations: #Fail...literally. After hearing a few classmates discuss what they wrote and didn't write, I could feel the tears building. I know better than to listen. They do not know any better than I do, but nonetheless, this time, after this particular exam, my emotions got the best of me.



On my way home, through my tears, I received some encouraging words and amazing support(thanks G-dad!). When I got home, Aida and Ivie were both awake. Two huge hugs and two huge smiles, plus the encouragement and support, put it all in perspective: I can do this. I'm doing great. I haven't failed yet. My kids are my world. I'm doing this for them. And in the end, when I receive my J.D. (because I will), it will be the people who have surrounded me and supported me and my children that will matter. And that's all.



I now have to continue studying; next up is Constitutional Law and then Evidence. For the next two days I will think about my constitutional rights as a wife and mother and how it is against federal law to gamble across state lines as Scott is discussing football and studying VegasInsider.com (Don!).



Here are those beautiful people that put life in perspective: