Housework... the Good Kind.

Randy and I did some housework today - of the good kind. Even though we live in a townhouse, it doesn't mean the outside has to look like crap. We planted some hostas and day lilies that I got on sale at Linder's. Gosh, I love Linders. I got about 9 hostas and three day lilies for $69.95. When we checked out hostas at Home Depot, they were $20 a plant. Crazy, eh?

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Chicky on her Top Five award at the regional championship show this weekend. Yay Chicky!

Holy Crap... It's a Trend!!

So, it's no secret that my life is finally stabilizing. I've got a GREAT boyfriend. I've got a good bunch of kiddos. We've been blissfully happy since we met, with the only bumps in the road being from things pretty much beyond our control. (Exes, for example.) I think it's starting to show...

I have a job, that I like, that I got without really having to go through the grind of interviewing a gazillion times. I've got great friends. And as of yesterday, I don't just have one "A" for the semester, but THREE solid A's!!!! (And one B so far, with one grade yet to go.) Um, I'm not sure if you know, but in law school, there might be one or two A's... They're VERY far and few between. So three, well, OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. Just... Wow.

So Randy and I were on our way to go fishing last Sunday. We had the boat hooked behind the Durango, and we were happily making our way down the highway to a day of blissful angling. Suddenly, we were accosted by quite the visual display on a fellow traveler's vehicle.

What did we see? Lucky for you I had my digital camera, and you can share in the glory that is "So Juicy"'s super pimped out silver and pink Monte Carlo!! Isn't it pretty? The photos don't do it justice, but take what you can get when you're moving down the freeway at 70 mph.

Of course, "So Juicy" herself was about what you'd expect. She seems like a nice girl, but probably hit the deep fried Snickers one too many times during the last State Fair. Or maybe it was the Chocolate Covered Deep Fried Pickle on a Stick? Yeah... I'm going pickle on a stick for that one.

Working!

I started my job at the state public defender's office this week. 20 hours. On my first day I worked on a file to get some sentences executed for someone who was in prison. I finished that up on day two. Then I got to work on my next file. It's post-conviction relief for someone. I'm trying to figure out how we can get a sentence reduced. There's some basis for it, so I'm hoping.

Yesterday was neat. I got an order back from a court for some work I did before I got hired there. I had executed a sentence for someone who was in prison on another charge. That means that something else they did before going to prison wouldn't be hanging over them when they got out. Instead, they serve both terms at the same time. The order was neat - it was everything I had typed up, including their jail credit toward the sentence for the time they'd already served. The judge signed it, filed it, and it was then legally binding. And I wrote it! And researched it. And mailed it off to the judge.

It's so odd knowing that the stuff you learn in school, when you finally get out of school, actually has practical application and can literally change someone else's life. It's kind of neat. Of course, it's also a lot of responsibility.

Seriously, an A!

So grades are going up for spring semester. I had a few classes: Family Law, Juvenile Delinquency, Commercial Real Estate, my Public Defender Clinic, and Evidence. Well, the first grade of the semester is up, and it's now official. I've got an A in Commercial Real Estate. It's my first solid "A" in law school, and it was well deserved.

For that class we got to negotiate a few items, and wrote reciprocal easement and purchase agreements for a commercial real estate deal involving a restaurant, office building, and hotel. We worked in groups, and the group I was in was dynamite. We worked our tails off. I think our purchase agreement alone was 17 or 18 versions as we closed in on what we wanted.

The best part was when we received an email from the instructor. He told us not only was our purchase agreement the best he'd seen from this class, but one of the best he'd ever seen in all of his years of teaching the Commercial Real Estate course. Given where he's worked, and the number of years he's been teaching the course, that's quite a compliment.

I think my dad would have been very, very proud of me.

It's a momentous occasion!!!

The boy caught his first fish. It was his first time actually fishing. Then we promptly ate it and some of its little friends later. :)