Last Semester, Coming Up!

Wow! I can't believe it. I'm about to enter my very last semester of law school. About a day or two after graduation, I'll start studying for the bar. Three years of law school will come down to three days of testing. I'll keep interviewing for jobs and hopefully get a job offer before I graduate. I still can't believe I'm living in this area of Texas, but from what I can tell, I'll enjoy practicing law here.

The Third Year

The last year of law school is proving to be challenging but on the easy side. It's not that there's not a lot of work to do. I guess it's just that my brain is trained to read a lot, work hard and just get through it. As a TA, I get to almost re-live the process I went through. I remember being totally clueless about what an outline was, and what an exam would be like. We had pretty good help back then, but no matter what people said, I just didn't get it until I actually took an exam. Practice exams were not that helpful to me because I didn't take them seriously enough. Thank God it only took me one semester to get it and do better. When you know better, you do better. Yes?

My daugter has done pretty well her first week back in school. I'm going to surprise her with a visit either this week or next. She's already gotten into trouble for talking to much one time. She got it honest, so as long as her grades are straight A's, I'll try to be lenient about extra punishment for her talking. She is really excited about learning so I'm going to give her some extra challenges at home.



I also want to start some kind of letter recognition with my son. He's good with saying letters and numbers, but I need to see if he recognizes them visually. I'll find something on the Internet to help me with teaching a 3-year-old. He actually teaches himself some things--mainly how to disassemble and re-assemble toys and anything else he gets his hands on. He is also interesting when it comes to his limitations. He's quick to ask for (or demand) help when he can't do something. My daughter one the other hand used to get mad when she couldn't do something and would practically insist on doing things herself.

My son is very social and makes friends easily. He assumes that the kids on the playground are not only his friends, but will do whatever he says. My daughter, on the other hand, is more reluctant. She says she doesn't think it's polite to just butt in and make new friends. In fact, one time this summer at the playground, she insisted that my little son introduce her, and 8-year-old, to the kids he'd been playing with for about 10 minutes. I don't know what he said, but he finally led her over to the other kids and she edged her way into the play group. It was a hoot to watch.

I don't know how this will all work once I start working, but I really enjoy spending time with my chillun'. I wish I could duplicate myself and have the at home mommy me and the working me. That is the solution! I'll look for a cloning clinic on the Internet after I find the material for teaching a 3-year-old how to read.

Where Does the Sun Live?

Yesterday, we were driving in the car right around sundown when my son asked, "Mommy, where does the sun live at night?" My daughter and I began explaining to him how the earth rotates around the sun and how it's on the other side of the world when it's dark here. After our rather scientific explanation, I asked my three-year-old, darling son, "Now, baby, where does the sun live?" He pointed up and said, "Up in the sky!" I guess he knows more about keeping it simple than we do.

Being a mommy is so much fun!

Tagged?

I was tagged by Angela Braden at www.nuvisionforanuday.blogspot.com. Check out her blog. She is a wonderful woman!

I'm supposed to post these rules and then tell these 8 things about myself. I probably won't tag anyone else, but if you want to do the 8 things, feel free and let me know if you post it on your blog:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Most of the rules don't apply to me, but here are my eight things right off the top of my head:

1. I don't like chocolate. For some reason people are always surprised when I say this. I can tolerate milk chocolate sometimes or even a Snicker's bar, but chocolate is not really appealing to me.
2. When I was little and playing outside sometimes, colors would seem to disappear. My playmate's varied brown and tan skin would all turn kind of off-white and everything looked totally weird. There may be some medical growing pain explanation for this, but it was very strange to me. It seemed to happen during my elementary years and never again after I got older.
3. Speaking of elementary school, I got in touch with my first best friend over the Internet through myspace. Her name is Cheryl Humphrey Bennett, and she is still one of the sweetest persons I've ever met. We originally met when we were around 4 or 5, I think.
4. I was recently published on the Dallas Observer online blog by the editor in her Bible Girl column. It's an interesting article about my quest to find a church home in DFW, well, really FW.
5. I just read The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It's a cool book. I'm glad I read it. I'll give it a proper review in another post.
6. I'm writing another novel, but I haven't worked on it yet this summer. I have a feeling that if I start writing on it, the story will take off again. We'll see.
7. I'm a bit too over-protective as a mother. I think my children could have had a more adventurous summer. I have not allowed them to do anything beyond events where close family members are involved--my sister, parents or neices. I may need to loosen up a bit--on the other hand, maybe I don't need to loosen up.
8. I used to have a small gourmet cookie business. I started it with a dear friend and we sold at Whole Foods and Fresh Plus in Austin. We had a lot of fun, but we were like Lucy and Ethel because we got such large orders for such a micro business.

I said I wouldn't tag anyone, but I'm going to name 8 people and see if any of them read my blog and respond. Anca, Carey, Kim (any Kim), Lisa (any Lisa), Vanessa, Tracey, Gene, Elvira.

DA's Office

I watched a murder trial from jury selection to the verdict. It was an amazing process. This particular trial was a cold case--Bobby Earl Woods murdered his girlfriend 17 years ago. The state's attorneys did a great job presenting the case. It could have gone either way, but I'm glad the jury found the guy guilty. I was convinced that he did it.

I learned a lot about how to conduct myself in the court room. Hopefully if I make a mock trial team again, I'll be able to apply what I learned. It takes practice to be at ease and natural in a court room. It's also a lot of fun to do mock trials because no one's life or money is on the line.

I spend most of my time in the grand jury division. Everything is top secret so I can't say much about it. The basic thing the grand jury does is decide whether to indict a person on the charges from the police, allowing the case to move forward to prosecution. I think there are other ways to prosecute a person because one of the interns mentioned a special prosecution process. Law school teaches the academic side, but internships show you how things really work. After being at the DA's office a few weeks, I think law school should require OneLs to watch trials. I know everyone doesn't want to be a trial attorney, but it's such a great learning experience.

Good Grades and Great Internship

I made good grades generally, and ended up with a pretty good average. I was particularly pleased with my grades in Labor Law and Estates and Trusts. I worked pretty hard all year for those classes. I didn't have much time to study for Bankruptcy so that ended up being my lowest grade. I had a lot of time to study for Family Law and that ended up being my highest grade. It was a good semester.

I'm having a great time at my internship at the DA's office. One of the things we do is watch trials. So far, I've only seen some closing arguments. I've seen some great trial attorneys. I hope to watch a trial from jury selection through the verdict next week. It's amazing how much I've learned from watching attorneys in the court room.

Three L

Wow! I can now officially call myself a 3L. It seems like just a couple of years ago, I was a 1L-Hee hee.

Grades have started coming in, but I don't have the usual anxiety. At this point I know the most important thing is graduating and passing the bar. I'll be working at the Tarrant County DA's office this summer, and I'll share what I can about the experience.

I really need to write more. I may be published somewhere soon. If it happens I will blast it all over the place! In the meantime, my novel is still available if you just do a search on my name (Renea Overstreet) at amazon.com. Yes, that was a shameless plug.

I am enjoying this couple of weeks off. My son doesn't know what to do with me around all the time. I hope all these books and studying rub off on him. My daughter has already been bitten by the education bug. She says she wants to be a doctor. We'll see if that happens. She told her pediatrician and the doc said that one of her patients actually has gone on to medical school. How cool is that?

Half Way Through

Well, I'm embarking on the last half of this journey, and I feel like I've come a long way in a short amount of time.

This semester I'm taking Estates and Trusts, Family Law, Labor Law and Bankruptcy. After this first week of classes, I see why everyone says that the first year is the hardest. (Last semester was pretty challenging because we had a third semester writing class and Constitutional Law. Evidence was no joke either.) But in any event, the classes I have now are a real relief after all those foundational courses.

I'm still not sure what kind of law I want to practice. I don't want to commit to any one area right now, but I've been told that I need to pick a specialty. I can make all kinds of plans, but I'll end up doing whatever it is I'm supposed to do. I'm not steering the ship. I'm just holding on and enjoying the adventure.