Lanna trying to carry Toby

Here is a picture of Lanna trying to carry her new dog, Toby. You can tell Toby is a really fabulous dog just by how he lets her haul him around. Toby is a silver miniature poodle Mom adopted a few weeks ago, and we all love him so much. He is a great dog, and in the short time Mom has had him, she has already taught him to sit, shake and fetch. He was already perfectly potty-trained and is so nice with Lanna. I think Toby is probably the perfect poster doggie for adopting rather than buying a brand new puppy. I think my favorite thing about Toby is that he has this strange quirk where he won't play with any toys that aren't brown and fuzzy. He doesn't like balls or bright colored toys, but he loves his little teddy bear and a great brown squeaky toy Mom bought him. And he is really good at making that toy squeak! Here is a cute sign Lanna put on Toby's door (and considering she's only six and had no help, I think her spelling is pretty good):
For those of you who have a hard time reading six-year old, it says: "Toby's Room. Miniature poodle. Feeders only. Ask!"

Happy Birthday and Happy Easter!

These past few days have been pretty busy. Since I posted last, I have celebrated my 24th birthday, completely failed to soak up every minute of Spring Break and eaten too many jelly beans. My birthday was actually pretty fabulous this year. Garrett bought me a beautiful purple pearl earring and necklace set which I love so much. And a big THANK-YOU to all you great people who sent me birthday money. I used it to purchase some sturdy luggage to take on my trip this summer (and hopefully on many more trips to come!). I also had a great birthday dinner date with Garrett at Little America, a great night of Disney and dessert with Garrett's family, and really yummy lasagna at my mom's house-all for my birthday. Now I think I've had enough birthday to get me through another year.

We also had Spring Break all last week. I had fairly lofty plans for the break, but you know what they say about the best laid plans... Instead of all the ambitious goals I had planned for my week, I got to hang out with cute Lanna, who was home from school with pink eye. I've decided that there must be some better way to treat pink eye than eye drops. Getting those drops into Lanna's eyes involved a lot of tears and struggling, but at least it's clearing up now. What was really entertaining was Garrett's absolute paranoia of getting pink eye from Lanna. As soon as we picked her up, we had to cover her hands with anti-bacterial gel. Every time we touched her it was time to de-germify our hands. I am pretty grateful for all of Garrett's precautions though. Neither of us have pink eye. Unfortunately my mom ended up with the pink eye instead. So while I didn't get tons of things done this week, it was really fun to get to hang out with Lanna Banana (except for the eye drops).

For Easter, we had a great time. We ate breakfast at my mom's house while Lanna modeled her beautiful new Easter dress. The Easter Bunny brought us too much candy, and I got to have yummy deviled eggs for lunch (which Garrett doesn't actually care for, so I don't get them very often). We also had a good time celebrating Garrett's mom's birthday. I brought a tres leches cake, and it certainly added to my over-sugared feeling. But my favorite was watching "Enchanted" at my cousins' house and holding cute baby Jason who is getting so big!

Now that you're all caught up, I suppose I'll have to return to regular life tomorrow. No more birthdays, breaks or holidays for a while. At least we'll have Garrett's graduation to celebrate in May!

It's Official!

I'm going to Costa Rica! I've just found out that I've been accepted to the Santa Clara Law Study Abroad Program in Costa Rica. Garrett and I are so excited! This will be such a great opportunity, and I am so thrilled to be able to go study Human Rights and Refugee Law in Costa Rica this summer. These two classes should be fascinating, and as part of the program, I'll be able to visit the Inter-American Court. I'll also be living with a Costa Rican family while I'm there, so I'll get to use my Spanish quite a bit. What a great birthday present! This is one of the places I've always wanted to go, particularly because of the Inter-American Human Rights Court and also the amazing beauty of Costa Rica. Heather keeps laughing at me because I really want to see some monkeys. Heather says that monkeys are mean, but I don't want to get too up close and personal. I just think it would be really neat to see some animals in their natural habitat instead of at the zoo. And I will have access to the internet while I'm there, so all you fun people who are reading my blog should stay tuned this summer. Also, be sure to give Garrett a call while I'm gone. He'll be holding down the fort here, and although he's probably going to relish the opportunity to become a Playstation pro, he could probably use some time hanging out on the weekends with friends. Fortunately we won't be apart for too long, and this is a really great opportunity for me to gain a unique experience that will definitely benefit my legal career. Yay!

And the Oscar goes to...

Sunday night Garrett and I sat down to watch the Oscars. We've watched the Oscars together every year since we got married, and it has become a great tradition. It all starts with Barbara Walters at five o'clock and ends with best picture. Garrett and I choose our favorites for each award, then see who gets the most right (Usually Garrett, of course!). This year was especially fun as it was our five year Oscar anniversary and the 80th Academy Awards. If you've noticed the change of tunes on our page, these are some best original song winners. Here are some of our favorites from this year's Oscar's:

Best Dressed: Helen Mirren was wearing such a flattering dress. Classy dress for a classy lady.

Worst dressed: This dress was so AWFUL!!! Who wears a huge black rhinestone flower on their chest? Rebecca Miller, apparently. She must be very, very brave.

Creepiest moment: When some random guy came up to Jennifer Garner while she was being interviewed on the red carpet, hugged her and kissed her on the neck. You could tell she was totally freaked out. It's sad that some people on the red carpet aren't as classy as they should be. On the other hand, Jennifer Garner handled it very well.

We had a great time. It's too bad they only happen once a year, but then they wouldn't be so special.

Law & Order

I've been working hard all week to write a great appellate brief, keep up with my reading, keep up with my supplements so I can understand whatever it is I'm supposed to learn from the reading and keep the laundry done, dishes washed, floor mopped and vacuumed, etc. And it is a lot easier to wash the dishes than to do my Con law reading. Plus I can watch Law & Order while I wash the dishes.

So here's the knowledge I have gleaned from the past twenty minutes of Law & Order. There is a reason why "Law" comes before "Order." The television is sending me a message that studying the "Law" needs to come before putting the dishes and the rest of the house in "Order." Pretty smooth, huh? Maybe I can use this as a justification to Garrett for hiring a maid. If only we could afford it. I guess I'll have to just use the more affordable way to get out of washing the dishes (I don't even understand how we can use so many dishes when it seems like we're hardly ever home!) and buy some paper plates. We all have to make sacrifices to get through school, right? So our sacrifice can be giving up the satisfying feeling of scrubbing every single dish in scalding hot water (That's right, no dishwasher!) until it sparkles. I think my poor dry hands would love that.

That's when I decided that I'd sit down for a minute and see what other revelations I would receive from watching Law & Order. Nothing so far, but it sure is fun. And then back to the brief! I wonder if I will still enjoy these shows when I'm a lawyer. Never mind that I probably won't have time to watch them, but I wonder if I will still feel the same satisfaction in knowing that the criminal has been caught, justice has been done and all is right in the world when I can pick out all the things that would NEVER happen in the real world. For now, I'll enjoy it while I can.

Monkey business

This adorable little guy is the result of my very first attempt at creating a sock monkey. I love him, but he was not easy to make. I think from now on I'll try to stick to non-furry monkeys.

Other than monkey-making, Garrett and I have mostly been studying a lot and not seeing each other a lot. I think we'll have to plan something fabulous for Valentine's day because although the phrase two ships passing in the night sounds poetic, it really isn't a fun way to see your spouse during the week. Basically, he's asleep when I leave for school, and I'm asleep when he gets home from work. So if anyone has any fun Valentine's ideas, let me know!


I also start my watercolor class this week. My sanity started to slowly slip away when law school began taking over my life. In an effort to preserve some of the little sanity I have left, I have signed up for a watercolor class. This will be a good break from the endless studying and I will get a chance to use all my painting stuff that has been gathering dust in the closet.

A productive weekend

You can tell it's almost Spring when there are plenty of baby showers to go to. Heather and I spent the weekend making gifts for all the cute little babies our friends and family members will be having soon. Our new favorite thing to make were these cute baby slings, but as you can see, I also had to do a blanket. I think my favorite thing about the slings is that they are more like an accessory for the mom, so you can use more adult fabric. We also put a handy pocket on the front of them and a little ring for a toy or keys. It's too bad I probably won't be able have another sewing day for a while, but it was a nice break from all the errands I usually run on the weekends. Garrett also enjoyed my sewing day because he spent it playing with his Playstation and taking a wonderful nap. There is just something so exciting about choosing fabric. You get inspired by every pattern you see, and then sometimes you get so excited that you buy more than you need or could ever get around to using. I'm trying to avoid building up the huge fabric collection that my mother and grandmother have, but some pieces are just so tempting. Anyway, Fred and I had a great time and got our projects done...for now, at least.