Finals

Matt is about half-way through his finals--two more exams and a substantial writing assignment to go. He's on a trial advocacy team that will be going to a competition in DC in February, so he'll need to spend some of the break preparing for that. Matt isn't sure how much down time he'll get with all that he has going on, but at least he won't be going back to school in the evenings after this Thursday.

I'm still only about half-way done with my Christmas preparations. All of the easy gifts have been purchased and wrapped and I've been steadily replacing plans for handmade gifts and treats with things I can buy. Evidently I'm much better at shopping than sewing and baking.

We bought and decorated our tree on Friday and then I ran out of Christmas Spirit and all of the other decorations are just sitting in boxes blocking the walkway. In the meantime, Winnie's been playing in the boxes and our house looks great! Nothing like Halloween and Thanksgiving decor strewn about the kitchen floor just in time for Christmas. Maybe we'll finish tonight for Family Home Evening. . .

Two Weeks of Fun

I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone. Matt goes back to school on Monday! We're planning for Matt to graduate a semester early and we like to think of it as "he'll be done in a year", even though it's technically a year and 4 months. Thinking of it as a year makes going back to school this Fall seem better. It means we're nearly half-way done. Okay, that's easier for me to say than Matt. I'm not sure half-the time and half the work will coincide.


Matt's summer internship ended on August 8th, and in the last two weeks, between me working and not feeling well and Matt going to Youth Conference, we've tried to cram in all the fun we possibly could. Aside from watching movies, and staying up way later than I should have (these days that's anything after 10:00 pm), two of our favorite outings were Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point and Hogle Zoo.

We went to Farm Country on Saturday, August 16th. We invited Matt's brother Jake and his fiance Cassanda. It's a good thing they like each other because having one car seat and two adults in the back seat of the Tercel is one cozy ride. Matt, Winnie and I really enjoyed Farm Country. Jake and Cassanda enjoyed being together and could see that Farm Country would be a fun place to take your kids. :)

Winnie and Matt, learning to speak goat.





Me, Winnie, Jake and Cassanda on the wagon ride. Why are you yawning, Jake? Isn't Farm Country the most fun you've ever had?


It took a minute for Winnie to decide that riding a pony would be okay. Her new stall tactic is to ask for a hug anytime she doesn't want you to put her somewhere, i.e. in her car seat or to bed. As soon as she could see Matt was going to put her on the pony she suddenly was very cuddly. She didn't take long to adjust, though, and as you can see, ended up really liking it.

Last Wednesday we went to Hogle Zoo with Annalise and her youngest 3, Colin, Aidan and Logan. Inexplicably, Winnie's favorite animals at the whole zoo where the crocodiles. Wouldn't look at anything else in their building if she could help it. If we let her go for a second she was bee-lining for the crocodile enclosure.



All the kids were really good at the Zoo. At the end of the day, we'd worn Winnie out.

Grades

Matt got his grades from his first semester of law school last Friday. Matt's GPA is the best he's ever had in college and if he maintains this GPA throughout, he can graduate cume laude! I think Matt's done a great job balancing school, family, church and hobbies during this first semester. I'm sure he would have done even better if he'd spent more time at school, but better grades would have come at the sacrifice of a happy wife. Matt's grades are good enough to make him a competitive candidate for any of the jobs he'd like to pursue and our routine feels sustainable to both of us. Congratulations, Matt!

Matt's First Semester

We're now a little more than half way through Matt's first semester of law school and we both feel like it's going well. Matt is, as you might imagine, pretty busy, but he's engaged in whats he's learning. We have interesting discussions about the cases he's studying and I enjoy being involved in a small way. For some reason I was never that interested in what he was doing in Physics--probably because I felt like he was speaking another language when he tried to explain it to me! In two of his classes, Matt is tutoring a judge from Jordan who is an LLM student at the law school. Essentially, Matt is being paid to study! As a bonus, he's learned some interesting things about the different theories behind Islamic and Western laws. My only complaint with law school is that I don't see Matt as much as I would like to, although I suspect this will be true for the next 40 years. You'd think I'd have had enough of that kid by now! :)

Matt has an externship lined up for next summer. He'll be working for the Utah County Public Defender's office. The job fell in his lap before we'd really had time to think much about our summer plans, but we're excited for the opportunity because his career goal is to be a public defender.

We've now entered my favorite time of year--the Christmas shopping season! It combines two of my greatest loves--shopping and giving gifts. I plan Christmas all year, but make myself wait until October to actually begin buying things. My goal is always to have everything wrapped by Thanksgiving and this year I think I might make it. The hardest part is sticking to my list and budget. I can always think of the perfect gifts for people, I just can't always afford them. Some day when Matt and I are filthy rich . . .

Matt and I enjoy Winnie more and more every day. As she gets older, we can see her own little personality as she becomes more able to express herself. She's such a happy little thing--she charms people with well-timed smiles and laughs everywhere we go! I've never been around a baby as much as Winnie, of course, but I think she smiles and laughs more than is common and cries less. How did we get so lucky?

Law School

Matt was able to talk to BYU's law school admissions dean on Monday. Dean Hernandez told us that BYU can now guarantee our admission next year, without our having to reapply, if we don't get in this year--though he feels it's still highly likely that Matt will be accepted this year. Matt called Minnesota to tell them we'd decided to go to BYU and since then, he's been getting calls from UMN offering more money, etc. How come we're choosing the school we had to beg to get into v. the school that went out of their way for us? Money, of course.

J. Reuben Clark Building, BYU Walter F. Mondal Hall, UMN