A 2L & An Accountant

So the summer whizzed by and back to school I go! I had my first week back and it was so much better than my first year of law school! I am taking three courses at school with AWESOME professors! I have never actually LOVED my professors, so I am really stoked! My evidence professors has been a prominent judge in orange county for 40 years and he is so funny and a great professor. Evidence is an extremely tough course and he makes it easier by relating every code to a sport. Today he used basketball to exemplify "full court press" in litigation strategy, baseball umpire strike zones to show the variance in judge rulings and football...not really sure what he was getting at with the football game though, it's really just not my sport. I really enjoy going to class this semester, so that is really nice.

And even more exciting....I am externing (legal word for internship) for credit at The County Counsel for Child Protection Trials Unit. The court is part of the juvenille court by The Block in Orange. I am working there 2 days a week, adding up to 12 hours per week. I started this week and really really like it so far. I got to observe in the court room the first days (in addition to doing some discovery/redacting) and it is really an interesting experience. It is very sad to see the way some people are forced/choose to live their lives and how they have total disregard of how their children are affected. I truly believe some people should not reproduce. I can not even express how sad some of the things are that I read during discovery. One 8 year old boy told the social worker how to smoke meth from a cyrstal pipe! Needless to say, the parents were selling drugs out of their Santa Ana apartment. Then there are the stories of abuse in the foster homes...enough said, I will spare you the disgusting details. Oh and of course, we can not forget the husband that tried to run over his 7 month pregnant wife with his truck because he doesnt want her to have the baby because he already has 7 children with various women. You would think he would come to the conclusion that he should keep his pecker in his pants, but apparently that is just too difficult.

The attorney that I am working with is helping me get certified so I can appear in court and actually argue cases and go on record in front of the judge. I am excited and very nervous to do this! But it is the best way to see if it is something I want to do for a career! Oh and did I mention the attorneys get every other Friday off! GREAT hours and benefits :-)

My hubby has been working crazy hours with the busy tax season, so our life consists of late night snacks when he gets home and deparately trying to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning...can't wait for October 15th!!!!!!!!! On a happier note, we think Cam has fibromialgia. Not to say that is good, but we think it is an actual diagnosis, he starts new meds and sees if they help! We shall cross our fingers!

Oh and I decided to post some pics from our trip a few weeks ago to Napa Valley...it is hands down my absolute favorite new destination. We actually went up there twice this summer! We went this time for the Cabernet release at Nickel Nickel Winery (our most favorite wine/winery). They released 13 wines and that means 13 different wines to taste! My mom only lasted like 3 and Cam made it to like 6....I proudly made it through 11 :-) They had yummy appetizers too!

It is absolutely gorgeous and I just LOVE wine and pairing it with great food. The wine caves at Far Niente are unbelieivable! They run for miles and are just unreal. The pic above shows the gate of Dulce which is the dessert wine at Far Niente. It is SOOOO good. The bottle has 24k gold on it and that gate in the pic above is real gold. I can not believe I just started going there....I have really been missing out these last 23 years :-) We are taking a family trip there the begginning of January. This was my mom's first time to the valley and I got her totally hooked too! We are members of 2 wine clubs...soon to grow. We are stoked to take my dad and alex (who will be turning 21 this December!). I know they will love it! Oh and Scout gets to come too! We got a big family cottage with a yard at The Carneros Inn (cutest darn place ever!). Can not even wait!