It is finished.

Well PC 2 is over. It was appropriately horrific. We got an email from Powell shortly afterward, and the scary part is that the first thing that popped into my head was:  "how did he figure out that I failed so quickly??" Thankfully that wasn't the subject matter of the email....for now.

I have the MPRE (professional responsibility portion of the bar exam) tomorrow and I've sincerely thought about just not going and taking it in March. I'm burned out on every possible level. Plus we start class again on Monday. Ahhh. I may give it a whirl anyways and I may or may not study, at this point I don't know that my brain would absorb anything anyways. 

Dustin surprised me with flowers and one of those cinnamon brooms they have out in the fall--I looooove them and he knows it, plus now our apartment smells delightful. He is such a wonderfully thoughtful man. We went out for lunch together and he's spent the rest of the afternoon working diligently on a presentation while I took a much needed nap (I got up at 3am to do one last round of studying this morning before our 8am test). 

Not sure what's in store for tonight. It may involve a glass of wine. Or several. 

Happy Birthday Mamie!!

Today is the 80th birthday of my wonderfully awesome grandma, Mamie!! I have so many incredible memories with Mamie growing up: feeding the ducks at the park, storytime at the library, playing checkers (somehow I always won, could that have been contrived??), putting on plays which she always thought were endlessly amusing, playing softball in their backyard, and on and on....

Mamie and I are still close today, but now we do "grown up" things like talk about the books we're reading and have lunch together at Laurie's Tea Room ;) 

Mamie you are such a special person and I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!! 

Below are two of my favorite pictures of Mamie: 

Hula-ing in her new apron, Mamie is always so sweet and fun: 

With my grandpa!

Testing and Tortellini

I had my PC 1 final today. It was the hardest final of. my. life.  But from what I hear that will only last until Friday when I take PC 2, which is reputed by many reliable sources to be "significantly harder than the bar exam." Yay. I don't mind studying, its not my favorite, but sitting around in pajamas with coffee beats being in class with Powell any day of the week and twice on Sundays. 

My main fear/stressor is that people fail PC EVERY quarter. Sometimes multiple people. People who are scheduled to graduate, start jobs, cure cancer....maybe not that last one. But Baylor is DEFINITELY not a school that practices the "gentleman's 'B'" or even 'C' that is rumored exist at other schools. Apparently it's quite the opposite, here we liked to fail a few soon-to-be graduates each time around. So here's to hoping I passed, I sincerely don't have a clue if I did or not, but after 9.5 weeks of reading 200-300 pages of case law a night, plus more study hours than I've ever put in for a single final, I really don't know if I could do it again.....

I'm making a yummy dinner before I start hitting the books for my next final. It's a new recipe, but it smells delish so far!!

Eggplant and Red Pepper Tortellini

Recipe Courtesy Real Simple

2 Tbsp EVOO

1 medium eggplant, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

2 bells peppers (red), cut in 1/2 inch pieces

2 cloves garlic, chopped  (the recipe actually calls for 4, but that's a little much)

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

3 cups low-sodium veggie broth

1 pound cheese tortellini (we're using light whole wheat)

1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 cup grated Parmesan (we're omitting to save on some calories, but it sounds good!)

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Cook eggplant, peppers, salt and pepper for 8 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute, stirring occasionally. Add broth and tortellini, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until broth is mostly absorbed. Fold in parsley and Parmesan at the end, spoon into bowls. 

You can find another yummy sounding recipe from a Baylor Prof that I will have for two of my classes next quarter here. I especially like that it feeds "6 to 8 fat people." 

Dustin's brush with fame....kind of

For any of you watching the UT v. OSU game tonight, number 32 on the OSU team, Travis Miller, is a former student of Dustin's from when Dustin taught Spanish at Marlin High School. Dustin says he was a nice kid, who was better than most at doing his work because he knew he had to pass to get his full scholarship to OSU. It's really kind of weird to see someone you know on TV. Dustin also says he hopes he does well, as long as he doesn't score any points against us :)

In other news I'm trying to study, but am ceaselessly amused by Dustin watching football. Sometimes he yells angrily, sometimes he jumps up and down in glee, and perhaps most disturbingly he calmly explains to the TV commentators why they are wrong as if they can hear him. 

Weird Dreams

As it is finals (I promise to stop blogging about law school someday), it is also the time that I have the most vivid and weird nightmares. Frequently I dream that all my teeth are falling out. Apparently this is a common dream that relates to stress. Oddly, though, when I dream all my teeth are falling out I still have teeth, and the teeth that are falling out get stuck in the teeth that are still attached. It's very unnerving.  Much like Professor Powell.

In case anyone wonders, Dustin generally sleeps like a baby and dreams that he's superman or a secret agent or has special powers. I might be jealous. 

In case you were wondering...

...still nothing exciting going on. I spent all day studying, well, as much as I could considering I was quite sickly most of the day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and I can do some catching up. Dustin is trucking along with school as well, November is shaping up to be a super busy month for him.

Happy early Halloween everyone!! Baylor Law finals always fall right on Halloween, I cannot wait until next fall, it will be our first Halloween in three years!!

Veggie Lasagna

Our yummy (but healthy) dinners are about the most exciting things going on in our school filled lives, so I thought I'd share a recent recipe that was a big hit with the hubby, low in calories and packed with nutritious veggies!

I combined two recipes I thought sounded good to kind of make my own. It makes 8 servings at 280 cals per serving.

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, cubed
3 zucchini's, sliced
1 medium onion, diced,
1 can of no salt added diced tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 bag of mixed spinach and field greens
1 jar marinara sauce (we like Newman's Own Tomato Basil)
10 whole wheat lasagna noodles (it took me 5 per layer to cover a 9x13)
1 container part skim ricotta cheese (definitely minimal for a dish this size, so you might want to add more)
spices: I used salt, pepper, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly sautee veggies in Pam spray or water (I did eggplant and zucchini in one pan, garlic, onions and tomatoes in one pan and the greens in one pan--its kind of a lot to do all together). Combine all veggies and marinara sauce in large bowl with spices.  Spray 9x13 with pam lightly, layer raw noodles, then veggie mixture, then cheese dollops (ricotta doesn't spread well). Repeat for a second layer. Bake covered in foil for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 25 minutes


Its yummy, filling, full of veggies and low on cals! Two thumbs up from the hubby!