Pregnancy Brain

I recently participated in a study that tested "mommy brain" a.k.a. forgetfulness while pregnant. While I think I did pretty good overall, sometimes I read a survey question and felt like this:

I don't feel like I've been hugely affected by pregnancy brain, although maybe because of my participation in the study I've become more aware of when I forget things. It's hard to tell if it's just normal forgetfulness (like forgetting to use a coupon at the store or mixing up left and right) or if there's been a big change in my memory.  I don't think I've done anything ridiculously forgetful yet, but we'll see what happens in the next few months!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Writers' League

I promise I blogged today. It was just on my other blog: http://writing-rights.blogspot.com/2014/11/guest-speaker-judge-poulson.html

What is this other blog, you ask? It's for the Writers' League. I've been president since my first year in law school, and it's been great to see the club grow and progress. The biggest thing I've been grateful for is having a Board to help me coordinate events. Delegation is the best! I love being able to maintain the blog and schedule the events, without having to worry about finding speakers, getting food, or advertising.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Baby at 31 Weeks

Your baby's the size of a pineapple!

He's about 15.2 to 16.7 inches long and weighs about 2.5 to 3.8 pounds this month. He's getting so big, he's probably crowding your lungs.

• He's going through major brain and nerve development.
• Eye development, too. His irises now react to light!
• All five of his senses are in working order.
• If the worst happens and baby is born now, there's a 96% survival rate. 
• *Information from The Bump

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Law School FAQs Part 2

1. Why did you pick BYU? Many reasons: close to family, it was my dad's alma mater, I wanted the same type of "spiritually strengthening" atmosphere I got during my undergrad, etc. the most important reason, though, is that I prayed about it and felt it was what I was supposed to do. 
2. How did you study for the LSAT? I studied on my own for about a month- I checked out prep books from the local library and I found some free resources online. I decided fairly late to take the LSAT, so I didn't have time to do an actual prep course. I only took the LSAT once.
3. How well did your major prepare you for Law School? Not better or worse than any other major. Having a background in history helped me occasionally to put court cases in context, but other than that, I don't feel like it have me a big advantage.
4. How diverse is BYU (age, gender, race)? My incoming class had an age range of 19-58 years old, and I think there were 39% females. I have no idea about race, but I can say that there is a club for basically every minority. 

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Law School FAQs

Last week I had the chance to be a "Student Ambassador" for BYU Law at the Law School Expo on campus. I got to be upstairs in the Wilk in a "reception room" where I met potential students and answered their questions. Even though I only signed up to be there for an hour, I enjoyed myself so much I stayed for an extra hour and a half! Like many people, I enjoy giving advice and sharing my opinions. We had a lot of students come through, so I actually felt productive and useful the whole time.

In the spirit of procrastinating doing homework (another reason why I chose to stay for an extra 1 1/2 hours) I thought I'd post my answers to the FAQs that I got today:

1. How much time do you have to study? Let me answer you that by asking you this: What grades do you want? As someone who is in the bottom half of my class, I treat my 14 credit load like a full time job- I'm on campus from about 8-5. Having observed those who are in the top half of the class, especially in my first year, they were on campus more like 8-8 minimum.  Speaking of, several students also asked about how much reading you have to do. The first year, it's about 25 pages of reading per class period. You have 3 classes a day, which equals around 75 pages of reading daily. 
2. How do you balance school and family obligations? Going back to my first answer, I balanced by choosing to dedicate the evening to myself (my first year) or my husband (2nd and 3rd years). I knew that by doing this, I would sacrifice my grades. Although I do know several mothers who have graduated in the top of their class and still made time for family- they just have to study every available minute they aren't at home. 
3. What is Law Review? Every law school has at least one student-run journal called "Law Review." The student's duties are to select, edit, and publish articles they receive from professors and scholars around the country. Law Review is the most prestigious journal at any law school. There are usually other smaller journals, as well. Each school selects editors for the journals differently, but BYU does a one week "write-on" competition where students write a 15 page paper based on a file of information that they receive. They also have to do a "tech edit" where they check the footnotes of an assigned article to make sure they follow the correct rules (scholarly articles usually have at least 200 footnotes, by the way). The score they receive from their paper and tech edit are combined and the highest scores are selected to be on Law Review. 



Other co-curricular programs besides Law Review include Moot Court and Trial Ad. At BYU Law, 1L students have the opportunity to compete so they can participate in these activities during their 2L year.

4. What do you have to do to get a good job? I had to have the student define "good job" since it's pretty subjective. She had heard that if you don't do Law Review or get high grades you won't get a "good job." If you consider working at a big law firm or clerking for the Supreme Court a "good job" then that would be true. However, if you consider working as a solo practitioner or for the government a "good job" then that statement would be false. 

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

NaNoWriMo 2

Last year, I participated in my own version of NaNoWriMo by blogging once a day. I've decided to do that again this year, mostly because my personal journaling has lagged and I'd like to document this historic time in my life (pregnant and finishing grad school). Also, because I want to do something better than this:

Like last year, you can expect this month to be full of memoirs, poems, thoughts from my classes, and family updates. Unlike last year, I will be starting on time and so my goal is 30 posts for the month of November.

Wish me luck!
Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Halloween Festivities

*The title of this post is not to be confused with the post I did last year.

Even though Matt will be gone for Halloween, we still wanted to participate in the festivities. We tried something new this year by making our own caramel apples! I won a huge jar last week for guessing how many caramels were inside and I used about a third of them for these apples. They weren't as attractive as the ones we get from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, but they still tasted delicious.

This year we decided to do "The Incredibles" as our pumpkin theme. 

The goal: 

The reality:

Yeah...you can't really tell that it's "Jack-Jack"-O-Lantern. 

 Same pumpkin, other side:

Doing the "I" was a little bit easier in the design, although Matt had to spend some time carving out the circle around it so you could see the faint glow of the candle.

Matt also cooked pumpkin seeds again this year, which he will be eating all by himself (No offense to Matt's cooking, I just don't like pumpkin seeds).

What have you been doing to celebrate Halloween?

Rhetorically,

Rebekah