Going to try this whole blog thing again.

Yes, so I have established  I am really and truly horrible at blogging.  :::hanging head in shame:::  But I am really going to try and give this whole thing another try.  I promise.

Law school exam season is back at the Miller household once again.  And we all know what that means...drum roll please...procrastination!  Thank the Lord I only have one more "exam season" after this one!  Well, that is if you don't count the upcoming bar exam, and I think that will qualify as worse than a season.  Yet to come up with that I will call it.  Just dreading it altogether and hating law school in general right now.  With the economy in the dumps like it is (How 'bout that stimulus?! Ha.), I often wonder if law school will be worth all of the time, money, sweat and tears.  And I think a lot of students in my situation are probably thinking the same thing.  I mean I spent all of this effort trying to keep up my GPA and pretending to study for the LSAT for nothing.  Fantastic.  That's my new word by the way:  fantastic.  You may say, 'Janelle, 'fantastic' is nothing new, it is certainly not catchy.'  And I'll admit I have no idea why it's my new word, but I do catch myself saying it quite a bit.  Personally, I think it's because it is once again Gator Basketball season.  (Did you see that win over #2 Michigan State this past weekend?!)  Anyways, getting off track.  Law school sucks.  Ok, back on track.  Three exams this semester (first one on Friday) and then the way my schedule is looking for next semester, I will only have one in May.

As far as life updates go, well the ones that matter anyway (I'm sure most don't care to hear me whine about school), there is a ton.  I won't go into great detail even though I have written in five months.  In August, on my first day back to classes and I going into my first day of my (then) new internship, I got a call from Hubs.  He had just been laid off.  Fantastic.  So, holding back the tears, I walked in and started my first day of my internship with, what I will refer to her as, "my judge."  The next moment I had to myself, I broke down.  Well, after a long and hard three months, Hubs has a new job.  Not really comfortable going into details about it though at this point.  It was really, really tough...especially being that this is our second time dealing with this situation in our 1.5 year-old marriage.  But good news, well really the best news, is that we made it.  And I really do think it taught us a lot about ourselves.

I will also, say that my internship (that has since ended) with "my judge" was the best thing about my law school experience thus far.  Always nice to get a dash of the real world in your education.  I tend to think that law schools around the country need to learn a thing or two from med schools:  the "practical" factor and the "real world" factor.  Enough with theory!  Show me what I will be doing when I (hopefully!) get a real, grown-up job!  K thanks.  Back to "my judge"...best thing ever.  She will be my mentor for life in all seriousness.  I am so lucky to have worked in her presence and under her guidance.  You wouldn't believe how many times I thanked God for a mentor like her in my prayers at night.  Especially during this stressful economic time not only in our household, but across the nation...there are many a nights where I worry worry worry.  I am Type A (I think it's required to pass the LSAT).  I like to plan/have plans.  I have always had a plan.  I have always followed that plan.  You know, the typical:  Get into UF.  Check.  Get into law school check.  Get married to Hubs. Check.  Graduate law school.  About to be a check in May.  Question is now, what's next on my to-do list?  Get a job, obviously.  But doing what?  Is there even a job out there to be had for me?  Civil or criminal?  I would love to be a prosecutor for a few years and get trial experience right off the bat, but then I face the obstacle of going from criminal to civil, not to mention an embarrassingly low salary.  So, civil right?  Well, which field of civil law?  All I know right now is that I do not want to do criminal defense, family law, or tax law.  Other than that, I guess you could say I am pretty open.  But with the way the economy is sucking, what other choice do I have?  This stresses me out as you can tell.  And it has been really nice to have had "my judge" all semester to help me walk through the forest, being that she's been through it before and all.  Can I also say, let's give a hand for all of the mentors out there?  Not everyone is willing to be as open, honest and helpful as "my judge" but for every single piece of advice she has given me thus far, from having children to oral argument advice, I am immensely thankful.

Other than that, there is not a whole lot going on in the Miller household.  Well, except for all of the excitement in the house (mostly on my part) due to the Gators making another run for yet another National Championship.  Yes, you read that right, "yet another."  I mean seriously, how amazing are the Florida Gators?!  Pretty dang amazing people.  And don't even get me started on the amazingness of #15.  Heisman #2 here he comes.  I am so ready to beat the Crimson Tide yet again and book those tickets to Pasadena (of course I am dreaming)!  Here's a video for all to enjoy of the greatest college football player ever:



Oh and one more thing, a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to my Dad who turned 50 last week.  Love you Dad!

I am a Bad Blogger...

So yeah...haven't been so great at blogging lately. My apologies. Quite a lot has happened since 4/23. Finished my 2nd year of law school and now have 66.6% of a J.D.! And did pretty darn amazing in my White Collar Crime class if I do say so myself. :) Then three days after my last final hubs and I went on a family trip with the rest of the Miller clan to Deutschland. I will be brief about the details since it has been over a month now and tell you how much fun it was through pictures.

We stayed at a great B&B in Ingelheim that was also a winery and they had the best wine!

We love our new camera, a Nikon D40! And look how pretty the flowers are in Germany!

And let's just say the food, especially the white asparagus, was absolutely amazing!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Never had a bad meal in Germany.Topped off a great first night with a shot of schnapps!

After hiking all the way up! Afterwards, we went to the castle below and watched a demonstration on falconry...pretty fascinating.

At the Schloss Castle in Heidelberg...so pretty!!!

Hubs being hubs and "drinking" out of the castle's ginormous wine barrel.After a nice cable car ride and a bit of a hike. The Alps are oh so beautimous. We could've sat here all day.That is Garmisch below us...and a 17 million Euro ski jump built for the 2011 world championships. Oh and a pretty hot couple! ;)The cutest restaurant in Bavaria...and to give you an idea of the style of the architecture. This is one area where I will say America could learn a lesson or two. I do love pretty buildings.
In front of the prettiest church in the whole world...Ettal Abbey. It quite literally took my breath away.

Off to take a carriage ride tour through Saltzburg, Austria! My favorite kind of tour! We saw Mozart's home and the house where they filmed Sound of Music. :)

At Linderhof Castle outside of Garmisch in Bavaria...King Ludwig II's summer home.

And more exciting news from the trip...my Brother-in-law proposed to his girlfriend at Linderhof!If you go to Germany and don't go on a Rodelbahn, you are seriously missing out. This was what hubs looked forward to for the entire trip and the whole time I was thinking 'Really?! You want to go down a stupid slide?!' I was eating my words by the first turn on this amazing invention. I felt like I was 5 again! Oh and this is the last turn of the Rodelbahn...I was going so fast I flew through the "Caution! Stop!" sign and almost went right back up haha. The Glockenspiel in Munich!Another thing you can't miss out on if you go to Germany...the Hofbrauhaus!

Auf Wiedersehen Germany!

We returned to sunny Florida just after midnight on May 17th, our anniversary. Not just any anniversary, our first anniversary! What was the first thing we did?? We picked up Mabry from Grandma and Grandpa S's house!! It totally made the day! What can I say we love our dog!And do you see what an amazing quality this picture is (along with all of the Germany pictures)?! Well, that's our anniversary present to each other, a Nikon D4o! We love it! We had the nicest of anniversaries. Spent the morning relaxing and uploading pictures then we had an amazing lunch at Acropolis where I ordered my favorite, Athenian Grouper. Did a little window shopping at a cute shop next door to Acropolis and came home to relax again. For dinner, hubs and I decided we wanted to go back to where it all began a year ago, the Rusty Pelican.
See that really amazingly beautiful necklace around my neck? That's the additional anniversary gift that hubs surprised me with! (We had agreed to just get the camera, but he's sneaky like that. I won't complain.) After a year of marriage, I can just say that I am really, truly proud of us. Not to brag, but I think we are quite a couple. We made our way over a few speed bumps and quite a bit of hurdles in our first year of marriage, but we made it. And most importantly, we are more in love than ever. This last year has taught us a lot and I wouldn't change a thing. Hubs is the man of my dreams, he makes me smile everyday, and he is my absolute very best friend. Let's waste a lot more time chasing cars baby!

What else? Well, not a whole lot to be honest. The "chill" days of summer are here. My summer is a little more uneventful than I had hoped...at least in the employment field. I had hoped to clerk with the same firm I clerked with last summer, but Mr. Obama's oh-so-wonderful policies haven't actually created any jobs yet...more like they have made the legal world come to a standstill. When you hear about partners getting laid off from large law firms, it's not a really good sign. Let's just hope the job market is looking a lot better this time next year. However, I am not very confident that we will have Obama to thank if it is, given his crap he has been pulling lately. "You want to do what?! Oh you want to give the government new powers to seize key companies?!?!" Oh yeah, that's really going to stimulate the economy and encourage companies to create new jobs. What a joke. Come on, you knew I had to add my two cents on politics!

Oh and one more announcement...I have decided to get my real estate license. In my spare time, I have gone out with my mom and showed some properties with her to clients and have discovered that I really enjoy it. So, I figure I have the rest of the summer...why not get my real estate license?! I figure I can do a little real estate on the side of law school because you know me, I like to see how busy I can keep myself! And a little extra money on the side will be nice! And with all of the incentives out there right now for buyers, I might as well jump in now to help them out! I sure wish hubs and I could've gotten the $8k tax incentive and the $10k in bond money that's out there for first-time home buyers!!! And just to think, there is talk of that $8k tax incentive going up to $15k!!! That's a lot of free money!

Until next time! I'll leave you with a picture from our anniversary at the gazebo at the Rusty Pelican where we exchanged our vows on 5-17-08!