Famous Last Words "My Dogs Are Like Family"

Dozer

We have all heard stories of children claiming their family dog ate their homework. I know most of us think that the likely hood of such a situation taking place is unrealistic. Don't think my purpose is to change your opinion, but on occasion I KNOW that it does happen. Ask me how i know, go ahead ask me. That's right, I know because my dog ate my homework. In fact, it must have been a conspiracy between my three dogs; Dozer, Toby, and Lexi. While Dozer, my bulldog, pulled everything out of my backpack. Toby, my male shitzu, found his favorite thing to chew on, my pencils. He must have gotten bored of the pencils because he moved on to my notebook, which contained my homework. To top things off, Lexi, my female shitzu, decided to eat through my tablet charger and that was only the beginning of my week.

Lexi

Toby

Over the weekend, Dozer decided to aid the smaller dogs in another adventure. As I was doing my homework, I put the dogs in the backyard to play. After about fifteen minutes, my stepson came to be me yelling that someone had my dog and was walking away with her. Now you might think after the events that occurred earlier in week that I might just let them have her, but no. Anyway, I walked outside to find my neighbor holding Lexi and trying to get Toby out of her backyard. My neighbor handed me Lexi, who seemed excited to see me,  and helped me get Toby out of her backyard. Naturally, I thanked her for her help and for watching out for my dogs. After all they are part of my family. Once again, I found myself asking how my dogs were able to get themselves into such a situation? As I walked into my backyard, I discovered that Dozer ate through our fence. He made a hole just big enough for the two smaller dogs to escape. It is truly amazing that my famous last words are still my dogs are like family.

Famous Last Words "Here I Go Again"

I can only imagine that anyone who has been ready my famous last word blogs is tired of hearing about the LSAT, but here I go again. Now that we are mid-way through the semester and I have already took the LSAT exam in SpetemberI have decided to take the LSAT in December. The decision was made without receiving my September LSAT score. No matter how well I did on the exam I am sure there is always room for improvement. My score might be high enough to get me accepted the law school I want, but it is important to score well in order to scholarships. Law school an be very expensive and scholarships can really help make school affordable. No one want to get through school and be bombarded with extremely high school loans. I am going to try a different approach to the second half of this semester. Naturally, I will try to do my best, but I will not study to the point of exhaustion. By the time I took the September LSAT, I was unable to really focus because I was mentally and physically drained. I have started taking walks with my dogs and eating more healthy. I need to work on getting to bed by 11:30 pm. When I go to sleep around that time I wake up feeling refreshed, otherwise I am a unfocused mess. I plan on using some of my growth mindset videos to help me stay relaxed but focused. It was difficult to wrap my mind around studying for the LSAT for another two months, but in the end it will be worth it. When it comes to fulfilling your dreams and reaching your goals there is no sacrifice to great. You know you have made the right decision when you feel determined to do what you set your mind to, so here I go again!    

LSAT Raw Scores

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Famous Last Words: "This is Really Happening"

This semester is going by really fast. Midterms are right around the corner. I have been so wrapped up with getting everything done that I have not took the time to enjoy being a senior. Although I am proud of my accomplishments, I will be sad to leave the University of Oklahoma. Having the opportunity to study at OU has been the best thing that ever happened to me. The best investment I have made in myself.

Educational & Emotional Growth

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Yesterday I went on my admissions interview for law school. I felt like a kid at Christmas. Everything looked so intriguing, all I could think was I cannot wait to have the opportunity to study here. As I left the interview it hit me, "this is really happening!" Everything that I have worked for is within my grasp. It is very exciting.

It is funny to me that I am always such a high anxiety person, but right now I am perfectly calm. I think that is because I am ready for the next step. When I decided to return to college, I felt so much uncertainty, but I have grown both educationally and emotionally throughout my educational career. This growth has given me the confidence to feel prepared.

The admissions officer asked me what I wanted out of my law education. I explained that, I want to know that I put my best foot forward. That I put the effort into my education to get the most I could possibly get out of it. I have almost always lived in Oklahoma. I want to go to law school in Oklahoma and I want to practice law in Oklahoma. I want to help other individuals that feel like they are stuck in a bad situation without a voice. I know what an awful feeling it is to be scared and trapped in a bad situation.

I hope everyone stops to enjoy their senior year because This is Happening!

Famous Last Words "I Am Almost There"

I Am Almost There!

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This was my last week to study for the LSAT. I plan to take an LSAT prep test with a friend Sunday and another LSAT Wednesday on campus. I believe the live LSAT prep test on campus will be the exact same test material I took the very first time I took an LSAT exam. I did not study for that test. I wanted to see where I was at without studying. When I take the exam this time I will be able to apply all the techniques I have learned and see how far I have come. Over the past several months I have gained  twenty points on my score so far. I feel good about my progress. Self study is thought to improve your score less than if you take a LSAT prep course or get a tutor. I would have loved the option to take a class or get a tutor, but these options come with a price. They are very expensive. I applied for a scholarship for the online LSAT prep course offered online through Kaplan, but I did not receive the scholarship. I sometimes feel like a scavenger in search of any LSAT material I can get my hands on. Fortunately, there is a lot of free LSAT material online. If you buy the Power Score Bible Series and study from them you will have a good foundation. Then you have to practice, practice, and yes practice! Like I have mentioned in my growth mindset blogs, even if you don't get something right the first time perseverance is they key. Throughout my studies I have been so nervous to take this exam, but as of now I feel confident. I am so excited to have my admissions interview set up and the exam just around the corner. Once I get accepted the real work will begin, but for now I am almost there!

Famous Last Words: "I Edited My Writing"

Editing Your Own Writing

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How many times have you finished writing an essay, short story, Facebook post, or even a text and thought to yourself that your words were well thought out, only to discover it does not even read as  English? The answer is all the time. My brain and my hands do not function with the same speed and capacity, which often results in gibberish. I am certain that this happens to everyone, despite our efforts to prevent such mistakes. When I have a writing assignment I always upload my paper to Paperrater.com. It is an online tool intended to catch mistakes within a writing sample that Word may have overlooked. Despite the fact that I read my paper, check Word for errors, put my paper through Paperrater.com. a variety of errors still get through the cracks. Reading your paper out loud is always a good way to catch grammatical errors, but when you have read something several times error tendencies may increase. The brain has the capability to read material as it is intended to be written rather than what is actually written. This is why it is helpful to do peer review among students. Someone who is readying your writing for the first time does not know what to expect, therefore their brain is depending on the actual writing to tell them what they are reading about. They are more likely to catch the grammatical errors your brain overlooked. I am looking forward to the storybook project feedback from peer review next week. This will allow us all to work out the problem areas of our writing. I will continue to check for writing errors through Word, Paperrater.com, and reading out loud. If anyone comes across a mistake or two among my writing just remember my famous last words "I edited my writing."

Famous Last Words; "I Will Learn to Get Up Early"

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This week time management has been an important factor, which is why I posted a learning challenge for time management. Studying for the LSAT on top of a full course load has been challenging, although I believe I have a good handle on it at this point. The holiday weekend will allow me extra study time to get caught up on any studying or homework I have. I have a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule on campus, which leaves me Tuesday, Thursday, and the weekends to study and complete my homework. Time management will be an important skill throughout my life and I am sure it will be important to most individuals reading this blog post as well. Graduate school or Law school will  require a lot of class and study time, along with an internship. Practicing law as a career will also require a lot of time management skills. I tend to pick a school schedule that does not require me to be at school before eleven thirty each day. My husband laughs at me every time I  complain about having a schedule that temporarily requires me to get up early. I definitely need to be more disciplined about going to bed early in order to become more of a morning person, which I currently am not. When I was younger I use to tease my parents for going to bed by nine fifteen every night, but now I understand why they did. It is much easier to get up in the morning is you go to bed at a reasonable hour and feel refreshed when you have to wakeup early. I will not have the luxury of choosing my schedule for very much longer. Most courts start going through their dockets at eight o'clock on the dot. Considering that my mother taught me to always be at least ten minutes early for any appointment, I will be getting up very early!

Famous Last Words: "I am addicted to blogging"

Writing some thoughts

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When I first read the assignments in my mythology class would
require me to blog I was a little concerned. As I have mentioned before I am not exactly technology savvy. The first week of blogging I was struggling to figure out how everything was supposed to look, and more importantly how to go about making that happen. Luckily I started the course early which gave my very patient instructor the time to help me get it figured out. This is my third week blogging and I have to say I really enjoy it. It reminds me of creating a Myspace page, but better. I have learned through the tech tips to make my blog very interactive. With each assignment my blog has evolved and dare I say that I am evolving along with it. It really does not seem like work. It is more like a hobby. I have read so many interesting and fun stories through the untextbook, but my favorite part has been writing my own stories and posting them for others to read. Some of my family and friends have taken the time to read some of my stories and given me some positive feedback. Today I was able to read some of my peer's introductions and stories as well. It is amazing how two people can use a story as inspiration and develop completely different stories from it. Some of the stories are so good that I found myself trying to read faster so I could find out how the story would end. This class has been a stress reliever from my LSAT studies and other classes. I do think I need to balance my time more evenly between the class that I'm loving and the LSAT that my brain no longer wants to absorb. Over the next several weeks I will need to take as many pre-test for the LSAT as I can!

Famous Last Words: Technology is my friend

Modern Technology

Beyond the fact this is my first time creating a blog, I have never been good at keeping up with modern technology. It has been interesting trying to maneuver through the tech tips, none of which I mastered on my first try. Successfully completing embedding my Facebook post was more exciting to me than it probably should have been, but it was a success none the less. I am looking forward to reading other students story blogs now that the class is formally started. I read a few that were posted already and really enjoyed them. It is hard for me to move to the next weeks assignments without completing all those listed for the previous week, but we are all working at different paces so there are some things that cannot be completed just yet. I think this will only be a temporary issue now that everyone is well on there way to completing each type of assignment.

So many computer cables

My favorite assignment so far was writing this weeks story. I really enjoyed recreating a new story from another story and making it my own. I felt good about the style I chose to write my story. It felt consistent with that of the original author. I have not had the time to creatively write in such a long time. This course has opened that window of opportunity for me. I only have thirty days left to study for the LSAT, which has a unscored writing section. I will have only thirty five minutes to write on a subject chosen by the test writers. I will be given an option of how to defend by answer to the writing prompt. Writing is an art that only improves with practice and this class is allowing to practice.  
Photos can be found at the following link. wonderful engineering

Famous Last Words: I Have It All Under Control

She looks like she has it all under control

Starting this semester a bit early has really alleviated some of the usual back to school anxiety for me. This class as given my brain a chance to relax and think about something other than the LSAT, which I have been studying for several months. I really enjoyed all the readings for this week and last. Each book takes you on another adventure without ever leaving the comfort of your own home. Some might call that a vacation. Some of the readings are very detailed and really allow the reader to feel like they are experiencing the adventure firsthand. Other books are less detailed allowing the reader's imagination to fill in the details. That is why I enjoyed reading the "The Sleep of One Hundred Years ." That is also why I used the story as my inspiration for my own story "While Onias Slept." I was able to take my readers on an epic journey through Onias' mind as his body was resting for one hundred years. The story could have gone many directions. I hope that readers enjoy the path that I chose and maybe envision what they think Onias was going through. I am looking forward to reading other student's writings next week when this class formally begins. Maybe their stories and remarks on stories they have read will spark more ideas for future writing assignments. My classes begin next week. I will have four class, one of which is my capstone. That is less than I normally take but this is my last semester. I will also continue my studies for the LSAT. The LSAT exam is in late September. I began this course early in an attempt to give it the attention it deserves before my schedule gets more demanding. My children start school tomorrow so that should allow me more study time. I am beginning the brainstorming process for my mythology writing project. I see heroic pixies coming to a blog near you.

Bibliography:
"The Sleep of One Hundred Years." Written by Gertrude Landa (1919).

parental stress.com