They don't really do this often...at least not when we're around.

Family Time

Joe's brother and his family recently moved to the area, and we are excited for Joe's sister and family to head out this way in just a few months. 10 extra Cramers (and one more on the way!) make for lots of fun family gatherings to come :)

Lucky: Calendar Pin-Up

Our very own Lucky Duck will be featured in the 2011 Pet Calendar. We are so proud.

Each year the law school raises money for its Animal Defense Fund by having a cutest pet photo contest. Lucky placed in the top ten! I used our photo of him with apple cider. Here's the email from the SLJDAF:

"Hello Pet Photo Contest Participants.

We know you have been patiently waiting for the results of this year's Pet Photo Contest. Before dispensing with the final standings, we wanted to thank each of you for your involvement. We were absolutely astounded by the GW Law community's participation in our contest this year. We had over 100 entries in this year's contest (over three times as many as last year's contest), including the most impressive array of non-traditional pets we've ever seen (goats, chinchillas, horses, and more)! Competition has also never been this fierce. Our top 12 winners each raised over $40, with our first place winner topping out at over $70! As a result, GW SALDF more than tripled our previous record of funds raised from the contest. With all these entries and all your support, the GW SALDF Executive Board has had a long week of collecting your dollars, counting your pennies, and calculating your totals, and we appreciate your patience in waiting for the official contest results.

Without any further ado, GW SALDF is proud to present the top 12 winners of our 2010 Pet Photo Contest. Each of these pets will be featured as a "pet of the month" in our first ever "Pets of GW Law" calendar to be sold later this fall. Winners, we will be contacting you shortly with additional details. Congratulations!
2010 Pet Photo Contest - Top 12 Pets
1. Miniel (cat) - Dan Shedd
2. Happy (dog) - Julia Maus
3. Frannie (dog) - McKayle Davison
4. Stewie (dog) - Professor Jessica Tillipman
5. Chester (dog) - Stephanie Resnik
6. Sandy (dog) - Sara Marshman
7. Puff (cat) - Stephanie Rohrer
8. Lucky (cat) - Joe Cramer
9. Asia (cat) - Meghan Droste
10. Lilly (cat) - Stephanie Rohrer
11. Layla (dog) - Julia Gordon
12. Daisy (dog) - Julia Tamulis"

Happy National Pancake Day!

So there's this guy who makes really cool pancakes for his daughter, then takes pictures of them and posts them online for all of us to see! http://www.jimspancakes.com/

The site reminded me of my grandpa, who used to make us pancakes in the shape of teddy bears, hearts, boats, etc. with our NAMES IN THEM. It always blew my mind.

Anyway, today is National Pancake Day...but not the IHOP version, just the regular kind I guess.

I'm supposed to be doing homework right now, if you couldn't tell.

Cube Cats

Ikea totally had cats in mind when they made this cube furniture.

Study Buddies

My 12-credit summer semester was only five weeks long, and I never really had good sleeping habits the entire time. Sometimes I would stay up until 3:00 writing papers, and Lucky would "help" me.

And then other times I would just lose my mind, and take photos of the cats.

 

This is me saying "Whoa! Lucky is so small!"

And now I'm saying something like "Look out; the cats are fighting!"

And now I'm bored because the cat fight is lame.

I'm pretty sure this semester I'll need to rest up more...for the sake of the students :)

Uh-oh. Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays...

Joe and I go back to school on Monday.

Check back in with us next year.

Kthx.

http://www.pwn3d.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/case-of-the-mondays.jpg

Aspen Grove

We went to Utah.
With 88 of Joe's family members.
It was awesome.
We have over 2000 pictures.
Here are 2 of them.

Good Friends Friday

Aspen Grove was followed by catching up with great friends. I stayed in Utah County to see a few friends, then joined Joe in Sandy to see a few more.

Dawn was my supervisor during my short stint at FirstWest Benefit Solutions in 2006-2007. Besides having an awesome first name, (which is my middle name,) she shares a birthday with my mom. Dawn was and is an amazing friend, and I'm glad we got to catch up...and eat Bajio :)

Next I got to see Betsy! Betsy was my roommate from late 2002-mid 2004. She was on the ballroom dance team, and pretty much the nicest person ever. We had tons of fun together. Betsy and her husband Karson adopted an ADORABLE girl last year who was born three months early; I was so happy to finally meet her after following her progress on their blog! Go here to see Izzy about a year ago. Such a cute little miracle, and it was so fun to see Betsy and Karson as parents :)

Jenice needs no introduction, but I'm sooooo glad we were both crazy enough to take jobs as children's photographers at Kiddie Kandids in 2003 :) Those were the days... Jenice has her own adorable bundle of joy, who is super cute...even when he's sleeping and STILL wont let me hold him. This is honestly the best picture we got of the two of us. That's me laughing and you can kind of see Jenice's neck and shoulders...she's also laughing. A lot. But that's what we do when we get together: a) drink Dr. Pepper, b) take a ridiculous picture, or c) both.

And rounding out the day-o-friends visits, Jared and Em were nice enough to have us all over for pizza and laughs. From the left: Nicole, Dan, Britt, Joe, Nate, Camron, Marcus, Emily and Jared. Lots of catching up and lots of laughs. Some things never change, and I'm so glad we can get together after all these years, (6+) and have a good time. As I was writing this, I thought we should give a shoutout to Jacob; without him we wouldn't know any of these guys! Camron was Jacob's roommate, and the rest is history :)

It was awesome to see how everyone is doing...are we grown ups yet? I'm not sure if this counts or not.

AZ/CA/NV

After all the fun in Utah, I got to spend some quality time with some quality people. I flew into Phoenix and my wonderful friend Holly picked me up. We drove to Lake Havasu and met up with my mom and aunt Jeri. Holly stayed over, and the next day we laid by the pool and played a lot of games. After Holly left we continued to lay by the pool and play a lot of games, (Hand & Foot, Nertz, Baseball, 10,000, etc.) Then mom, Jeri and I drove over to see Jake and Asher, (Carter was away for business). Asher continues to be adorable and hilarious and really photogenic. Our final destination was Vegas where we enjoyed free food and $1 bowling after midnight.

Way fun. Also, we took zero photos in Havasu because we were too busy and/or never wore makeup.

Sometimes, we look nice...

...so we take pictures on our balcony.

This is Your Brain...

Remember those scary ads with the egg where the egg = your brain, and an egg in a frying pan = your brain on drugs? I've been tracking my sleep with my helpful FitBit since I started school, and my sleep patterns have not been so great.

This is my sleep on a weekend with Benadryl

This is my sleep on a weekend without Benadryl

Any questions? 

p.s. Obviously, duh, I need to have better study habits, wake up at the same time every day, eat better, exercise more, etc. etc. but looking at graphs and blogging about them is way more fun.

p.p.s I have no idea where FitBit gets the idea that the second graph equals a sleep efficiency rating of 97%...I guess maybe once I fell asleep I stayed asleep pretty good? I dunno. I just like the graphs.

Don't Cry For Me...

This graph very approximately shows the rapid decline in channel-surfing that has been going on since I started school last week. To prepare for my loss of do-whatever-I-want-to-do time, I deleted about 100 Facebook friends, removed myself from lots of good email offer lists, and even stopped reading my favorite blogs.

It's been a week, and I'm pretty sure I've gotten over most of my beloved time-wasters...not to say that I wont make the time to write a silly blog post every now and then, (I've got to have something to look forward to in the middle of all this studying and paper writing!) Also, Dexter hasn't started back up yet. THEN I might be in trouble.

Super Cute

During our family reunion, I got to go through one of my grandma's scrapbooks. This one included information and notes from my dad's birth. I thought this card from my grandpa was just about the cutest thing ever...especially considering a few days later he went into the hospital with ulcers and stayed there for a month, so he obviously wasn't feeling too hot.

That's all. Back to studying...

*golf clap* *golf clap*

I would just like to announce that as I started my Master's program this week, Joe was finishing YEAR TWO of law school! I am so super proud of him and all his hard work. He is a great example to me, and I hope to be like him when I grow up :) 

Love you, baby! You're a rockstar!

Pop Quiz

When she finally turns away from the computer and sees this, where is Brittney supposed to sleep?

Correct answer: the guest bed.

...and a good time was had by ALL

Last week I went home for a most excellent Ellingson gathering. We had great food, awesome weather, and good-quality company! I can't really put into words how nice it was to be home; it was a wonderful trip, and just what I needed before I start school on Tuesday.

Jake, Asher and I stopped by to see Melsie and Sunny on the way to LC.

Beachtime with AsherBoo!

Newport Bayfront with Dad

Handsome Asher

Showing Jake how high he can jump

Asher and Berta crack each other up

 Bonfire on the beach

 Grandma Dawn enjoying the bonfire

He gets his athletic skills from his aunt Brittney

The whole crew...we're only missing four people from the extended family

Our cool tshirts! Thanks to Jean and Erica!

The back of our shirts: a quote from Grandpa after a family outing...where some did not have a good time :)

Bocce ball crew

Some highlights of the reunion include:

-winning at the game Hand and Foot 2 nights in a row

-playing Hand and Foot until 4am, and laughing until I cried...a lot

-watching my brother be a daddy

-listening to Asher tell Jake "Brittney hit me" when I didn't touch him (Asher just didn't want me to be around me anymore)

-eating DELICIOUS meals!!

-watching the ocean with Grandma

I love you guys!

What our cats love...

Lucky = Lee DeWyze

DeeDee = clipping coupons