Mom's bed is always best when you're sick

My youngest (by 2 minutes) DD is sick--again. She is the sickliest of my kiddos, although you'd never know it by her spunky personality. She has asthma, and the mildest of colds can knock her on her butt. Yesterday was one of those days. Took her to the doc and she has an ear infection, some kind of stomach thing, and possible a kidney/UT infection. Poor baby. She laid down in my bed at 7 last night and didn't get up until after 9 this morning. I was worried about her dehydrating since she didn't eat at all yesterday, and hardly drank, but the sleep seemed to help, and she is perkier this morning.

So, I didn't get much sleep with DD in my bed. And I got even less b/c Bob was being a total PITA. For some reason Bob has decided that he doesn't like to be alone at night and will bark until someone pays attention to him. This just started two nights ago. If it doesn't end soon, Bob will be homeless. I need my sleep or I turn into the Wicked Bitch of the West.

Oh yeah, and I told oldest DD that she could have a sleepover tonight because she got a perfect score on her state standardized test for reading. Guess we'll be looking at one more sleepless night. Arghh.

Bob is still a punk

We've cut off the booze, but Bob is still managing to find trouble.

Fortunately, for him, this is the remains of an arrangement that was given to me by my mother-in-law* that was truly hideous. It originally looked like a dead bird hidden in a bunch of leaves and cattails. No wonder Bob went for it--he is a bird dog. But now somebody's got some 'splainin to do to MIL.

*For the record, my MIL is on the awesome end of the MIL spectrum. And she usually has great taste--I'm not sure how she got off track with the dead-bird arrangement.

New Graduation Stress

So in addition to all the graduation, job-hunting, bar-taking stress, I have reasoned out that there is a decent chance that we will need to move in the somewhat near future. And that means selling our house.

Pulling numbers out of thin air, I think that there is about a 75% chance that I will find a job in Big City. Which of course means about a 25% chance that I will find a job somewhere that will require a move. But, even if I find a job in Big City, there is a good chance we will want to move. We are in the far east part of our metro area. If I find a position that is North or West of downtown, we will probably want to move closer. Even a downtown job will mean an hour commute--and I'm not sure that is something I can deal with.

So I am looking at my house with a new eye. It is a 4-year-old cookie-cutter spec home. We usually do a project or two a year to upgrade it. Now we will be looking specifically at projects that will increase the value or appeal, and delaying the ones that would really only benefit us. Still there is a lot to be done before we can think about putting it on the market.

The whole downstairs needs to be painted. (The builder used flat while. Flat white + three small kids = gross walls. I hate the white anyway.) It is an open floor plan, so there is a lot of wall to be covered and it will all have to be done at once. I have painted every other room in the house, but have avoided the downstairs open area because it is so overwhelming.

We need to replace the posts on the fence around the back yard. The builder used wooden posts which have warped, and many have started coming out of the ground because of the drought. Our yard is huge, so this is not a small task, but the neighbors offered to split the cost and work on the side fence.

We need to put a raised flower bed in the front yard to hide a sewer cleanout in the middle of the front yard. Again, due to to the drought the ground has sunk, making it very visible. I was actually planning on doing this project soon anyway, so I'm ok with it.

Oh, and he very best part of trying to sell a cookie-cutter spec home? An MLS search revealed 7 other homes exactly like ours that are currently on the market in our town. There is a $25K price difference in some of these, but I think the higher prices are deluded. We'll be lucky if we break even on our home.

Friggin' Hilarious

By the judge’s reasoning, any guy who gets aroused while wearing leather pants has – in the strictest legal terms – his wiener in a cow.

Actually, run-ins with law enforcement while getting it on with animals are more common than that one might think. There were a couple of such cases that had come through the DA's office I worked in. And rumor has it that one of my classmates in the criminal clinic had one of these, too. Of course, I don't think any of these involved dead animals--or leather pants.

Bite Me

I am fully recovered from my gum surgery, so I finally had a consult with the orthodontist today. What I had once naively believed would be a simple procedure to close the gap between my bottom teeth is going to be a much bigger ordeal. Part of the problem is that I have TMJ. I have known this for years, but every dentist I have ever mentioned the jaw clicking, locking and tensing to has blown me off. Anyway, the ortho. is taking me seriously, and its an issue because orthodontics can make TMJ either better or worse.

The other problem is that I am a clencher when I get tense and when I sleep. Clenching changes the bite. The ortho anticipates that I will be clenching a lot until the bar exam. So, I might just be going into a night guard to preserve my bite until after the bar, and then get into the serious orthodontics.

Oh yeah--and I will need jaw surgery. Because when the gap developed, my teeth also moved forward. When they are pushed back and the space is closed, I will have a massive overbite. And it can only be fixed with a surgery to move my jaw forward.

I would have been horrified by that part, but while I was in the waiting room, a monitor ran a slide show of before and after shots. It showed a guy who had had the jaw surgery and the impact on his profile was amazing. I hate my profile because my chin almost blends into my neck. This would make my chin more prominent, and the ortho said that his preferred surgeon could also take care of my hereditary double chin while he did it. (Even when I am really thin I have a double chin.)

I knew that my face had changed since I was younger--I though that it was just because I am a 20 pounds heavier. No, apparently it is all because of my bite changing. Who knew?

Hmmm, very interesting

I just got a (sort-of) unsolicited email asking me to forward my updated resume. It is from a DA's office in a big city. Not my big city, but one not too far away that I would consider moving to. The interesting part is that I applied for this position early last fall. I even had an interview with them. It did not go well. So I am surprised to be hearing from them again.

I will forward my resume, but I'm not sure that I really want that job. I like my city much better than that one. It would require uprooting the kids. DH would have to find employment there (but he is looking for new employment anyway). It is a DA's office, so there is not a lot of $$ on the table to make all the trouble worthwhile.

On the other hand, I really want to get in with a DA's office. This is a big one--there will definitely be room for growth and big cases. I have had several clerkships, and I loved working in the DA's office more than anything else I have done. And I need a job. Unemployment is stressful.

I guess we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I guess I better get my resume in the mail to the local DA's office.

Meet Bob

Bob likes beer.*

*Please note that no puppies were harmed by the taking of these pictures. The bottle was empty before Bob found it, and was removed as soon as the the pics were taken.

I'm Ba-aack

The beach was great and very relaxing. It was nice to take a few days and not even think about school or the bar or finding a job. Our house was 500 feet from the beach. It was on the smallest part of the island that was only accessible to residents, so we had the beach mostly to ourselves. The very best part was watching the kids enjoy the beach for the first time. It was really too cool to swim, but that didn't keep my little wharf rats out of the water. 5 y.o. DD kept running into the surf screaming, "This is the life!" Even sulky, moody 8 y.o. was genuinely happy on the beach, which is something we don't see often these days.

And because I know that you want to see someone else's vacation pictures, here is the island that we stayed on taken from the ferry that we took from the mainland.

And the kiddos playing on the beach.

This is the roots of a tree that was pulled up by a hurricane.

And the other side...

Happy Spring Break

Yea! Spring Break has finally started--at least for me, DH and the kiddos have work and school today. I am doing laundry and packing because we leave first thing in the morning.

Packing for 5 people for 5 days is a lot of work. Last spring break, we anticipated warm weather and were met with very cool nights and mornings. I had not packed at all for cool weather--we had to go out and buy the kids warmer clothes. And in the nearest town to our cabin our choices were Dollar General and Wal-Mart. They ended up with boys football sweatsuits that had been discounted to $3/pair.

I have learned from my mistakes and am packing for all weather (and closely monitoring weather.com), but that takes a lot of space. Also, since we have rented a beach house, we need all those little daily things, like dishwashing detergent and paper towels. And beach toys. And fishing tackle. And entertainment for the car. At some point we will need to stop and buy groceries. The Behemoth is going to be bursting at the seams.

Happy Spring Break to everybody--and don't expect to see anything from me over the next few days--the beach house doesn't have internet access.

Spring Fever

I am having so much trouble settling down and getting my work done this week. I am so psyched about Spring Break. One week from today I will be sitting on the beach with a frosty beverage. I think the spring fever is compounded by senioritis. Feels a lot like high school. I just want to get done and get out. But of course, its not nearly as exciting as high school because I have the whole bar/bri-is-ruining-my -summer-plus-if-I-don't-pass-the-bar-and-get-a-job-my-life-is-over thing going on.

But right at this moment, I am managing to push that all aside and focus on my upcoming vacation. Hopefully this much-needed break will let me settle in and focus for the rest of the semester. Now, if I can just make it through the next two classes without making it painfully obvious that I spent my day making my packing list instead of reading.

I'm so disappointed

I found out today that my grades are high enough to graduate with honors. But I can't, because I'm a transfer student. It just sucks. I totally blew off school in undergrad (which is why I got stuck in a T4 to begin with), and I am proud of the way that I have worked my ass of in law school. I guess jumping from a T4 to a T1 school should be reward enough, but it would have been really sweet to graduate with honors.

No Matter Where You Go, You Just Can't Escape Scrotums

A legislator in Maryland is trying to ban plastic balls that rednecks are hanging from the trailer hitches of their trucks. The seller of these delightful wares doesn't see the problem, responding to the Washington Post, "Did all the little donkeys and sheep walk around with their panties on so children wouldn't see their bodies?" Cause, ya know, donkey balls are totally the same as truck balls.

Boy, am I glad that I've already had the scrotum discussion with my girls. (Although I don't think we ever covered truck balls.)

P.S.

I hope that Washington Post link doesn't require you to register, because I hate having to register to read one article. If registration is required, you might want to look at BugMeNot , to get around that pesky registration process.