Had dinner and drinks with a girlfriend on Friday night. Yay, girl time is good and its been way too long.
Saturday morning I suddenly decided that we needed to convert the closet-under-the-stairs into a pantry. I have no real pantry and my kitchen storage is grossly inadequate. Especially since I live 2 minutes from Costco and do 75% of my shopping there.
The closet-under-the-stairs had previously been used for coats and suitcases and whatever random crap got shoved in there when company was coming. But because of the coats in the front, and the angled wall at the back, the space wasn't being used well.
So I decided that we would put narrow shelving along both sides, with one large, low shelf at the back to make a walk-in pantry. We've spent about $75 in materials and a few hours. So far it looks great.
But DH is driving me nuts, because he clearly hates watching me use the drill (to screw in the shelves and brackets). I will admit that I am not the most skilled power tool user in the world and I am naturally clumsy. But I am capable, even if it takes me a little longer than it would take him.
I finally gave in and let him take over. But told him that our girls needed to see that women could use power-tools, too. So now he is teaching TT and SS how to use the drill, and they are finishing up our shelves. My new pantry should be stocked by the end of the day--woot!
We took a break on Saturday night to go see Lincoln Lawyer (I got cheap tix via Groupon, and the twins were at a sleepover, leaving the perfect opportunity for a date night.) It was ok, but it is so hard to watch lawyer movies and set aside my lawyer-self and just appreciate the entertainment value. But the Matthew McConaughey eye-candy was definitely worth seeing--even if he wasn't shirtless.
Came home to freshly baked brownies by PS. It's so nice when your kids get big enough to bake you brownies!
Overall, a good weekend.
3/27/11
3/20/11
Together Again*
We sent PS to her great-grandparents' last week for spring break while SS and TT attended a fantastic day camp sponsored by our city.
PS has spent several summers with my grandparents, but it has been a couple of years since her last visit without us. I don't think that my grandparents realized that she has grown from a sweet 8-year old who was excited to visit with old people and become the Senior Center's mascot, to a moody 12-year old who just wants to hang out with her friends or play video games. She really thought she was roughing it because she had no internet all week.
And my grandparents were quite possessive and did not want to share her. By mid-week my dad had to intervene and insist that she be allowed to spend the night with my brother and his 4 girls. PS had been begging to see her cousins, and she had a great time with them. In the end, she also got to spend time with my dad and DH's dad. Of course, my mother never even tried to get in touch with her, despite the fact that she knew PS would be in town.
PS flew back home Friday afternoon. To celebrate our little family being reunited again, we went to the drive-through animal park yesterday and saw the zebras and giraffes and other critters I can't pronounce or identify, and then the dinosaur park where we walked in real dinosaur tracks, followed by some awesome barbecue and cobbler in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It was our last, and only spring break hurrah, since my work schedule did not allow any time off, but we had a good time and came home tired and happy. And we have booked Easter weekend at the awesome cabin we visited last year, so we have at least a mini-vacation in the near-ish future. Yay!
*This is what was running through my head when I named this post:
PS has spent several summers with my grandparents, but it has been a couple of years since her last visit without us. I don't think that my grandparents realized that she has grown from a sweet 8-year old who was excited to visit with old people and become the Senior Center's mascot, to a moody 12-year old who just wants to hang out with her friends or play video games. She really thought she was roughing it because she had no internet all week.
And my grandparents were quite possessive and did not want to share her. By mid-week my dad had to intervene and insist that she be allowed to spend the night with my brother and his 4 girls. PS had been begging to see her cousins, and she had a great time with them. In the end, she also got to spend time with my dad and DH's dad. Of course, my mother never even tried to get in touch with her, despite the fact that she knew PS would be in town.
PS flew back home Friday afternoon. To celebrate our little family being reunited again, we went to the drive-through animal park yesterday and saw the zebras and giraffes and other critters I can't pronounce or identify, and then the dinosaur park where we walked in real dinosaur tracks, followed by some awesome barbecue and cobbler in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It was our last, and only spring break hurrah, since my work schedule did not allow any time off, but we had a good time and came home tired and happy. And we have booked Easter weekend at the awesome cabin we visited last year, so we have at least a mini-vacation in the near-ish future. Yay!
*This is what was running through my head when I named this post:
3/17/11
Sick Day
So I took down my last two whiny posts, because I hate whining.
And I called in sick today because I have been feeling crappy all week (which undoubtedly contributed to the whining) and I'm just totally run down. And because today's project is the doc review, which I can do just as effectively from the comfyness of my couch and the coziness of my yoga pants as I can sitting in a suit at my desk in the office.
Hopefully an easy day and a nap will make me less cranky and whiny. The ability to breathe out of both nostrils would help a lot, too.
And I called in sick today because I have been feeling crappy all week (which undoubtedly contributed to the whining) and I'm just totally run down. And because today's project is the doc review, which I can do just as effectively from the comfyness of my couch and the coziness of my yoga pants as I can sitting in a suit at my desk in the office.
Hopefully an easy day and a nap will make me less cranky and whiny. The ability to breathe out of both nostrils would help a lot, too.
3/13/11
The Gift of a Sunday
We shipped PS off for a week with her great-grandparents. When I booked her 8:45 flight, I did not realize that today was the time change. It was an early morning.
I headed to work after dropping her off to prepare for a mediation on Monday. The first that I would be doing on my own. Despite one of my cases settling last week, my load has stayed heavy and the late nights have continued. I worked until 9:00 Friday finishing my mediation statement, and then took spent Saturday hanging with the kids--knowing that I would go in on Sunday to finish preparing for the mediation.
But as soon as I opened my email this morning I had a message informing me that the opposing party had filed for bankruptcy late on Friday, and so my case is automatically stayed. Bastards. Like they didn't know they would be filing for bankruptcy before I spent most of last week preparing for mediation and the trial that was set for next week. And I was really looking forward to my solo mediation. (And why didn't this email show up on my iphone yesterday?)
So I spent about an hour at the office responding to a few emails that I was too busy to deal with last week, and headed back home.
On the bright side, I now get to spend Sunday with my girlies--at least two of them. Looks like we're going to play laser tag. Nothing says family fun like shooting each other with laser beams!
I headed to work after dropping her off to prepare for a mediation on Monday. The first that I would be doing on my own. Despite one of my cases settling last week, my load has stayed heavy and the late nights have continued. I worked until 9:00 Friday finishing my mediation statement, and then took spent Saturday hanging with the kids--knowing that I would go in on Sunday to finish preparing for the mediation.
But as soon as I opened my email this morning I had a message informing me that the opposing party had filed for bankruptcy late on Friday, and so my case is automatically stayed. Bastards. Like they didn't know they would be filing for bankruptcy before I spent most of last week preparing for mediation and the trial that was set for next week. And I was really looking forward to my solo mediation. (And why didn't this email show up on my iphone yesterday?)
So I spent about an hour at the office responding to a few emails that I was too busy to deal with last week, and headed back home.
On the bright side, I now get to spend Sunday with my girlies--at least two of them. Looks like we're going to play laser tag. Nothing says family fun like shooting each other with laser beams!
3/12/11
Abstinence
I just got am email from PS's school informing me that they are bringing in an abstinence education speaker. For some reason, this just set me off. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, really--we are in an uber-conservative school district. But there has been absolutely no sex ed at all in PS's public school so far. And apparently this is all they're gong to get.
Guess what? Abstinence only programs don't work. Teenagers have been having sex since the beginning of time and they will continue having sex. And I can't with a straight face tell my kids not to have sex until they are married. I mean, what is my response supposed to be when they ask if I waited until marriage? The answer is, "no, but I waited until I was in a long-term relationship with someone that I really cared about, and I took the necessary precautions," which is really the best I can hope for my children.
Besides, I married really young--at 20. I would prefer that my daughters wait longer to marry. Although I don't regret my marriage or my children, I do wish that I had had a bit more time to be "free" in my twenties. If I could choose their paths (and of course, I can't) I'd hope they wait until their late twenties to marry. And is it realistic to tell a kid to wait until she has her graduate degree to have sex?
Of course I will encourage my daughters to wait until they are in the right relationship and mature enough to handle the emotional and physical consequences. And I will educate them about the consequences of having sex. PS already knows she wasn't planned--we were already married, but a baby definitely was not something I wanted in my immediate future--so even grown-ups can make mistakes with contraception.
I'm not naive enough to think my daughters will talk to me before having sex (although I really, really hope so.) But I will pay attention to what is going on in their lives, so that I'll have a clue when we are heading in that direction. And I will make sure they have the information they need to protect themselves and make good decisions. Because telling them, "just don't do it" isn't going to accomplish that.
Guess what? Abstinence only programs don't work. Teenagers have been having sex since the beginning of time and they will continue having sex. And I can't with a straight face tell my kids not to have sex until they are married. I mean, what is my response supposed to be when they ask if I waited until marriage? The answer is, "no, but I waited until I was in a long-term relationship with someone that I really cared about, and I took the necessary precautions," which is really the best I can hope for my children.
Besides, I married really young--at 20. I would prefer that my daughters wait longer to marry. Although I don't regret my marriage or my children, I do wish that I had had a bit more time to be "free" in my twenties. If I could choose their paths (and of course, I can't) I'd hope they wait until their late twenties to marry. And is it realistic to tell a kid to wait until she has her graduate degree to have sex?
Of course I will encourage my daughters to wait until they are in the right relationship and mature enough to handle the emotional and physical consequences. And I will educate them about the consequences of having sex. PS already knows she wasn't planned--we were already married, but a baby definitely was not something I wanted in my immediate future--so even grown-ups can make mistakes with contraception.
I'm not naive enough to think my daughters will talk to me before having sex (although I really, really hope so.) But I will pay attention to what is going on in their lives, so that I'll have a clue when we are heading in that direction. And I will make sure they have the information they need to protect themselves and make good decisions. Because telling them, "just don't do it" isn't going to accomplish that.
3/5/11
Life
My biggest cast settled on Friday. Yay! Now maybe I can get my life back. Or at least only worry about prepping one case for trial this month. Really, I would have much preferred to go to trial, but last week the Supreme Court of the Relevant State handed down an opinion that was directly on point and really decided our case for us. Such is the bane of a litigator's life--getting 3 weeks from trial and having your case go "poof," into thin air.
Meanwhile, I've lost 3 pounds doing the Nutrisystem thing. Not too overjoyed, since I expected to lose the first 10 pretty easily since I gained them so recently and I had otherwise been hovering at the same weight for the last 4 years. But at least I can button my jeans again.
I have learned that I have absolutely no willpower, though. (Ok, maybe I already knew that.) One of our Louisiana clients set us a king cake on Tuesday, and who am I to reject a mardi gras tradition? And then our copy service delivered freshly baked cookies along with my copy job--and I've never met a cookie I didn't like. And DH and I went to a concert last night, and well, we had to pick up dinner beforehand. And I met him for lunch on Thursday at our favorite taco place.
The Thursday lunch meeting was unplanned. But it was the first anniversary of MIL's funeral, and DH was having a rough week. Last Sunday was the anniversary of her death. Really, all of February was hard on the whole family. There were a lot of reminders of what her last month was like. She was in hospice and the rest of us were practically living there. It was certainly one of the most difficult experiences of all of our lives.*
It's hard to believe it's been a year. It doesn't feel like it. "They" say its supposed to get easier after a year. But I don't think its that simple. I'm not sure this mother's day is going to be any easier than the last one. But I guess, eventually, it will get better.
*The only thing that really compares is when I was pregnant with the twins. I was hospitalized with hyperemesis for most of the first 16 weeks, told to consider terminating before I starved to death, then the twins were dx'd with TTTS which has a 90% mortality rate if untreated and the only cure (there are other treatments but only one cure) is in-utero surgery, which at that time was considered experimental and only performed at 5 hospitals in the country.
Meanwhile, I've lost 3 pounds doing the Nutrisystem thing. Not too overjoyed, since I expected to lose the first 10 pretty easily since I gained them so recently and I had otherwise been hovering at the same weight for the last 4 years. But at least I can button my jeans again.
I have learned that I have absolutely no willpower, though. (Ok, maybe I already knew that.) One of our Louisiana clients set us a king cake on Tuesday, and who am I to reject a mardi gras tradition? And then our copy service delivered freshly baked cookies along with my copy job--and I've never met a cookie I didn't like. And DH and I went to a concert last night, and well, we had to pick up dinner beforehand. And I met him for lunch on Thursday at our favorite taco place.
The Thursday lunch meeting was unplanned. But it was the first anniversary of MIL's funeral, and DH was having a rough week. Last Sunday was the anniversary of her death. Really, all of February was hard on the whole family. There were a lot of reminders of what her last month was like. She was in hospice and the rest of us were practically living there. It was certainly one of the most difficult experiences of all of our lives.*
It's hard to believe it's been a year. It doesn't feel like it. "They" say its supposed to get easier after a year. But I don't think its that simple. I'm not sure this mother's day is going to be any easier than the last one. But I guess, eventually, it will get better.
*The only thing that really compares is when I was pregnant with the twins. I was hospitalized with hyperemesis for most of the first 16 weeks, told to consider terminating before I starved to death, then the twins were dx'd with TTTS which has a 90% mortality rate if untreated and the only cure (there are other treatments but only one cure) is in-utero surgery, which at that time was considered experimental and only performed at 5 hospitals in the country.
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