"Next up on the beam..."

Here's the Beef

Zachary: "Look, Mommy, what I'm eating! It's helfy for me!"


By the way, in case you can't tell, that's a huge wad of leftover lasagna noodles, cold, rubberized and straight out of the fridge. And just look at that smile across his face! The lasagna I spent 2 hours making the night before? He took one bite, said "Mommy, that's grrrrrrEAT!" And then he wouldn't touch another bite.

I think I'll take an early retirement from home-cooked meals. And would you like fries with that?!

Revelation

This morning, two hours earlier than my kids normally get up, I awoke to the sounds of Zachary sobbing in his room. I dragged myself out of bed and went to go check on him and asked if he'd had a bad dream, to which he just said, "I neeeeeed wooo!" I gave him a hug to comfort him, and then guess who should also start "crying". It was a pathetic little fake cry, because Ashley has to do everything that Zachary does. So, I got her out of her crib to offer some "fake" comfort to her (just kidding!) and then everyone was fine again. Suddenly, in a moment of sheer enlightenment, Zachary looked at Ashley, the two of them sitting happily side-by-side with their legs dangling over the side of the bed, and he exclaimed, "Hey! We're KIDS!!!" With that epiphany, my world is suddenly starting to make more sense to me!

(And, content with that simple explanation for why I had to sacrifice TWO FULL HOURS of sleep, I sent the kids on a hunt to find all of their warm, fuzzy blankets and then asked them to pile them all on top of me until I couldn't see (or breathe) anymore. It worked! I got another minute or two of much-needed sleep.)

Happy Valentine's Day Already (!?!)

The stores are already stocking pink and red hearts, so I thought I'd get ahead of myself, too! Or maybe that's just a pathetic way to usher in my Christmas and New Year's posts almost a month late.

Well, the Christmas season came in a flurry...not of snow, of course, as the weather in Texas was warm and blessedly bearable...the kind of weather I'd like to experience year-round. Instead, the whole month of December raced by and is now pretty much a blur to me, because despite my greatest efforts to get everything done early so we could relax and just enjoy the spirit of the season, there were inevitably the things that didn't get done early enough and plenty of last-minute things that I decided to tackle to make it that much more...BUSY!

"Dear Santa, I've been a very good boy this year. Please bring me a...toy." Seriously. Can you please be a little bit more specific? If only everyone were so easy to please...



I did accomplish a great deal before Dec. 1. That was a goal I had decided to set sometime back in the summer, as I was already beginning to think about my favorite time of year. I found and bought what I thought would be the "perfect" Santa gift for Zachary back in August (which, by the way, didn't turn out to be so perfect when it didn't work on Christmas morning and had to be exchanged the next day), and I guess that is when it became clear to me that I wanted to knock out my shopping *and* shipping before the real rush would begin sometime in October/November. So, for family and friends whose kids had late-November birthdays, they got their birthday gifts and Christmas gifts at the same time. If there is one thing I have learned I absolutely dread for no apparent reason, it is the post office. I don't know what it is about the post office that causes me to have such a horrible aversion to it, because there really is no reason I should hate it as much as I do. But anyway, I was proud of myself for getting so much of my shipping out of the way before December. So proud of myself that, what little was left, I completely lost all momentum and put it off until I was pushing the Christmas priority mail deadline. That part was awful. But that little side-note was not the entire Christmas season, so while I still recover from all the craziness, I have to say that we did have a nice Christmas.

While Chris was preparing for finals, the kids and I took advantage of many opportunities to look at Christmas lights. Sometime around Dec. 5, the kids and I went with Grandma to see the lights in Spicewood, a neighborhood that always had great Christmas lights when I was growing up. It is always neat to be able to take my kids to see some of the places that I enjoyed visiting when I was younger. We had such a great time. Zachary kept shouting, "I see more Christmas lights! I see more Christmas lights! I CAN'T WAIT!" And I don't even think the ones he'd seen at that point were all that spectacular, but that is what I love about 3 year-olds. They are so full of joy and enthusiasm for the little things in life. Ashley is old enough to enjoy the lights but still too young to really verbalize it, but we could tell she was feeding off of Zachary's excitement. On our way home that night, I managed to get talked into taking a detour just so we could see a few more lights in our own neighborhood. I asked Zachary, "Did you have fun tonight?" to which he replied, "Best Christmas EVER!!!"

Chris' parents came from Nebraska to spend Christmas with us at our house. I was feeling excited because this would be the first time they'd come to our house for Christmas. It was pretty low-key and Chris' mom helped out a lot with cooking. Our Christmas Day food, from the traditional breakfast crepes to the turkey dinner, was all very, very good. I'd wrapped all the gifts early in the month, so all I really had to do on Christmas Eve, after the kids were asleep, was fill the stockings. I always loved the fact that my parents made the stockings a lot of fun to open, so I tried to do the same. It was fun to watch the kids open their presents. Ashley would open one of hers and seemingly decide that one was all she needed to occupy herself for the remainder of the time, but every time Zachary opened another present, she rushed to be by his side, ready to take it from him as though it was all for her. Despite how that sounds, it was all pretty cute. I noticed that Zachary was also pretty delighted by her gifts, so it's all good. We enjoyed getting to spend the holidays at home this year.

Zachary takes a break from the holiday crepe-making festivities to sample the filling.

What a nice big brother! Zachary shares a taste of the goods with his little sister.

My, what big socks you have!

Don't we have the perfect "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree?

Not the first time a fire truck has shown up to our house...

Santa showed up the day after Christmas to swap out the "perfect" present that wouldn't work with a different one that Zachary liked even better.



After Chris' parents left, the day after Christmas, we spent the rest of the week with my family here. All of my brothers were here at one time or another, so we spent a lot of time at my parents' house or going out to eat with them. We celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa at our house also later in the week. My brother, Matt, and his girlfriend, Kathryn, joined us as well. My mom brought with her some pizzas from Double Dave's and we had a very relaxing time of it.

The excitement is building...

My daughter, uh,...Elmo. Oh, wait! My daughter is the one BEHIND Elmo...but in front of Grandma.

My brother, Matt, realizing his dream of playing plastic CDs on an Elmo CD player is finally coming true.



New Year's was also very relaxing. I hate to let it pass without any sort of celebration, so I invited my parents over once again and decided to do a lot of cooking. I had a couple new recipes that I wanted to try including a Taco Meatball Ring and these little cheesecake cups that use Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies as the crust with a cherry topping. Mom also brought some homemade macaroni and cheese, and we just had a TON of food. Isn't that, alone, worth celebrating?

So, those were our holidays. Oh yeah, and my grandma came up from Houston and we got to spend some time with her before she and my mom traveled to Boston to visit my sister and cousin. They got back on Thursday and so I took the kids over to my parents' house yesterday to see her once more before she went home today.

It's nice to be settled into the New Year and spending a little more time with Chris before he starts classes again on Monday. Truthfully, I hadn't gotten to spend as much quality time with him as I had hoped to, due to having so much company in town or things that have come up with my church calling, not to mention he received his reading assignments last week and has had to go to work on those during my last week of vacation with him. But we did take the kids out to lunch on Wednesday after Zachary's gymnastics class and then to the Austin Children's Museum, which they seemed to enjoy.

So, another New Year and another new semester come Monday. Time flies when you're having fun!

Thanksgiving Memories

For as long as I can remember, my family has celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday in Houston with all of our extended family. My earliest Thanksgiving memories, in fact, are of all of us gathering at my grandmother's house. As most of my mother's four siblings and their families lived in the general vicinity of Grandma's House when I was young, the house was always busy and filled with everything: smells of rolls baking in the oven, sounds of the Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade being televised in the living room, and visions of the dining room filled with all of the traditional Turkey Day delicacies. Grandma was always hiding in the kitchen, handling the intricate Thanksgiving details and making sure that everything was in order before the meal began. Aunts and uncles arrived, bringing with them pies and casserole dishes and cousins to play with. The card table was set up for the children in the living room. And somehow, we all managed to fit somewhere.

My favorite parts of the Thanksgiving Day meal have included Grandma's stuffing, made famous by Pepperidge Farms (thanks, guys!), mashed potatoes and gravy (is it ever possible to eat enough of those?), the turkey (dark meat, please) and, of course, my all-time favorite: PIES! And from my recollection, the pies were always plentiful. Everyone seemed to have a different favorite, so that generally meant we had to have at least a dozen (though that could possibly be an exaggeration) of the usual: chocolate, coconut cream, banana cream, apple, pumpkin, cherry, mince meat (who brought THAT?!) and duplicates to make sure that nobody got shafted after the first go-round. Pie was, is, and always will be a reason to celebrate. I am thankful for pie.

Ashley, thoroughly thankful, enjoying her coconut cream pie.


As the years passed, families moved away and so not everyone was able to make it to Thankgiving each year, but we were always able to be there. I don't remember EVER missing the traditional Thanksgiving at Grandma's until I went off to college, and those were the days I sorely missed it. But some things were always constant: sleeping at Grandma's House, watching that Thanksgiving Day parade while anticipating the Parade of Pies, and eating leftovers for days on end.

Times changed and families moved around some more, bringing some back to join us again, and we eventually grew too big for Grandma's House. I don't remember when the torch was passed (it was probably while I was in college) but the annual Thanksgiving Day celebration was hosted by my Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bruce for a number of years. As was customary, everyone contributed in some way or another, and the meals were always wonderful and the company, grand. My first Thanksgiving with Chris was spent in their home, and I, of course, have memories of what that was like at first. HA HA Chris has certainly grown to be a part of this large, wonderful extended family. The memories have only grown sweeter.

I am thankful for my Grandma and all those years that I enjoyed Thanksgiving at her house. I will always remember seeing her cook for days on end so that we could enjoy the best meal of the year. I will always feel a little ashamed that I wasn't as excited about helping with the dishes afterward, but I was young and didn't understand why the girls were always chosen to do that while the boys always got to run off and play. (I STILL have a problem with gender stereotyping, but now that I'm older, I can understand a little better. I wouldn't trust the boys to do a very good job of the dishes, either, Grandma.) I always felt sadness on the trip back home, because I knew that it was going to be awhile before I'd see her again and experience the togetherness that Thanksgiving always was in my eyes. (I think I also felt sadness because we always listened to my dad's tapes of Kenny Rogers on the way back and my memory of "Lady" is that it is just one of those sad-sounding songs.)

I am thankful for the Carlings and the Thanksgivings I have spent at their house. Now that I am an adult, I can sympathize and appreciate just how much they had to do to make their house ready for nearly 30 people. They borrowed tables and chairs from the church just so everyone had a place to sit. The food disappeared a lot faster at their house, because we were all grown up with grown-up appetites. Many of those years, Chris and I had to head home right after dinner, so there wasn't a lot of hanging around to help with the clean-up or getting to unwind after the meal was over by ringing in the Christmas season with the annual showing of Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. (I don't remember if that's the name of the show or not. I just remember the little song about razzleberry dressing.) The memories of those years were different, but one memory has and always will pass the test of time. I remember being grateful to have been there, with all of the family that could make it, and I will forever be grateful that I had a place to go, where I was surrounded by people that loved me and welcomed me into their home to share a celebration of thanks.

As we have all grown up and many have started families of their own, the sheer number of people has now made it necessary to start new traditions. This year was the first year that I can remember Thanksgiving being celebrated in the home where I grew up. Admittedly, I was skeptical that the celebration would be as enjoyable. How could it be, with so many important people missing? I figured it would be an adjustment I would have to make. "Grandma" no longer means MY grandmother, but it is Zachary and Ashley's grandma. I have gotten used to hearing her be called that over the past 3 years, but at our "first" Thanksgiving, that just seems a little strange. I couldn't help but think of MY "Grandma" sharing her first Thanksgiving dinner without us. I wondered if she was sad and missed us. Maybe she was relieved that the production had to be scaled down. I don't know, but I know that I missed those Thanksgivings from the olden days.

I am thankful that our Thanksgiving Day feast was celebrated with most of us in attendance. Even my Aunt Kathy joined us from Tennessee. My sister, Wendy, was the only one missing from our branch of the family tree this year. I talked with her on the phone a week or two beforehand and got my hopes up when I learned that she actually had been contemplating whether or not to fly home from Boston for the occasion. (Seeing as she is still in orientation for her new job, she had several days off in a row because the hospital where she works didn't want to pay holiday pay to someone new who had to work alongside someone else that also had to be paid for the holiday.) I wished that there was a way that she could have come. I was even willing to help pay for her ticket (a meager amount), but for some unknown reason, she didn't want to pay $500 for a ticket. I don't understand cheapskates. (JUST KIDDING!!!!) My point was that I WISHED she could have come. In my mind, I had this whole grand surprise worked out so that she could come and stay at our house and waltz in the front door of my parents' house on Thanksgiving Day and just get the party started. That really would have been something else. Sadly, it just didn't work out that way, but at least we did get to talk to her by phone while putting the last dishes in the oven.

Before the meal began, my dad decided that we'd go around and each tell something that we're thankful for. Yes, this is a tradition in most families, but I think it was the first time we'd ever done it. Don't know why that is, but we did it this time. I can remember what just about everybody said they were thankful for, but the most memorable part of the experience was when everyone would start out, "I'm thankful for..." and afterward, Zachary would end with an exuberant, "AMEN!" It was terribly cute, and I was very proud that he already recognizes the association of prayer with expressions of gratitude.

My brother, Matt, thankful he would be earning his college degree in just a few more weeks.


Having Thanksgiving at "home" (my home away from home) had a different feel to it, but it was a nice, warm and cozy feeling. We sat at our own tables, rather than those long folding ones borrowed from the church that almost make you feel like you're at a ward activity instead of a family gathering. While those were necessity in the past, it was nice to be able to sit around our family's table and enjoy a feast without the feeling of cattle prods poking you from behind. The food was all excellent, and Ashley sampled the stuffing ahead of time to let us know it was safe to eat. She really enjoyed that!


My little turkey, stuffing herself.






After a wonderful meal, Chris settled down for an afternoon snooze. My brother, Scott, always being the prankster, decided to lead his 8 year-old son, Bryon, in aiming tiny paper balls toward Chris' open mouth. I don't think any ever made it in, and I don't think that Chris would even know about it without seeing pictures. What would Thanksgiving be without family?

Bear in the Big Blue Chair

Order in the Court!

Due to our camera still undergoing repairs, which results in a total lack of evidence that tonight actually took place, this case is dismissed!

"OBJECTION!" (I can hear you saying...)

Okay, okay...here's the update some of you may have been waiting for. Tonight, Chris and I attended the Intellectual Property Law Association's annual judges dinner in the Capital Ballroom of the Stephen F. Austin International Hotel. This was a dinner attended by mostly local IP attorneys, who paid a pretty penny for their dinner, and the 4 members of UT's IP Moot Court Team and their guests (lucky us, us poor folk got to eat for free.) There were also a few judges that were there to be honored and appreciated.

I have to start out by telling you how handsome Chris looked in his "lawyer costume" tonight. (sigh) I know I am partial, but he is just so cute! I wish I could get my hair chopped at Supercuts for next-to-nothing and look so adorable. Ain't happenin'! And I lamented to him, on our drive back home, about how easy it would be to dress myself if I were a man. Men have to make nowhere near the painstaking efforts to look good as we women do, and the choices are between A and B...it's really as simple as that...for men. Not so for the ladies. Oh well.

I really like my new suit. I'm glad I don't have a picture of myself wearing it to post here, because I might change my mind after seeing myself from your point of view. It was a little awkward wearing it at first, I admit. I sort of felt like a man, but luckily, I was wearing some nice heels and accessories that helped me escape that feeling before long. It took us over an hour to drive downtown to the hotel, and by the time we arrived, I'd long forgotten that moment of awkwardness.

Because we arrived just in time to check in (we had to dodge some basketball game-goers on our way into downtown), there wasn't a lot of time for mingling, which was really a blessing since neither Chris nor I really knew anyone there at that point. He did run into a guy from a firm that interviewed him today, and we were introduced. Throughout the evening, I met 2 other men from the same firm, and they were all very nice. From what I saw, I think I would be really happy if they wanted to hire him. (I get a little protective of him, so I was pleased that these seemed like good people that he'd be happy working with.) I hope we get some good news soon.

The dinner, itself, was really nice. It was served buffet-style, though, which, in my opinion, makes things a little LESS nice usually, but it was fine. The food selections were excellent and included beef, chicken and salmon as well as 2 kinds of potatoes, a vegetable medley of carrots, squash and asparagus, green salad and a variety of bread and cheeses. For dessert, there was a beautiful array of cheesecake and pie choices. Chris had a plain cheesecake and I had some sort of lemon cream pie that was delicious.

While we were finishing up with dinner, the ILPA president made a little speech and presented each of the judges with a gift, a coffeetable book on Texas courthouses. "Gee, just...what..I, um, always...wanted.." No, I'm sure they really liked it. Then, the keynote address followed and was delivered by a cool judge guy. I don't mean to say that his address was boring in any way, because I could follow along enough to know that the guy had a pretty good sense of humor, but for someone like me who isn't in the field, the whole thing reminded me of a cartoon my mom once clipped for me about what humans say to dogs and what dogs hear:

Human: "Ginger, you naughty dog! You go outside right now, Ginger! If I have to tell you one more time, Ginger, to..."

Dog: "Ginger, blah blah blah! Blah blah blah blah blah, Ginger! Blah blah blah, Ginger, blah blah!"

You get the drift. HOWEVER, I WAS doing my best to pay attention and I really was trying to get something out of this. At one point, I did get distracted and began trying, without making it obvious, of course, to check out what the other ladies were wearing so I could have a better idea for next time. Suddenly, Chris sort of spun around in his chair with this huge smile on his face. I thought the man must have commented on something we had been laughing about earlier. (On the way to the hotel, I jokingly asked Chris for some one-liners I could use in case anyone confused me for someone who had a clue. He gave me some line about tort reform that I can't even remember now, but...it was pretty funny, but I guess you'd have to have been there.) I asked Chris about that later, and he said that, no, he was just checking to make sure I wasn't asleep! (And he checked on me several times.) I thought it was cute how concerned he was about that, but I assured him that I would never do that to him and explained that even as incomprehensible as the speech was at times, I was more concerned about whether or not I seemed out-of-place. He was very confident that I did NOT seem out-of-place. What a sweet compliment? I thought so anyway.

After the keynote address, the meeting was adjourned. Before leaving, Chris introduced me to him teammates. Again, another very nice bunch of people. All in all, we had a wonderful night out together.

Business Nonsense

Today I bought myself a suit. That's right, I bought a suit...as in a PANTSUIT. For myself. And I suppose you might be wondering WHY I would do this?!? Me, too. I mean, I am wondering the same thing myself.

There's a dinner on Friday night, and Chris is taking me. A fancy dinner, honoring federal court judges, and we're invited, and I'm a little nervous. Why? The mingling part, mostly. I'm just not good at mingling. I suppose that at 31 years of age, it could still benefit me to learn. Aside from my fear of being talked to, I'm also a little nervous because the dress code is business attire. I'm afraid I will be on trial or something. "Yes, Your Honor, this is the first suit I've ever owned, and I did pick it out myself." You see, I wear my business attire 7 days a week. With the exception of Three Hour Church on Sunday, business attire for me means jeans and t-shirts. After all, mine is a dirty business. Yes, even dirtier than that of a room full of lawyers.

I didn't google "women's business attire" right away, because I do have SOME sense of what "business attire" means. And I know that I don't own anything that belongs in this category, whatsoever. But I was sure there would be some details in fine print that I'd do well to learn before a sentence is handed down to me on Friday night. Sure enough, I was unaware of the statutes of business attire. If you are interested, just google it and you will see. Needless to say, this dinner feels slightly threatening to me.

I have never had anyone or anything in my life try harder to change my own personal sense of style (or non-style, as the case may be) than the mere act of Chris going to law school. More education started out as a nice idea and very well may still be one, but somewhere, somehow, someone forgot to inform ME that I, too, would be expected to adhere, at least on occasion, to a strict dress code (even stricter than the shorts-must-come-down-to-my-kneecap ordinance at BYU) so as to avoid looking the part of the frumpy housewife-who-let-herself-go next to my husband, the million bucks. (By the way, the term "million bucks" refers to the million bucks SPENT to transform a person from one who sits comfortably to one who waits, UN-comfortably, to rush home and hang up those expensive clothes that must look brand new each time they are worn...or else.) So, in order to be seen with a million bucks, I can't look like 50 cents. But we have no more million bucks, because we spent that all on HIS suits (which, until he has officially earned his diploma, passed his multiple Bar exams--those are different exams, not the same one multiple times, just to be clear here--and is employed full-time IN THE LEGAL FIELD AS A LAWYER, I affectionately call them his "lawyer costumes.") The million bucks is spent. We haven't a penny of it left, so we had to take out loans just to pay his tuition. His parents had to cash out their retirement so he could buy his books and so that his family (peons that we are) wouldn't starve over the course of 3 years.

So, today I went to JC Penney and found me a pantsuit (a black one) on sale for $79.99 + tax. It was marked down from a million bucks, so I don't know if that'll count as perjury when I wear it in the presence of the court or not. That price didn't include a shirt, which I was almost tempted to bypass (I'm learning to be frugal, eh?), but since I've never maxed out a credit card to date, I figured it's better to be safe than sorry and just went ahead and charged me a shirt on it. Even though it wasn't explicitly stated in the hitherto unmentioned dress code for wives whose husbands will one day be forced to keep up appearances in the likes of a TRILLION bucks, shirts are probably required. Since I wasn't sure which colors are acceptable and which ones are not, I went with plain ol' vanilla--white. For fear of being mistaken for a man, I went with the dressed-up white shirt with the clear, sparkly rhinestone buttons. I may be kicked out of this dinner for being a little too flamboyant in my dress, but it was a risk I felt was worth taking. I just hope that Chris isn't charged as my accomplice.

So, I modeled my orange jumpsuit, er, I mean black pantsuit for my parents who both ruled in my favor. Then, I drove home to face the judgment seat of the man that will be putting his own neck on the line if my fashion sense is deemed a failure. His judgment is usually the harshest of all, and his verdict surprised me: Not Guilty! So at least HE is convinced that I can pass muster on Friday night. I hope nobody is fooled by the cover-up and tries to actually talk business with me, because it'll be off to the slammer I go.