3 Weeks

Until school starts. Ugh. I am not ready for school to start. I love our summer pace. I don't have to nag the kids to get moving in the morning. I get to sleep in a little bit because I don't have to nag the kids to get moving in the morning. The sun is shining when I wake up. Traffic is sooooo much better--I can make it to the office in 30 minutes!

And when I come home, I don't have to spend my evenings working on homework or school projects. No soccer practice. No teacher meetings or concerts or PTA programs I have to attend.

And I get to spend more time with the kids in the evening. 8:30 bedtimes mean I only get to spend an hour or two with the kiddos during the week. During the summer, we may be going for a bike ride or going out for yogurt at 8:30.

I'm just not ready to get back to all that. But I spent most of yesterday buying school supplies. And beach stuff. At least we still have vacation to look forward to, our last hurrah of summer. We leave next Saturday for a week on the beach. And I'm gonna need it by the time I survive this week at work.

Making Headlines

Ok, maybe not headlines. But my client was featured in a national news story that was published this morning, regarding the case that I mention in this post.

We knew the article was coming. Shortly after the hearing a reporter started hounding me for a comment. Sadly, I had to decline since it is likely that my client will have to testify again and I didn't want to give the defendants any ammo to use against her. But the article was really nice, and painted my client in a good light.

Oh yeah, and I was mentioned too...for declining to comment. Still, it's my fist press mention. Another entry in the baby lawyer book.

I Love to Ride My Bicycle

DH took PS to a concert tonight, so it was just the twins and me. Despite the fact that the thermometer on my back porch was reading 109, I agreed to take a bike ride with them. Fortunately, DH just got a bike for his birthday, so I had one to ride. It's probably been 20 years since I spent any amount of time on a bike. (I'm 36--got a car when I was 16, haven't had a bike since. Yep, 20 years.) Fortunately, it's just like "they" say.

Well, except that the kiddos insisted I wear a helmet. I've never worn a bike helmet. The girls were baffled by this. It is beyond their comprehension that there was a time when people didn't wear bike helmets. So I wore the helmet (and it was dang hot).

I think I may need to get a bike of my very own. I forgot how much I missed cruising around the neighborhood. And it's nice that the kids are big enough that I have to worry about keeping up with them instead of the other way around. (The main reason I never got another bike--it just didn't sound like fun with little kids trailing behind at turtle speed.)

Not to mention the exercise factor. We weren't out very long because of the heat, but I was still feeling muscles I had forgotten about. And the bike is doc approved, since I have old lady bones.

Double Digits

My twins turn 10 tomorrow. Which means that all my kids are now in double digits. Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was 9-months pregnant with twins. Or breastfeeding practically 24 hours a day. Or trying to figure out how I would ever survive three-year-old twins.

And now they are 10. They have become awesome people. And they are actually useful. SS makes the best fried eggs and iced tea in the world. TT just takes whatever the world throws at her and keeps right on rolling without a complaint.

And they are still sweet and cuddly and love their mom and dad. I still get about a million hugs and kisses a day from them. (PS would hardly give us a hug if her life depended upon it; she is not big on physical affection.) And when we watched tv together last night, SS curled right up next to me the whole time. I love that they still do this.

We bought them new big kid bikes for their birthday. With hand brakes and gears. And cell phones. (We were on the fence about that one.) They are getting big. I miss buying Little People. But we did get some Legos, one of the few toys we can buy anymore.

It has been weighing on me a lot lately how little time we have until all our kids go off to college and start their own lives. When I was young I NEVER wanted kids. But they are definitely the most awesome thing that has ever happened to me.

Feet and Anger

Took TT to the ortho today who said that her toe is NOT broken. She just has a bad sprain (her foot is still really swollen!). No more splint, no more crutches. Woot! She can ride her bike and go swimming again and, best of all, our beach vacation isn't screwed up. (Can you imagine a cast on the beach?)

He also hesitantly said that she could still go to the amusement park for her birthday this weekend. I'm a bit concerned about this, since she would now be walking on it all day. I had a bad sprain when the twins were about 10 months old. We went to Chicago a month later and I walked too much the first day and was miserable the rest of the trip because my foot hurt so much. That sprain took forever to heal and hurt a heck of a lot more than the fractures I had last summer.

And in other news I am mad at DH. We went out last night, so he picked me up from work, leaving my car in the underground parking garage. He dropped me off at 9:30 last night--right at the stairs to go into the garage (he couldn't drive into the garage because the pass was in my car). And then he left! Without making sure that nobody murdered me and that I actually came back out of the dark, empty parking garage. Who does that? Whenever I drop off DH, or anybody else, I always make sure that they are safely in their car and actually moving before I leave.

He thinks I am ridiculous for being angry. I think he is lacking in civility.

Cooking Weekend

This was supposed to be a cooking and cleaning weekend, but it ended up more of a shopping and cooking weekend. Haven't made much progress on the cleaning, but at least I have a refrigerator full of food and a week's worth of meals in my freezer.

A commenter asked about recipes a few weeks ago, so I'll share what I did:

I brought home 3 lbs of chicken tenderloins and used 1/3 of it in Brown Butter Ravioli with Crispy Sage and the remaining 2/3 in Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken. We had the Brown Butter Ravioli for dinner Saturday night (it was really good) and froze the Santa Fe Chicken (haven't tried this yet) for later in the week.

Today I browned 5 lbs of ground beef with a little onion and bell pepper, 2.5 lbs of bacon (use the oven!) and cut up a rotisserie chicken from Costco (a great cheat!). Most of the bacon and the chicken will be used on Monday and Tuesday to make Chicken Bacon Ranch Calzones and Garlic Chicken Farfalle (this is so unbelievably delicious). The rest of the bacon went into breakfast burritos that were frozen for later in the week.

I added spaghetti sauce to part of the ground beef to be used in Skillet Lasagna and spaghetti in the next week or two. I added refried beans (along with a little cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic) to another part to make burritos for lunch this week. (I really, really hate store-bought frozen foods for lunch). I have several more portions of ground beef stored in the freezer for later.

Tonight we had T-bone steaks with homestyle green beans and modified version of Crash Hot Potatoes.

I'll admit that this set of recipes isn't particularly healthy. The pasta dishes use lots of butter and cream. Also, I don't regularly buy bacon, so the number of bacon dishes is an anomaly. And the 5 lbs of ground beef will probably last for a month. We are also carb-heavy. That's always my weakness. I love carbs and the kids never gripe about pasta.

But I think cooking from scratch with real ingredients has got to be better than a bunch of over-processed foods. And we supplement with lots of fruits and veggies. And, most importantly, I can have dinner on the table in less than 15 minutes every night this week.

Chaos

I keep dreaming about wind. Last night I dreamed that I was walking through a courtyard and it was very windy. Another woman was walking with a big purse that was hanging open and the wind suddenly filled up her purse and lifter her into the air like a hot air balloon.

The night before I dreamed that we were traveling and stopped at a little shack in the middle of nowhere. We were stuck there for 3 days because it was so windy that the dirt stirred up by the wind impeded visibility to the point that all nearby roads were closed.

I think the wind dreams are symbolic of the chaos that has taken over my life.

Work

It's busy. That's a good thing. I am much happier when I am busy. But it is hectic busy. And I'm still a little frustrated by the monotony of my job.

Home

My house is a mess. There are baskets of clean laundry all over my bedroom. The rest of the house is generally messy. Our nanny is supposed to supervise the kids' chores and perform light housekeeping tasks. She's been slacking. But she is going off to college soon and only has another 6 weeks with us.

I think that we have decided not to replacing her. The kids really don't need a lot of supervision these days. PS turns 13 soon and is very mature and responsible. The biggest challenge will be getting kids to their activities, but we will talk to the neighbor to see if she is interested in helping out with this.

The good news is that I am testing out a new housekeeper next week. Hopefully having someone come in every week will help with the house-mess chaos.

Kids (and dog)

Bob is doing great. He is already back to chasing bunnies in the yard and running up and down the stairs.

Speaking of stairs, TT broke her toe walking down the stairs. I've broken lots of toes and don't usually consider it a big deal. But she broke the big one and it was hugely swollen and bruised half-way down her foot. So I took her to the doc this morning who put some funky splint-thing on it, gave her crutches, told her not to put any weight on it, and referred us out to an ortho. (Yes, this is the kid who broke her arm and has only been out of the arm splint for 6 weeks.)

She thinks having crutches is super cool. But she doesn't get how much this is going to make the rest of her summer suck. The splint she has now can't get wet. So no pool. And we have a fully paid beach vacation scheduled in 3 weeks! And her birthday is next week. She's fully expecting a new bike and to go to the Big Amusement Park. So if she gets a bike, she won't be able to ride it for a month. That sounds like a sucky birthday. And she will be totally bummed if we can't go to the Big Amusement Park.

Finances

DH's employer started a crazy new insurance plan this year, and health care costs are insane. Oh how I miss my PPO. I don't think it would be so bad in a regular year, but with all of TT's issues this year, it's ugly. But at least next year we'll have a better idea of how much to contribute to our FSA. We way underfunded this year because we did not fully understand how this new plan would work (his employer automatically funded the FSA, but we blew through that by April). Not to mention the ginormous vet bill that we just got, compliments of Bob.

It's not debilitating, just not well planned for and adding more stress.

I just want my kids and my dog to be well and my house to be clean. Is that too much to ask?

Awful Night

About 8:30 this evening we headed to the neighbor's house to water her plants while she is out of town. I told the girls to put Bob in the backyard before we left so he wouldn't try to run out the front door.

Bob was quite unhappy that his family was in the neighbor's yard while he was stuck in our yard, and was doing his best to ram his head through the fence. So we told PS to go back home and let him into the house. A few minutes later, her sisters followed. Just as DH and I were finishing up, TT ran back over to tell us that Bob had gotten out and was taking off down the street. PS and SS had followed, so DH took off running after them. I went to get the car, with SS in tow. (This isn't the first time Bob has taken off, and the best way to catch him is to convince him to take a ride in the car.)

As I reached the end of our block I caught a glimpse of SS standing at the edge of our neighborhood. Which borders a busy two-lane highway with a 55 mph speed limit. When I reached the highway I saw the girls and DH standing on one side screaming. It was hard to see what was going on in the road because it was dusk and the oncoming car headlights put everything into silhouette. My biggest fear at that moment was that one of my children would take off across the highway after the dog. Traffic was too heavy to pull onto the highway, so I just laid on the horn, hoping it would make the other cars slow down and pay attention.

And then the cars in both directions stopped and I saw DH and PS take off across the road. SS was still on the side opposite me. I pulled onto the highway and saw that Bob had been hit. I flipped a u-turn in front of the stopped cars--my top priority was to get SS into the car before she tried to cross the road, or a car came onto the shoulder and hit her. I walked down to where DH and PS were, and I could see that Bob was lying down but moving his head. Lots of other people had stopped and were out of their cars trying to help. (DH said later that some strange lady came over and started yelling at the kids who hit Bob. It wasn't their fault a big black dog came darting into traffic. And PS said that lots of other people were crying.) I yelled across the road that I would bring the car over (it was a few couple hundred feet away on the other side of the highway.)

Meanwhile, someone found a blanket, which was made into a makeshift gurney to carry Bob to the car. He looked to have a broken leg and was bleeding from his mouth. We loaded him into the back and DH called the vet. PS and SS, who had seen everything, were hysterical.

We headed to the vet's office, and she met us within just a few minutes. Bob was very calm in the car, and stood up when DH tried to lift him out of the car. In the vet's office he was panting heavily, but he was standing on his leg and wagging his tail. X-rays showed no breaks or internal injuries. He just has lots of road rash, swelling in one knee, and apparently bit his tongue. The vet sent him home with lots of pain killers and antibiotics.

It is awful seeing Bob hurt and the kids so inconsolable. They are all trying to blame themselves. (And yes, he should be better trained.) SS is sleeping on the couch tonight so that she can stay near him. But the worst of all was the very real fear that one of my kids was going to get killed on that very busy highway. It was like watching a movie in slow motion and there was nothing I could do.

It looks like Bob will be ok. We can clearly see how this situation could have been worse in so many different ways and know that we are lucky it wasn't worse. And we are so grateful to everyone who stopped to help. We wish there was a way to let them know that Bob turned out ok--especially the kids who hit him and got yelled at.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday

We took off Friday afternoon and headed to Hometown for the holiday weekend. Our plan was to let our kids experience some of our favorite things about Hometown--something we never get to do because we always have a whirlwind of relative-visiting when we're here.

And so yesterday morning we went hiking in the fantastic canyon that we spent a good part of our teenage years in. We were thrilled to find that the kids loved it as much as we do. The twins apparently learned all about tracking when they were at Girl Scout camp, and so they had great fun pointing out tracks and informing us of whether they were opossum or raccoon or deer or horse or armadillo or coyote.*

Last night we took FIL to dinner and an outdoor theater production. (I think DH is done with musical theater for the year--this is our third production in as many weeks.)

And today we visited our grandparents and finished the day off with a barbecue at my dad's house with my brother and nieces. (We had to fit the mandatory visits in somewhere.) It was nice getting to hang out with my brother and his girls. I'm pretty sure my dad never anticipated having 7 granddaughters and it's a little crazy when they're all together, but also a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we head home. I think the kids had a great time (TT told me as much).

*DH's sibs went with us and I overheard this conversation between my 6-year-old niece and 3-year-old nephew:

Nephew: What's a coyote?
Niece: It's a kind of wild dog.
Nephew: Ooohhh, that sounds scary.
Niece: It is scary. They eat people.