So, we're not freaks, right?

It appears that parents aren't necessarily happier than those who are childless. While I don't agree that this is necessarily true, this quote interested me:

This means the experience of raising kids is now competing with highs in a
parent's past, like career wins ("I got a raise!") or a carefree social life
("God, this is a great martini!"). Shuttling cranky kids to school or dashing to
work with spit-up on your favorite sweater doesn't skew as romantic.

Hm. Is it that parents nowadays aren't as happy as non-parents, or parents nowadays had a whole different life before kids? Parents of a generation or two ago graduated from high school, got married and had kids. Their life before kids was that they WERE kids. Now most parents don't have kids until they've gone to college, graduate school, and worked a while. Like I said, a whole other life.

I don't think I'm less happy- I'm just a different kind of happy. I've gone from finding my happiness in the greatest pair of shoes or a really fun, loud, crazy time with friends to finding happiness in watching my kids play soccer or watching them learn something new or just listening to their little ideas. Saturday nights have gone from, what are we going to do tonight/where are we going to go/out of town jaunts, to "hey, let's hit the Walmart." Don't get me wrong, I'll still take the shoes, and I'm woman enough to admit that I DO miss the shoes. But I won't trade the Twinkies. Most days.

Here's the article for those interested.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143792/page/1

Time flies...

Last year....

This year...
Where are my babies??

Round one of the three year old pics

Here are the "group" shots of the kids 3 year photo session. Some of ya'll have already seen these via email but I figured out that I can snipe them from the Sears site (don't tell) without buying the cd. I'm sure they probably aren't print quality but they're at least blog worthy.

Love this shot. I have a similar one when they were about 7 months old.

Yes, baby girl smiles with her mouth open.
See? Don't they look deceptively sweet here?
The classic "3" picture. I'll have to dig out last year's 2 picture for comparison.
Giggle box with her mouth open again...the lady kept saying, oh, her mouth is open. I was like, yeah, it's been open every set of pictures since she was born. It's ok. Don't they look so...old??

Another 10 for Tuesday- and it's actually Tuesday!

Another of Kim's 10 for Tuesday...

1. It totally cracked me up the other day as I walked past the baby section in Walmart and saw that they're stocking Stay Awake (the Walmart brand of No Dose) in that section. Then my ovaries shriveled a bit at the memories of nighttime feedings x 2.

2. I am constantly amazed by people's parenting. There was a kid at the pool the other day who just walked up to Emma's snack size bag of Cheezits and helped himself. Didn't ask to share or anything, just grabbed them and started noshing. I drew the line when he grabbed her Koolaid Cooler and was about to take a drink. I maybe sort of told him it was rude to steal other people's drinks.

3. The same kid (about 4-5 years old) was left ALONE at the pool while his mom left the entire pool area (as in outside of the gates going who knows where) for over 20 minutes. I'm assuming my MIL and I were supposed to babysit him. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT? It's a freaking pool, and you're going to leave your young child there with strangers to babysit and save him from drowning?

4. I am suffering from major shoe envy right now. I used to always have sassy shoes but my collection is not enlarging like I'd hoped. Sigh, I miss disposible income and the days I didn't weigh purchasing a really great pair of pumps with purchasing pictures of my kids. (those are coming soon to a blog near you, I heart Sears Portrait!)

5. I'm totally in a dinner rut right now. Any ideas for fast, easy go-to meals?

6. The world of parents around here is a small world, as Kim and I found out. We both share the thought that this one kid's mom is nuts, as I've seen her at soccer class, and Kim knows her from elsewhere. Can you say "helicopter mom?"

7. I'm also in a major I don't like my clothes rut. Maybe I should do what my friend Emily did- she's literally selling most of her clothes and starting over. Interesting. I'm going to see how that turns out first.

8. I have been exercising WAYYYY more lately (I also heart Zumba), including breaking out the old dustridden elliptical, and yet I'm not losing any weight. Not a pound. I'm about to just say forget it and eat at McDonald's every evening.

9. Sine die is Thursday, which means the end of the Court term. If I were a big important person I could be laying by the pool for the rest of the summer with not a care in the world. Unfortunately I'm far from a big important person so I'll be schlepping to work, except for my 10 wonderful glorious vacation days that I have to decide when to take.

10. I have like 100 hours of stuff on my DVR that I haven't gotten around to watching. Time just seems to run out on me! But the pause live tv action is ruining my kids- Ethan now has to pause while he goes potty and we had to pause the Nascar race the entire time he took a bath the other night.

I'm officially a soccer mom

I'd love for this blog to have some super great pictures, but unfortunately indoor soccer facility + low lighting + point and shoot camera = pics that are basically black blobs.

Anywho, my kids are officially soccer stars. Well, actually they're taking a soccer class at Quantum Soccer. They love it, and I think it's good for them to have some structure. It really only losely resembles soccer, but it entails running around for an hour (no actual games at ages 3-4) and tires them plumb out, so everyone is happy.

Here they are after their first practice.

The one quasi action shot I could get lightened up. Ethan is number 4 (back to the camera) and that's Emma on his right.

If you're like me, you're always worried that your kid is going to be "that kid" in situations like this. You know, the kid who pushes the others down or is mean, or the kid who doesn't listen to any directions and just runs around aimlessly like a monkey on crack. Well, fortunately that kid was D. [name withheld to protect the heathen...er, innocent] He was eventually asked to leave I assume, as his mom came over with the director and pulled him out. HE didn't return this week, much to most of our relief. Thankfully the only people my kids have pushed so far are each other, and that's embarrassing enough.

More pictures, I'm so slow

I'm pretty sure I've lost some of the people who checked this blog because I've been so ridiculously slow in posting. So I'm catching up some. These are from their birthday. This is the bounce house that their 3 grandparents went together and got them. My kids are so deprived.

My attempt at an action shot. Yeah, I have a point and shoot Kodak. Not the best.
Going down the slide.
What good is a slide if you don't try to climb up it? However, it's not really easy to do in socks.
Upside down on the slide
My stinker butts. I like this pic. I'm going to attempt to remember how the heck I put the pic at the top of this blog and change it to this one.

Since I downloaded a bunch of pics, I'm going to try to do a couple new blogs tomorrow. Stay tuned!

10 for Wednesday

10 on Wednesday (sorry, couldn’t make it in by Tuesday):

1. I’m super excited that the kids are playing soccer. I am such a sports freak that I have hoped and prayed that my kids will love sports too.

2. I think this soccer class will be good for the kids. They need some structure since they’re not in preschool.

3. I wore a really cute pair of shoes yesterday and although they would externally appear comfortable, they were possibly the least comfortable shoes ever made. Damn you Kate Spade! You’ve tricked me again.

4. If I worked a 4 day work week, I’m pretty sure I’d just spend the 5th day dragging the kids around on errands, so I don’t really think it’s worth it to spend 10 hours a day here.

5. I wish I’d have known that being a lawyer is 90% who you know and 10% what you know. I probably would have just passed on law school and you could call me Professor Chick right now.

6. I wonder why I still get ticked off when I see people in jobs that they have no business being in because they are about 2 steps above bumbling idiot, and they make twice (or more) what I do because of their connections. I need to get over that hot rage that burns in me when I think about it.

7. I think I will always be a litigator at heart even if I hate certain aspects of it. There is nothing like arguing a motion, writing a kick ass summary judgment or appeal brief, or hammering someone in a deposition. But billable hours and constant BS suck.

8. Why is it when you’re trying really really hard to save money, you think of 1000 things that you need to spend money on?

9. I get really jealous when people say they’re taking a sick day to just goof off. When I don’t work, I don’t have a sitter or daycare. I think one day I’m going to have to just leave like I’m going to work, call in, and spend the day sitting in a park. But then I’d feel too guilty and I’d end up going home.

10. Carpooling ROCKS. I swear I’m saving like $40 per week. Thanks Neurotic Attorney!

And a bonus since I'm a day late: I still heart you Hillary. I waited 14 years to be able to vote for you and I still think you're the best choice for president. Now I have to consider long and hard how to vote this fall, and since I'm a die hard Democrat that's distressing to me.