Boy-Licious

So it turns out there's a baby boom going on around me right now. And it's mostly boys.

After hearing my friend Lisa's good news that she'll be arriving in China on April 10th to meet her new little girl, I also got the news that my sister-in-law is having a boy. And that Casey's teacher is having a boy. And that one of the teachers in Marcie's area of the school is having a boy. And now one of my good friends, who was pretty sure she was going to have another girl because that's what she'd mostly planned for, has learned she, too, is having a boy.

I'm so happy for all of them. Parenting Marcie has been very different than parenting Casey. She so communicative. And much less rambunctious. I have this theory that boys are "easier" when they're older (puberty and beyond), and girls make for more stable toddler and preschool years. I know there are exceptions to this, but it's what I think. So when we had Casey first, I thought, "Yay. Let's get all the tough stuff over with while we're young and can move quickly." That's the advantage of boys. We'll see. I've probably just totally jinxed myself.

I'm Featured!

Check me out! I was interviewed at Connecting Moms about adoption. You can read my interview here. I was surprised by the invitation. After all, I'm nothing special. But it's still awfully flattering to read my interview their site!

How We Spent Our Sunday

After the fact, all loaded up and ready to go home:


And back at our house:


We haven't named the car yet or anything. It was a long process, the kids were running around throwing paper airplanes and eating popcorn. But the sales people were patient. And let's just say it's good we can multi-task because we caught a couple significant financial errors on the paperwork, which were of course corrected before we signed anything.

And for the record, this was Jason's choice of vehicle. This is his car. I have now officially inherited the Black Camry with the Valente School jiu jitsu sticker on the rear window. Both a color car I didn't want and a sticker unrelated to me. But he has been driving around with a Delta Delta Delta license plate frame for a year now on the Accord, so I suppose it's only fair. And honestly, I feel lucky he wanted the mini van and not the pilot. The pilot's a fantastic vehicle, mind you, but I have to heave myself up into it. So Jason's considerate of my height if nothing else.

Esquire

No, not the magazine. Me. I'm official. I was sworn in yesterday morning, and I'm finally an attorney.

This is me taking one of my oaths (I was sworn into California and also the United States Southern District, which allows me to appear in federal court):

And this is me with Jason after the ceremony:

There were a lot of people, and it was a much bigger deal than I thought it'd be. People brought their whole families with them! I didn't even think to bring my kids. I felt a little guilty about that, but really-- bringing them would have been kind of selfish. They would have been antsy and bored and they wouldn't have understood what was going on. So I would have been bringing them just to show off what beautiful children I have. And I went right back to work after-- so pulling them out of school for an hour round-trip drive in the rain would have been a logistical pain, too. Anyway, they have no idea that anything has changed. But it has. I can add another title to the end of my name -- esquire. Oh, and of course, I can dispense legal advice now, too. I guess that's a pretty big deal. (But don't ask me to here, because I won't-- it's against firm policy and a total professional responsibility/malpractice nightmare to do that!

Just blog it! Holiday Style

The Cackler over at Cackalackie has invited bloggers 'round the world to participate in a blogorama. If you haven't noticed, I added a button below my profile to the right of this post that says "Blog it! Holiday Style." I'm going to join Danielle by posting "What the Season Brought for Me" for the twelve days leading up to Christmas, beginning December 13th. You can read the details of her idea on her Just blog it post.

I hope you'll join us-- not just by reading (though please do!), but by adding the button to your page to promote the blogging event, and then blogging for 12 days this season about what the season means to you. It could be about Christmas, but it might be about Hanukkah or Kwanza or some other component of the holiday (or winter) season.

Be creative, spread the word. Whatever you do, just blog it!

Ch- Ch- Changes

So I'm not sure what button I initially pushed, but now here I am, in the midst of re-designing my blog template. This has temporarily resulted in the loss of my links and other information usually found along the right side of the page.


I think replacing it all would be going much faster if I could type with two hands, but at the moment Marcie is sitting on my lap, asleep, and my left hand and arm are occupied with holding up her torso and head up so they don't flop over.


Please bear with me as I get things functioning again over the next couple days (hopefully when I have the use of both hands simultaneously).

California Bar Exam Results

I wish I could report entirely good news. You see, I'm one of those team players. Although I went into law school with an I-don't-need-any-new-friends attitude, truth be told I never would have survived without my study group, Paul and Delinda. We studied together at least once a week for three years. Honestly, I couldn't have done it without them.

So we had a plan. When results came out, we'd text each other. No matter what. And here's how it all happened:

Around 4:30pm, a bunch of people from the firm took the three of us awaiting our bar results to Karl Strauss for snacks and drinks. We called this the pre-bar-results Novocaine. I had planned to check my results online in the office because of afternoon traffic. But in the end, I didn't. I decided instead to drive home and check them. I figured the website would be all jammed up for the first 15 minutes or so anyway.

On my drive, the first text came in at about 6:04pm. It was Paul. He passed. Then, as I was dialing his number to congratulate him, a second text arrived, from Delinda. It said, "I'm not on the list." When you check your bar results, you get a notification that either says, "This name appears on the list of people passing the July 2007 bar exam" or "No record found" (or something like that).

I called Delinda. I asked her if she double-checked her numbers. If she'd had her husband type it in for her. I told her that it's not final-- the website. That I'd heard of two separate instances where there were glitches and upon checking results later the same evening, people who thought they'd failed really had passed. We talked about what might have gone wrong. I reminded her that this is a blip in her life. It won't matter in the end, even if it doesn't feel that way right now. I said everything I was thinking I'd want to hear if my name weren't on that list. And then we hung up.

On the remainder of the drive, I worried. If Delinda's name wasn't on that list, it was likely mine wasn't either. We studied for that test together. We quizzed each other. We wrote the essays together, took an extra course together. There is nothing I did that she didn't do. And vice versa. She was our team cheerleader. And of all of us, these results mattered-- really mattered to her because she has a job offer dependent on passing the bar exam. Which might explain why she was the most nervous of the three of us-- going into, during, and after the bar. We chatted very briefly following the last day of testing, and she and I seemed to say all the same things on our essays. So her missing name was very worrisome. Particularly because I didn't know my results yet.

When I got home, I didn't even say hello to Jason and the kids. I went straight to the computer. And wouldn't you know it, the Internet was down. I've been having trouble on my computer lately, but I wasn't expecting a glitch while checking bar results! Finally, we got Jason's computer up and running, and I checked my results there.

I passed. Alternately ecstatic and shocked for my friend Delinda, I began texting. By now, the kids were clamoring, and I was writing fast. I could only send the text to half my friends and then had to send a second text message to the other half. On the first half, apparently I wrote that I'd passed the car exam. And once I received a text back from a few people asking what the car exam was, I couldn't even send out a follow up correcting the mistake because I don't know which people I sent that message to and which people got the appropriately typed "bar" exam message. To those who replied to my car message, I responded that the good news was that cars everywhere would be able to receive great legal representation.

All of three of us first year associates at the firm passed. But all that success is slightly overshadowed by knowing Delinda will be taking the test again in February. I personally plan to offer to help her study again. Though I doubt she'll take me up on it since my presence during the summer obviously didn't help. Believe me, I feel such joy and relief that I passed the test. But I'd be much happier if Delinda did, too.

Anyway, I meant what I wrote yesterday-- about perspective. So if you're the praying type, and you feel like saying prayers for my friend, please do. Don't pray that she passes the test. Pray instead for her to have grace. Grace to accept what's happened and move forward. Grace to believe that this is just one test and doesn't define her academic abilities. Grace to focus as she begins studying again. And that she'll have grace during each day of the test. And if you've been praying for me to have grace during the wait-- thanks. I think it helped!

Wildfires Follow-up: Correction on Plane Groundings

In an earlier post, I whined about military red tape being to blame for the delay in getting air craft up in the air during the wild fires. I hadn't heard the story firsthand because I was trying to keep the kids away from the media blitz. But Rowena wrote to me that I had it wrong-- and darned if I didn't. So thanks to Rowena for letting me know that my reference to the "stupid military" wasn't accurate.

[As a side note, I never considered when I posted that comment that I might come across as anti-military. I'm definitely not anti-military. I don't know how anyone growing up in San Diego could be. I appreciate all our military does, and I'm awed by how their families hold down the fort while they are away, often on very long deployments. I remember how hard it was for me during Desert Storm when my dad was away and we didn't know for how long, but he was an Air Force pilot, so his time away was nothing compared to what Navy families experience on a pretty regular basis-- and nothing compared to what families are going through nowadays.]

Anyway, the way I'd heard the story was that the planes couldn't fly in California because of military red tape that was not allowing the planes in the air. I had heard that Brian Bilbray negotiated a deal to get the equipment (or people?) here from Colorado. But this was erroneous. The way it works is that air crafts need "spotters" to fly with them, and there weren't enough spotters. And this is a state rule, not a federal one-- which means that it definitely was not military red tape. What Brian Bilbray did was broker a deal to waive some of the "spotter" requirements so that the aircraft could get off the ground. Though it does appear that some military planes (C-130s) were not properly equipped as they should have been, and there is apparently a plan to rectify that.

There are much better explanations than the one I gave on CNN, MSNBC, and USA Today, if you're interested.

Mostly, I wanted to thank Rowena for letting me know I had it all wrong-- I'd e-mail you if I had an address, to thank you more personally. I love that someone out there is actually reading this blog closely enough to call me out on something when I deserve it! So thanks, Rowena.

And if anyone has an opinion about why the spotters are necessary and should never be waived, I'm open to hearing about it. And yes, I do realize that it's entirely possible that even if we had all the spotters we needed and the C-130s were appropriately equipped, the winds might have prohibited the planes from flying!

Still Evacuated

Along with about 10% of the county of San Diego, we're still evacuated. I can't tell from the news reports if the fire has spread closer to our home, but it appears the fire is burning west toward the coast. Of course, the winds are unpredictable, and we haven't been released for return-- but it looks like, at least for the time-being, our home will be okay. A friend did some recon, and he said things looked quiet last night. But this morning I read they had arrested some looters in Ramona, which doesn't surprise me in the least, though does sadden me.

What's more important, though, is that we're okay, we're all together, and our kids are enjoying themselves on the longest playdate ever. I admit it. I'm pretty freaked out. Much more than I was the last time-- and I could see flames from my house then. But, again, there weren't winds and they were able to sort of contain it. The Witch Fire, which is burning houses in our community, isn't at all contained yet, and it's been burning for a couple days now. Somehow, too, it feels like there's so much more to lose. I'm not talking about our stuff, because that's just stuff. But keeping our kids safe and comfortable-- and more importantly feeling safe and comfortable is hard when we're not feeling that way. But I suppose that's part of what parenting is about. Helping our kids live through disaster without really feeling affected by it. Maybe that's a crazy thought. But they're young.

The city of San Diego is pretty much shut down today, and we know our local schools are closed at least through tomorrow. So we're all home from work/ school (well, not home, but you know what I mean). These sure are interesting times . . .

BS # 3-- DTC (Date to China)

Woo Hoo! We received an e-mail this morning. Our completed dossier was mailed to China yesterday. That means our DTC, or date-to-China is October 4, 2007.

China used to match families based on the date their paperwork was mailed, not the date it was received, which is why the DTC matters. Now China matches families to babies (or vice versa) based on the date the dossier was received, or logged in (this is the LID). There is some theory that on occasion, when China doesn't get all the way through a particular date, or if that were to happen, they would honor the DTC. That means that if my paperwork was sent October 4th, but China didn't log it in until October 20th for some reason, theoretically we should get matched before someone who mailed their paperwork October 10th with the same LID of October 20th. Not sure that's accurate. Anymore at least.

We should know our DTC within the next 8 weeks. That doesn't mean our LID will be some time in December; it just means that we'll know what our LID is by early December.

To further complicate things, China has an enormous Trade Fair in October, and the CCAA shuts down for a while (maybe a week?) during it. They were closed this week (October 1-5, 2007). Our paperwork won't arrive for a few days (it usually takes about 4 days), so it may not impact us.

In any event, once we have our LID, we'll officially be paper pregnant for B.S. #3.

Still, a DTC is something to celebrate!

Eat at Chilis Restaurant Today- Sept. 24th!

I meant to post this last week and lost track of time.

Today, September 24, 2007, Chili's Restaurants are donating all their profits to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This is a great cause-- one of my favorites. And while Chili's isn't donating all money they take in, I'm still pretty impressed that they are donating all their profits. Most places will only agree to donate a percentage-- so 100% of the profits is a terrific contribution.

If you're wondering what St. Jude's is about, they focus on research and treatment of childhood cancer. Once patients are accepted for treatment at St. Jude's, the cost of the treatment is fully covered, so no one is ever turned away for having no insurance or because their insurance won't cover it. Not only are they an amazing place for treating children, but their research has made more survival possible than ever. When St. Jude's opened its doors in 1962, the survival rate for ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, cancer of the blood) was around 4%. Today it's 94%. Their research has contributed to improved 5-year survival rates in a variety of types of cancer.

Of course you can just donate money directly to St. Jude's. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't help grow the contribution from Chili's either! After all, everyone's gotta eat. I know our office is ordering in from Chili's today-- so if you work someplace where eating from a restaurant is possible, grab some co-workers and head over to a participating Chili's near you. And if you don't work in a place that allows you to make it to a Chili's on your lunch hour, I hope you'll consider taking your family there for dinner!

Happy eating!

National Teacher Appreciation Week

By the way, the first full week of May is National Teacher Appreciation Week. Whatever your feelings about teacher pay and time off, teachers spend a lot of time with our kids. It doesn't matter if you spend a lot of time on a gift or have your child make a thank you card-- it really is the thought that counts.

Don't forget to help your child thank his or her teachers this week! And if you know a teacher, thank her, too. They really are responsible in many ways for our nation's most important resource-- our children.