Mother's Day

The poem in the Mother's Day card from my dad:

A Mother's Love by Helen Steiner Rice

A Mother's love is something
that no one can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking . . .
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems . . .
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation . . .
A many splendoured miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God's tender guiding hand.

Thanks Daddy.

Homemaking

From Carolyn Mahane's blog Girl Talk, G.K. Chesterton on Homemaking:

"[Woman is surrounded] with very young children, who require to be taught not so much anything as everything. Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't...."

"[W]hen people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge [at his work]. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean…. I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children [arithmetic], and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."

Semi-crunch?

So, I guess I have some confessions regarding the crunchiness of my mominess so far...

Crunch, crunch, crunch (Kashi style):
1. I am cloth diapering.
2. I am a SAHM.
3. I make my own house cleaning solutions.
4. I make my own diaper wipe solution and use it until I run out of cloth wipes.
5. I don't know if I exactly AP (attachment parenting), but we co-slept out of sheer necessity for the first two months. Then we moved her to a cradle in our room, then a crib. So be it. Don't we have to have more kids?? That said, I NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER let Abby CIO. Never. Not on my life. And I rock her to sleep for naps. I love it. I only let her feed herself her own bottle because she took it from me. Yes, TOOK it from me.
6. I make my own babyfood when Abby will eat it.
7. I wash in cold water only.
8. I only use California baby and Aveno.

The non-crunch, soft side:
1. I do not recycle because the city I live in doesn't make it easy to do so. Yes, I am lazy. If they picked up for recycling, I would completely separate!
2. Sometimes, I let Abby watch T.V. just because it will calm her down...she has something else to focus on besides being pissed at me taking the newspaper out of her mouth. Sue me.
3. I buy things, lots of things, TONS of things, that aren't biodegradable. Oh well.

I dunno, I might add onto this later if I think of more. Seems like I'm a semi, because when I make choices, my primary concern is Abby, not our planet. If something is safer for her or allows me to have more time with her, I'll do it. I love her to pieces. Chubby, sweet-smelling, dramatic, actress-worthy, gorgeous smile, babbling, wanting-to-crawl-but-can't-because-her-butt-is-too-big, trying-to-walk, kissing only mommy, squeeling pieces.

Who let the dogs out? Maybe the big dog himself...

From the Wall Street Journal....

Pay Collars Won't Hold Back Wall Street's Big Dogs

By JASON ZWEIG

Of all the decrees that come spewing continually out of Washington, there is only one that works every time: the law of unintended consequences.

This past week, the Obama administration slapped a $500,000 cap on cash compensation for senior financial executives whose firms receive future federal aid. That put an official U.S. stamp on the outrage of the investing public.

Heath Hinegardner

In 2008, Wall Street lost more than $35 billion and triggered trillions more in losses around the world -- but rewarded itself with $18.4 billion in cash bonuses. That defies the common-sense judgment that it is good results, not bad, that should be rewarded; most dog owners know better than to give Fang a biscuit after he takes a chunk out of somebody's finger.

So Wall Street got its just deserts. Unfortunately, while this move rightfully punishes yesterday's fools, it may inadvertently create tomorrow's culprits. The Treasury Department stated that the pay cap is meant to "ensure that the compensation of top executives in the financial community is closely aligned not only with the interests of shareholders ... but with the taxpayers providing assistance to those companies."

If only it were so simple. "The search for ways to get around this," says one expert on Wall Street compensation, "started within minutes of the announcement."

For starters, the limits seem to apply only to "senior executives" -- the chief executive, chief financial officer and the like -- and not to many of the people who can earn the really big bucks on Wall Street, like traders, hedge-fund managers and the mad scientists who cooked up all those derivatives that almost destroyed the world financial system. Leaving the compensation of these hot shots intact, while reducing the pay of the people who are supposed to boss them around, isn't going to make the investing world any safer.

Outsourcing is another way to get around a pay cap. In 2003 and 2004, managers at Harvard University's giant endowment came under withering fire from the ivory tower for earning upward of $35 million apiece. They soon left to start their own firms, which were promptly hired by the endowment and got paid a percentage of assets under management rather than a cash salary and bonus. That new form of payment stopped the criticism cold -- even though it isn't likely the managers earned any less. Nor did it reduce risk-taking: One spinoff from Harvard Management Co., Jeff Larson's Sowood Capital, blew up in 2007, dealing Harvard a $350 million loss.

Wall Street firms could easily follow in Harvard's wake, spinning off a trading or underwriting operation as a new company and retaining an ownership stake in exchange for a share of the profits and losses. The top dogs at the new firm would no longer face limits on their compensation, but the shareholders' capital at the original firm -- including taxpayer dollars -- might be at even greater risk than before.

Finally, the new rules from the Treasury Department permit Wall Street's "senior executives" to get incentive pay in the form of restricted stock or similar long-term incentive arrangements. But there is no rule yet against cashing all of it in at that point -- what compensation experts call cliff-vesting.

Thus, managers may be tempted to take greater risks in hopes of speeding up their preferred-stock payoff. If the risks go bad, Uncle Sam will eat the losses. "It's the classic trader's option," says George Wilbanks, a managing director at executive recruiter Russell Reynolds Associates: "Heads I win, tails you lose." He adds, "That's my biggest fear: that people are going to swing for the fences to get to the cliff-vest faster."

Psychologist Elke Weber of Columbia University has a different take. She doesn't feel that managers will become reckless now to speed up their preferred-stock payoff. But that risk could rise rapidly as firms come closer to getting Uncle Sam off their backs.

The whole financial fiasco is one big unintended consequence. Securitization was supposed to spread risk to folks willing to bear it but instead ended up concentrating it in the hands of people who didn't understand it.

Wall Street imploded largely because the inmates -- the star traders and quant geniuses -- took over the asylum. Paying the wardens less won't put the inmates back in their cells.

Write to Jason Zweig at intelligentinvestor@wsj.com

Counting the Cost of Homemade Babyfood

So, it sounds great, right? Making your own baby food. How wonderful. Your child gets veggies and fruits and the like that have never been dehydrated...even organic for half the price if you wish!

It is natural, it is loving....it saves money!

It is also time consuming and messy....

But I love to do it! I honestly enjoy it....as weird as that may seem.

But for those of you who are considering doing it, count the cost my friends! You know that little Gerber plastic cup you have at the end of feeding your little one?

Well, when you are done making pears and oatmeal, this is what you are left with....

Not Me! Monday

So, that massive group of ladies I mentioned? Well, quite a few of them participate in Not Me! Monday. I think it is an awesome idea, and the rules are found here.

Ok, here goes!
1. Today, after Abby had been crying for a long time, I did not realize that she was in fact starving. She did not then proceed to down an 8oz bottle (following of course a huge bowl of cereal and a huge serving of green beans).

2. After she went down for a nap, I did not sit on the couch to eat a chocolate popsicle and write about what happened.

3. I did not go to switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer and find a dried load of clothes that had been sitting in there for two days.

4. I did not then proceed to eat another chocolate popsicle.

5. I have never skimmed on dusting by simply wiping the T.V. screen rather than the entire T.V.

6. I have never simply picked up the crumbs I could see on the kitchen and breakfast room floor rather that sweeping and moping both areas.

A nice quote for the new year

"Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." —Psalm 16:5-6

Credit to Suzanne's Second Estate for the quote.

Being Mom in a New Year

UPDATE: Formatting changes are in the works! Always fun stuff...also meaning my original post needs updating...my email is now on the LEFT side!

So, after Abby goes to bed, occasionally (ok, most of the time), I surf. I used to surf with a passion. Yes, I am one of those people, lol. I even had a program to help me! Called Stumble Upon. I don't use it much these days. I have baby kisses, giggles, and milestones to think about during the day. But in the wee hours of the evening, after her bedtime at 8, I sit in our living room with Brandon and I surf! It is such precious time!

I've recently discovered that there are a lot of mom blogs out there...I mean a LOT. Not just ordinary moms...Christian moms...moms who gave up careers in the outside world to focus on the world at home with their babies. Moms who put the Father and Son first in their homes....and focus on the hearts of their children. These moms blog about sick babies and lost babies, about how they maintain their homes, how they cook, etc. All of these women are linked together in a quickly growing network. If you skip from blog to blog, you can become overwhelmed by the enormity of it.

Well, that said, I too would like to be a mom like these. Which brings me to my blog. I started this thing 4 years ago as a means to get my thoughts out "on paper" during a busy time in my life...the first year of law school. As the years past and life happened, I slacked on it big time! So now I am searching for a new path for my blog...one that shows who I am today and what it is like for me to be mom.

So at some point soon, there will be a massive overhaul of this blog. Any suggestions from anyone who stumbles here are very welcome! My email is in the right sidebar.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

As my daughter tries to bang on the keyboard while jumping on my lap, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope all who chance upon my blog will take a moment to remember the reason for the season. He is the Reason...our Grace, our Forgivness, our Everything. I am so thankful this year for my family...my faithful husband, my joyfilled daughter, and an extended family I adore. They are the reason I smile when I wake up and when I go to bed.

Vote! It matters!

A moment of reflection....

A Vote Against Rashness

By George F. Will
Wednesday, October 1, 2008; A17

His name was George F. Babbitt. He was 46 years old now, in April 1920, and he made nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry, but he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.

-- "Babbitt," by Sinclair Lewis

We are waist deep in evasions because one cannot talk sense about the cultural roots of the financial crisis without transgressing this cardinal principle of politics: Never shall be heard a discouraging word about the public.

Concerning which, a timeless political trope is: Government should budget the way households supposedly do, conforming outlays to income. But the crisis came partly because so many households decided that it would be jolly fun to budget the way government does, hitching outlays to appetites.

Beneath Americans' perfunctory disapproval of government deficits lurks an inconvenient truth: They enjoy deficits, by which they are charged less than a dollar for a dollar's worth of government. Conservatives participate in this, even though deficits fuel government's growth by obscuring its cost.

The people can emulate the government because credit has been democratized. Democratization of everything is supposedly an unquestionable good, but a blizzard of credit cards (1.5 billion of them, nine per cardholder), subsidized loans and cheap money has separated the pleasure of purchasing from the pain of paying. Furthermore, the entitlement mentality fostered by the welfare state includes a felt entitlement to a standard of living untethered from savings.

Populism flatters the people, contrasting their virtue with the alleged vices of some minority -- in other times, Jews or railroad owners or hard-money advocates; today, the villain is "Wall Street greed," which is contrasted with the supposed sobriety of "Main Street." When people on Main Street misbehave by, say, buying houses for more than they can afford to pay, they blame the wily knaves who made them do it, such as the "nimble" Babbitt.

Knowing that heat breeds haste, errors and unintended consequences, George Washington praised the Senate as the saucer into which legislation is poured to cool. In this crisis, however, the House of Representatives has performed that function. Republicans, especially, slowed a Gadarene rush to ratify the deeply flawed original bailout legislation.

Voting against the bill -- against putting taxpayers' money at risk in order to clean up a mess that some people got rich by making -- was easy, but not necessarily wrong. The $700 billion figure exaggerated the plan's probable cost but accurately measured something worse -- the enormous enlargement of government's power.

So the joint declaration by John McCain and Barack Obama that Congress should "rise above politics" was mere gas. The legislation touched elemental questions -- the meaning of justice, the parameters of freedom and the proper functions of government. Democrats charge that the crisis is market failure arising from an insufficiency of government, in the form of regulation. Well.

Suppose that in 1979 the government had not engineered the first bailout of Chrysler (it, Ford and GM are about to get $25 billion in subsidized loans). Might there have been a more sober approach to risk throughout corporate America?

Suppose there had never been implicit government backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Better yet, suppose those two had never existed -- there was homeownership before them, just not at a level that the government thought proper. Absent Fannie and Freddie -- absent government manipulation of the housing market -- would there have developed the excessive diversion of capital into the housing stock?

The rising generation of thoughtful Republicans was represented on both sides of Monday's vote. Virginia's Eric Cantor, 45, and Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, 38, supported the legislation because they had helped to achieve substantial improvements in it, such as requiring financial institutions to help finance their bailout, giving the Treasury potentially valuable equity in firms revived by public funds, and eliminating a slush fund for Democratic activists. Texas's Jeb Hensarling, 51, and Indiana's Mike Pence, 49, voted against what they considered a rescue model fundamentally flawed because (in Hensarling's words) it "could permanently and fundamentally change the role of government."

It is potentially catastrophic that this crisis comes in the context of a closely contested election and a collapse of presidential authority. Congress should disconnect from a public that cannot be blamed for being more furious about than comprehending of this opaque debacle. The public wanted catharsis and respect for its center-right principles and got both with Monday's House vote. It still needs protection against obliteration of the financial system.

georgewill@washpost.com

© 2008 The Washington Post Company

NoDak Notes

So, North Dakota is surprisingly beautiful! This is a view from our townhouse. Yeah, it is flat like the movie Fargo portrays, but it is also filled with useful farmland (I swear corn is grown everywhere...!)

Can't wait for the winters...lol...anybody have a sled??

And here is a pic of my cutie pie daughter, who is dozing on my lap right now listening to King George's "Troubadour".

And we're off!

So, yeah, I haven't blogged in quite a while! We've been busy I guess...having a baby! This is my beautiful, very sassy daughter, Abigail Grace Storm, born June 12, 2008 at 6:01 pm, weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

And here she is post bath:

And now, we are moving to the Great North! My husband got a job in North Dakota (of ALL places, lol!) in the Wind Energy Industry. FINALLY we will be leaving Lubbock! YaY!

You know, I have spent many years picking on Lubbock because of the arrogant people here and the rather ugly landscape. But, in retrospect, I think it is important to note a few positive things: I met my husband at Tech, got married by the JP in the County Court House on 11/20/2006 (we had our ceremony later, on 08/11/2007), we had our lovely daughter here at Covenant Lakeside, and I've met many people who will turn into lifelong friends. So, it hasn't been all bad.

We will high-tail it outta here next week...leaving Lubbock in our rearview mirror. Unlike the song, however, I'm really not sure that we will ever come to regret leaving, but we certainly would regret never having come. There comes a time in everyone's life when it is time to move on, and now is our time. But I know that Brandon and I wouldn't redo the last several years of our lives.

I Passed The Bar Exam!

It is official, I am a licensed attorney in the State of Texas.

Heck Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY! Three years of law school has turned into something actually WORTH hanging on my wall!

YAY!

Our New Baby...Zoom Zoom!

2007, Red, Black Leather, 3.9L, 244hsp Impala LT!


She is so pretty! (That is our red Monte in the background...she is jealous!)



All the seats fold down and almost double the trunk size, and if you don't fold them down, then you can use the space under the backseat as storage.



The view most people see as I speed away! Hehe, j/k Brandon!

To all it may concern: yes, the Volvo is dead. May it rest in peace.

Some wedding pictures...

We haven't had a chance to get all the cameras printed...so more pics coming soon! DAD = send in your pics!! I will harass you! ;)



Me waiting for Brad and Crystal to finish eating

Full wedding dress, back in the getting ready room at the church...

About the start the "getting read" process! That is my slip behind me.

everyday He saves my life

The title of this post was inspired by a promo of a new Rascal Flatts song. I recently quit a job with a local personal injury lawyer. He was emotionally abusive, physically intimidating, and displayed all of the traits that lawyers are stereotyped as having. It was hands down the worse job I ever had, and I am glad I am no longer there.


The song reminded me that, no matter how bad it gets, no matter how desperate we are, everyday, Christ saves us. Everyday, when I went into the dark depths of despair over my situation, he would save me. He could have left me to learn my lessons alone, but he didn't. He could have given up on me, let me be angry at him, but he didn't. He held my hand through it, through the point when I walked in to that office and told my boss I wasn't coming back, and out the front door as I left. And now he will walk with me down the path of finding a new job, where I can actually help people. Even if I don't use my law degree, I'll find what God intended. Right now, I don't know if I am coming or going in my life, but I know Christ is beside me the whole way...and that was the most important lesson I could have learned over the last month.

Day 1 down

And now on to the MBE...

Con Law: Ah yes, "The free exercise clause cannot be used to challenge a neutral law of general applicability..." So says the Sup Ct in the "Peyote" case, where everyone in Oklahoma was prohibited from using peyote, not just the Native American tribe. However, if a law is not neutral and targets a specific group, then strict scrutiny will be applied and the law will be struck down.

Property: since we can't talk about fee tails really, "to A and the heirs of his body", then let us speak of the Rule against Perpetuities. A much loved topic for any law student. "An interest must vest, if at all, not later than 21 years after some life in being at the creation of the interest." If there is any chance at all that it could vest outside of that 21 year time frame, the interest is VOID VOID VOID...unless of course you are dealing with a trust that has a perpetuities savings clause, or you are in a state that has the doctrine of cy pres "as far as possible."

Yes, dear friends, it really is THAT boring! And we wonder why lawyers are mean and boring.

I Am (Reposting)

I originally posted this August 25, 2005. In preparing myself for the bar exam this next week, I'm re-posting it.

We call upon God many times in our lives to be what we need Him to be. Nicole Nordeman listed some of his roles in her song, "I Am": Elbow-healer, super-hero...heartache healer, secret keeper, best friend...shepard, savior, pasteur-maker...creator, life-sustainer, comforter, healer, redeemer, Lord and King, beginner and the end. We call Him to be all these things, and He says, "I Am."

Between two thieves, hope was born from suffering. By grace, we can call God, "Abba, Father." When we suffer in our lives, God is right there with us. There is no reason for us to fear, because our debt is paid. Finite and powerless though we are, Christ's strength, that same strength that led him to the cross to die for us, is there to guide us through life's troubling times.

In Genesis 12:1-9, Abram left his home on faith. He allowed the Lord to guide him; by faith, he knew God would prepare a place for him and bless his new home. God calls us to walk by faith. The desire to please Him, does; following that desire, we must go down the path even though we do not know where it leads. Faith is not always comfortable.

But, when we walk that path, narrow though it is, God walks with us. So, when life is uncertain, scary, troubling...when we think we can't go on, that it is just impossible for us to make it, and we say, "God, where are you? Why aren't you here with me...going with me through this?", He will say, "I Am."

Football and What it means to be in America

So, the Beckhams have arrived. I honestly didn't know it until I saw some headlines about the critic uproar against Posh's series-turned-one-hour-special last night. Apparently, the show wasn't very good. I will have to catch the rerun on Bravo this Thursday.

I pitty poor Posh (and by association, Becks). I don't think she read her history very well at all. Setting aside sell-outs like Madonna, we Americans like it our own way. Her husband probably won't be the soaring star I guess he is in other countries. (Bend it like who?) And if Vicki wants to be famous in her own right, she will have to do something else besides be pretty and thin. The BBC, quoting the LA Times, ran this:

Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times said that people in the United States had been "underwhelmed" by Beckham.

"If you're looking for a bad driver, we have Lindsay Lohan, who does it better," she told BBC One's Breakfast.

"If you're looking for rich, we've got Paris Hilton, and if you're looking for thin blondes, if you fire a cannon in Beverly Hills, you hit 100 of them.

"It's a very competitive market, even for a Beckham."

Though we find these girls ridiculous, at least they are our own. Much like kids I guess. It is much easier to tolerate the mustard on the new white carpet when it is your own kid that did it.