Lawyer Mama

People Who Give A Damn

Last night T and I watched the movie Blood Diamond. Have you seen it? It highlights some of the worst of human nature and its results: power, greed, and violence. For the first three quarters of the movie, I was incredibly depressed thinking about the world my boys will inherit from us. But then one of the characters said something that gave me hope. He pointed out that if even the worst person can have one moment of kindness, it can give purpose to that life. And so I was reminded of the flip side of human nature: hope.

For every horrible thing we read about or hear about on the news, there is someone else out there doing some good, caring, or writing about a cause with passion. This month's list of Just Posts is a good reminder that there is hope in a world of chaos.

A few posts really struck a chord with me this month, and I nominated them for Just Posts. Take a moment to read these posts if you haven't yet. They're written by bloggers who care passionately about their children and the world they will inhabit. Their issues and passions transcend political parties. Whether motivated politically or socially, they all give me hope.


Jen for Door to Door and Chasing Tails
Pundit Mom (and Pundit Girl) for Iraq War Solution by Pundit Girl
David for Facebook Better Smarten Up Fast
The Dynamic Duo at the League of Maternal Justice for The League of Maternal Justice
Amie of DC Metro Moms and Mamma Loves for An Open Letter to the Political Candidates-From a Mom

Special thanks to the kind soul or souls who nominated my posts On Becoming A Lawyer and Facebook Sucks.

You can check out the full list of this month's nominees over at the sites of Jen, Mad, Susanne, and Hel.

Help Me! (and Boobs)

Today is the last day to help me win Sunshine's contest! Go over here & leave a comment on this post and tell her that I sent you. Please? Pretty please? I soooo want that shirt!

As part of her contest, Miss Sunshine has also asked that I write a post listing all the bloggers I love. Now this takes some effort! I have no less than 123 blogs in my Bloglines. Um, yeah, that's not going to happen. But I am going to put my blogroll in here. Bear with me. (And please don't be insulted if you're not on here. It just means I've been too lazy to update my blogroll.)

The View From Here
Still Learning
Serving the Queens
Queen of the Mayhem
Her Bad Mother
The Soccer Mom Vote
PunditMom
24/7
i obsess.
Bub and Pie
The Positive Pessimist
Moobs
Mommy off the Record
Dribblingwitt????
Chicky Chicky Baby
Blonde Justice
Angry Pregnant Lawyer
Mom, Ma'am, Me
Her Bad Mother's Basement
CPA Mom
Mom-101
Oh, The Joys
Wherever Ewe Go, There Ewe Are
GingaJoy
BlogRhet
A Family Story
a little pregnant
one plus two
The Ravin' Picture Maven
Slouching Towards 40
Not Exactly a Princess
And the pursuit of happiness

********************
Check out this great video from the League of Maternal Justice:



It's part of The Great Virtual Breast Fest. If you'd like to participate, see details here. Stop by and offer the ladies some "support!"

Things You Shouldn't See on October 6th

I'm still dealing with sickness and whiny children here in the happy land of Lawyer Mama. I'm trying to distract you from noticing that I still haven't posted the meme post and that I owe some of you interview questions. Look! Over there! Something bright and shiny!

Seen on Saturday in Lowe's:



It was October 6th, people. October 6th! Heard from Hollis, who was clearly creeped out by all the inflatable pseudo-Christmas tackiness hanging from the ceiling, "Mommy, I don't like this." Neither do I, sweet boy. Neither do I. (I apologize for the crappiness of the photos. They were taken with T's ancient camera phone.)

According to H&H, this is clearly the only reason one should ever enter Lowe's or Home Depot:

I'm sure all the parents whose kids climbed on that afterward will thank us for the germs.

Lawyer Mama Redecorates

Please let me know if anything in the 3 column layout looks wonky. There was a problem if you were viewing this page in IE, but I think I've fixed it. But please let me know if you still see any formatting problems. Thanks!

Forgive me for not following through on my promised Mother of All Memes post. I know you're just dying from anticipation but I spent the last two days messing with my template. I'm insanely proud of myself for figuring out how to make my old template into a three column template.

Yep, that's my old pink Zoot template. I just changed the color scheme, Photo Shopped a new banner and footer, and redesigned the template from two columns to three columns. Easy peasy.

Baaaaaaaahaaaaaaa!

Clearly, I know just enough html to be dangerous. I love the three column layout though. I feel like I have more room to breathe, stretch my legs out and hog the comforter.

I'm not sure about the blue color scheme though. I kind of liked my pink. Let me know what you think.

Folks, if you're thinking of making a design switch like this, hire someone. Dear lord, PLEASE hire someone! That's 10 hours of my life that I'll never get back....

It's Like Herding Cats

Hollis first pre-school field trip:

Click to enlarge.

Apparently taking a group photo was like herding cats.*

Hugging a goat.

Check out Hollis's Fadiddle threads. His shirt says "Future Blogger."

T got to see all of this first hand while I sat at home with the puking, pooping, germ machine known as Holden. I've been sick the last few days so the plan was for me to go to work while T got to do the fun stuff with H&H. Unfortunately, Holden puked in the car on the way over there and I had to redirect my car to go pick up the sickie. So I ended up staying at home anyway. With puke and runny poo.

To steal a line from Jessica, "oh the joys"....

**************
Speaking of Jessica, she was kind enough to nominate me for a Perfect Post Award for this post. Thanks, Jess. It meant a lot to me.

**************
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post where I once again shamelessly rip off flatter Jess by doing a Mother of All Memes post, acknowledge some other awards, and then shamelessly ask for all of you to help me win something. Oh wait, I'm doing that now. Go over to Sonia's and leave her a comment telling her I sent you! I'm shameless. And I'm shameless for using the word shameless five times in the same paragraph.

After tomorrow I may do Jenny's Get-Yer-Ass-Naked Meme if you people keeping tagging me for memes.** I'm warning you, you really don't want to see me naked!

* This image will self-destruct in a few days. I don't know that the parents of all those kiddos would want images of their little darlings to be my blog fodder.
** You know I secretly love it. I'm just lazy.

The Parental Goes Political

The women of the Silicon Valley,Chicago, and DC Metro Moms Blogs have been talking about politics a lot lately. Have you noticed? In the year preceding an election, it's only natural that that so many well educated and articulate women are talking about the future of our country. The problem? We don't seem to be taken seriously. At least not as seriously as the "men."

A recent column in The Caucus, the political blog of the New York Times asks whether men are more involved than women in blogging about politics. The consensus seemed to be that, yes, they are, although no one seems to be able to explain it. I think the answer lies not in brash statistics, but in redefining "involvement."

Women bloggers, at least the bloggers I know, don't tend to blog exclusively about politics. We write about the environment, education, health care, our families, our jobs, our lives and politics. However, we aren't always looking for the next sound bite from a politician or dissecting the latest poll figures. We write about what concerns us in a way that concerns us and resonates with our readers. Read More....

I'm Such A GEEK!

I'm practically running around the house doing cartwheels because our meeting/conference call with Elizabeth Edwards has a write up by Tracy Joan on the Daily Kos website. She mentions the new MOMocrats site too. (Have you checked it out yet? Why the hell not?)

My completely embarrassing story about my kids screaming in the background while I was on the phone with Elizabeth Edwards has been quoted for all the world to see. I'm tickled pink.

I'm such a geek!

****************

On a more serious note, a fellow blogger needs our help. The lovely Jenn from Serving the Queens recently lost a family member in Iraq, Sgt. Matthew Blaskowski.

Jenn has put up a card of sorts, online for Matt's parents, Terry and Cheryl Blaskowski and they'd like to get as many "signatures" as possible before the funeral on Thursday. Please go over and send them your good thoughts. (No anti-war messages will be posted. They don't need that right now.)

Thanks for your help, my bloggy friends.

A Monday Montage & A REAL Photographer

T and I took the boys apple picking this weekend. Unfortunately, the apples were gone. But that didn't deter the Lawyer Mama family. When life takes away your apples, you pick pumpkins instead. Or something like that.

(And yes, we are all wearing our 'Canes gear by Sunshine Designs. It was Saturday, after all.)

"It's too high, Mommy." (An actual Little H quote.)

Push and pull. Pull and push. This time it worked!

Mommy gets all arty with the camera.

My goal in life is to actually have Holden face the camera on command. His personality and sheer will may be insurmountable obstacles.

They're such a handsome pair, aren't they?

These are the days we treasure.

***********
Now on to the REAL photographer:

A few weekends ago the Lawyer Mama family had professional photos taken. This is the first time we ventured away from the Holy Baby Shot Trilogy of Picture People, Sears, and J.C. Penney's. And my dears? I'm never going back to those hacks. Amy, of Amy Sandoval Photography, was wonderful. She spent a few hours with us at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and captured some amazing shots of my boys and our entire family. She'll be doing our photos from now until eternity. So, Amy, babe, you're never allowed to retire. Got it?

Amy is also a blogger with one of the cutest little girls I've ever seen and she is also the mastermind behind Work It: A Blog For Working Moms. You all know how I like to pimp out my bloggy friends, but they all truly deserve my praise. Amy is a true artist.

You can see a few of the photos from our session with Amy here, including my favorite pictures of the boys. I was tempted to lift one from her page but, ever the lawyer, I couldn't do that. So you'll have to go over to her photography blog to see a few of the pictures. If you'd like to see the rest of the photos from our session, email me (it's in my profile) and I'll send you the link and the pass code.

You know how difficult it can be to get toddlers to pose, right? It didn't faze Amy a bit. She just started following the kids around and got shots of my boys just as they are. You can see it in the individual photos of Hollis and Holden on her blog. Hollis was being inquisitive and introspective. Holden, impish and mischievous. And, yes, our goat was about to eat that seashell.