Me Too You

Ah....summer

Now that school is out for summer, things have relaxed a bit...sort of...not really... Well, there is ALWAYS something to do, isn't there? As a mom, I mean, specifically. But the calendar is less full of kid stuff like "100 Day" (bring 100 of something...and make it totally creative, by the way...oh wait, 100 of 2 things since you have twins!) or "REMEMBER! Early day for field trip to [insert cool place here]" or "Pay Tuition." I really like that last one, by the way. I mean, the fact that I don't have to do that anymore. WOW! I am DONE paying preschool tuition for twins! I still have one kid to pay for preschool over the next 2 years, but that's not a big deal comparably. Not that we have been paying large tuition bills or anything (coop preschool is pretty darn cheap), but it all adds up.

Now I am having a bit more time for myself and for my business and for my "someday" projects and it feels...Really. Good. Really. Really. Good.

I do want to share with you some links for other stuff that is going on...or has been going on:

• My third class on Outsourced General Counsel is up on Solo Practice University
• You can now RSVP for Social Luxe Lounge here (a completely off the hook party that will be taking place the afternoon before the night before BlogHer '09 in Chicago this July)
• I did have some mixed feelings about graduation over at Silicon Valley Moms Blog
• Manuscript proof pages just arrived today for my first upcoming book! Very exciting...and some work to do too...

I have so many things to blog about coming up - should be a great summer!

My recent writings around the web...

• Thoughts on The Happiness Project at Simplicity Sake
• Eating Raw at Simplicity Sake
• What We're Reading at Simplicity Sake
• Eric Goldman's talk to students about social networking and blogging at Whereas
• Weekly Whereas: Legal Education Commons launched, content theft for 2008 review and the Gatehouse Settlement
• Discouraging Sploggers at Whereas
• Common Misconceptions About Trademarks at Whereas
• Infertility treatments leading to twins, triplets...octuplets? at Mad About Multiples
• Controversy over the octuplets at Mad About Multiples

And, yes, I need to catch up on the personal stuff and post some birthday photos of Ben and Lily - they turned the Big 5 a couple of weeks ago!

25 Random Things on Facebook

I usually don't like these sort of chain emails, but I kind of like it on Facebook. I don't know why. I was tagged by a few different people and learned so much about some of my friends. Here are mine:

25 Random Things

RULE: Once you've been tagged you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you so they will get your answers. If I tagged you it's because I want to know more about you, if you don't want to play along, it's ok too.

To do this, go to "Notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people(in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish..)

1. My twin sister, Robin, and I were born 1 minute apart. I am older. Ha! We always arrange things so that her stuff is on the right (R for Robin) and my stuff is on the left (L for Linsey).

2. I have secretly been sleeping with Ava, my 2.5 year old, almost every night for the past 9 months. I'm not sure how it happened, but she tiptoes in every single night and adds her pillow in between Jeff and I's. We love it. She's our last baby.

3. I have decided to write a fun book. Just for fun. I am going to write 1 page a day. I have no idea what I will write about. Probably something I dream about. My best writing comes from my weird dreams.

4. I am ditching a kindergarten open house right now. It was probably not going to work out anyway. And it gives me more time to waste on the Internet! Hooray!

5. I wish I could go to conferences and write for a living.

6. Jeff and I would like to move to Europe sometime with our kids. We saw the movie "Revolutionary Road" last night and those conversations seem really depressing now.

7. I hate to cook, but I love to bake. Baking reminds me of my Grandma Nita, who I lived next door to (over the river and through the woods) growing up. She died about 10 years ago and never met my kids. I miss her a lot.

8. I am a 8 year survivor of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. My diagnosis anniversary is coming up on Valentine's Day. My bald head was cute, but cold. It sucked, but I got a lot out of the experience. Carpe diem!

9. I love cleaning and organizing my house. I don't get the time to do it much these days though. FlyLady helps me - especially via Twitter updates.

10. I have run 2 marathons - one in Dublin, Ireland and one in Victoria, BC. None in the United States. Both with my twin sister.

11. I have tons of scrapbook materials, but not one finished scrapbook. Blogging has become my scrapbooks.

12. People who are consistently negative are my pet peeve.

13. I am writing a book about virtual incorporation. I have 2 co-authors. And we have a publisher!

14. My husband and kids want to get a dog. I don't, because I would be the one doing everything. I. Just. Know. It.

15. Doing a parent participation preschool with my kids has been the single best thing I have done for my kids (and for me!). It is the best. And I firmly believe that you get out of things what you put into them.

16. Yesterday, my Wii Fit Age was 36 - the same age I really am. Hooray! I do need to exercise more in real life, though. I miss running.

17. I totally sneak eating chocolate. Almost every single day. It is bad. But so good.

18. I was born in Kirkland, WA (by Microsoft) and lived there until I was 8, then lived in Atlanta, GA (I have a twinge of a Southern accent as a result) for a couple of years, then Dallas, TX for a couple of years (which we hated - we used to say that happiness is Texas in the rear view mirror), then in Boulder, CO (back to the mountains!) for 5 years during junior high and high school. I have now lived in the SF Bay Area for almost 20 years!

19. A mean boy in 4th grade called me "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" because when I cry my nose gets red. My daughter Lily gets the same red nose. I hope she escapes the nickname.

20. I went camping almost every weekend when I was a little girl. We had a white VW van (with a pop top!) that we camped in. We called it the "dumb van"...I'm not exactly sure why.

21. I learned to ski when I was 3 years old. I feel bad that my kids haven't learned to ski yet. Maybe this year is the year.

22. Robin and I redid our math homework over the summer when we were in grade school. We loved it.

23. My favorite song right now is Jordin Sparks "One Step at a Time." I love the cheesy pop stuff. I will probably really dig High School Musical when my girls get old enough to start asking me about it.

24. It bugs me that one of my best friends is not on Facebook. I know it shouldn't. But I feel she is missing out! Her other friends are pressuring her too - she'll cave. Soon.

25. Decaf notfat latte, please.

Go do yours on Facebook now!

Girls Night Out with HP

Ahhh....after a long day with all this...stuff - work, kids, school, laundry, dishes, email - I LOVE being able to leave at 6pm (the hour is key, because I get out of making dinner, my most hated mom-chore, mostly because I suck as a cook) to go out with the girls. I actually, luckily, get to do this a lot. First, there are my long time BK (before kids) friends - friends from college and law school and work. We try to get together when we can without the kids so that we can...you know, finish a conversation. And being on the board of Gemini Crickets (my twins club) and on the board of the kids' preschool means there are many "meetings." Yes, there are agendas and we actually do real work, but we do it, well, how to say this...with...wine. Sometimes quite a lot of it. I have made some of my best friends through these moms groups. Then there is Silicon Valey Moms Blog and the various events that go along with that. More photos being taken and products being examined (as in "I'm totally blogging this"), but, really, these ladies are a hoot. 

Yes, my kids know my "meeting shoes" very well. If the "meeting earrings" go on in addition, they know they'd better not stay up late! So a week or so ago, when HP threw a "Girls Night Out" party for Silicon Valley Moms Blog and other local bloggers, my friend Linda and I said "yes, please." We were also able to invite some other friends, Carla (by the way, that's my Lily on Carla's BabyJIDesign website's front page! Isn't she cute?!) and Melisa.

Checking in at the University Club in Palo Alto at 6:30pm, we were handed a glass of wine from Parducci Wine Cellars, (Hold on...I'm getting inspired. Let me grab a glass. Ok, I'm back.) grabbed a chicken skewer from a passed plate and were off! The theme of the night was Gift Giving. With the state of the economy, I know I am looking at all the ways I can save money and making my own gifts for friends is a great idea. The girls and I sipped wine and ate finger foods all evening, while decorating Cookie in a Jars (here are some sample recipe cards - you can do Hot Cocoa or Bath Salts in a Jars too) and cute photo paperweights. I was able to take some supplies home, because I am one of those people who like to have everything in front of me before I start creating...no really, I was just drinking too much wine and couldn't think anymore. Good thing there are lots of links to the stuff we did: here and here and here. We were able to take home some HP brochure and flyer paper too, so I can print out some more supplies. Linda was really in her element. She worked those tables like her best marathon scrappin' parties she used to hold...before we all went digital.

One of the best parts of the evening was the intimate performance for us girls by singer/songwriter Dana Parish. She is an up and coming star and it was a real treat to listen to her and to meet her. She really reminds me of Sarah McLachlan, who I have been a fan of forever. Dana Parish's album "Uncrushed" is on iTunes and is coming out this Tuesday, October 28. I love her song "Hung Up" and the one about fathers and daughters "She Laughed" made all us mommies well up and, actually, miss our littles ones for a brief moments during our night out. So sweet. She was just on Good Morning America too! Dana is now my friend on Facebook and I'm hoping to convince her to join Twitter too. Feel free to bug her about that...

Until the next Girls Night Out...it was a nice break. Thanks HP!

Silicon Valley Moms at Slide and Saks: In Photos

All photos below taken by Carla Duharte of babyjidesign.com.

First stop - Silicon Valley Moms Blog: the night before blogher party at Slide. And, yes, I did slide down the slide in the entryway. It was "super fast" (in the words of Ben and Lily) and I landed very ungracefully. Thank goodness I hadn't had anything to drink yet. More photos can be found here.

Here are me and the girls (Carla, me, Linda and Akemi) last night at the Silicon Valley Moms Group party at Saks Fifth Avenue - it was very fun to get all made up and have professional photoshoots. Everyone looked fabulous!

Blogging daily?

The way I have blogged for the past 2+ years has been to go through my photos and catch up, sort of like blogging as baby book or scrapbooking. I consider it a miracle to be completely "caught-up" - and that I would define as my latest post being only a week old. I definitely don't have a nice and fresh blog! But, such is life. This blog is mostly for me, for my kids, so that I will record the things I would otherwise forget about documenting. And it is to share with family. It is not to earn money from advertising or to run it as a business.

But...I do feel the pull to blog more often, like...dare I say it...daily? Especially being a part of Silicon Valley Moms Blog and being around these amazing women who are really into it and committed and have beautiful and thoughtful and fun and important blogs. My good friends are doing well at keeping up (see here and here). I know this is just a decision that I have to make. Or not. I have to commit to it and stick to it. Or not. I have taken baby steps in the commitment direction, updating the blog on a monthly basis, rather than every 6 months! Yes, that's it - what I have been doing is "updating" not "blogging."

I am reading the book "Writing Motherhood" right now by Lisa Garrigues (for a Silicon Valley Moms Blog book club). She is a real muse and has definitely got me thinking that I can do this writing thing daily. I just need to, you know, do it. So, I'll try. Really. I'll commit. Maybe. Daily? We'll see? First I've got to catch up on the past month. Hold me to it, ok?