After a long, frustrating day juggling a sick husband, cranky toddlers cutting their two-year molars, cranky people looking for attorneys, and a pile of paperwork four feet high, I called my Mom for some comfort.

After some discussion about what I am doing with my life, my Mom gave me some sage advice: "you're doing what you need to be doing right now or you'd be doing something else." Thanks, Mom.

Warning: the following story might gross out a family member or two since it references kissing.

The very first Valentine's Day I shared with my beautiful then-future-husband was very sweet, but it also left me very confused. He asked me to come over to his house so he could cook me some pork chops. Nothing says lovin' like pork chops, by the way. At that point in our relationship, we were just really good friends--no kissing or anything like that. I sensed we both wanted something more, so I decided to put myself "out there" that day. I contemplated buying him a Valentine's gift. A week before the big day, I began polling many of my law school classmates to come up with something perfect. I wanted it to say "I like you," but not "I'm a scary single girl trying to trap myself a man." One classmate suggested refrigerator poetry magnets. I thought that was a good idea, so I went to a nearby store on my lunch break and bought them. In addition to the gift, I decided that was the night I was going to try and kiss him for the first time.

One week later, the big day came. I don't think I had any classes that day, so I put off studying to re-obsess about my gift choice. I decided refrigerator poetry magnets were a bad idea. To me, the gift gave a signal that I was looking for something long-term, since a person might keep them around for a very long time. I worried that being a part of his refrigerator might be too serious and domestic. I went to the grocery store and bought flowers instead. It was a mix of many types of flowers; the bouquet might have had a rose or two in it, but it mostly comprised daisies and carnations.

That evening, I met my then-future-husband at his house and gave him the flowers. It was the perfect gift! No one had ever given him flowers before, and if you know my husband, he loves flowers--alive, dead, or planted in the ground.

After dinner, we met up with a married-couple-friend of ours for dessert. I drove us there, and throughout the whole evening, I was becoming more and more anxious and excited about our upcoming first kiss. When we were leaving the dessert place, my future husband asked the couple to give him a ride home since they lived on the same side of town. I told him it was no problem for me to drive him, but he insisted. He seemed kind of wierd about it, so I said goodbye and went home feeling sad we didn't have our first kiss. I was so disturbed from the whole evening I decided to wait until finals were over before trying the kissing thing again. After all, I didn't want to get my head all messed up about a silly boy before exams.

Flash-foward two months, which was two weeks before final exams, the guy finally planted one on me. I was relieved I didn't have to worry about it any more, and it definitely DID mess up my head for finals.

After we had been married for some time, we reminisced about that evening. My husband told me the reason he asked for the ride home was because he thought I was acting wierd all night. He thought that I did not like him, and he felt he was wasting his time with me. We both laughed at how we completely misread each other that night and marveled that we were able to ever end up together!

Happy Valentine's Day!

After an e-mail exchange with my sister-in-law, Mrs. spaghetti sandwiches, I realized I neglected to blog about a funny potty training story. I have now decided to stop the potty training, because while the girls would go if I asked them, they couldn't quite tell me on their own when they needed to go. During the middle of our big "training day," my little girl was standing in the kitchen kinda bent over. She was holding herself and had a strange look on her face. I asked her, "do you need to go pee-pee?" She sheepishly replied, "sure," then a gush immediately sprang forth. I yelled "no!", then instantly realized I shouldn't scare her or get on to her, so then I started yelling excitedly "run, run, run!" She stopped mid-stream, which I was very impressed about, and I put her on the potty chair. When she "started up" again, she then took her hand, put it in the stream, and splashed it all over the place exclaiming proudly "splash, splash!"

If that didn't sicken you enough, tonight we had a pretty gross encounter with "poo" in the bathtub. I WISH it had been Winnie the. But it wasn't. Since they got two baths tonight, and I gave four baths total, I plan to bathe myself, relax, and enjoy my evening.

Another question I often get is "are they identical or paternal?" Yes, a few people really have asked me whether they are "paternal." (They mean "fraternal.") I am not exactly sure why people are fascinated with this, but I usually give them an answer. Sometimes I say, "yes, they're identical." Sometimes I say, "they're fraternal." In truth, we really don't know, so I just tell them whatever I feel like at the time.

The real answer is pretty long, and sometimes I explain it to people (especially other parents of twins). Our doctor said they were fraternal because they were in separate sacs. Since then, I read that 33% of identical twins have separate sacs. The NICU nurses said they were identical because they weighed the exact same, were the exact same height, and even their hair swirled in the same pattern. (They still have all these similarities.) They have some differences--the biggest is personality. The elder has freckles and a rounder face, the younger has an oval-shaped face. Fact is, we will never know for sure unless we have their DNA tested. It's not that important for me to know the answer (and it would cost about $300), so I won't have it done. The girls may decide to do it someday, but for now, I get to choose!

This weekend, the girls and I made our first attempt at potty training. Whoever said potty training was easy or could be accomplished in a weekend was probably training a four-year-old instead of a two-year-old. My oldest brother (hp calculators and spaghetti sandwiches's twin) said "well, my kids just potty trained themselves." I'll check with her later, but I bet his wife would beg to differ with that statement.

Overall, we had some success, especially with my youngest twin, but I think it'll be a few months before we try again. They just can't quite verbalize their needs enough yet. Now, to clean up the mess...

"gamma raise" asked how to play "traffic football" in a rural setting. To this reader, I respond that one might just play a much slower version and adjust the downs, or count something besides cars, like cows or light poles.

"ron g" asked me why I do not blog very often. To this reader, I respond with this: read the title of my blog! ;) Also, sometimes I find it difficult to come up with entertaining and informative things to blog about. However, as the New Year gears up and my twins turn 2, keep checking in as I am sure to find a lot of new inspiration!

To all 4 of my loyal readers, I wish you a Happy, Prosperous, God-blessed, Enlightened New Year.

My girls absolutely LOVE Winnie the Pooh. Maybe even more than Elmo. While watching a vintage Pooh Bear episode, I discovered that Tigger was before his time and was probably the first to speak how people text and e-mail these days. He says "TTFN, tah-tah for now."

Writing or talking in acronyms like this one has recently overtaken "magazine-ad-postcards-that-fall-out-of-magazines-when-you-pick-them-up" as my biggest pet peeve. As many of you know, I am somewhat of a grammar curmudgeon. (I realize that some may be shocked by this as many of you have already found quite a few mistakes in my writings, including that the title of my blog contains a misplaced modifier. Is she a mommy of twin lawyers? Is the lawyer a twin and a mommy? While this bugs me too, I thought it sounded better than some of the alternatives I came up with.) Back to the abbreviation thing. The one that probably bothers me the most is IMHO. I apologize in advance to the friends and family members who frequently use this one. I find it somewhat of an oxymoron. Even the expression itself is an oxymoron. If you have to tell someone that your opinion is humble, doesn't that kinda negate the humbleness aspect of the forthcoming opinion? Also, if you simply state IMHO, it seems arrogant to assume people will understand that you are about to give a "humble opinion."

Since my therapist (yes, I see a therapist as ALL lawyers should!) has encouraged me to be more arrogant (or was it more assertive?) this year, I will be using the phrase "in my arrogant/assertive opinion," or IMA/AO.