Before I Was A Mom...

Before I was a Mom ,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom ,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom ,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom ,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom .

Before I was a Mom ,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom ,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom ...
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom .

This was sent to my email, author unknown, but I love it!

The Joys of Motherhood and Pregnancy!

Attention mothers with multiple children! We have a mother in need here!!

My husband and I wanted to have our first two children pretty close together. The purpose? I wanted them to be little buddies and be able to keep each other company. But, here is the question of the day, AM I READY?

I believe strongly that bringing children into this world is very scared and part of our purpose here on earth. BUT, I also believe very strongly that if you have too much on your plate, DON'T ADD MORE. Overeating has never made me feel particularly good! I do know that pregnancy emotions and hormones are running wild inside of me right now, so by tomorrow, I might feel completely different about this second child coming so soon.

Here are the questions that run through my mind...

Should I move Lenni (16months old) to a toddler bed now? or later?

*only 3 or 4 more months until baby brother is taking over the crib*

What is the best double stroller?

*every opinion I have gotten hates or loves a different one*

Why is my house NEVER clean?

*I would assume that that gets even worse with each child*

Should I take another tylenol for my back pain or just tough it out?

*hot baths have been my best friend to help with this question!*

Is it ok for my kids to share a room even though it's a brother and a sister?

*although I have no idea if we will be living in a 1, 2, or 3 bedroom place next year, that all depends on those fabulous acceptance letters that we are waiting on!*

Is it too early to start timeout for Lenni, will she really understand it yet?

*we've done it once so far, but I don't think she even understood why she was in trouble whichseems really sad! And then I feel really mean!!*

ANY ADVISE? PLEASE, I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO GOOGLE ALL MY QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS :-)

All in all I guess it's just one of those days! Maybe I should make some cookies!!!

My Husband's Two Favorite Law School Websites

ATTENTION LAW SCHOOL APPLICANTS AND WIVES :-)

I know there is an official website that all law school applicants go to to submit applications and stuff like that, but I'm sure you've noticed, as I have, that there are other websites that get far more attention from a prospective law student waiting for acceptance letters.

My husband has two different sites that he loves!

Law School Numbers is a site that tells you about the current applicant and what schools they are getting in to. Its really cool! The site also has a grid that allows you to see the scores of all the other applicants on the site, GPA and LSAT. Like all the other law websites is has basic information about the makeup of the class and job prospects, but mostly is fun to see what scores are getting into what schools!!

Top Law Schools is another fun site. You can go to the rankings section of the site and it shows you the top 100 law schools with their GPA, LSAT and Class Size. From the chart you can click on the school and read a bio (updated regularly) that has been extremely valuable as we've been researching law schools.

Along with any other sites that you've been visiting, give those ones a shot, I'm sure you'll love them too!!

I LOVE BEING A MOM MOMENT

The cutest thing happened last night!

For some reason Lenni did not want to go to sleep. She was hysterical! My husband made her a bottle, but nothing would calm her down. Finally I sat in the rocker with her in my arms and rocked and sang her to sleep! She hasn't let me do that in almost a year! It was so sweet. I think I sang the same song 20 times but it was so worth it. She's pretty active and does not like cuddling usually. So this was so much fun for me! I love her so much!

Just one of those I LOVE BEING A MOM moments!

LAW SCHOOL APPLICATIONS ARE IN!!

Well my husband promised me that he would have ALL his applications submitted by this week and they are officially done! Wow that feels good! Now... for the waiting period. I am so ready to pick a school and know where we are going to be living, but theres's one problem, we don't know where we've been accepted yet! I guess I just need to be patient. It seems like everyday we are excited about a certain school and that is where we are definitely going to go, but then tomorrow comes and we get excited about a different school and we are definitely going there instead! It's kinda fun! Our plans officially change every 24 hours.

We are so excited to start hearing back from some of these schools, we'll keep you posted!! We applied to 11 schools...

Michigan

Berkley

Texas

Michigan State

George Mason

George Washington

William and Mary

Pepperdine

Catholic

Brigham Young

Washington

My Newest "Mommy" idea

Do any of you feel like you have to entertain your toddler? Maybe my daughter (we'll call her Lenni) is the only one, but she does not like playing by herself. I'm pregnant, yes, but this child can't come soon enough to be a little friend for my girl. Whenever we are home alone she is needy and always wanting me to pick her up. She'll play with her toys sure but only if I'm right there on the floor with her. Describing her in this way may shock people who know her because when we are not home she is a social butterfly! Never whines, plays with everyone and is very independent. Even when we are out and about running errands or what not, she is always very good.

So here is the new idea! I am going to start scheduling 45 min. each day where Lenni and I do a fun activity at home. Seems like all of our fun activities are outside or away from home, so this will be a change for us. I've made up a name for it and it will be at the same time every day. I'm going to call it fun time. So each day when she is getting antsy or wanting too much attention I'm just going to tell her that she has to wait until fun time. It will be our "mommy and me" activity at home everyday.

Lenni seems really good with repetition so hopefully after doing this for a couple days she'll start understanding, remembering and getting excited for fun time. She's 16 months right now, so if your child is older I'm sure they'll catch on a lot faster! I'll update more on fun time every friday with the 411 on how Lenni is doing with it and all the fun things we have done each day that week. If you have ideas of your own I'd love to hear some!!

It's ok for us Moms to have time for ourselves! But that means that our children are going to have time to themselves while we are having our time. I know I'll feel a whole lot better about making Lenni play with her toys without me when I have already had some quality time with her that day. She is my first priority and I'd never want her to feel neglected. This will help us both get our time together and alone!

If you haven't tried this YOU SHOULD!

So lately I've been really into researching the area of the schools that my husband has applied to. Right now our biggest dilemma is deciding if we want to go to a mediocre law school with a fabulous scholarship or an awesome school with no scholarship. With the economy right now it seems like such a gamble to bank on a good job to pay off your hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Maybe a scholarship to a mediocre school just seems safe so we can graduate with under 100k in debt. Graduate school with a family is a little different than a single student when it comes to living expenses. What is the economy going to be like in a couple years when we graduate?? Are jobs going to be even more scarce?

So I have an awesome way of getting info on an area, if you haven't tried this you should! It's called the J. Rueben Clark society. The society has several chapters around the world and many US law schools have their own student chapter, so it's super easy to find contacts where you are going. Last month I had my husband email the president of the Michigan State society. He replied super fast and even called us to tell us all about the school and area from his perspective as a 3L (third year law student). He was very helpful! I'm gonna do this for all the schools we have narrowed it down to. We will have applied to 11 schools as of the end of this week.

How to contact the J. Rueben Clark Society Student chapters

1. go to http://students.jrcls.org/

2. Click on the 'Student Chapters' tab in the box in the middle of the page

3. Find the school you are looking at by the region it is in and click on the school name

4. On the school's page you should find the name of the leadership to the right of the school logo. Some schools don't have leadership posted or there isn't a society that is active there. If you are lucky enough to find leadership on the schools page you can click on the little envelope next to the name and send them an email. Hopefully you'll get a response.

If you are interested in becoming part of the JRCLS you can join as either a pre-law student, a law student, or a practicing lawyer. Its a wonderful network filled with people interested in forwarding the societies honorable mission statement (see the website).

TOP 3 FAVORITE DATES RIGHT NOW

These are all favorites for different reasons but they are repetitively fun for me and the hubs! Yet my favorite dates of ours are usually always changing... so I'll post more again!!

1. PizzaPie Cafe- all you can eat salad, pizza and pasta for only $6.99. Love it cause Lenni (my 16 month old) loves it! It's a restaurant that we can go to (and not brake the bank) and sit and talk for awhile because Nora loves the food! There are gold fish and craisins at the salad bar and she is all about those when she's through with her pizza. The salad bar is exceptionally good for being an "all you can eat" place. It's very fresh. The husband can eat as much as he wants, the baby loves the finger foods and I love not spending tons of money at a restaurant (no tip is needed)! Great date when you don't have a sitter!

2. Hale Center Theatre- This one you must have a babysitter but very worth it! Last year my husband got us season tickets for my Christmas gift. There are 7 shows a year and they are all amazing! I've ALWAYS loved going to musicals but have never really been interested in any other plays or comedies, so I admit I wasn't super excited to go to our first show that wasn't a musical... well now I feel very differently! The Hale is awesome! They have made someone like me LOVE the theatre! I think I like the other shows more than the musicals now! We leave there crying or laughing like there's no tomorrow! Thanks to my hubs! But a little advice... don't buy the season tickets because there are tons of coupons out there for buy one get one or buy one get one half off, which is a MUCH better deal. There are always coupons in those coupon calenders that each city gets every year. Just let me know if you're looking for a coupon and can't find one!

3. Date night at home- this one may sound kind of lame :-) this is for all of you who are researching graduate schools right now. After Lenni goes to sleep we'll sit at the desk together and research schools. Mark with his laptop and me with my computer. We read through the website of the school, ranking, tuition, joint degrees, scholarships (need based and merit based) and just get a feel for it. While he is reading the stats and facts, I'm doing the fun stuff, researching the area! I look up rentals and homes for sale on craigslist in that city. I look up the libraries to see if they have story times or fun activities... etc. It's actually a lot of fun. So each time we do this I love the school we are looking at because I get so excited about the area! This really helps me, as the wife, to be excited about where we may move to! Helps with the anxiety since right now we have NO idea where we are going to end up. DC, ST. Louis, Virginia, California, Utah... who knows! Anyways, this is a fun date night because we are learning and researching our future together. If Mark was doing this alone I think I'd feel like I couldn't have a say in the school we finally choose to go to.

Well hope this helps a bit! If you have any dates that you love be sure to comment!!

A Little About Me and My Blog

Well, I've decided to start this blog because I know there are tons of other wives out there in the same boat that I am in. My name is Jody, I'm 25 years old, I have one daughter (and a son on the way) and my husband is just about to finish turning in all his law school applications. It's been a long process, but he is almost done! He is applying to start law school this august. So even though he is graduating this april, we still have a long fun graduate school journey ahead of us.

So what do girls like me do with their time? Well, I know what I do with my time, but I would love to hear what other wives are doing round the clock while their husband's slave away in the library. I love planning different activities, fun dates, organizing my home, finding good deals and researching law schools and their areas.

I want this blog to be an outlet for us moms, with different ideas, fun things to do, and ways to make life easier! And for those of you whose husbands are starting some type of graduate school, I hope my research on financial aid, school loans, housing, applications, prep courses and all that fun stuff can help you in your journey!