Uncle Malcolm

Today was Malcolm's funeral. I drove down yesterday and spent the night. It was great to see my family, but I so wish it was under different circumstances. The service was very touching and many people attended. He was so loved and lived such a wonderful life.

As I sat listening to the eulogy, my mind wandered back to a conversation I had a few days prior with my father. He said Grandma Vance used to say that Malcolm took after the Hughes side of the family. Which was her way of saying that he took after the good side--her side. haha I can picture Grandma Vance saying that. And thinking of this comment, made me think about how Malcolm really embodied all of the best qualities of our family. He was witty, adventurous, funny, down-to-earth, and easy going.

These are my memories of Malcolm. And my memories are only a few when you consider how many people were there and how many fond memories were exchanged both yesterday and today. My uncle had friends there that he knew for over 40 years and you could just tell that everyone really loved him. He married the love of his life, had great kids, and then built his own home where he lived among his many friends. He had loads of interests and many adventures along the way and seemed to enjoy life in a way that so few people know how to do. That's a truly wonderful thing, it really is.

Baby Days

Evey and Ro















My dad with Evey.

Dyung and Evey

Baby Days

Evey and Ro















My dad with Evey.

Dyung and Evey

Uncle Malcolm

You know how there are people in your family you're proud of. Those people that seem to have really lived interesting lives and are all around cool people. And though you may not see them as often as you'd like, these family members are nevertheless the ones that come up in late night conversations about the cool people you're related too. That was my uncle Malcolm.

This is a picture of Malcolm and Norma, his wife of 42 years. I looked through my pictures, but the best picture I found of him was this one that Terri had. Thanks Terri.

Malcolm was my dad's younger brother. His only brother. He was a musician and played with lots of famous people. He's actually playing the drums in the Bruce Channel recording of "Hey Baby." He was an awesome poker player too and played with people like Amarillo Slim. He even went to the World Poker Series in Vegas. I'm told he retired on the proceeds of his Texas Hold'um games he ran at his house. He was one of those larger than life people. The kind that have a million stories and all of them interesting adventures. To me, Malcolm will always be someone who was open, accepting, funny, and genuine. Andre and I went down to visit him and Norma last year and had a great time.

I really wanted him to meet the girls. I know he would have liked them. My dad, Andre, the girls and I were driving down Friday afternoon to see him. He had been battling lung cancer for three years and although we knew he might not have much time left, I still thought I'd see him again. Malcolm passed away Friday morning before we made it. He was an amazing person and will be missed by everyone who knew him.

Trip to Houston

This past weekend we drove out to visit some of the family in Houston. It was so great to see everyone. Here's a really cute picture of Avery Larie. Little Avery was born just 12 days after our girls. She is super cute. This picture doesn't do her justice. I'm so excited that Rowan and Evey have cousins their age. I can just imagine all the girls and Xander too playing together. How fun!

It was so great to see everyone. Aunt Lorelei was on the news recently. Click on the link and see her on "Great Day Houston." She is wonderful. Click here: Aunt Lorelei

Dr. Benjamin Mays has said, "The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goals. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace to reach for the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is a sin. Low aim is a sin."

Froggy Goodness

Mr. Mono found this little frog...oh sorry, it's a toooaaad (that's how it is to live with a herpetologist)...anyhow, he found him in the backyard this evening. Cute little guy.

Sidenote from Mr.Mono:

"bufo americanus is the scientific name for this guy, they are a lot of fun this time of year. If you pick up a male toad, and squeeze him gently right behind the front legs, they start croaking like crazy. It is as if they are saying in toad-speak, "Hey! Let me go, I am just trying to create some mood music and attract the ladies!!"

Here's a picture of Evey with her tiger. She loves her little tiger. She can grab and hold onto objects now and has excellent fine motor skills.

The Futures So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades

Rowan this morning with the sun glasses her Aunt Ivette gave her.

New Practice

Like so many others, Atticus Finch was the reason I went to law school. To stand up and defend the poor and downtrodden. And I'm proud to say that for the majority of my career I have been able to do that--either through advocacy or through working on legislation and policy. Yet, these past few years I have missed working with actual clients. Being in the trenches, as they say, can be very rewarding.

So, for those of you who haven't heard the news yet, I have decided to leave my job and go into private practice. Yes, I know I've been talking about it for years, but I put in my notice at work, leased an office, I even bought office furniture--so it looks like this is it. I'm finally taking the monumental (and incredibly frightening) step known colloquially as "following my dreams."

Opening a law practice is not quite the same as starting a new business. For one, I can place my name on appointment lists and be appointed clients who can't afford attorneys. The county pays for these clients and the pay varies depending on the county. I'm now on the appointment list for three counties and I plan on adding one more. These are all juvenile law cases.

In addition to juvenile law, I'll also be practicing family law. I'm super excited about collaborative divorce--but that's a long topic to get into. This part of my practice is going to take some time to build up. And of course I can and will do other things too. In fact, I just had my first client. A lady who wants me to draw up a will for her.

So, as cheesy as it sounds, I think that's what life is all about. Creating the kind of life we want and following our dreams.

“Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” Atticus Finch

Dodgeball

My friend said to me the other day, "you're always into something different,' and well, she's right. I'm no longer taking cello lessons--I turned in my bow when my belly got too big. So, now my new thing is dodgeball. Yes, that's right, dodgeball. Its really loads of fun. My friends Rachel and Cris (front center) are on the team and I've made lots of new friends too.

So Monday was our first game. We had two actually. Oh, and our team name is "Balltulism" (a pun on botchulism). We played the Dream Team and The Team Formerly Known As and won both games. It was so much fun. I was only knocked out once. I'm pretty good at dodging, not so good at throwing.

Getting to Know You

The girls are becoming more and more aware of each other. Which means that there are times when one starts crying and the other does too. At other times if one is crying her sister will instead look at us with this "DO SOMETHING!" sort of anxious look. They happily sleep together and seem to be more content when they are near one another.

Sydney turns 8

Yesterday was Sydney's 8th birthday. The girls, Abuelita and I all went to the Children's Museum for her party and then traveled on to my sister's house to continue the festivities.




Rowan and Evelyn dressed up for the party in their ultra cute party dresses. Here's a picture of Ro-ro.

Andre saves another person

Last week when Isabella and Austin came up, Abuelita and I took the kids to see Andre at the fire station. We had a great visit and eventually had to leave because they got a call.

It was, of course, very exciting for the kids to see Andre and the rest of the crew rush out on a call. We could tell from dispatch that the call was for a cardiac arrest. As a fire fighter, Andre is the first on the scene for any medical call as well as fires. All of the firefighters are EMTs and will begin helping people until EMS arrives.

Well, last night Andre was on the news for saving the man who went into cardiac arrest that afternoon. The man went back to the fire station to give thanks to the crew that saved him. Andre will probably receive another phoenix award. The award is given for saving lives with the defibrillator. He has received two awards on previous occasions.

Click on the link below to see the news video.
Andre saves heart attack victim

Look Ma! No Hands!!

What do you call a girl with no arms hopping in a door swing?

Too Darn Cute, that is what you call it!

Little Rowan was armed to follow in her Pa's line of bad puns... but she just refused to give me a hand.
Well, I guess she doesn't think it was a knee slapper.

Surprise Visit

Isabella and Austin drove up this past week with their Abuelita due to the hurricane in the valley. We had a great time together.

We started off the day at our neighborhood park, then we went downtown to the Children's Museum. After a few hours there we went for gelato and then visited Uncle Andy at the fire station. Then later that evening Abuelita took the kids to the movies. Needless to say, little Austin passed out that night without even changing into his pajamas.















The next day the kids went with Abuelita to church then we all went to my sister's house and the kids swam, played video games, and generally ran around like little monkeys. My mom and grandmother came over as well.

We tried out the swimming pool with the babies again. They did much better this time and even kicked their little legs in the water.

Mr. Mono and I left the babies with the grandmothers and went to see
Hellboy II at the movies. It was awesome! So we had an all around great weekend.

Rowan Laughing

This is a little video of Rowan laughing for the first time. Our friend captured it with his digital camera. She laughed for quite a long time, this is just a bit of it. She was laughing at two dogs playing together. My baby's laugh is the most beautiful sound in the world.

Pictures

Grandma and Evey in her clown pajamas.




















Abuelita and Evey















Chilling and Relaxing--that's "Chillaxing"

Poor Little Ro

Rowan appears to be teething. Poor girl. And yes, I do realize the irony of a crying baby in a onesie that says "smile." If only she could read!!(shakes fist at sky dramatically).

Seriously though, she has all the signs: drooling, crying, low grade fever...and you can see two little vampire teeth starting to push through.

Its early, she's only 3 months; however, my mom said that I had 6 teeth by the time I was 6 months--so maybe its hereditary. She's miserable and wants to be in someone's arms constantly. Luckily, Evey has been easy going and catching up on her sleep. Needless to say, a baby in the arms makes posting on the blog a bit difficult. Such is life, eh?

Business Cards

I'm working on revamping my business card and can't help thinking...and laughing about this scene from American Psycho.

Our New Mexico Trip

Mr. Mono, Evey, Rowan, and I went on our annual fishing trip--this time to the San Juan river in New Mexico. Neither of us caught any fish. Alas, I will have to pass on the Big Fish trophey this year to Chris. We had a wonderful time though.

This was a big adventure for the girls who turned 3 months on the 10th. They went on their first plane trip and were very well behaved. They didn't cry on the plane at all. Taking them both in public is like going out with movie stars, everyone wants to look at them and talk about their twin-ness or their baby-ness and everyone says how beautiful they are.

Traveling with twins is not that bad; although there is really no way to fly with two babies alone. Each of us had to carry a baby through the security check point and then each of us had a baby to hold during the flight. We gave the girls pacifers and bottles during take off and landing to pop their ears and they didn't seem to have any problems.

All of our friends loved the girls and they were constantly in someone's arms. This is Evey with Bybee.














Rowan surprised all of us by laughing loudly for the first time. She has cooed and smiled and giggled before, but this was a huge belly laugh. On the last day we were all taking a group picture together and Abby & Esau's dogs began to wrestle and play the way dogs do. Rowan saw them and started laughing for quite a while. She would calm down for a bit then start laughing again. It was so beautiful.This is a picture of her laughing. Our friend video taped it, which I'll post as soon as he sends it to me.