my bed is calling

this week has been grueling. but in a good way, i suppose. monday started off with meetings. tuesday i was at the capitol ALL day waiting for another bill i testified for (this time for the senate). the cool thing about that was this committee meeting was actually in the senate chamber rather than a little hearing room. the capitol is really so beautiful. why don't they make buildings like that anymore??? the other cool thing was that this bill received a lot more support and optimism from the committee members (but i do love the challenge of dealing with people who don't agree with me). the not so cool thing was that i did not get home until almost midnight. yes, we were at the capitol until after 8pm waiting to testify.

today i had to scramble to finish a grant application for a non-profit i'm on. i was glad to do it because i have never written a grant app before, but it has eaten so much of my time. my intake pile of new cases has been growing and i have trials next week that i need to prepare for. AND, today was the last day for one of the attorneys in my office and i am sad. i don't think i've ever been this sad about someone quitting, but this time i really am. she was such an awesome person and a GREAT lawyer. and considering we haven't hired her replacement yet, things around the office are going to be insane. ugh. i'd better go home and catch up on some zzz's while i still can.

pretty pictures

i love it when i'm actually ahead of the fashion curve. miss dior cherie has been a favorite perfume of mine since 2006 and the recent (well, not so recent) ads for the perfume really are amazing. from what i understand, sofia coppola (yes, the amazing genius who created marie antoinette) was the mastermind behind these.

ha!

i just noticed that i already blogged about the blue dress. guess it shows how much i love it. :)

wine, friends, and knitting

what a weekend! john and i were pleasantly surprised yesterday when one of his good friends gave us a call and said he was in town. soooo...we headed to one of my new fav restaurants in new braunfels, the gruene door, and then headed to a local bar to watch the spurs/mavericks game. i'm not a sports fan by any stretch of the imagination, but with 2 guys around you have to be flexible sometimes. we did have a good time (and a lot of good beer) despite the fact that the spurs lost. we then girlied it up a bit and walked over to one of my favorite wine bars, kork, and spent the rest of the evening trying foreign beers and yummy wines. i love these kinds of laid back days.

oh, also this weekend i bought this adorable little blue dress from target.



i also found 2 interesting books called the cool girl's guide to knitting and the cool girl's guide to crochet. i had dabbled a bit with knitting a couple of years ago but kind of fizzled. maybe these books will help get me back on track!

new dress

check out this adorable dress i just got from target. love, love, love it!

lazy, lazy day

another lazy weekend day in my world and i have to say that i'm not complaining, nor do i feel at all guilty. with last week being so busy, i'm grateful for the down time. today i slept in, put a ball cap on, and had yummy mexican food with my sweetie for lunch. he, unfortunately, had to catch up on some work, so i had the afternoon to myself. i caught up on some old shows on the handy dvr and later met up with sweetie again at barnes and noble where we split a yummy cupcake and an amazing slice of neapolitan cheesecake (HIGHLY recommend it). while at b&n, i purchased my first sart book, succulent wild woman, and am already addicted. i first heard about her on a kimberly wilson podcast and since them i have been wanting to read her books. like i need another book to read, but i just can't help myself! so, i'm off to bed a bit earlier than normal so i can dig into it.

mmm...my lazy day ended on a lovely high note with a delicious dinner prepared by my sweetie and a fabulous bottle of wine. i'm kind of frustrated with him right now, but the dinner was a nice thing for him to do. boys are okay sometimes. :)

busy bee sleepy

what a week! i was so exhausted by the end of it that I slept in until noon today and i have no other plans but to be lazy, read a few books, and take the puppies for a walk.

making changes

yesterday was such a LONG day! after a hectic morning in court, a few of us headed up to austin to testify to the state legislature in support of a proposed bill (hb 2789, if you're interested). i have never testified before the legislature before, so i was quite nervous, but i was so proud of our effort and i think we did a pretty good job. the proposed bill is a bit controversial - any attempt to prosecute women who give birth to babies testing positive for an illegal substance seems to really upset some people. go figure. sure enough, we did have some opposition testify against the bill (ACLU, texans care for children, and the texas criminal defense attorneys association), but i wasn't too impressed with their performance. i'm not sure if the bill will go anywhere this session, but at least we are laying the foundation. gotta think baby steps.

so, we celebrated just a little bit after we got done and i didn't get home until very late. i'm regretting that a bit today since i am super tired. but it was totally worth it to get to spend the day with some fabulous people all working to make changes. :)

brochures

so, i guess i have found a new creative outlet - brochure-making. yep, i just finished creating 2 brochures, one for my juvenile cases regrading sealing of records and one for the children's advocacy center's baby moses project. it's actually pretty darn fun and is a creative use of my time that also still constitutes work. it's a win, win. i've been struggling for years to find creativity in my life, which i always assumed was something other than work. i suppose my little brochure-making rendezvous is my way of trying to find creativity in the day-to-day. go me! plus, everyone now thinks i'm super talented even though it's just a word brochure template with some clip art.

repetto

i've been dying for a pair of repetto flats for a few years now, but it's always so hard to find them online much less anywhere in my neck of the woods. a couple of days ago, i was at their website, which has been awesomely revamped, and found this pic of their store window in paris. such lovely tributes to the company's ballet roots. SIGH...i need to hop on the next plane to paris. but when to take the time off???

fredericksburg

woo hoo! what a fabulous day! john and i hit the road at 8:30 this morning and made it to fredericksburg at about 10:00. our original plan was to have breakfast on main street before hitting the wineries, but of course we couldn't find the restaurant. we always have bad luck with directions, which was fine, because i really was more interested in starting the wine tasting. we visited the grape creek winery and torre di pietra. two tastings and 6 wine purchases later, we headed back into town for lunch at the fredericksburg brewery company, where i had some pretty tasty beer and a traditional german sausage plate (of course!). yes, as you might can tell, the both of us consumed more alcohol by 2pm than we generally drink in a month, but that was fine because next on the agenda was SHOPPING! main street is just full of cute stores, cafes, restaurants, and sweet shops. oh, and lots of german-speaking people too. we ended the day by cheering to our 10 years together at a sweet and romantic little restaurant, the fredericksburg herb farm.

i'm in love with little fredericksburg. next time i'm definitely staying at least one night in a bed and breakfast and checking out more wineries. who needs france or italy when we have it all in good ol' texas? :)

good friday

after getting stood up by the sprinkler repair guy this morning, i finally ventured out on my day off and got a fabulous pedicure at a new braunfels nail salon (the lavender pedicure, to be exact!). now my toenails are an adorable shade of pink. john dragged me to kohls afterwards and i found 3 so so so fab handbags, all for the total sum of $24 dollars. i've mentioned before what a handbag snob i am, but these were too cute to pass up. i'm not completely against cheap handbags, as long as they don't LOOK cheap. i found 2 cute little clutches and 1 super structured handbag a la grace kelly. gotta love deals.

tomorrow we are off to fredericksburg for the day. we plan on visiting 2 wineries, a brewery, and, of course, main street. not the extraordinary plan i had for celebrating our 10 year anniversary (paris would have been so much better), but i think we're going to have a great time.

tyc and crack babies

what a day. literally spent the entire day in the courtroom handling a juvenile case. the judge ordered the kiddo to TYC which was very hard for the family to hear. despite my competitive streak and desire to win, i'm always a little bit sad at tyc cases. typically, when a kid is facing tyc, they bring everything out in terms of family history and it usually in't a very happy one. regardless, sometimes the tough decisions have to be made and this kid was not going to be successful by remaining at home. he's luckier than most, though. he has a supportive family that will be there for him while he's in tyc and after he is released.

anyway, i am super excited though because my civil chief invited me to come testify with her next wednesday at the state legislature. the proposed bill addresses criminal penalties for mothers who give birth to children who test positive for penalty group 1 controlled substances (meth, cocaine, heroine, etc.). the sad reality of our current laws is that a mother can knowingly use drugs while very much pregnant, give birth to a baby with drug addiction and the horrible mental and developmental problems that go along with that, and the most we can do is have CPS remove the child. that mother is free to get knocked up again and start the process all over without ever having to answer for it criminally. it is mind-blowing how irresponsible some women are and how little they actually care for the one person they should care the most about.

anyway, thank goodness tomorrow is a holiday, even though i have tons of work i plan to do at home. any work is much more enjoyable when done in comfy pajama pants and t-shirts.

sweetfest

just got home from sweetfest - the annual fundraiser for the comal county child welfare board. this was my first time to attend, and let me just say that it totally earns its name. there were tables upon tables of nothing but cupcakes, cookies, pies, cakes, and candies - all donated by some very talented local baking queens and all for the taking. john and i gorged on yummy sweets and we had a good time watching the entertainment (cute kiddies dancing traditional german dances, more cute kiddies showing off their karate skills, and a young man who spent 10 years in CPS care and is now a musician). i actually won a couple of fun things at the silent auction, including a pink koozie from one of my fav new braunfels shops, princess be, and a beautiful blue stone necklace from a shop in gruene. all in all, a great way to spend a sunday afternoon. i just love supporting local non-profits that focus on such important social issues. unfortunately, there just seem to be so many and not enough people or money to always go around. as a board member of such a non-profit, i know how that goes. sigh...

anyway, i am determined to go to bed at a decent time tonight so i can start the week off right. lots of big things that i have to deal with this coming week, so gotta get my crazy sleep schedule back on track.

april

for those who don't know, april is child abuse prevention awareness month and sexual assault awareness month. this is a busy time for me since i'm on the board of our local non-profit sart (sexual assault response team) foundation and i'm heavily involved in child abuse issues as a juvenile prosecutor. wednesday i, along with a few other fabulous board members, did a presentation to a local rotary club about sexual assault and the forensic sexual assault exams that our organization provides. giving a presentation to about 60 well-respected local figures was so stressful, but i was prepared and it went off without a hitch and we got some ultra-positive feedback as well. probably the most moving part of the experience was when a young woman approached me afterwards and told me a bit about her experience - tears and all. visit www.taasa.org if you want to learn more.

friday was the child abuse prevention kick-off luncheon hosted by one of our county commissioners. while we had a great time honoring some important local people who are committed to the cause, the sad reality was that the majority of attendees were law enforcement, prosecutors, cps workers, and others who deal with this issue on a daily basis. there really wasn't anyone there from the "outside" - those who aren't involved in the day-to-day prevention but who care enough to honor those who do. i don't know, child abuse just really isn't one of those social issues that many people get insanely passionate about, which boggles my mind. show someone a starving animal, and he or she will get fired up and probably start donating money or doing something (myself included), but talk about the magnitude of children who are starving, have no parental support or supervision, and who are physically beaten on a regular basis and many people seem to think the problem is exaggerated. it really is such a horrific state of things. visit here if you want to learn more.

oh, and i totally wore my new hot pink suit to the rotary club presentation. i looked SO fab!!!

tired...so tired.

preppy

so, for some reason, i've been regressing to my high school preppy days of yore. lilly pulitzer dresses have been beckoning, i had to make a run to the closest lacoste store today for a new polo, and i'm a mere seconds away from popping my collar and donning a ribbon belt. i guess this is due to the coming of spring and happy pastel colors, but seriously how can you not love little dresses like this:



or this:



i'm even eyeing these loafers from brooks brothers.



but what i did actually buy today (other than my adorable pink lacoste polo) was a hot pink suit. yes, you heard right. only the jacket is hot pink, the skirt is black, and it is absolutely fun. and while at the outlet mall today, i saw this:



it would have been more fun if it had been operational.

last night, john and i had movie night at the house. we watched my best friend's girl and jumper (hayden christensen is so hot). today, we did a bit of shopping where i got a couple of handy things from the container store, including this for my scarves:



and this for my gift wrap stuff.



we also continued on my cupcake escapade by visiting kate's frosting in san antonio. it's an adorable little shop in the monte vista area and had pretty awesome cupcakes to boot.

oh, and this evening i enjoyed some tv for the first time this week. i gotta say that eliminating the tele from from my weekdays opens me up to so much more, like reading. i think i need a cozy reading chair like this one from ikea:

ugh, my dogs are giving me such a headache right now. i can't stand the barking for no reason that they do sometimes. drives me NUTS! anyway, do you ever have those days where your mind is just a constant influx of ideas? that is how i've been for the past couple of days and it is exhausting! too many things that i want to do that i just have to write them down and hope to someday follow-up on them.

so, i had to take a break from this blog entry to clear my head. it really is so hard to believe how fast time is flying. march is practically over, my 10 year anniversary with john is in april, i have court hearings galore coming up fast, and i will be spending the month of may in junior high schools talking about abstinence (always a fun endeavor) and putting on a clinic with local law enforcement to draft their wills. i just can't get my head around everything i need to do. it's overwhelming, but in a good way, i suppose. i just bought the book bitter is the new black so i'm off to bed to read and relax.