2009 April Archive

I went to bed pretty early last night as I knew I had to have lots of energy and be up for getting the kids ready for school for yet another morning. Weekdays are great because the kids get to go to school for the day, but then again, it means I have to get them up and out of the house early. “No fooling around,” I always tell them.

So last night, I made sure to lay out all their clothes. For some reason, they are all starting to want input into what they wear. Of course, Not Zev (the oldest) – just the younger ones. Kailey gets herself dressed (typical almost teenage girl) so it’s just (I know you are all thinking just?) the 8, 6, 5, and 3 year old. Karina, 1, still lets me get her dressed in whatever I want. Anyways, I finally made a rule that if you want input into what you wear then it has to be done the night before otherwise you “Get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” In other words, you wear the clothes put out for you.

So the night before, I tell everyone “clothes picking out time” and anyone who wants to can pick out clothes with me. Those who don’t, get what they get… you know the rest.

So back to my morning… I wake up and all the kids are in my room! I told Zev I was going to shower and get dressed and for him to the same. If he could to pour a little ceral for the kids. It’s his one “job.” (He doesn’t do it very well either.) I get showered and dressed. I actually had about 5 minutes to myself before a kid came storming in that another kid hit them. Maybe it was 4 minutes. Still it was a nice 4 minutes.

When I came out of the bathroom, Zev was on the computer in his underwear. Ariella was lying on the floor next to her sister, Talia, who was also on the floor. Pierce was naked on the bed… well almost anyways. Tate was coming into the room as if he was sleep walking. Karina was screaming from her crib. Kailey had already showered and had eaten – typical Kailey. I actually used to be that way – all on top of things and organized. What happened? 7 kids!

After I shouted at them as to what were they doing lying around, especially Zev on the computer, they all ran out. I thought they would say they wanted help getting dressed instead they all were telling me how hungry they were. I told them to get dressed first and then eat, but they didn’t like that idea.

Eventually they all ate while I made the two kids lunches for school. I admit I should have done that last night but making lunches is always a pain for me. As they were eating, I was getting parts of them dressed – a shirt here on one kids, socks on another, and so on. While I am doing this, they are still trying to eat. The scene would have made for a good reality show episode.

Zev left for the school bus first while I talked to a client on my cell phone. All my clients have my cell phone number. She wanted to tell me she rejected the lowball offer that the insurance company gave her. I told her of course! We’ll be litigating that case. Not to tout my husband but as soon as the opposing lawyer gets the case, they will offer a reasonable amount! Don’t mess with Mark Breyer! In all seriousness, we get great offers mostly because Mark is a certified specialist in injury and wrongful death law, we work harder than anybody else, and Mark goes to trial a lot!

Anyways, Zev leaves and 10 minutes later I finish getting the baby dressed – Karina’s always the hardest to get dressed. Finally, we all go out the front door. I put the baby in her car seat while all the other kids are getting in the car through the other door. I go around to get Pierce into his carseat while Talia gets into her own car seat. I put on Ariella’s buckle while Tate gets into his seat. Kailey puts her buckle on and I give her my super duper binder that I brought home to work on. I go around and get into the car and start to back up. Wait! Kailey needs something. We wait while Kailey gets her special something, which I don’t even know what it was and then we are off!

I am forever thankful that for some reason this morning, Talia and Pierce did not argue over whether to play Kelly Clarkson’s CD or High School Musical! That always leads to fights.

Then I went to work and argued with insurance adjusters all day.

vs.

Mark’s day.

He sleeps peacefully all night in a hotel room. Takes an hour to shower and get dressed. Eats an awesome breakfast at a restaurant while talking to old friends. Spends time with his Dad. Goes to an incredible lunch with an old boss. Spends more time with his Dad. Gets excited for the Michigan State Game. Goes to the Michigan State Game. OK, seeing that MSU is now down 17-7, maybe Mark’s day is going to be much worse than mine. Up until now though, he had a great day and no one can take away the awesome time he spent with his Dad or seeing MSU get to the Final Championship game. That being said, Go MSU!

Posted by the Wife of The Husband and Wife Law Team Phoenix accident and injury attorneys

Pierce, my 3 year old, soon to be 4, has been playing jokes on me all night. I have to look at them as jokes otherwise he would be in some very serious trouble! First, he decided he wanted captain crunch cereal for dinner. That was actually fine with me since I can’t cook very well. So, I’m thinking this is good – cereal is nice and easy.

I turn around (seems like major disasters happen in one second in my house) and Pierce is literally dumping the box of captain crunch on the floor and stomping on it. He must have thought that was funny… Ah not!

Then later on he tells me he is going to the bathroom. I later visit the bathroom to find chocolate powder all over the bathroom. What was this kid thinking and where did that chocolate power come from? Come to think of it I think my parents bought it for him before they brought him back from school. Hmmmm…. they are in trouble too!

I then go to sit on the coach. I have finally cleaned up everything…. and more… and am going to relax. Well relax as much as I can while watching 6 kids (Kailey was at dance) while watching their Disney show. Actually, a lot of their Disney shows I like but this one I didn’t particularly care for – I can’t even remember which one it was. Anyways, I go to sit down and I sit in a cushion that is totally wet. I blame myself for that once since I forgot my golden rule of my house to always check what you are sitting on before you sit down!

What is amazing to me too is while I am watching Pierce dump the box out and stomp on the captain crunch or have the chocolate powder all over himself, he tells me he didn’t do it and blames one of his siblings. He’s like a Defendant… he can’t accept responsibility! Well, that’s my take on it. Anyways, he is lucky he is so cute.. as are my other kids many of the time. So are my kids the only ones who don’t admit when they have done something wrong? I hope not.

Posted by the Wife of The Husband And Wife Law Team Phoenix accident injury attorneys

Today is one of my long days at the office. I got to the office pretty early after I dropped all the kids at school. Mark actually dropped Tate at school because Tate takes chess in the morning on Thursdays so he has to get to school early. Oh, before I left for the office, how can I forget, I cleaned up an entire container of bread crumbs that Karina decided would be fun to spill all over the floor. I cleaned them all up and she actually had the nerve to hit me. I think she actually was hitting too out of not liking something. Does that call for discipline? I did make her clean up the milk she deliberately spilled on the floor. I’m not sure how much of a punishment it was though because she was having fun taking the paper towel and cleaning the milk up. Then she walked over to the garbage pail, threw out the paper towel, and then gave herself a round of applause. Of course, when your 1 year old is clapping for herself you have to clap for her too… so in the end does that mean I applauded her for spilling the milk on the ground?

Anyways, Breyer Law has a facebook account. I have been emailing and talking to a woman about some law stuff and things that she does in her work also. She came down to the office today and we had lunch. Isn’t facebook cool? It was partially about work stuff though too!

I don’t know what it was about today but every insurance adjuster I called, I got their voice mail message. Later in the day, Mark coached Tate in his flag football and then all 3 of us went out to dinner. That’s the short recap of my day.

Posted by the Wife of the Husband and Wife Law Team Phoenix accident injury attorney

Ok so this is a little controversial. How do you all feel about your kid’s facebook or myspace page? What about the texts on the phone? Is that your business or not? Well, my kids are still a little young. My oldest is only 12, in middle school. Personally, I feel it is my obligation to read his texts and see what he is writing on his my space and facebook page. I also admit I am quite nosy! With that being said, the fact is that kids are getting in trouble now for what they post on facebook and other social networking sites. Camera phones get kids in trouble. Texts get kids in trouble.

I tell my Zev, who is 12, that when he gets older he may want to run for President and he has to remember that all of the things he writes now will be shown later. OK, I don’t know if he will ever even want to go into politics, and he right now is focused on which video game he will play and in what order, but the point is that facebook entries have denied kids from scholarships they otherwise would have received, denied kids admissions to colleges they others would have been admitted to, got kids suspended, had kids kicked off college teams, and the list goes on and on.

I know kids will be kids, I just think that everyone needs to remember that these profiles will be there in the future and make our kids aware that they better watch what they write. It’s one thing to talk about certain things or say certain words, but when it’s in writing it is whole other story. Look at Michael Phelps. My understanding is he got a huge endorsement taken away because of his facebook page or maybe a friend’s facebook page that had tagged him in a photo. That is also something everyone has to remember, which is what you do can be publicized by your friend.

So I guess I am saying tell your kids to stay home and be hermits! I’m kidding. I just think as parents we have to watch our kids and remind them that although facebook and other sites can be fun, it can one day take away opportunities if the wrong language, statements, or pictures are found linked to you or your account.

Read a more in depth article about social sites and college admission.
Speaking of facebook come see our page.

Posted by the Wife of the Husband and Wife Law Team Phoenix accident inury attorneys

When most people think of car accidents, they think of being on the road and being rear ended or hurt by another vehicle. Most people do not realize that thousands of children are seriously hurt or killed because a driver backed up into them. Most of the time this occurs in the child’s home drive way. Think about how easy it is for a child to leave your front door and get to teh back of your car without you knowing. If you don’t think it’s easy for a child to escape the house and go in back of your car, think again! Sometime children even try to hide behind a car as they do not realize how dangerous a vehicle backing up can be.

Most victims are 1 to 2 years old, which makes perfect sense. They are little enough that they can get behind a vehicle without anyone seeing them and don’t quite fully understand what things are dangerous. More than 60% of backing up accidents involved large size vehicles such as SUVs, vans, minivans and trucks.

Most shocking is that over 70% of these types of accidents are caused by a relative of the child.

A report by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited that over 2400 kids are brought to the emergency room each year due to a driver backing up into them.

Stastics currently show that 50 young children each week in the United States are backed up over. Out of the 50 children, it has been found that 2 of these result in fatalities and 48 of the children are still hurt significantly enough that they have to go to the emergency room.

There have been a few such accidents recently and it is totally heartbreaking. I write this blog just to make people more aware of these types of accidents. I personally count all my kids when they get in and out of the car – of course, I am used to counting because I have to count to 7! Also, before I leave the drive way, I check the back of the car each time to make sure no kid is behind unless all 7 are in the car with me. Of course, as a Phoenix personal injury attorney, I see a lot of accidents so with certain things I am more cautious; however, I think many people do not realize how many of these accident occur and how easy it is to back up and not realize a little kid is behind you. Also, I think since the driveways in Arizona tend to be so short that also makes it easier to backup into someone. Just the other day a highschool kid was walking in back of my car on the way to school. Lucky for him and me, I was still counting when he went in back of my vehicle.

In any case, I hope you all take an extra second for now on and make sure no little kids are behind your vehicle before you begin to back up.

Posted by the Wife of The Husband and Wife Law Team Phoenix Accident Injury Attorneys

So today is Wednesday. My schedule is a little crazy on Wednesdays because the kids get out of school early. I usually work from home for a little while and then I have a babysitter later in the day. This way I am able to do work in the morning without being interrupted by anyone at the office and I can do work at night at the office. I tried that today but it didn’t exactly work out that way. Well, this morning I got a lot of work done. I talked to a bunch of insurance adjusters and sent out a demand package for policy limits for one of my clients. She was in a serious automobile accident and she required surgery on her shoulder. Actually, it’s amazing how many of our clients sustain rotator cuff tears in automobile accidents. I think it is because of the seat belt and the mechanics of the accident.

Anyways, I got home from work about 7:00p.m. I asked the babysitter if the kids were fed and she said they had all been fed. All the kids were around her when she answered me and they all agreed. As soon as she left the house, they all complained they were still hungy and that they were not fed enough. So I fed them…. gourmet cereal! They eat and 20 minutes goes by and they are hungry yet again. So I fed them again. This time the left overs of what the sitter had made. Again, some time goes by and they are hungry yet again. This time gourmet Mac and Cheese. I was so mad I didn’t have any of the pre-made kind that you keep in the refrigerator. I actually had to boil the water! How lazy is that? Ten minute mac and cheese takes too long in our lives now.

Anyways, finally it’s late – nearing 9:00p.m. and we tell them all, “Bedtime!” They say they are all hungry again. How can that be? More importantly, it’s amazing how little kids eat and eat and eat, and then you can take your one hand and put it around their entire leg.

So the question is do you feed your children AGAIN when they say they are hungry or do you tell them to go to bed hungry? What if you really think they are hungry but they use this same tactic every night? What if you feed them dinner and they don’t eat and play instead, and then when it’s time for bed time they say they are hungry. Oh, the guilt our children place on us every night! So what do you all do? I can tell you I always do one thing and Mark always does another… Stay tuned for more….

Posted by the Wife of the Husband and Wife Law Team Phoenix accident injury attorneys

I got a call today from a woman whose 10 year old rides the bus every day to school. She lives in Mesa, Arizona. You would think letting your kids ride the bus is not that big of a deal. Actually, I remember when I was younger… well I kind of remember, and we would all sit in the way back and were very loud. It was what I would now call chaos.

All of our kids ride the “Breyer Bus!” No, it’s not yellow! That is, I drive them! Well, except Zev. Zev is in middle school and he rides the bus. He told me that on his bus anyways they have assign seating. Mark is insistent that riding the bus is part of a middle school experience. Our other kids actually are within walking distance to the elementary school, but we still drive them. In being a personal injury attorney in Phoenix it is unbelievable and scary some of things you see. I think because we see so many people being injured since we are accident attorneys that it makes us extra conservative – well just in some ways.

Anyways, this woman called to say her child’s bus driver got angry with her and took her child by the neck and wrapped her arms around her while she was pulling her child out of the bus! The marks on her child were so severe they were still there the next day! She wanted to know if she had a case.

In fact, she may have a case. We could not help her because we only handle serious injury cases in Arizona. What is important to know is a couple of things 1) Ask your child what is going on each day and 2) if it is a bus driver or school that you want to bring a claim again, you must know more likely than not you have 180 days to file a notice of claim. A notice of claim is required by Arizona law when filing a claim against a public entity. I think I’ve mentioned the notice of claim issue before, but it just is very upsetting when a caller calls who may have had a claim but missed a statute of limitations.

In any case, keep that in mind. As a side note, for those of you who read my earlier blog, Zev still hasn’t asked me for his IPOD.

Posted by the Wife of The Husband And Wife Law Team Phoenix Accident and Injury Attorneys

As I have resumed my working out again, I have been watching some TV. I would not be watching TV, but I keep forgetting to charge my son’s IPOD. Yes, it is pretty pathetic, but I actually don’t have my own IPOD. That’s OK though because Zev has been gracious enough to let me use his every time I work out. Actually, he didn’t even know it was missing for a few days. On second thought, he might have known it was missing, but thought one of the other kids took it and lost it. On third thought, he probably just kept forgetting to ask me where it was!

In any case, I just want to say that I think commercials of Phoenix personal injury attorneys and car accident attorneys are getting out of hand. I don’t specifically remember which law firms and it really doesn’t matter. I just think that it’s not professional to have a huge crash and then a big check that you are giving out to injured victims.

We actually do advertise a lot, but we have taken great lengths to make our advertisements very professional. We don’t want to be known as ambulance chasers, although with commercials like the ones that are out there, it is hard to get around it. I should note that there are definetely some commercials running that are very professional. We all know which ones are and which ones aren’t professional. Not too long ago attorneys could not advertise at all. In many ways, I think attorneys as a whole, especially personal injury attorneys, would have a more sound reputation through out the country if there was no lawyer advertising. That being said, I do think the public can become more educated with lawyer commercials. We truly distinguish ourselves from “the crash to cash” mentality and hope that others who know us or become clients of ours see that. I think actually in knowing Mark and I you can tell right away that our firm is professional yet aggressive for all our clients. I guess every firm has their different ideas of what is professional.

Posted by the Wife of the Husband and Wife Law Team Phoenix personal injury attorneys

Alexis and Mark Breyer, Phoenix personal injury atttorneys, are hosting a contest. It’s free to enter. All you have to do is click on the Contest button and fill in your name and the teacher that you nominate as best teacher. All entries will be put in a hat on May 1, 2009. The winner will receive $250.00, the teacher will receive $250.00 and the child’s classroom will receive $50.00 toward a pizza party.

The contest is in celebration of the summer coming!

Posted by Phoenix accident injury attorney