Well, it's certainly been a while, hasn't it? To say that life has been chaotic is a massive understatement; I can barely remember what happened yesterday without looking at my calendar. So here, gentle reader, are the highlights of what has happened since I last wrote. I'm sorry to say that I haven't touched my camera since we moved, so this will be woefully lacking in pictures. Sorry!
We picked up the keys to our new (rental) house and began moving in! Chris's mom and her husband came up and helped, which was a huge blessing since my pregnant self was entirely dedicated to directing the move, and NOT LIFTING ANYTHING. This was our 5th move in four years of marriage, and Pam and Anthony have been there to help with each and everyone, God bless them! We are hoping to stay here for at least two years, which will be a lovely break -- I might actually get everything unpacked for once before we move again!
This move did go very smoothly in some ways; while I was packing, I bought a bunch of different colored rolls of duct tape and assigned one color to each room. Then, as I packed boxes, I used the appropriate color of duct tape for where the box was supposed to end up, and that way everything went to the correct room right away and we haven't had to go digging in the garage for silverware or shaving cream or baby socks. We also learned that our family has graduated from the 17-foot U-Haul truck to (at least) the 24-foot U-Haul truck. Unfortunately, we didn't know this until after we had rented the 17-foot truck. Chris got it home, started loading it, and quickly realized that our boxes would fit in the truck, but where was the furniture going to go?! He and Anthony rapidly loaded the truck, drove it out to the new house, unloaded it like ninjas on amphetamines, drove back to my mom's and repeated the process, and we were able to get the truck back in time to avoid extra rental charges!
- June 5: The Last Day of School
Not hugely earth-shattering or eventful, but it was an entire day spent away from the house. And I try to avoid entire days spent away from the house (sadly, these days are a recurring event over the course of June and some of July.) Every year at the school Aliyah attends, the last day of school is spent at a local park and there is always a picnic and a water-fight. This year was very structured, with the kids separated into their usual classes and then directed from one activity to the next. Nathanael had tons of fun with the bouncy house and the water activities; his favorite "water activity" was relocating chunks of ice between the two plastic swimming pools that were being used to keep cold drinks in. Aliyah had fun hanging out with her friends and signing yearbooks. And I had fun trying to stay cool and finding comfortable places to sit (I forgot to bring folding chairs).
- June 8: Aliyah's Half-Day
I like to make up holidays, and Chris insists that half-days are very, very made up and that no one in the world except our family observes them. I think he's mistaken, but regardless.... A "half-day" is the observance of the date that you are half-way through your current age, and this year Aliyah turned 11 1/2. Because her birthday is so close to Christmas, we tend to do more presents and things like that on her half-day and celebrate her birthday with a special activity and cake. Since she is going into Jr. High next year, this year for her half-day she was allowed to get a second ear-piercing and start wearing honest-to-goodness-makeup. So we spent most of the day at the mall. She had bangs cut, which I had serious trepidations about at first, but they look great! Her hair seems to get curlier every year and she can't seem to decide whether she loves or hates her curls, but she has been straightening her bangs and leaving the rest of her hair curly, and it is really quite lovely. (But then, she's a pretty girl. :-P) We went to Claire's and got her second piercing and bought some really cute earrings for her to enjoy with her two-holed ears; at her school, girls are not allowed to wear "dangly" earrings until they are in 7th grade, and she will be taking full advantage of her new privilege next year! Then we ran over to WalMart and picked out some eyeshadow, mascara, powder foundation, and lipstick. It was SO much fun to go shopping for that sort of thing with her! My mom was never into makeup and jewelry, but I'm glad that my daughter and I can enjoy those things together.
After shopping, we met up with Chris and Nathanael at the movie theater and went to see
Up. Pixar movies never cease to amaze me. They are never what I am expecting, and I always love them. Our favorite character in this one was the dog Dug, whose dialogue was exactly what we are all sure our dog would say if he had a collar that translated his snorging into human speech. Our favorite line? "I hid under your porch because I love you." Yep, that is 100% pure DAWG right there. Nathanael even sat still and paid attention throughout the entire movie, and even though he wasn't exactly quiet, all of his chattering did pertain to the plot. Lots of "Dog!"s and "Bird!"s and, when things got intense, "Oh noes!"s. (And yes, that is what he says. Not "Oh no!" but "Oh noes!" It's adorable.) It was another day spent out of the house, but it was a really wonderful day spent with my family.
I have always, always, always wanted to serve on a jury, ever since I knew what one was. Every time I would hear people complain about being summoned for jury duty, I would think "What is the problem?" To me, it is such a cool opportunity to be a part of something bigger than yourself, something that really matters. Jury duty is part of what it means to be an American. It is a privilege and should be viewed as such. Of course, there are hassles and inconveniences that go along with it, and I realize that the $12.00 per day plus mileage doesn't adequately reflect the wages that most working people lose when they spend the day in court rather than at work (or cover babysitting, or even pay for lunch); but... suck it up, folks. It is the price you pay for the right to vote, and that right should not ever be taken lightly.
Anyway, my summons for jury duty was forwarded to our new address and arrived less than a week before the date that I was supposed to appear. I have only ever received one other summons for jury duty and they plead out or something at the last minute, so I didn't have to even go sit through selection that time. However, this time the trial was going through, so at 8am on the 11th I packed the kids off to my mom's house and presented myself as directed at the courthouse.
I live in a small town in a fairly sparsely populated county in a not-so-terribly-crowded state. There were maybe 30 of us total who had been summoned for jury selection, and for this particular type of trial there would only be 6 jurors and an alternate. Hypothetically I had about a 1-in-5 chance of being selected, BUT: being married to a police officer is a really good way to get dismissed immediately. In fact, being next-door neighbors with a police officer, or if your kid's little league coach is a police officer, or if your wife's best-friend's husband is a police officer, you have an excellent chance of being dismissed whether you want to be or not. If you ever want to be dismissed from jury selection -- which you shouldn't be looking for a way to do, Registered Voter -- the magic words are, "My _____________ (brother, son-in-law, neighbor, barber's cousin, whomever) is a police officer and I trust police officers completely." That is almost a 100% guarantee to get you sent to parking validation and on your way back home. But I digress.
We were called into the courtroom shortly after 8:30, the judge gave a brief synopsis of what the trial was going to be about (the defendant was charged with D.U.I., resisting arrest, and aggravated assault), and explained that the trial was expected to last only one day, but it might stretch into two. The court something-or-rather then began calling jurors up to the jury box so that they could begin
voir dire. Much to my surprise, I was the second person called into the box, which was exciting because it meant that at least I would be rejected because of voir dire and not because they never got around to talking to me. :-) We were asked our names, our occupations, and our spouses occupations; then, based on our answers, we were asked follow-up questions. When the judge asked me if I felt that I could remain unbiased inspite of being married to a police officer or if I felt that I would automatically give more credence to a police officer's testimony than that of anyone else, I honestly replied that I had known some pretty untrustworthy police officers and that I truly believed that I could remain unbiased. There were twelve or so of us in the box, and after interviewing all 12 of us, replacing a couple almost immediately after they said they couldn't remain unbiased for some reason or another, and then we were dismissed so that they could make the final selection. I sent Chris a text message saying that we had just finished voir dire and that I would text him after they let me go, and waited for half-an-hour or so to be called back into the courtroom.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that I was Juror #2! I never expected to actually be chosen! I was probably the happiest person on the jury, lol. We received our instructions, were sworn in, and then the prosecuter and defense attorney gave their opening statements. It was really interesting; the defense attorney was stereotypically smarmy, and the prosecuter was... well, I don't know exactly how one would stereotype a prosecuter, but she was that. It was really cool for me that it was a D.U.I. case, because D.U.I.s were Chris's passion at his last job; he got as much specialized training as possible and led his department in D.U.I. arrests while he was there, so I knew a lot about how they "worked" from a law enforcement perspective, and it was interesting to hear all of those terms and phrases used in practice and not just from listening to my husband tell me about his day.
When we finally broke for lunch, I called Chris and told him "I'm on the JURY!!!!!!!" He laughed and asked me what the case was about but, taking my juror instructions seriously, I replied, "I'm not allowed to talk about it!!! You have to wait until we give our verdict!!!" My mom and the kids met me downtown for lunch and I told them all about how I couldn't tell them anything; the whole experience really made my day.
The trial continued after lunch and closing statements didn't finish until almost 5pm. We were allowed to decide whether we wanted to stay late and deliberate that evening or reconvene in the morning and start our deliberations then; we all agreed to just get it over with. The alternate was allowed to leave, and the rest of us were escorted to the jury room with strict instructions about what we could and could not consider in our deliberations. We elected the oldest member of the jury to be foreman and went over the charges one by one. We unanimously found the defendant guilty of the first two charges, but when it came to the charge of aggravated assault, both myself and one other juror had that all-important "reasonable doubt." Under Arizona state law, in order for someone to be found guilty of aggravated assault there needs to be intent, and even though we all agreed that the defendant did knock the police officer down (which resulted in his aggravated assault charge), there just wasn't adequate proof of intent for me -- it seemed more like an accident than an attack. Ultimately, we were able to persuade the other jurors to our perspective and, after a whopping 20 minutes of deliberations, we returned to the courtroom to return our verdict.
All in all, it was a really good experience, and I am so glad that I was picked! I probably never will be again, but I will always be able to look back and say, "Well, when *I* was on a jury...." :-)
- June 16: Walking Pneumonia
Do you know why they call it "walking" pneumonia? Because you're not actually hospitalized. The only walking that I did for a solid week was from my bed to the bathroom and back again.
I generally get "really" sick about once every two years. Usually just in time for the holidays, and usually it's bronchitis. This time it was June, it was pneumonia, and I was six months pregnant. YOU CAN'T TAKE ANYTHING WHEN YOU'RE SIX MONTHS PREGNANT. Well, that's not entirely true, I was prescribed an anti-biotic. But I couldn't take anything that made me feel any better, or helped me sleep, or really relieved my cough. It was not pleasant.
I have to say, Chris and Aliyah totally stepped up while I was sick and took care of things. Aliyah helped ENORMOUSLY with Nathanael -- admittedly, most of her helping involved watching movies with him, but under the circumstances that was a huge blessing, both to me and to him. The two of them went grocery shopping, cooked meals, and kept the dishes under control and the house generally tidy. My mom came over a couple of times to help out, and we all survived unscathed. I still don't quite feel myself yet... I still get really tired really easily, but a lot of that is being pregnant and still being in the process of moving into our new house and getting all of our stuff out of my mom's house.
- July 4: Parade, Park, and Fireworks
Yeah, not alot happened between my getting sick and the 4th of July. Mostly, I just tried to take it easy. But on the 4th, we more than made up for our lack of activity (and yes, I paid for it the next day). Our town has a big rodeo every year that coincides with the 4th of July, and the population in town doubles every year on rodeo weekend. It is INSANE. There is a big parade around the center of downtown and then after the parade, the city hosts a carnival-type-thing in one of the parks and everybody goes down to the park, sets up chairs and blankets (and BBQs and canopies and my mom saw one dude with an inflatable mattress) and just hangs out, enjoying the live band and the over-priced fair food and the rides and everything until the fireworks happen.
I'm really not sure why we didn't end up going to anything last year, but this year we did it all. The kids and I picked up my mom and took her to the parade at 9am sharp; we almost missed it, I thought it started at 10am like the Christmas parade does, but since it lasts an hour longer, they started it an hour earlier this year. We are SO BLESSED to have friends from church who have their business office directly on the parade route. We are allowed to use their private parking lot (which, people sometimes use it without permission, but it feels good to have "legal" rock-star parking!), and access to indoor plumbing, running water, and a refrigerator. They also have a fenced in patio with a latching gate directly in front of the office, which is fantastic for wiggly little boys who want to watch the parade but are too excited to sit still and feel the need for speed every time something new and exciting passes by!
After the parade, we stopped by the house to have lunch, and then went out to the festivities at the park. I hadn't been for... wow, probably 6 years or more, and it has really changed. It is much, much bigger than it used to be, but it somehow still retains a safe and comfortable small-town feeling. Being at the park is free, but they do charge for individual activities, or you can purchase wristbands for a flat fee and then all of the fun stuff is included. We went the wristband route and so the kids got to enjoy bungee jumping, bouncy houses, pony rides, and more. There are water slides and rock-climbing walls and tons of other things to do, and maybe next year we'll get to take better advantage of it all; it was SO HOT out, and I felt like a beached whale, so mostly my mom would take one kid at a time to go do something while I sat down in the shade with the other. We enjoyed some quality "fair food," including the biggest sno cones I've ever seen, and really it was a lot of fun in spite of the heat and the crowds.
I think Nathanael enjoyed the fireworks more than anything else we did that day. He liked the noise and the colors, and he kept seeing patterns in the fireworks that reminded him of the things that are most important to his little heart right now (primarily Blue's Clues and Elmo). Red fireworks would get an excited point and "Momo!" (his word for Elmo) and blue fireworks would get the same point and "A clue, a clue!" Every so often, and I couldn't really figure out what made him say it, but after certain big displays he would say "Oh noes!!!!" in a very worried tone. There are few things as delightful as watching a little person discover new and magical things for the very first time, and his enjoyment of the fireworks was the highlight of my day.
And now it is today. Nothing terribly exciting is happening today, except: today we finished getting "all" of our stuff out of my mom's house! I know that sounds terribly pathetic... after all, we moved out a month and a half ago, right? But considering that I had been storing things at my mom's house since 1998, and... well, I guess you'd have to have been there, but we had possessions scattered literally all over the house and getting everything out was a big job. There are still a few things mixed in with my mom's stuff, and getting every last lego and bobby pin will probably not happen for another few years, but this is a HUGE step. I can finally really focus on getting OUR house in order before the baby comes.
What is really just crazy to me is that our summer is more or less gone by this point. Aliyah starts back to school in a month, which is really not a whole lot of time. Next week we are going on a one-night vacation with my mom, then it's Chris's and my 4th anniversary, immediately followed by my birthday, so there's half of the week where I won't be getting anything done (worthy reasons not to be unpacking boxes and doing housework, but still!) My goal is to have every box unpacked and every room in the house put in order by August 31, so that I can focus my entire month of September on getting ready for and enjoying our new baby. Goal is the operative word in that sentence, we'll see what happens. :-)
Isn't she lovely? 8 lbs, 5 oz, and 21 inches tall.
