Jury Duty

Yes, that's right . . . I got called to jury duty, yet again. Only this time, they gave me flowers! :) Our friends' daughter (and our girls' good friend, E) had a mock trial with her Classical Conversations school (she's homeschooled, but also does this coursework once a week). Her mom, my friend S, asked if I'd be on the jury, and I said I would :) It's hard for me to say I'll do things, because we always have weird stuff come up that makes it challenging to honor commitments--I know that sounds crazy, but saying yes stresses me out for that very reason. Here's what happened today:

1. Brennen started moaning at 5 a.m. Just moaning. At 5:30, I was awake enough to go see if he needed anything. Well, that stupid weather change rocked his world and his allergies are going nuts :( He's coughing like crazy, had a terrible headache in his sleep, sneezing, light fever this afternoon--a mess! I gave him some children's Tylenol and he finished his night with hopefully better rest.


2. The kids awoke to find out their newest little critter passed away last night. I awoke to G$'s loud expression of grief. Caelan is not as sad, she said, "He was very cute; but I didn't like him very much." 19 days and probably as many blood-drawing bites. He was very cute, but boy did he bite a lot! This was a different cause of death. Buck thinks Strider/Aragorn wasn't able to digest something. I won't give any more details than that :(

3. After a rough night, everyone (except Gabby) is coughing, sneezing, Caelan's got back pain . . . we made it through school; I did my treadmill time, then headed up to get the kids moving on lunch. By the time I'd finished a shower, B was still sitting at the table slowly sipping soup. Oh boy! After a series of challenges getting him moving and to the vehicle . . .

4. We discovered some (de)construction guys had torn up a huge section of the road leading into our neighborhood--sometime after Buck left for work, so he couldn't warn me. One lane (there's only one way into our neighborhood and it also serves as the one way out), noone directing traffic, just a couple of guys in hardhats a giant earth mover, and a huge hole. Next, the nutty light that is so dangerous--was on four-way blink (more construction). Then we passed lanes shut down for building construction AND utility work (we also hit every red light for miles). There were more guys fixing the bridge we had to cross and then a 6?-block section of road missing to complete our journey (in one dusty, not very well marked lane).

5. When we finally got close to our destination--a university campus I've never been to before-- and my phone shut off! Randomly, shut itself off and restarted. Well, that phone was my GPS. We had 7 minutes to find the university, find parking, and find our court room. We left 45 minutes early and it was supposed to be a 17-minute drive. Yikes!

6. GPS turned back on, my printed map was not very helpful in finding parking. We made several wrong turns, but finally after backing out of a parking cave (love that new back up cam!). I said, "God, you're going to have to get us there on time, because I've done all I can and this is out of my hands." He did :) We parked. I loaded the kids up with Kleenex and cough drops and we asked some befuddled college boy where the courtroom was--I plopped into the jury box ONE minute before the trial started!!! The kids sat with the court audience and their friend F and the trial began.

The CC kids did an excellent job--it was the first time I've enjoyed jury duty--and when we were done, they gave me flowers! It was a good experience for our kids to see the court process and how mock trial works, because our girls have their first mock trial tomorrow night with their homeschool teen group (the boys and I may stay and watch, because it's all done in 1930's attire and could be pretty fun to witness; and despite their ailments, both boys found today's proceedings interesting, which gives me hope that tomorrow might be the same :)

After all that, we cruised over to get our groceries. Wow, did we fill the cart! With Easter, company, birthdays, and celebrations on this pay check . . . well, there were a lot of supplies to collect. I was a little nervous, since we've never packed the new van--but whoohoo! We stacked everything up, used the cargo net like champs, and nothing spilled out when we opened the hatch! That was super rad!

We're home now (we got gas in the van for the first time and traffic was insane!). The little critter is buried. Unfortunately, Graysen missed with shovel somehow and stuck the shovel handle straight into his own stomach. Brennen looked up the hill and said, "I don't think Graysen is doing so good." So, he and I hiked up to see what was the matter. Poor kid, just trying to bury his buddy and gets a punch to the gut :( I've actually never been up the hill before--and it is wicked steep, so I may not again :)-- so I took a picture of their little cemetery. Graysen used some of my jury duty flowers to pretty up Strider's final resting place.

Seriously, what a day.