Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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Monday, July 28, 2008
7 Years And Counting
I still can't believe it. When I sit and think that I've been married for 7 years, the thoughts I have are always the same, where did the time go? I guess having 2 kids in that amount of time does make time fly. Obviously there have been a lot of good times and some not so good times during these past 7 years, but for me personally, I think it makes us both stronger and more determined to have a good, healthy relationship.
I think about this day waaayyy back when, and the craziness of putting together a wedding in about 3 mths, is just mind boggling. But we pulled it off! It wasn't a huge wedding with tons of people. Just close friends and family. The wedding was outside and the reception was inside, both at my parent's house. It was perfect. I think my most favorite part of the whole day, besides saying "I Do", was the reception. It was so laid back! I walked around without my shoes and that, was fabulous! Plus I'd like to think I was pretty lucky that my new hubby didn't shove cake in my face. I cannot say the same for him though!
I've been blessed with a Godly man, who looks out for me and takes good care of me. I really couldn't ask for more! 7 years is a good number of years to be married, but I'm looking forward to the next 7 and more after that!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Keepin' It Cool By The Pool
Summertime isn't my favorite season, I'm more of an autumn girl. Mostly because the temps are more at a medium, not too hot or too cold. Not that I'm not all about the things you can do during the summer months. Growing up, we used to go camping all the time. And as much as we could, we would go swimming. At the house we grew up in, our next door neighbors had a swimming pool. When we were babies, yes babies, our mom took us to swimming lessons. I'm forever grateful for her decision to put me through those because to this day, my sisters and I have the most fun swimming.
As a mom, I want to pass that enthusiasm on to my kids. My son, not so much. I tried swimming lessons with him at 18mths, I think I had more fun than he did. My daughter, she's definately our water baby. Put her in a bathtub and she's good.
Any chance we have to go swimming, we're there. So lastweek, when the temps outside were quite warm, where did we go? To the pool? You guessed it. It was nice because my sisters, my mom and my nephew could be there, too. And as odd as this may sound, can you guess who was the first one in?
No lie!
And who came in at a close second? My water baby. I think it's safe to say she's well protected. But boy her little legs sure can kick! She got around in all that pretty well.
But do you know what all that swimming can do to such a small little thing such as her?
You got that right!
It was a great day! My sister Beth and I were diving off the diving board, she was doing cannonballs and jack knives. All in attempts to splash my son, which he just loved! Not so much in the face, but he wasn't being a spoil sport in the least. And would you guess that just a few minutes before we left for the day, the sun finally came out. But it was a good ending to such a fun day. What better way to beat the sun than spend it in the water. I can't think of anything better!
Oh, and I can't forget our littlest water baby. It was pretty funny to watch him in the water. All the different faces he made and how excited he was to be there! 
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Fin
The last time I wrote about this, it was a week ago today. So many different thoughts were running through my mind, all I think are pretty normal. Well, normal for me anyways. This past Friday, I waited until after 5 to call the hotline to see if my number had been chosen. And sure enough, it was online as well as on the jury clerk's voice mail. I thought, no biggee, I can do this.
My kids will be at my parents, I'll have my mom's car for the trip, and my hubby and I will test drive down there so I know where I need to go. No problemo. Uh huh. Tell my mind that this morning. I was so not in that mind frame when my alarm went off at 6:15am. But I got out of bed, did what I needed to do to get ready, said good-bye to the hubby and headed downtown.
Before I could really feel at peace about everything, I just began to pray. I have a favorite verse ~ Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I truly believe in those words, and apply them to my life whenever I can. So after telling God what was on my mind and heart, I turned on the radio and I heard this song:
"Where there is faith, There is a voice calling, keep walking You’re not alone in this world. Where there is faith There is a peace like a child sleeping Hope everlasting in He..."
I knew that was for me and I began to feel better. Be more at peace. And I thanked God for that blessing.
So once I was downtown, I parked in the parking lot and then began looking for the bus that would take me to the courthouse. I found it, but not until after he had started driving away from the pick up/drop off spot. So I waved a little to get his attention, and he stopped for me. So once I was on my way, then the nerves started kicking in again. So I simply asked the woman I was sitting next to if she knew where the courthouse was, and her and another guy showed me where, and that was it. Once I was inside the building and found the jury assembly room, I found a seat to sit in and waited. I knew God was watching over me that day because the woman I sat next to was so nice and easy to talk with. We ended up having a lot in common.
At 8:15am sharp, the jury clerk began her introduction and gave us her speech about what jury duty was and everything we were expected to do if/when we were picked. The first couple hours went by pretty quickly because of all the speeches, forms, role calling that went on. So when 9:50 rolled around, she came back into the room and told us that there were already two cases about to start and that she had two groups prepared to go upstairs, that knocked me for six. In other words, I was so surprised that I could already be on a jury and this was only my first day! Thankfully my new friend and I were in the same pool and we headed upstairs.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about that first moment in my first courtroom was, how cold it was! And also how small the room was. Watching courtroom dramas, or even real life court shows, the rooms seemed so much bigger. So we all piled in the room, sat and waited for the judge to come in. About 5 mins later he finally did, so we stood. He explained what was going to happen while we were there, and talked just a bit about what the case was about, and then the clerk named 8 people (me not being one of them) and the lawyers proceeded to ask them questions. There were 4 people who were excused from the panel, and thankfully I wasn't called to take either one of their places. By the time both clients and lawyers were satisfied with the people that were there, the rest of us were excused. You should've seen my fingers when we left that courtroom, I kid you not, they were purple!
The rest of us headed back down to the jury assembly room when the jury clerk proceeded to tell us that we were done. For the rest of the week! What a relief. So she scanned us out, and we headed home. What a good first experience for jury duty.
There are things that God will put in your life to help you grow, help you learn, help you spread your arms out a little more to understand things other than what you normally have in life. And I firmly believe that is why I was chosen to do this. Sometimes you don't think you can do something, but God will not put you in a position where you cannot handle it. If you have a good attitude and just do your best, in the end it will be a good learning experience. Just trust that He will be with you and you'll be all right.
Of course that doesn't mean I'd like to be called to do jury duty any time soon.
