Random Wednesday

I had the most fantastic family weekend ever! Mother's day was perfect in every way. Started out with church, some relaxing and swimming and after Baby Fox's nap time parents came over for a BBQ and more swimming. Then...Monday, on Monday we took Baby Fox to Disneyland for the first time! No work, and Disneyland? Yes please! I'll recap D-land later, but here's a picture of how hot we were the whole day, seriously where is this summer 90° weather coming from?

I was trying to shield Baby Fox from the sun, since he didn't want to wear his own hat, I thought my bigger hat would give him a little more air...but we were pretty much this sweaty the whole day. Luck for us, It's a Small World is wonderfully air conditioned and LONG. We went on it twice.

Random Things I've been Thinking:

Apparently I'm a monster when it comes to packing, or so says Mr. He says he doesn't like my packing mode. We're leaving for Chicago today! Well actually our flight isn't until tomorrow, but we're driving to my Aunt and Uncle to spend the night, so we can be a 10 minute drive to the airport instead of an hour drive. Did I mention our flight is at 6:45am? Wish us luck, seriously.

The first time around on It's A Small World I don't think I saw half of the rooms, I was so busy enjoying watching Colton enjoy seeing everything that when we went through it the second time, it was like I was seeing it for the first time. Taking your kid to Disneyland and seeing how much they love it, could be one of the best things EVER.

Yep my kid sucks the first two fingers on his left hand, has since he was 5 months old, and does it when he's not sure of something or just bored. I'm fairly certain he doesn't realize he's doing it half the time. I'm also sure that he doesn't get sick as much because he touches EVERYTHING and then sucks his fingers...I'll be really surprised if he doesn't get sick, he seriously touched every chain rope in every line.

Looking forward to Chicago...but I just want to be finished packing. I still have stuff to pick up after work today. Wish us luck with the flight and a 2 year old.

Linking up with Shanna today.

We're having a.....

Girl!

She was sucking her thumb almost the whole time, moving around lots and trying to avoid the technician getting a good picture (in case you don't read ultrasounds, the head is on the left, that blob in the middle is her heart)

We don't need to see the "goods" shot, I'm trying to teach her modesty after all.

Mr. is so excited he can barely contain himself. Like the possibility of having a boy was just out of the question. When we found out we were having a girl he went out the next day and bought her a few outfits.

I admit I was a little disappointed at first. But I think I had convinced myself it was a boy so that if it was, I would be happy and excited and not sad not to have a girl. So when they said girl it was a shock, like serious shock! Now I'm excited for bows, tutus and having someone to watch all those silly chick flicks with me and those teen movies where you're embarassed to see it. Now I can blame my daughter...well she wanted to see it, I'm being a good mother. Prom dress shopping, I really hope she's a shopper, cause Baby Fox isn't cutting it any more, he would rather ride up and down the escalator 5 million times then go into a shop with me. And I admit 2 days later I was buying her clothes from Macy's, you know cause I needed to get to the free shipping price, so I just HAD to buy her something!

Now to find the perfect going home outfit, I'm going to put us in the poor house, the girl clothes out there are SOOO cute! Although I think she already has Mr. wrapped around her little 20 week finger. We're all in trouble!

Linking up with: Faith, Sarah and Megan for "Mommy Moments"

That Time I was In Jury Duty for 3 Weeks

Okay so it wasn't really three weeks straight, but I did have to show up to the courtroom for three weeks. It was for 10 days all together, 4 days the first week, 2 days the second week and 4 days the third week.

Most people think, ugh jury duty. But in all honesty I sort of liked it. I got to sleep in till 7am (when I normally wake up at 4:45am), we got an hour and half lunch and we were out of there by 4:30pm everyday. And work paid me my normal salary, is there such a thing as a professional juror? With the caveat that I still get paid the same as I do now...hehe.

The Case:

So now that the trial is over I can spill what the trial was about. So hard to say to people, can't talk about it until it's over. I'm such a rule follower. I'll leave the names out, just cause who cares what their names are.

It's some what complicated so I'll try to be precise. The Defendant, wanted to flip a house, so he got Realtor Lady to look at homes for him. She found a house and he passed initially, but she convinced him that she would help manage the property while it went through the renovations, since he lived so far away. She gave a glowing recommendation for a handyman who was NOT licensed, even though evidence showed that he put a license number down on the bid, but it was just a business license, not a contractors one, but didn't state that. Bottom line there was a ladder/stairs leading up to a loft area and it wasn't attached to the loft in any way.

So the plantiffs, Family X, was looking for a vacation home in the San Diego mountain area. They went to the above home to look at it. When the wife and daughter went up to the loft area to look around. On the way down the ladder/stairs fell and the wife pretty much fell off the loft and crushed her wrist, broke her pelvic bone, parts of her face, ribs and was diagnosed with a brain injury. It has impacted her ability to find common words, and has even impacted her job (she is a computer engineer).

We saw about 25 witnesses and watched several depositions in all. And I have to say I never nodded off in any of them. Most of the were interesting and had interesting things to say, luckily.

The Verdict:

This part was crazy, we got 21 pages of jury instructions on how to proceed over the case on how to come up with a decision. We also got a 5 page verdict form to fill out. We had to answer each question on the jury verdict form using the instructions. What was in the instructions? Mostly definitions of what things are in the eyes of the law. Those laws are tricky!

After 1.5 days of deliberating we came up with 2 negligent people (Realtor Lady and the Handyman) and 2 non negligent people (The Defendant and Realtor Lady's Boss Man). You might think wow, that's crazy, but we could ONLY use the evidence that was given to us, no speculation, so if they didn't prove something we had to assume it was NOT true.

We awarded the family close to $950,000. I think they should have gotten more, but that's a different story.

What I learned:

Some of the other jurors were brutal. I mean they blamed the lady for falling off the latter, so everyone was not negligent because they felt they lady was negligent. Some people just have no opinions of their own, they just constantly change their mind and have no thoughts of their own and form their opinions based off of everyone else. I'm fairly certain that one of the jurors was incapable of emotion. She felt that the brain injury was fake and despite having several expert witnesses tell us that her brain injury is permanent and that she will probably never get much better then she is right at this moment. The lady STILL thought it was fake and that she was totally fine.

Out of the 12 jurors, we only had to have 9 people vote in the same direction. Many times I was the odd man out, mostly because I thought she should get more money.

There was this guy that constantly talked and would literally summarize after each person spoke. Like person A would say, well I thought this, this and that. This guy would say, so person A thinks this, this and that...like really?! That first day of deliberation was brutal! I wanted to stab my eye with a pen. Luckily we sort of set ground rules for the second day cause no one wanted to come back for a third day of deliberation. He was better, thankfully. We barely made it, we were sort of rushing towards the end of the day, trying to get 9 people to vote one way. So many times we would be at 8 to 4...arg, that was frustrating. But eventually we would get someone to change their vote.

One Last Lesson:

I don't think I could ever be a judge and be all impartial. I thought our judge did a great job explaining stuff to us and being impartial. And how he doesn't ever talk about his cases is beyond me! He says he can't in case people file other motions etc, he has to stay unbiased...wow, I like to talk to much to keep anything a secret. I thought the 3 weeks was hard enough!

And that folks was how I spent 3 weeks in jury duty, in case you wanted to know that is.

Random Wednesday!

Because you guys haven't gotten enough of this kid.  This is Baby Fox's reaction to having to leave the park. If only we all could have such deep emotion to cry bit crocodile tears when leaving somewhere. Although then people would laugh and stare, oh to be a 2 years old. I lied...announcement coming on Friday, thought it would be a good way to start the weekend.

So I haven't participated in this in a few weeks because of that thing called jury duty. But here are some thing I've been thinking:

I passed a billboard this morning that said something along the lines of needing a 40 piece chicken nugget pack from McDonalds...seriously? 40 chicken nuggets? What are you feeding a small army? And even if you could find someone to share this with, by the time you got to nugget 30, the rest would be cold, ew, cold chicken nuggets from McDonalds. And we wonder why there's an obesity problem in the U.S.

I passed 5 signs this morning. Someone had taken the time to write out 5 signs and hang them on 5 overpasses, actually 10 because it was posted on both sides of the freeway, and they wrote so skinny that you couldn't read the sign going 75mph (actually 80mph, but that just sounds too fast, seriously people here drive that fast at 5am). Maybe I'll try again on the way home, but if you take the time to write out a sign to post on the freeway, make it readable please!

Baby doesn't like tomatoes...it's really bumming me out because we used to eat spaghetti once a week. Something I can make in 20 minutes and everyone loves it? I'm in...but I'm feeling hopeful that baby is almost on board with tomatoes. I ate some salsa this weekend and it stayed down, I'm very hopeful. Please don't disappoint.

Last thing, I started calling baby Muffin because at 5 weeks pregnant, I kid you not, 5 freakin' weeks my pants were giving me a muffin top. Baby Fox has shortened this to Baby Muffie, so cute!

In case you wanted to see, here's me in all my 18 week glory (I'm currently 20 weeks, but haven't taken a picture yet)

Can't currently wear any necklaces, they all make me feel like I'm choking, even the long ones, no joke!

Linking up with Shanna today

What We've been Up To

So with 3 weeks of jury duty, the blog has taken a back seat. So I'll quickly update you guys with what we've been doing. I'll try to keep the pictures at a minimum.

So going back to April 19th (I know it's been way too long right?!). We put the pool cover on and got the pool up to 75°, warm enough for these crazy boys to swim. Baby Fox loves jumping off the deck.

April 20th is our first non parent and me swim class. Sniff sniff, Baby Fox was NOT happy and cried pretty much the whole time. That's his sad face, although the kid that the guy is holding, was crying WAY more, so I guess I can feel slightly better.

After nap time Baby Fox helped Daddy wash his "fun" car. 

April 22nd - Watching Fox and The Hound. And look, the room even looks clean, that NEVER happens!

(the kid doesn't have enough trucks...see all of them lined up by the fireplace?)

April 26th - Playdate/lunch with his friend, J-Bear. We just bought this table and it comes with a cute little umbrella, the kids loved it!

I got these shoes because this lady and this lady told me to. Okay not really, but they couldn't stop talking about them, I mean they mentioned these bad boys in at least 3 or 4 different posts. Although I have to admit they had me at the very first post, and I immediately bought 2 pairs. And my lovely models are showing them off. They came in the mail during our playdate and of course we had to break them out, and the kids wanted to try them on. I think they pull them off nicely. I have to say that J-Bear rocked those shoes so hard, and was practically running in them, Baby Fox, not so much, but he was trying and eventually wanted to trade shoes so he could wear the pink ones. I do have to say they are SOOOO comfortable, if you don't have them, go out and buy them now! Your summer dresses and shorts will thank you for sprucing them up. And the bonus? They aren't that expensive, totally affordable, so go out and get them!

This past weekend a good friend just had her baby, so we went to visit them. Baby is great and Baby Fox, loved her and got some good kisses and hugs in, I think he's going to make a great Big Brother.

Went to swim lessons, just by himself this time, and boy was he upset, but towards the end the "I want my Daddy" started to calm down, so we'll just keep trying. Eventually he'll stop crying right? We're doing this for water safety, so we have to keep coming. Although it's so easy to just say, another time.

Sunday we ate dinner outside, you know cause everyone eats ribs outside while Mommy's BBQ on the grill. Best discovery, Whole Foods sells ribs individually. So we don't have to order a hole side or half of ribs, we got 3 and paid our $5 and were done. Score!

That's pretty much what we've been up to. Come back tomorrow to see a picture of our baby and to find out what we're having!

Linking up with: Faith, Sarah and Megan for "Mommy Moments"

Internet Sucks

I really hate how dependent we have become on the internet and technology. Jury duty is finally over and I can get back to regularly blogging. Or at least try to. Last night dinner was made, family was happy and I was going to get my post ready for this morning, or at least upload the pictures so I could write about them at work, you know being productive at work. But NO, internet decided to die. I told Mr. "fix it", usually he clicks a few buttons and bam, one minute later internet is working. But this time, this time was different and it wasn't working when I went to bed. So I got up a little earlier so I could upload some pictures, nope, internet is STILL not working. Boo! Hopefully Mr. fixes the problem tonight, he had a conference call this morning from home, so hopefully he fixes it and when I get home, everything will be hunky dory and internet can continue to make me neglect my household duties.

But until I can get internet and access to my photos from my camera, Happy belated Cinco De Mayo, from Baby Fox.

Later this week, I'll tell you what my trial was about...and the three weeks I spent at jury duty. I know you're on pins and needles.

Marriage is a Lifetime - Lesson 4

I started this marriage series to give you a glimpse of my marriage and what does and doesn't work for us. I thought I'd start out with some really important lessons we learned when we went on our engaged encounter before we got married. I think they are life lessons that really helped our marriage.

Lesson 4 - Compromise and pick your battles

You are a partner it's not all about you any more. You have to think about how your actions are going to affect the other person. You don't have to walk on eggshells or anything, but you should want to take in your partners feelings before making big decisions. Like a job change, finances, or where to vacation. You have to think, if my partner did the same thing to me, how would that make me feel. Put yourself in their shoes and then re-evaluate, are you making the right decision.

Obviously the job change affects everyone involved, is the new job going to pay the same, less, more? What are the working hours, are you going to be gone longer then you currently are, is there a lot of travel? Those would need to be discussed.

Even something like finances needs to be discussed (a whole other post). But in short, if one is a spender and the other is a saver, agree on how your money is spent. We agreed early on in our marriage that if we were going to spend more then $100 we would let the other person know. That number has since sort of dissolved, and you'll learn why in my money post, so you'll have to come back for that one. =)

Even vacations need to be discussed. Where are you going, what do you want to do, what are your expectations? Everything takes a little compromise. I'm a let's go, go, go type of person, while Mr. is perfectly happy just doing one major thing a day and then resting or doing nothing. Again for another post, another day. But bottom line, compromise, everyone wants to have a good time and have a fun, relaxing vacation. So compromise with each other about what to do.

I think the big thing on compromise, at least for us, are the little things. For example:

I like to keep things out. If I'm working on a project and know that I'm going to work on it the next night I'll keep it out on the table. Mr. would put it away. He said that for the first few months of marriage he would be constantly putting things away for me. He would follow my little mouse trails and put stuff away. He eventually decided, you know what, it's not worth me doing it only for her to take it out the next night. He never really talked to me about it, but decided that it wasn't something that was worth fighting over. He knew this about me before getting married and can't expect me to change because of how he wants things. We are living together now and it's both of our space now. Now don't get me wrong, there are times when he goes into what I call "hurricane" mode where everything gets swept up and put somewhere (not always in a place I want). When that happens I try to scurry in front of him and limit the damage on how much gets put into a place where I'll never see it again. Like I said, I know he does eventually have a breaking point, so I try to clean stuff up before he hits that point. That or have people over to the house so it forces me to clean up :) No my house isn't always this spotless clean, hehe, have you fooled huh?

Really decide how much of a big deal it is. Is it worth a fight or argument? And what do you expect to get out of it? You shouldn't just start yelling about how you hate x and then not have a solution or somewhere to start.  It can't always be your way or the highway, both people have to give a little. Once you figure this out and figure out how it works within your marriage you are going to be much happier. If something really upsets you, i.e. leaving socks on the ground, tell your partner that. Let him/her know that it really bothers you and ask if he/she can make more of an effort to put them in the hamper when done with them. (For the record this has not happened to me). It's not fair to the other person to expect them to change who they are, you knew who you married when you said "I Do", so compromise and you'll have a much happier marriage.

What are your thoughts on the subject?