Happy Belated First Weekend of Summer!

It's not much as far as videos go, but I thought it would be fun to tape the kids playing together in the pool last Friday afternoon.

Friday was a busy day. At 8am we went to Allison's swim class, then we spent a couple of hours at the zoo, had lunch with Daddy at the office, watched a Scooby-Doo video to unwind, then splashed in our backyard kiddie pool (see above pictures and video), then played on the Fisher's slip 'n slide (next three pictures).

Saturday was also a full day. We spent it at the Griffin's house, or rather in their backyard. Shane was there to help with their basement remodeling and the kids and I were there to hang out with Melissa and her kiddos as well as a few other friends, old and new. It was great to see them again. It had been awhile.

Sunday, Shane spent the day in Milwaukee with three friends and saw a Brewer game. The kids and I went down to Janesville to see the Shrine Circus. It was ok. The best part was seeing Isaac take his first pony ride. Allie was going to ride on one too but got cold feet at the last second.

I'm still exhausted from our busy but fun weekend. I miss those afternoon naps we used to take together when they were younger!!

The kids want to go outside again, so I'll close for now. I'll probably take more pictures today and post them later. I'm so glad it's finally summer. We're having so much fun outside!

My Day in Court (part 2)

I have never been summoned to jury duty before, not here or in Indiana. It was certainly a new experience. I walked into the waiting room looking randomly at faces that were clear signs of "I really don't want to be here." The people in charge gave us their prepared pep-talk and introduction to the video.

They then mentioned they had some interesting news. They said that there were more people who showed up today than any time in the past two years. I would have thought that was a good thing, but then they followed up by saying that the entire building was having a fire drill at 9am. We all laughed. They gave us instructions on how we would exit the building and where we would wait. They then paused, looked down for a second, then, with as much passion as I would imagine any government official could muster, said, "I exhort you to return." We all laughed again.

Interesting... we have all checked in and now were given an opportunity for release. There was a brief moment of the feeling of prisoners in a chain gang being briefly unshackled from each other in order to be transported through the mall without raising suspicion to the general public. It was tempting, I must say.

We watched the twenty-minute video of how important the jury system was to the American government and then waited for the fire alarm to go off. How fitting that we were in a government building in which a 9am fire drill didn't actually take place until 9.10am. We filed out the emergency exits and waited outside for the sign to come back in. Of course, when we were told to come back in, all 200+ of us potential jurors, plus the employees of the building, were required to go back through the front doors, back through the security. I think the "Grandma" winked at me.

We were all settled back into the waiting room finally, an hour later. At 10am, the same government officials started calling off ranges of juror numbers who were assigned to different courtrooms. My block of numbers were about 60 long, but there were only 30 of us. We headed up to the fourth floor escorted by the bailiff who gave us instructions once were outside the courtroom. No food, no drink, no caps on your head, no speaking unless spoken to -- it sounded a lot like being at funeral or a wedding when you were a kid. No electronic equipment should be on either.

We gathered into the guest area of the courtroom where the judge addressed us and gave us instructions about what would happen. They started calling off names from their list of who we were. Twenty-four potential jurors were selected to sit up in and by the juror box, later to be whittled down to fourteen. It was strangely intense -- wondering if you were the next one to be called. It's not like we were being picked for the lottery or anything life changing. Well, I guess it was life changing -- just not ours.

The idea of being placed in a position of such power over the future of someone else's life is so overwhelming to me. I guess that happens to be a lot like parenting. No wonder parenting is one of the hardest things to do well. I could try to write a book on how being a juror is like parenting, or vice versa, but I shouldn't -- mostly because of a lack of experience.

Yep, you got it -- I was not selected. I wasn't even a part of the original twenty-four. Six of us were left back in the guest section, me and five other women. What are the odds that I would be the only guy not selected? I guess I could actually compute the odds, but that question was meant to be rhetorical. Please do not attempt to compute the odds, nor ask me to.

For those interested, the case was a social services agency against a mother of a little boy requesting the judge for termination of parental rights. I didn't stick around long enough to hear the facts of the case, but the questions being asked of potential jurors were of the "do you have any history of alcohol or drug use in your family that would affect your decision-making in this case" variety. As a parent, Christ-follower, and child of divorced parents, it honestly would have been very difficult for me to be a juror on that case. I cannot say whether God had a direct hand in relieving me from that case, but I am thankful that I was not put in a position to decide the fate of this mother and her son.

Well, the rest is not all that interesting. I was led back down to the waiting room to see if any other courtrooms would need my services. At about 12.05pm, we were all told that all jurors had been selected for the cases of this week and that we could all go home.

And that concludes my most recent run-in with the law. Fortunately, I was on the "better" side of it -- this time. :)

My Day in Court (part 1)

The day approached slowly. This entire past weekend, in the back of my mind, I knew Monday was coming. I hadn't been in a courthouse or, for that matter, had any issues with the law for a long, long time, so as you can imagine, I had mixed emotions. There really was no way I wasn't going, but I really didn't want to. Couldn't I just mail in some money, volunteer at a local soup kitchen, heck... I'd even scrape off road-kill just to make it all go away. Sadly, those were not options for me.

I was instructed to show up at the newly built downtown courthouse by 8.15am. So I got up at 6.30am and prepared myself for the worst. I put on some nicer-than-normal clothes (it's always good to impress the judge). I thought about calling ahead and asking if the judge had a favorite cologne, but I thought that might appear to be kissing up and judges can see right through that stuff -- at least Judge Judy could.

I arrived at the courthouse at 8am just in case punctuality gave me favor to the powers that be. The security check point at the front doors was pretty much a miniature version of what you find in airports, except I didn't have to take off my shoes. All I could do while going through the metal-detecting doorway was pray they didn't find probable-cause to frisk me. I only let a select few do that and the four-foot seven-inch "Grandma" holding onto a metal-detecting wand like she wanted to beat someone with it was nowhere near the list.

Once past the security area of the lobby, I made my way to the check-in area where I was given a form to fill out and told to wait "in there." As I made my way into the waiting room, I saw several others who were just as discouraged and upset as I was to be there. So many people... how could we all be there for the same thing? Why us? Why now? Each of us were once strangers and now, for the first time ever, look each other in the eye, knowing that it was not just coincidence that brought us together. I could see it in their eyes... no matter what political, religious, ethnic, or socio-economic background, it was evident that everyone knew there were greater forces at work bringing us into this room.

It was going on 8.30am and I was starting to wonder when things were going to get started. I just wanted the day to end, to pay my dues the government, and be done with it. Finally, an official-looking gentleman approached a podium and addressed us all. He started out by explaining how great America's court system is -- how it was established at the beginnings of our American time to be objective and fair to every person of every walk of life. How interesting he would say that after my earlier surreal reflection on the group that was now staring back at him.

He closed with a few other nice words and told us we'd be watching a twenty minute video to help educate us about the American judicial system. He knew that many of us would need it since it was our first time being selected for jury duty.

... to be continued ...

A Saturday morning

I took the kids downtown again last Saturday for the Farmer's Market around the capitol square. I do enjoy taking the kids places where they can learn more about the places that are outside of our neighborhood. We did the typical walk around the square with the mass of other people who were at the market as well. I never feel more like a salmon than when I am at the Farmer's Market -- even more than when on the highway during rush hour.

After our traditional walk around the square, the kids always want to go up to the balcony of the capitol building. It is open to the public and goes completely around the capitol dome, so you can see a lot of downtown and the lakes in all directions. At the time, it was everything Allison wanted in the world just to go up to the balcony. When we got there, she took one look over the edge and wanted to leave. :( I held her the entire time and of course never went near the railing.

As it was approaching noon, we made our way back down the capitol building for some lunch. A quick stop at the drinking fountain outside the capitol building gave Isaac some time to do a little show-boating for the public.

So... with lunch in our tummies, cookies and cheese curds in hand, we headed out to one of their favorite parks where there just happened to be a carnival going on, and boy, do our kids love carnivals. They enjoyed their cookies at the park and the many things to do there without pressing too much to ride the carnival rides. After a very busy morning and afternoon, we headed home where I was hoping we'd all enjoy nice long naps, but oh no.. not our kids. Silly kids. Don't they know I'm old?