It's funny being a parent

Being a parent it is funny to see the things that excite you that you used to think were silly or even gross. For example, today was the second time that Riley pooped in the toilet. You would have thought I won the lottery!! Honestly, even Riley was laughing to see how excited I was getting. We aren't into doing underwear all day or anything, but we are going in the right direction.

Another thing that I notice a ton is how many police, ambulance, and fire trucks are around. Riley calls them "light cars" and will make the siren noise everytime. Even when he is not in the car with me I still notice them and can hear his little voice make the noise. I also know all of the correct terms for construction equipment (ie. bull dozers, backhoes, front end loaders, man lifts etc.) I love having a boy!

Ypsi High revisited

This past Friday was my 10 year high school reunion. I had heard about it from a few people I had graduated with over the last few months and knew I wanted to go. This may be a shock to most of you because I will frequently talk about how much I hate running into people I knew from high school. I wanted to go however because it was under a different situation. It wasn't like I was running to Wal-mart in my jammies and happened to run into someone I hadn't seen in 10 years. I looked cute (thanks Biggest Loser) and I had a beautiful family to talk about. It was different being around school people again because I mostly hang out with LDS people, but it was fun. I reconnected with some of my good friends whom I hadn't seen in a long time. (of course I always have run into people that I wasn't really friends with at places like walmart). Here are some pictures from it.My gorgeous friend Hoodo who I had known for a long time and was so happy to see.

Erica, Anna, JD and myself.

Me and my sweetie. He was an amazing date. He was a champ at talking to people he had never met. It made me love him even more.

Cute Things

Being Riley's mom I am lucky enough to see the funny things he does on a day to day basis. When I try to catch these funny things on camera I am usually foiled by being too slow or the fact that Riley loves to see himself on camera now a days and would rather watch old videos of himself than let me take new ones.

The most recent funny thing that I just love is when I am unloading the dishwasher and I get finished unloading the little basket that holds the silverware Riley runs over, grabs the basket and walks away saying "bye bye work". Like he is leaving for work with his little basket. He does this with Chris' scripture case or any other basket shaped object. We got a video of him doing it but I can't seem to get it uploaded. If I figure out how to do it I will post it.

Another cute thing that he does is when he bumps or falls and starts crying we ask him if he got a "big boo-boo" or a "baby boo-boo". If it is a big boo-boo we give kisses and he recovers pretty quick. If it is a baby boo-boo then he just shruggs it off and is happy that we accknowledged his boo-boo.

Just thought I would share. I wish you all could see his cuteness for yourselves. But you will just have to take my word for it.

Midnight Sun

For those of you who are Twilight fans you have to read Midnight Sun. It is basically Twilight from Edward's point of view. Stephanie Meyer has a potion of it available on her website and I just finished it last night and it was amazing and totally makes me hungry for more. It makes me realize why I love Edward so much. It is because he LOVES Bella so much. I loved being in his head and having all of the time with the Cullen family. UGH!! I can't wait until the rest comes out. If you haven't read it yet, DO IT!! You won't regret it.

And the verdict was....

Guilty...unfortunately. I felt he was guilty, but it was a hard day. We deliberated for a while on Wednesday and still were undecided so we all took the opportunity to sleep on it and came back Thursday and talked for another few hours and decided on guilty. It was an armed robbery case and it turns out that this was the guy's 4th felony he was charged with. I started to cry when we walked into the court room and the poor guy was in his hand cuffs because they brought him from prison. It was a hard thing to see.

There were so many things that I wished were different in this world. The lawyers mentioned that he had a bunch of foster brothers and it just seemed like no one really cared about this kid. It all makes me want to mentor kids or something to show kids that they can be kids and that someone cares about them. It makes me want to love Riley so much and makes me grateful for the church. It was a good opportunity.

Juror #7

I have always wanted to go in for jury duty. I thought it always looked so exciting to be one of the people to decide the fate of some "bad guy" and to be in on all of the information. I also wanted to see what the big deal was about. It seems like everyone always complains about getting jury duty. My favorite part in "The Grinch" is when the Grinch is in the mail room and he starts throwing mail into everyone's slots shouting things like "Jury duty, pink slip, eviction notice etc."

I went in Tuesday morning for jury duty and was actually picked to sit in a trial. I was second to last to be chosen and I was given the juror #7 (my lucky number). I can not give any specifics but let's just say that it is not as glamorous as I had once imagined. I am thankful for our judicial system and am glad that I can do my "civic duty", but having someone else's life in my hands is hard. I can give more specifics after tomorrow because the case should be over.