Uncle Nate

On Saturday Jake and Sylvia asked us to watch Tori while they went to their ward party that they were in charge of. Nate is Theo, their dog's buddy because he'll play catch with him for hours. Theo always likes to be by Nate. Tori likes Nate too. She would crawl over to him and want him to hold her. Uncle Nate had a lap full! I know it's not the best pic because I took it with my phone, but it was just too cute!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! And I'm not talking about Christmas. That's right folks - it's that time of year when all the stars align. Baseball playoffs are on, college football is in full swing, and don't forget the NBA preseason is getting started! Who could ask for anything more? It's ESPN 24/7 at our house these days!

Have you done your civic duty?

For never having had much interaction with the court system I sure have had a lot of experience with it this year.

Yesterday I had the "pleasure" of being summoned for jury duty and doing my "civic duty". I was summoned back in June but the case was settled out of court and I didn't have to go in which was nice because we were going out of town that weekend. My name was put back into the pool to be randomly selected. Well it came back up this week and I had to go in this time. The jury selection was an interesting process. I was a little annoyed because it seemed like a lot of people were trying to get out of having to be on the jury. There was another pregnant lady there and she raised her hand and said that she physically wouldn't be able to be on the jury because she has to get up every hour or so. I was so bugged - yes I'm pregnant, yes it's good to get up and move around, but really? Just let me shift around in my chair and I'll be fine - which is what I told the judge. However, I was not selected to be on the jury - which I was somewhat relieved about although it wouldn't have been the end of the world. When they said that it was a jury of 4 I knew my chances of being selected were pretty slim with 40 other people there. I was surprised that the defendant was involved in the jury selection and was discussing with his attorney who he wanted to be on the jury. I thought he would have to be out of the room.

Earlier in the year I had to testify as a witness in a preliminary case for some fraud that I caught at work. The judge ruled there was enough evidence to go to trial. I was subpoenaed again in July to testify in the jury trial, but luckily the dumb guy decided to plead guilty the day before his trial. Thank goodness!

Even though the court system isn't perfect - I'm glad that I've had some opportunities to understand it better and to see how it all works. I've been very impressed with the judges and do not envy their job one bit!

Working Mom vs. Stay at Home

So we have a lot of change and decisions coming our way. One of the choices I'm debating with is whether to stay at home and be a full time "Mom" or whether to continue working. I have no intention of working full time because it really wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for us right now, but I've thought about working 10-15 hours a week. I've worked so hard to get to the point that I'm at in my job and it's hard to just throw it all out the door. Nate and I could probably work our schedules out where he could be home while I'm at work.

My mom was around when we were younger and still worked, but our situation was somewhat unique - because we had the family business we just went to work with her when she went. Nate's mom teaches piano out of her home so she was around as well. But things are so much different from when our parents were raising young kids.

With the cost of everything increasing it's getting harder and harder to live only on one income especially if we are going to try to buy a house in the somewhat near future. I'm curious how you all came to the decisions that you did about whether to work or not. If you don't have kids yet what do you intend to do, or what did your mom do? It seems that everyone has an opinion on the matter, I'd love to hear yours!

Just for the record I don't think there is a right or wrong decision. I think everyone has a unique situation and that what works for one family doesn't work for another.