Easter =)

I haven't written in awhile so I'm going back to Easter Sunday. We all got together on Sunday for our Easter egg hunt. We have our tradition we have been doing since we were kids. Riddles hidden in plastic eggs all over the house. Each riddle leads to the next clue until they have found all their eggs. Last riddle leads them to their basket. We made Corbin and Noveigh's pretty hard this year but still the zipped right though them. We have some smart kids and we under estimated them lol

After our riddle hunt we take all their colored hard boiled eggs and we hide them outside. We do a toddler section and then a big kid section. The toddlers found them pretty fast but the big kids struggled!! Before we were even done Noveigh fell and while tryin to catch herself on the fence sliced her hand open. Was very gross and poor thing had to have her hand in a bandage for the rest of the day. It put a stop the egg hunt.

We all went home to nap, shower and change. Then back to my Mom's house for a wonderful Turkey dinner.

It was a great day other then Noveigh's hand. Here are a few pictures below.

Jury Duty

I haven't posted in a few weeks. Guess I went through a busy patch there for a bit. With Hula shows, Family members coming back from Hawaii and Baseball starting....we got busy.

I wanted to write a blog about my Jury Duty experience, cause it was just that....quite an experience!

Couple months ago I got my summons to appear in court for Grand Jury. I didn't realize this was different then regular Jury but once I read into it I then understood the difference. The morning I was supposed to be in court we got our first and last snow of the season....and all courts were closed! I was thrilled I didn't have to go. I was secretly hoping that this meant my name would go back into the system and it wouldn't be rescheduled. Well I was wrong, I received a 2ND summons for April 6th, this past Monday.

I'm pretty sure I could have gotten out of it being that I'm a SAHM and all. But being that my kids are older and David was off that day I decided to suck it up and just go.

Getting there sucked because it was raining. I was wearing dress close and my car has been acting up and wouldn't start. Then I couldn't find a parking spot and I was running late. My coffee thermos was leaking everywhere even though it was brand new @@ It was a rough morning.

I walked into the little room with chairs and I walked up to the desk to sign in. She asked my name and then said "Oh you are Grand jury you don't have to sign in". I then was put in a smaller room with a few other people and we just waited. In the end there were 8 of us...I guess the 9th person was a no show.
We only waited about 10mins and then we were lead out of the room and into the actual courtroom. We were put in the Jury box and then asked to rise as the judge came in. The judge then explained our job to us and said that we had 8 people but only needed 7. So he looked through our name list and picked the person at the bottom of the list (alphabetically) and it was a lady who was the ONLY person after me on the list @@ She then got to leave...lucky her lol

He then explained that he had to pick a Foreperson, this person would be the leader of the group and had to sign all the documents. He looked on the list again and picked the 2nd to the last person....which was ME! Omg I just about died, I did NOT want to be the Foreperson...little meek, quiet ole me ...be the leader of a group?? I was terrified!

We then were lead into the jury room right off the court. One by one different police officers came in to present their cases to us. They were from all different areas of the law...drugs, theft, homicide, investigator, regular cop.....each person had a stack of cases they had to present.

They had to read over the police report and evidence and we had to decide if it should move on to trial. I then had to sign all the papers...ended up being 160 indictments that I had to sign...my hand hurt when were done lol

The very first person who came in the room was an Investigator. He had to read us 2 different cases of female abduction...same guy but 2 different girls. This was graphic detail that I really didn't need to hear. I think it shocked us all cause it was right in the beginning. They were long reports and he read it word for word (shudder). Of course when he was done were like "um yeah of course it needs to go to trial"....well I think it said he admitted to it as well so it was a no brainer.

In fact we ended up passing all of the cases, they were all very cut and dry. None of them were as bad as the first one which is good. But there were a lot of drug cases, a few murders but not graphic mainly punk kids with guns and fights. I guess our little city of Hampton isn't that bad lol I would be scared to do that in a bigger city...I can only imagine the stuff you'd have to listen to =( One girl asked the Homicide cop how often he has to deal with murders and he said it wasn't that often. He said Newport news was worse! Made me feel better lol No offense to all those NN people but made me happy to live in Hampton...especially when everyone thinks Hampton is crappy lol

After we had went through all the cases it was just about 1130am....we went through it fast! We sat and waited to get called back into the courtroom. Come to find out the Judge forgot we were in there and he went to lunch @@ lol He got called back and then dismissed us. I was home before 1230!

So although I had been dreading my Jury Duty it turned out to be very interesting. I learned a lot about the legal system...as well as drug lingo lol like that will come in handy.

Definitely worth those few hours of my time and the 30bucks i'll get lol

few pics I took of the boys

St Patty's day/ My birthday

For my Bithday my wonderful Husband sent me to the spa. It was a full day with a 90min massage, facial, Mani, Pedi, and haircut and style.

I walked away from the day feeling relaxed and beautified. We had plans that night to go out for St Patty's day. Something I do every year for my birthday.

David's friends owns a Limo and he said we could use it for the night, it was a beautiful silver stretch limo...it make the night amazing....and all we had to pay was the driver's tip =)

Here are some pictures from the night.

Let's go fly a kite

We had a beautiful week last week. While most of my family was in Hawaii dealing with constant rain we were having 80degree weather!! Haha sucks to be them lol

We went to Hunington park with some friends. There were a bunch of families there flying kites and they were so kind to let our kids fly them as well. Corbin and his buddy Noah found a plastic bag and some string and made their own make shift kite.

Here are a few pictures of the boys flying kites on that beautiful day!!

Pee dropoff

So this past week I had to take my Mom, Neely, Ethan and Neely's kids to the air port. As we were leaving Neely asks me if I can do a HUGE favor for her. She had 2 sets of Urine samples that needed to be delivered to her Doctor that very day. Being that I'm an awesome Sister I said of course!

Neely has many medical issues. She had her back surgery a year ago but even before that she had issues with her Kidneys. Come to find out she has one good Kidney and one that barely functions. She also had kidney stones on a pretty constant basis. The girl has been on medication for a year now due to her back and kidneys.

Well recently she was having some issues again so that's what these urine samples were for....they had to be tested. So after I take them to the air port at the butt crack of dawn I got home to continue on with my day.

Landon had speech so I wasn't able to get to the Dr office till after 1pm. Neely told me it was in Port Warwick but I didn't know what building I was supposed to take it into...I didn't even know her Drs name @@

So I got to the first building, drag the kids and this bag filled with urine and we head inside. The woman at the desks confirms that we are in the wrong building and told me to try a different place. We then load back into the car and head to where she told me to go. We then unload again just to find that I went to the freaking ambulance entrance @@
We then Reload, drive to the other side of the building unload and then head inside. I wait till I get called and we walk up to the lady at the desk. She tells me that I am in the right building but that she will need a Dr order for me to drop off the samples. Of course I have no Dr order and I don't even know his name. At that very moment Neely was on a plane heading for Hawaii and no way of contacting her. The lady was pretty rude to me so I got a little snippy back and I asked her what she expected me to do with the urine in my bag. She told me I had to go home and put it back in the fridge.....ugh.

So I left being very frustrated and took the samples back to Neelys house to store in her fridge. I kept trying to get ahold of Neely or my mom with no luck. Finally Chris calls me and asks me to try and take it back. He gave me the Dr name and number....so Friday I went back.

This time I knew the building but again couldn't get there till after 1pm. I go in and this lady wasn't as rude as the last one. She tells me that I need to call the Dr office and have them fax the order to them. So I sit in the waiting room trying to call this Dr office....only to get a constant busy signal...wtf? Why would a Dr office be busy nonstop? The ladies kept looking at me and asking if I got thru yet...which I eventually did about 20mins later @@. As you can imagine my kids were bored out of their mind waiting and getting antsy.
I finally get through and the nurse lady tells met hat it could take up to 30mins to fax...what???
I explain this to woman where I was at and they thought that was insane...so they started calling his office and told them that it was urgent so they sped it up a bit.
The order was FINALLY sent, and then someone came down to the lobby to pick up the urine..I had to sign papers and answer questions...this wasn't for me so I felt very odd about it all.
But once that lady took the bag from me and I was rid of it all a HUGE weight was lifted off me. I was sooooooooo done dealing with it. I knew it was important but it should not have been the hassle it was.

Next time someone asks me to drop off their pee for them I'm going to have to decline!

This weekend

Friday night David, the boys and I drove up to DC so I could attend a Hula workshop the next day.
David's old coworker Marty was so kind to offer his house to us so I could get a good nights sleep before having to dance all day Saturday. We didn't get to Marty's till about 9pm that night due to David getting stuck in tunnel traffic coming home from work.
Marty was up and waiting for us, we let the boys watch some tv before I put them to bed. After they were asleep David, Marty and myself sat outside with a glass of wine and chatted. I really hadn't spoken to Marty much before then. He's a 60yr old man who lives alone and seems quite lonely. I enjoyed his company and found that he was actually a very interesting guy. I headed to bed after my wine and the men stayed up for a bit after that.

I had to be up by 7am the next morning to get ready and drive the hour drive to Arlington. I struggled a bit on Saturday but Marty being the kinda man he is had gotten up and made me coffee to take on the road.
I was very lucky I didn't hit any DC traffic, I actually got there 30mins early. I had time to get a bottle of water at Rite aid and relax my nerves a bit. I was very anxious and nervous about attending this workshop. Mainly because I was doing it ALONE. Last year all of us Hula girls went together. I felt very strange not knowing anyone(or so I thought)

At about 915 I decided to head inside and check in. As I was walking towards the check in table a girl stopped me and said "Jenna?, it's me Kristen from the BF group". It took me a second to figure out what she was talking about but when I realized I was shocked! This is a girl that I have ONLY known online. About 8yrs ago I was part of a BF online support group and she was one of the girls. We have stayed in touch and check in ever so often with eachother. So 8yrs later I run into her at a Hula workshop of all places....how odd is that? lol
Turns out her Mother is the one has danced the longest, so she came with her mother, sister who both dance a little bit. She had never done it before but thought it would be fun to try. It was a pleasant surprise to see a familiar face even if it was someone I had never met in person.

The Workshop went very well, I learned a lot about the Kahiko style of Hula which is the ancient style...lots of Chanting and playing of the Ipu drum. It was very cool and I loved being there. It also was great exercise. We danced from 10am to 12pm straight with tiny water breaks in between. Then we had lunch from 12 to 1pm and then danced again till 3pm. I have to say today I am hurting!!!! lol

While I was there David, Marty and the boys went fishing, had lunch, went to a park...they had gotten back to his house right before I showed up around 5pm. We left shortly after that to head back home.

We got home around 830 and then had some friends over to hang out for awhile. Rachel and John came over and we put their two kids and mine in the Tv room with a movie and they all fell asleep. We then hung out on my porch till we all got tired and wanted to head to bed.

Today, well i'm just glad to be home and after the exhausting day yesterday I just want to veg. I'm still in my Pj's and don't plan on doing much today lol