Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

As part of a behavior modification experiment, Molly and Jack earned a fish.  It took all summer to earn enough stickers on the fish chart, but they finally did it.  They each picked a beta fish and we are now pet owners.  

Molly names hers "Princess Sparkle" and Jack named his "James."  

Before the week was up, Princess Sparkle died.  Molly had a rough morning when we found her floating at the top of the fish bowl.  She thought that since her fish died she would have to earn her stickers all over again.  Luckily, that wasn't the case.  Pet Smart has a 2 week guarantee on beta fish.  Molly was able to pick a new fish and this one she named "Princess Bella."

The next installment in the pet saga was that James kept jumping the gate to get to Bella.  We couldn't figure out how he did it, but he did it at least 3 times.  He was totally freaking her out and the last thing we wanted was mating betas.  We finally figured that if we kept the water level below a certain height, he couldn't get to her an things were fine. 

And thus . . . the fish live one.  They even survived a babysitter during our trip to Disneyland.

Family Photos

Soccer, Teeth, and Labor Day Weekend

Molly lost her first tooth while eating a piece of pizza a Costco.  It was pretty exciting.  She was brave and actually thought the whole thing was pretty cool.  She wanted to tell everyone, including random strangers also enjoying a Costco snack.

A couple of days later, she lost a second tooth.  Unfortunately, she decided that tooth needed to be washed and it ended up down the drain.  

Jack is playing soccer.  He's on Quinn's team and Ross is the coach.  He's a pretty good little soccer player.

Alicia came to town and we got to hang out with her a little bit on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.  On Labor Day, Alicia left, but we went to the Hill Air Force Museum and looked at big airplanes.

First Day of School

Molly - 1st day of 1st Grade

Jack - 1st day of Last Year at Spartan Station full time

Me - 1st day of Year 9 at Murray High School and Year 14 career teaching

Jury Duty

I was called to do my civic duty a couple of weeks ago . . . JURY DUTY!  Here is my story.

I was secretly kind of excited to do it.  I had never been called to jury duty before and I was interested to learn about the process. I called the phone number the night before and I was told to report the next morning.  I was secretly relieved that I actually got to go because I'd spent some significant time putting sub plans together and I didn't want that time to be wasted.  I was also secretly hoping to be done by lunchtime and have a few hours to chill before going to pick up my kids.  Ha!  Never my luck.

The process started by putting 22 of us in a small room while we read about the jury selection process and prepared our statements to 17 different questions ranging from job description, names of children, sources of news, and favorite movie.

We all gave our statements while we sat and stared at the attorneys, the defendant, and the judge.  It was a bit high-pressure.

After all 22 of us spoke, the attorneys slid a piece of paper back and forth, crossing out names.  This took a few minutes and then they handed the paper to the judge to read the 5 jurors (4 plus an alternate) who would actually stay and listen to the case.

I was chosen along with another school teacher, a single mom who works as a bookkeeper for a small contracting company, and this crazy brawless hippy lady who homeschools her kids and used the phrase, "birth is my passion."  Ug.

The case was really dumb and painful. It was a domestic violence dispute.  There was drinking involved.  Calls from a baby daddy in jail.  Children were present.  Stories changed.

When it was all said and done, we took about 45 minutes to deliberate.  We had so many questions that couldn't be answered that we had to find the defendant not guilty despite the fact that all of the parties involved should have been found guilty of being idiots and nuisances on society.