Two Violin Concerts

Ryanna had two violin concerts this month. She did excellent in both and I thought I'd share her songs. This first video is Gavotte from Mignon. Unfortunately we only were able to practice with this piano player one time and as you can see from the performance, she wasn't able to quite keep up with the violin. This performance was the first time Ryanna has started the song instead of having an introduction by the piano. She did awesome!!!!

The second video is Ryanna playing Minuet in G by Beethoven. I think the trickiest thing about this song is the bowing. Remembering whether you're supposed to be going up a second time or down. I thought she did really well in this performance too. She really rises to the occasion--so different than I am in front of a crowd. I get soooo nervous for her, but she's always ready. I'm so proud of all of her hard work. We only have to put together this last couple measures of Minuet by Boccherini and we're on to book three!

Unfortunately, Blogger is being ridiculous and after an entire day of trying to load the second video, I have given up and posted it on youtube instead. The link is here.

Jury Duty

So, I got the jury summons in the mail over a month ago and instead of trying to get out of it like I have before (nursing, stay at home mom, etc, etc) I decided to go ahead and play the odds. I thought to myself, "A lot of these juries never even get called in. The odds that I'll have to go in are slim." Well, apprarently I should never go to Vegas.
I called yesterday after 4:30 as per the instructions, to find out that I would have to call in again today at 11:00. This seemed a bit crazy to me. I couldn't really plan anything for the day given that I didn't know if I'd have to be in downtown Phoenix for half the day. Well, when I called in, I found out I would have to report to the court at 1:00!!! I frantically called Derek and he had to rush home, so that I, in turn, could rush out to the court.
I do have to say that I would describe the screening process as part speed dating and part Alcoholics Anonymous meeting--at least that's my imagined take given I've never participated in either activity. The judge summoned all 45 of us to his court and he asked several broad questions to us and if the question was true for us, we had to raise our juror number. I was lucky #37 by the way--way back in the pack.
Questions like:
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or criminal offense or are you closely related to someone who has been?
My first thought was no and then I immediately remembered that someone I'm very closely related to has spent time in jail. I'll leave you all in suspense wondering who and what they did. Although we weren't allowed to leave the judge in suspense because we had to confess the person's relationship to us as well as their convicted crime. Out of our group of 45 I would say 15 people had either been convicted themselves or were closely related to someone who had a DUI. YIKES!!! That was shocking to me.
He also asked us if any of us had ever done meth or knew someone who had. About a third of our group said they knew someone who had.
He followed that up by asking if we knew someone who was addicted to meth--about the same number replied in the affirmative again!
After asking the entire group the random questions, we then had to go through and stand up and state our juror number and what we did for a living and how long we had been doing that job and what our spouse did and the name of their company and how long they had worked there and the ages of our kids that were under 18 years of age.
This was my favorite part because I love to learn about people and I found myself being able to actually remember a lot of the juror numbers and associate professions or stories with their numbers.
For example--juror number 9 had a son who had been in drug rehab last year from April thru October. I also remember his occupation and that he is single with only one child.
Juror number two and I spoke before going in and she had been selected for jury duty previously and was not picked and was a little disappointed that she hadn't made the cut. (The judge told us not to take it personally).
Juror 44 had worked for the postal service for 25 years and had been the president of one of its union organizations.
Juror 45 worked for Lockheed Martin (sp?) and had sat as a juror for two previous juries which were both criminal trials.
Juror 36 had four teenagers ages 16, 15, 15 and 15. Not triplets, but twins and a child from her husband's previous marriage.
I actually knew juror number 28 from meeting her at a party at Christmas. We were the only two jurists who knew each other.
Juror 38 worked for Schwann's and had a friend who was a cop who lied in his grand jury testimony.
Juror 25 had a conviction for drug possession from 20 years ago. She also was a single mother with two children.
Juror 40 was a forensic architect which I thought sounded like the coolest profession of any of us in the room.
Juror 4 had sat on a jury 20 years ago where he was certain that a guilty guy went unpunished and he said he was not certain he could be impartial.
Juror 5 had dated a cop and a guy who claimed he was a secret agent--we all laughed at that. Even the judge jokingly asked her, "And I suppose he worked for the CIA?"
Juror 11 had had to testify in a trial against her own son.
There are other details I remember about the other jurists, but I don't remember their numbers.
So, I ended up not being summoned for duty, but I did think the whole process was fascinating. Long, and very uncomfortable given that I saw sitting on a hard, wooden pew almost the whole time, but still fascinating.

Valentine Wreath

Psst! Come here...

A little closer...

Whoa!!! Too close!

There, that's about right.

So, my cousin made a wreath like this and I just loved it, so I tried one myself. I think hers turned out cuter, but it was still neat to try something new. Want to make one too? Click here.

The BIG Reveal

So...this is what we've been up to the last 12 weeks:

Look at those great legs!

I like this shot because you can see the umbilical cord wrapped around the leg.

Getting ready to suck his thumb?

No more photos please!

And, even though we are only twelve weeks--the ultra sound tech said that with 95% certainty that it's a BOY! Can you believe they can tell so early? Other interesting tidbits--baby's heart rate was 162 beats a minute. They could even tell that the egg came from my right ovary. We also listened to the blood flow from my ovaries to make sure that everything was okay. So, our official due date is August 4--only three days away from my own birthday. What a great present!

LOST

When Derek and I ventured down to Cancun in August, I brought along the first season of LOST. Neither of us had watched it while it was on TV, but a lot of our friends had enjoyed it, so I thought that while we were resting in the evenings (it's a lot of work drinking daiquiris and lounging by the pool) we could watch it.
Needless to say that we became addicted. I mean to say that we just finished all six years of this series last night. Though it seems like a lot of TV to watch, we actually watched quite a few episodes on our computer, so that doesn't count. Plus, without commercials, a LOST episode is only just over 42 minutes.
Now, as we were watching the very last episode last night, I couldn't help but thinking, "What?" as the last scene ended. That Jack was dead I got. That everyone with him in the church was dead also made sense. However, what confused me was the individual deaths of each person that met on the island. Did they all just die when the plane first crashed? That seems pretty lame. Did they all die when Juliette exploded the bomb? Maybe... Luckily for me, there are several sites out there that offer up explanations for all of this and after reading them, I feel much more enlightened.
I do have to wonder, since a show's producers can never know how long a show will last, if the intended purpose of the show was how it turned out. I loved all of the character flashbacks from their lives--whether their lives before the plane crash or their "lives" after death before they reunited. I just think that originally, the show was probably going to just feature the Others and go from there. I definitely give props to the producers who were brilliant enough to tie so many different things together. I wish all shows made me think like this.

Dapper

[da-per]: neat; trim; smart

Those Petersen kids looked dapper in their Sunday clothes!

I had to laugh because the third definition said: "small and active" and if that doesn't describe my children I don't know what does!

Family Photos

You know how these sessions go--you're telling your screaming, frowning, pouting child how much you love their sweet, little smile and how you will buy them a pony and put a swimming pool in the backyard if they will just smile. You're even resorting to saying the most ridiculous phrases ("pickles in pantyhose!"). You're even wondering if those potty words your child always giggles about would make them laugh right now. There is nothing you won't promise, won't say. Really what you want to be saying is, "I will spank you and put you in a time out and feed you liver and lima beans for the next week if you ruin this classy ensemble that I spent hours putting together." But you can't say those things even though you feel them to your very depths because once a child cries, you get that ugly, red, blotchy face that photoshop can't work out. I think these photograhy sessions are such an exercise in restraint and bad parenting.

Despite all this, I get so excited when I see that a fellow blogger has posted their family photos. I don't know, it's so magical to see everyone dressed up all matchy (not too matchy--that's lame) and looking so sweet. I don't know how everyone else's experience is, but I only got about 30 seconds of smiling from Owen. I was all out of bribes and Derek was all out of kindness, so this is what we got. I do love them and I do love my friend for taking them. So, if you're looking for a talented photographer, just let me know!