11.16.2011

Jury Duty

Last monday I had scheduled jury duty. It was my first time ever walking into a court house. I arrived thinking that I would have to go through the motions and be on my way home by lunch time. That wasn't the case. I got picked pretty much right away to serve on a 3 or more day jury. It was a rape case with 4 charges of rape and 1 of assault and battery. It was mentally and physically emotional. By the end of the day I just wanted to lay in my bed, fetal position, and sleep. I couldn't believe the things I heard. People are sick. I don't even want to give you details about the "planned sex fest weekend" that they had that turned to "rape". The deliberations took about 7 hours. The verdict was not guilty on all counts of rape but guilty with assault and battery. There was just not enough evidence and we couldn't prove without a reasonable doubt that he was guilty. We could with the assault charge. I personally think he was not guilty. But I still think he is a sick and nasty man and so is she.
He is serving 18 months at the state correction facility. Most likely he will serve only 3 months out of the 18 months. He also has to register as a sex offender and he has a fine.
It was my first time in a court house and hopefully my last.

Motherly instincts kicking in

I think it's cute watching Charlotte play with her baby dolls. It's rare these days to see Charlotte without her baby stroller. She loves strolling that thing around the house.




11.02.2011

Halloween Festivities

We had fun filled Halloween festivities for 3 days. It all started on friday night. My Church hosted a Harvest Party for the kids that was a huge hit. They had 2 bouncy houses (is that what you call them?) several crafts, games and delicious carnival themed food: fried dough, popcorn, cotton candy, carmel apples and loads of candy to snack on. The kids had a blast!
Saturday night, my brother Anthony and his wife Lisa hosted a Halloween party. We even had a snow storm that evening that gave us 3 inches of snow. Yuck!
Monday, Halloween, was a busy one. It started at 1:30pm when Henry's School had a costume parade for kindergarten & 1st grade. It was so cute seeing my little pirate walk around waving at people. Jude loved watching all the kids in their costumes. He would yell "Hi wolverine" "Hi Spiderman" when they would walk by. My little skunk just sat and stared sitting in her stroller. After the parade we gave Henry an early dismissal (most kids left) went home, had a snack and off to visit several family members.
Aunty Aunty is in a nursing home with a fractured hip so we stopped by so she could see the kids in their costumes. It put a huge smile on her face. Then to my Grandmothers who gave them each a dollar! That was pretty special to them. Final visiting stop was at my parents house. My mom had special halloween treats for the kids in cute little bags. Then we picked Jason up at the train and headed to our friend Leah and Clarrence's house to go trick or treating and a chili dinner afterwards.
It was so much fun walking around with a huge group of people, there were about 18 kids, it was crazy fun!






Captain Jack Sparrow aka Henry Tait was the handsomest pirate I've ever seen. You should have seen Henry's eyes bug out of his head when he saw the pile of candy that he and his siblings collected. He totally loved every minutes of the Halloween festivities.



Our crazy Jude was black Spider Man. He is a funny little dude. He didn't take that mask off for days. He loved trick or treating, but mostly he loves eating the candy.



Our little stinker. She was the cutest skunk I have ever seen


Charlotte was so funny walking around trick or treating, like she's been doing it for years. It even sounded like she was saying "trick or treat" when she went up to retrieve her candy. She carefully selected what piece she wanted. She even hip checked a couple kids to get to the door first. It was hilarious!

Yup, it's a gum ball machine.