Well I called yesterday and got my jury duty all figured out. Apparently they got one name from the DMV and one name from Voter Registration. So how they got my name 2 different ways, I'm still not sure - because I did all the DMV and Voter Registration stuff at the same time at the same place. So apparently I have to contact the DMV to figure out how to get my name adjusted... I still think it is super crazy that I got randomly selected for 2 weeks in a row.
But anyways, they excused me for the second week and then I mentioned that I had also submitted a request for an excuse. Apparently that had not been processed yet or something, so I explained my reasons and she took care of excusing me over the phone.
So, no jury duty for me. Hooray!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
jury duty
When I was in college - probably 2003, I was summoned for jury duty. I got it postponed for when I would be home in the summer. I didn't mind having to do it - except that I was working at a Bagel store that had a small staff, and I never knew until the night before if I would have to go in or not, so it was a little tough from that aspect. (Plus not working = no paycheck for poor college student). I was called in one day and went through jury selection, but didn't get selected. Got called in the next day, went through jury selection, and got selected as a juror. I don't remember if the trial started that day or the next. But it was only 3 days total that I had to go in. The trial was only a day or day and a half, so not too bad. I can't imagine the people who get selected for big cases that take weeks or months. I was totally bored just sitting through one day.
Fast forward to 2009. Living in a different county. I get a letter summoning me for jury duty. My number was selected to report in the second to last day. So I went in and it was odd that I knew 2 other jurors there - one was the teacher I student taught for in college. Sat around in the waiting room for a few hours before I was chosen to go to a jury selection. I did not get selected for the trial. Guessing maybe because it was about a lady who was run off the road by a semi truck and I had been rear-ended by a semi in college...so they probably figured I'd be a little biased... So anyways, I was glad I didn't get selected - they were expecting the trial to take a few days to a week, which I didn't want to do. Plus I was like 8 weeks pregnant and needed to go to the bathroom frequently, so don't think I could have handled having to sit there all day.
So now we are in another county - different state completely and about 10 days ago, I got a letter in the mail summoning me for jury duty the week of April 23rd. So first I was like, seriously? Again??? 3rd time in 10 years? But I decided to request an excuse to get out of it. This stay at home mom wants to stay at home with my little guy - and the friends I have here who watch Gabe for me on occasion have their own kids and schedules, and it would be asking a lot to have them watch him for potentially 5 or more 10+ hour days.. (Plus the courthouse is over an hour away (one way) and I know they are supposed to reimburse for gas/mileage, but that's a lot of time on the road) So we faxed the request to be excused in last week.
Then, 2 days ago, I got another jury letter. At first I thought, shoot, they denied my request or want more information. But then I opened it and it was another jury summons for the week of April 30th. And then I thought, OK, well they denied my request but pushed my time back a week. But then I looked closer and realized that they had my name two different ways. The first one was to: Rietz, Katie Dyanne Sjodin. The second one was to: Sjodinrietz, Katie Dyanne.
So, now I'm really confused. Apparently I am somehow in the system under 2 names. How the heck did that happe???. And how it the world did I "randomly" get selected 2 weeks in a row??? Bizarre... apparently I need to make some phone calls tomorrow to figure this out.... :-/
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Back in California...
Well, Gabe & I just got back from a 2 week trip to MN. We had a good time, and of course it went way too fast - as always. :-(
We drove to Vegas on Sunday afternoon and spent the night at a hotel, then took the shuttle on Monday to the airport. The timing of the shuttle worked out so we had about 3 hours at the airport before boarding, so it got a bit long. Luckily we were in the newer terminal and there was a kids play area, that Gabe ran around in for a while. We got to Duluth Monday night, and spent the next few nights at some friends' house. Of course, Gabe was on California time and didn't have his own bed, so I had a few late nights trying to get him to settle down and sleep. Over the next couple days I got to see quite a few friends, went to MOPS (which I really miss - it's definitely not the same here), had dinner with my aunt, uncle & cousin, and got to meet a few new babies!
My sister came up and picked us up Thursday afternoon and brought us down to C.R. While home, I got to see a few more friends and lots of family, go to a Tupperware party (I love love love the new bowls I ordered!), go to a benefit for a friend's sister's baby (whom I also got to meet the next day!). Also made a cake for my cousin's daughter's birthday party, which was also a good time. The cake didn't turn out quite how I wanted - I had planned to spend more time on parts of it earlier in the week, but wasn't feeling the greatest for a couple days, so wasn't in the mood to work on it. But it turned out pretty well and everyone said it tasted good.
After a quick 2 weeks, my mom brought us back up to Duluth to fly back to Vegas. The Duluth airport was a bit of an experience - it's very small and kind of old. And once you go through security, you are stuck in a glass panel enclosed room. There were no bathrooms (And I am one of the people always running to the bathroom right before they begin boarding - but not this time...) . And no food. Just a vending machine with pop and water. There weren't enough seats for everyone. And it had to have been at least 80 degrees in there. To make matters worse, the plane was late arriving, so we had to wait an extra half hour. And of course Gabe just wanted to run all over the place. He befriended a few older couples and tried to take their watches.
We finally got going about 8:30pm, and unfortunatley, Gabe was wide awake. Actually he was exhausted, but overstimulated, so would not sleep. So that made for a long flight. He was so close to sleeping so many times but then would start throwing a mini-tantrum to wake himself up. Finally about 20 minutes before we landed, he fell asleep. We had to sit on the runway a while waiting for our gate, so he got to sleep awhile longer. Surprisinly our luggage was at the baggage claim by the time we got there (last time we waited close to an hour for our luggage). Then we found a taxi and got back to the hotel by about 11pm. I was exhausted. Gabe was wide awake. So we had to do his whole bedtime routine to get him settled down - oatmeal, bath, and a bottle of milk. Which was fine, because I like to get him washed up after being on planes - he crawls all over everything and licks half the stuff he can reach, so good to get the germs off asap. lol.
Tuesday morning we went to the buffet for breakfast and then loaded up the car and headed out. We stopped at an outlet mall on the way and walked around and had lunch. Was kind of nice to break up the drive a bit, but wish it would have been more towards the middle of the drive instead of at the beginning. Gabe took a good nap during the ride. Got back to our house around 5pm. Gabe was happy to be home and wandered around for awhile checkiing on all of his toys.
Wednesday we went to Bible study and got together with a friend in the afternoon. When we came home, we went to get the mail, which took forever, because Gabe had to splash in every puddle - and it was pretty much a continuous puddle for 2 blocks... Then when we got back to the house, he decided to play in the puddle that the dripping water from the car port was making. He loved it, even though it was cold....
We drove to Vegas on Sunday afternoon and spent the night at a hotel, then took the shuttle on Monday to the airport. The timing of the shuttle worked out so we had about 3 hours at the airport before boarding, so it got a bit long. Luckily we were in the newer terminal and there was a kids play area, that Gabe ran around in for a while. We got to Duluth Monday night, and spent the next few nights at some friends' house. Of course, Gabe was on California time and didn't have his own bed, so I had a few late nights trying to get him to settle down and sleep. Over the next couple days I got to see quite a few friends, went to MOPS (which I really miss - it's definitely not the same here), had dinner with my aunt, uncle & cousin, and got to meet a few new babies!
My sister came up and picked us up Thursday afternoon and brought us down to C.R. While home, I got to see a few more friends and lots of family, go to a Tupperware party (I love love love the new bowls I ordered!), go to a benefit for a friend's sister's baby (whom I also got to meet the next day!). Also made a cake for my cousin's daughter's birthday party, which was also a good time. The cake didn't turn out quite how I wanted - I had planned to spend more time on parts of it earlier in the week, but wasn't feeling the greatest for a couple days, so wasn't in the mood to work on it. But it turned out pretty well and everyone said it tasted good.
After a quick 2 weeks, my mom brought us back up to Duluth to fly back to Vegas. The Duluth airport was a bit of an experience - it's very small and kind of old. And once you go through security, you are stuck in a glass panel enclosed room. There were no bathrooms (And I am one of the people always running to the bathroom right before they begin boarding - but not this time...) . And no food. Just a vending machine with pop and water. There weren't enough seats for everyone. And it had to have been at least 80 degrees in there. To make matters worse, the plane was late arriving, so we had to wait an extra half hour. And of course Gabe just wanted to run all over the place. He befriended a few older couples and tried to take their watches.
We finally got going about 8:30pm, and unfortunatley, Gabe was wide awake. Actually he was exhausted, but overstimulated, so would not sleep. So that made for a long flight. He was so close to sleeping so many times but then would start throwing a mini-tantrum to wake himself up. Finally about 20 minutes before we landed, he fell asleep. We had to sit on the runway a while waiting for our gate, so he got to sleep awhile longer. Surprisinly our luggage was at the baggage claim by the time we got there (last time we waited close to an hour for our luggage). Then we found a taxi and got back to the hotel by about 11pm. I was exhausted. Gabe was wide awake. So we had to do his whole bedtime routine to get him settled down - oatmeal, bath, and a bottle of milk. Which was fine, because I like to get him washed up after being on planes - he crawls all over everything and licks half the stuff he can reach, so good to get the germs off asap. lol.
Tuesday morning we went to the buffet for breakfast and then loaded up the car and headed out. We stopped at an outlet mall on the way and walked around and had lunch. Was kind of nice to break up the drive a bit, but wish it would have been more towards the middle of the drive instead of at the beginning. Gabe took a good nap during the ride. Got back to our house around 5pm. Gabe was happy to be home and wandered around for awhile checkiing on all of his toys.
Wednesday we went to Bible study and got together with a friend in the afternoon. When we came home, we went to get the mail, which took forever, because Gabe had to splash in every puddle - and it was pretty much a continuous puddle for 2 blocks... Then when we got back to the house, he decided to play in the puddle that the dripping water from the car port was making. He loved it, even though it was cold....
He wasn't too happy when I made him go in after this. But he needed some warm, dry clothes.
Ok, so that is the past couple of weeks. Will try to update more often... ;-)
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Mr. Jealous
So, lately Gabe has turned in to a possessive and jealous little guy. A friend and I started a little 'kid-swap' a couple days a week where we watch each others kids for an hour or 2 a couple times a week so that us moms get a few hours to ourselves to get stuff done or just relax. She has a 1 year old(Sam) and a 5 year old(Zoe) (also a 6 year old(Presley), but she's at school), all girls, that I watch. They are great kids and Gabe really likes them too. Except when they play with his toys. It doesn't matter if it's a toy he never ever plays with. Suddenly they are playing with it and it is his new favorite. But when they play with his favorite toys, sometimes he's ok with it, but most of the times it is freak-out time for Gabe. But he gets even more jealous when I play with the girls. Especially if I pick up / hold Sam. Talk about a tantrum. He just glares at Sam and looks at me bawling and screaming. It can actually be slightly entertaining. I admit, I have picked her up a couple times just to provoke him. Plus he needs to learn to share. Lately, even Adam can't give me a hug with out getting the skunk-eye from Gabe and a slight tantrum. It's getting a little ridiculous. But kind of funny. Hopefully this phase doesn't last too long...
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Two posts in one day!
No posts for over a month and then 2 in one day. I would have just included this video in my oatmeal post, but had to rotate the video and it took awhile to process that. So here it is...
Gabe has 2 spots he likes to sit in the kitchen and clap his feet. These 2 spots are special because when it is dark outside and we have the lights on inside he can see his reflection in the skylight from those 2 spots. And he likes to look up and watch himself kick. Unfortunately the video doesn't show his reflection very well in the skylight, but it's there faintly.
Oatmeal is my hero
That's right. Oatmeal is my hero. About a month or two ago, we started feeding Gabe a bowl of oatmeal right before his bath and bedtime. Within a couple days he was sleeping until at least 6 a.m. No more getting up at 1 or 2 or 5 (or sometime twice) for a bottle. And lately, he's been sleeping until about 7 or 8. It is wonderful. Every once in a while, he still will wake up around 1 or 2, but it's maybe once a week or less - way better than every night.
We had tried just about everything we could think of. Tried letting him cry it out - but he'd just scream louder and for ever and bang his head hard on the wall and then if he finally fell back asleep on his own, he'd wake up an hour later and repeat. We tried going in and sitting with him - again, just made him more upset. Thought maybe he was done with his crib, so switched him to a twin bed - he liked the bed, but still would wake up. Tried cutting back the amoutn of milk we would give him (to gradually cut him off), but then he was just up more often. Tried other snacks before bed / later dinner. Nothing worked. Except for oatmeal. Hooray.
Hopefully he will continue to sleep all night while we are traveling over Christmas/ New Years. It seems we always get to where he's sleeping through the night and then we go out of town or something to disrupt his schedule. So hopefully, since it's been a good month or more and he's gotten really good abotu sleeping all night, it won't disrupt his routine as much...
We had tried just about everything we could think of. Tried letting him cry it out - but he'd just scream louder and for ever and bang his head hard on the wall and then if he finally fell back asleep on his own, he'd wake up an hour later and repeat. We tried going in and sitting with him - again, just made him more upset. Thought maybe he was done with his crib, so switched him to a twin bed - he liked the bed, but still would wake up. Tried cutting back the amoutn of milk we would give him (to gradually cut him off), but then he was just up more often. Tried other snacks before bed / later dinner. Nothing worked. Except for oatmeal. Hooray.
Hopefully he will continue to sleep all night while we are traveling over Christmas/ New Years. It seems we always get to where he's sleeping through the night and then we go out of town or something to disrupt his schedule. So hopefully, since it's been a good month or more and he's gotten really good abotu sleeping all night, it won't disrupt his routine as much...
Saturday, November 19, 2011
crazy few weeks...
So, been awhile since I've posted... it's been a crazy few weeks. Gabe and I have both been sick off and on - not fun. My mom came to visit for 5 days and my sister came to visit for 10 days. Those were fun times - try to post more on those later. In the meantime, here's a little video of Gabe and his favorite new toy - which was a birthday present from his aunt Carly. He absolutely loves his cozy coupe - he loves being pushed around in it in the house and outside, and he loves to just sit in it and play by himself. He also likes to put all of his favorite toys in it and play with them in the car. It's kind of funny.
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