what to do, what to do

I received a letter in the mail today, and as soon as I saw the envelope, I knew what its contents would tell me....I've been selected for jury duty. I recognized the envelope because this is not the first time I have been selected. I don't know the whole process for selection, but it seems pretty crazy to me to be picked twice since graduating, when some people go their whole lives without getting picked.

So anyways, i would love to do jury duty, i think it would be a really interesting experience, but here's the catch: i'd be "on call" from Nov 19 to Dec 21, would have to report to the courthouse every time a new trial started to see if i'd get picked, and if i did get picked for a trial, i'd have to be there from 10am to 5pm every day until the trial was over (or adjourned temporarily), and possibly be sequestered if the need arose. Now that would be a mite difficult with a 5 month old at home who is exclusively breastfed, so I think i have to say no...hopefully it's a good enough reason for them. It should be, as "undue hardship to yourself or another individual" is one of the listed reasons to decline. Last time I had to decline because i had a summer job to pay for school and could not get the time off without "undue hardship" to my financial situation.

I heard somewhere that you can only decline twice, and that the third time you have to accept, but I'm not sure, it didn't say anything like that on the letter or form. But i'd like to do it sometime, so hopefully I get another chance at some point in my life.

alumni

A couple weeks ago, we went to Anthony's ball team's wind up bbq. We had a great time, his team is really fun to hang out with.

As we were sitting around visiting after supper, one of the players mentioned she had gone to Briercrest a couple years ago. Always interested in other alumni, my ears perked up, and the typical questions were asked, what years, which dorm, which profs, etc. She was a student there in the early 2000s.

So then, one of the middle aged guys on the team pipes up that he was at BBC in the late 70's, and he shared some about his experiences there. So there we are, 3 alumni from 3 different decades, sharing and reminiscing about our college experiences.

A few minutes later, a quieter, older woman in the corner (a mom of one of the adult players, I believe) spoke up...she too had attended Briercrest, it was the '60s for her.

It was so interesting to find out that there were four of us who were connected by BBC in that room, and there were only about 12 people there in total...

back in the swing of things

It finally feels like my holidays are over and i'm into some sort of routine. I started back at aquacise this week, it felt really good. I'm thankful for a retired mom who lives close to the pool and enjoys hanging at the library with her granddaughter while i'm swimming. Too bad she's out of town for the next couple weeks spending time with her other granddaughter.

I'm in a groove now with housework, meals, a bit of a daily routine, and even some time to do some extra baking, canning, etc. and it feels great. I knew i'd enjoy being a SAHM as I would always sit at work and dream about all the things i could be doing if i were home. And now I can do those things. I have time to putter around in the kitchen, i have time to hang out with friends either by lunching with them on their work breaks, or visiting with the other SAHMs. And best of all, I have time to help people. I like helping people in any way I can, but with f/t work I find time is my biggest barrier to doing what i'd like to, so i'm really enjoying this new gift of time.

And piano starts up again next week, i will have my 3 students from last year back, plus one new one - the little girl next door is starting piano for the very first time. She's a sweetie, so she should be a pleasure to teach. But it will be very different from my teenaged students that i have done the majority of my teaching with the past few years. And the bonus is that with the piano at my place now, i am teaching here instead of driving over to my parents place! Woot!

back.

Well, the lake was pretty good. The weather was cool, and it rained quite a bit, so we didn't get any beach time or time in the lake, which made me sad. But the rest was enjoyable. Friday we went for a round of golf, mom took care of Danica, and it was a really good time. I didn't do too badly for my first time golfing in almost a year.

This weekend is going to be pretty low key, today I am canning the 15 litres of plum sauce that I made yesterday....yay for free baby food (we have a plum tree, so it just takes a bit of time on my part). Tonight is a bbq windup for Anthony's ball team, and tomorrow is the Labour Day Classic, complete with wings & nachos for our little family party.

Danica is doing great, she's on a 4 hour schedule day and night now, so it makes life pretty easy to plan, I feed and then have 3 hours to do things and hang out with her. She's also starting to nap more consistently in longer chunks (instead of napping for 20 minutes then up for 20 then fussing for 20 like she used to), which makes it easier to do things (like make plum sauce) that aren't so easy to interrupt if she needs me.

I also bought some supplies to start making cards, I was given some scrapbooking stuff when we had Danica, but I don't think that scrapping would be the thing for me, i feel pretty good if i just get my pictures printed and in a regular album! So i figured cardmaking might work for me, then it's something "useful" that can be given away (and save money - have you seen the price of cards lately? Many mothers' day cards were over $7 a piece this year!)... so if you have a birthday coming up, or have a baby soon, you may just get one of my original creations!