A Purple Dress with Pink Hearts

Grace has been wondering why I never dress up for Halloween. She's tired of me just being a mom, and has decided that this year she wants me to dress up for Halloween as "pretty". She wants me to wear a purple dress with pink hearts, fancy black shoes, lipstick and earrings. Sadly, I just don't know where to find a purple dress with pink hearts. Too bad! I would love to own a purple dress with pink hearts. I can just imagine all the compliments I'd get on it at church! Oh well, I guess I'll have to be something else for Halloween.

Traffic Court

Today I got to go to traffic court as a result of the ticket I received in August. (See: http://romangrace.blogspot.com/2008/08/breaking-law.html)

Okay, first of all, why didn't I know that this was really court? As in "All rise for the honorable..." type court. Couldn't someone have told me what I was getting myself into? I had been thinking that I would go to some place like the DMV, wait for my turn, explain my situation, and be cleared of any wrong-doing. Oh no, it wasn't like that at all...

Grace, Roman and I got to the justice building early. We passed through the security check point with flying colors. The guy behind the x-ray machine said, "It looks like you know the drill, you must have been here before." No, I have not been to the justice building before. I am not a criminal, thank you very much.

So next we headed upstairs. The letter I had said that I should go to department one at 1:00. When we got to the right floor I looked around and had no idea what I should be doing. There was a line of people with numbers waiting to talk to people at windows just like at the DMV. This looked just like what I imagined I was supposed to be doing. So I went and took a number before looking around some more. Then I saw a courtroom with a sign that said department one. A courtroom?? Oh no! So I walked over and looked at a sign posted outside the door. Yep, my name was listed right there. I went and sat down outside the courtroom. See, I was thinking that when it was time for my "appointment" someone would open the door and call me in. Kind of like a doctor's office. Again, I was so not prepared. Eventually, after I noticed a few people walk into the courtroom, I realized that I was supposed to go in and wait.

I dragged Grace, Roman, and my stroller in, and we found a place at the back. The room was full of people, and it was an actual courtroom, just like on tv only not so big. So not what I was expecting. Roman was excited. He kept yelling, "church!" We all had to rise while the honorable judge entered the room. They started having people come up to the front one at a time. Of course we were in alphabetical order and I was almost at the bottom of the list. So I sat there trying to keep Roman and Grace quiet. At one point a guy in uniform, (I don't know what to call him, bailiff maybe?) came and shushed my kids. It didn't really work though. Roman's a two-year-old boy, and not a very calm one either.

We sat there forever (it seemed). I got more and more nervous by the second. No, I really hadn't done anything wrong, but I wasn't sure if I had all of the right paperwork, and what was I supposed to say when it was my turn? Was I supposed to address the judge as "your honor"? I was completely out of my element. Anyway, the guy in uniform eventually kicked us out of the courtroom for being too noisy. He was nice about it though. He said he'd come get us when it was our turn. So we went back to sitting in the hall waiting for someone to call our name. Hey, wasn't this what I was doing before? That's also when I noticed the sign right on the courtroom door. It said, "No shorts, tank tops or halter tops allowed in the courtroom at anytime. No exceptions." Yeah, Grace was wearing shorts. Couldn't they have told us this before we got there? Are we just supposed to know?

So eventually it was my turn. I went in carrying Roman, and Grace hid in the back, ashamed of her shorts. I went to the front and the judge asked me how I plead. I said not guilty, and that was it. Next thing I know I'm in the hall waiting for someone to come talk to me. AGAIN. The public defender came out and asked me to explain the situation. (Couldn't we have just done this in the first place?) He said it happens all the time and asked me for a letter that the DMV sent to me. Ah ha! I knew I was missing something important! I didn't have it. It was in the car. And so now I have a trial date set for January so I can show them that letter. I really could have gone out to the car and brought the form back in, but that would have been too easy. At least now I know what paperwork I need.

As you may be able to guess, I am extremely frustrated. If at the beginning of this whole mess, when the DMV noticed that the VIN on my insurance didn't match the VIN on my registration, if they had maybe, I don't know, picked up the phone and called the insurance company and asked if maybe, just maybe, there had been some kind of mix up, then maybe we could have saved:
1. The time of the police officer who pulled me over and gave me the ticket.
2. Numerous pages of paper being printed and mailed from the DMV.
3. All of the paperwork going on at the DMV and in whatever department handles traffic citations. (You know there's tons.)
4. The time of the people working in the courtroom today.
5. The time of the people who will have to continue to be involved in this ongoing mess.
6. Not to mention my time and gas money for all this driving to and from court. I'm an innocent party in this, remember?

Okay, I do feel a little bit better now. :) By the way, it's really quite sad that this happened to me instead of Steve. Steve really would have loved it.

Monsters!

Roman is at the point in his life where he just doesn't understand what "real" means. We've been seeing Halloween monsters everywhere we go, and although Roman is fascinated by them, he's also a little scared. We've tried to tell him that monsters aren't real, but he just doesn't understand what we're talking about. I think "real" is a hard concept for a two-year-old to grasp.

Yesterday we went to a party supply store to find invitations for Grace's birthday party. The store was full of Halloween costumes and decorations and Roman was torn between being amazed and being scared. He clung to me as we walked under a very large monster that was hanging from the ceiling, but then in the car he told me that it was fun in the Halloween store.

So last night around midnight Roman started crying. I went in to see what was wrong and he said, "It's Halloween in here!" He woke up a total of four times last night. Then this morning he kept talking about the monsters in his room. Poor little guy! I hope we don't have to keep him hidden in the house until Halloween is over.

Sick of sick!

It all started about three weeks ago. I can't remember whether it was Grace or Roman who started it, but one of them brought home a nasty cold. Of course, a few days later it was followed by the other child getting it, then by me getting it. It took a long time for us to feel better. Finally, about two weeks after it started, we were all snot-free. Sadly, that's when Grace threw up at school! Poor Grace was sick for about four days with the stomach flu. Luckily, no one else in the family got that! But just as Grace was feeling better, Steve got sick. Not just sick with a little bit of a runny nose, but lay in bed and sleep all day sick. That was last weekend. Now, just as he's starting to feel better, guess what. Roman has caught whatever Steve had. And so the cycle begins again...

The worst part of having sick kids this week is that we're getting our pictures taken on Saturday. I'm now worried that our kids are going to have red, runny noses and grumpy faces in their pictures. I can't reschedule either. The girl who's taking our pictures is coming from Utah this weekend only. (She's great by the way. If you want to check her out, her website is: http://heathergibbphotography.com/. She's a little expensive, but well worth it in my opinion.) So, wish us luck! We're going to need it.

Poor Grace!

Today as Roman and I got into the car and drove away from playgroup, my phone rang. It was the nurse at Grace's school. She had been trying to call for the last twenty minutes. I guess Grace decided to throw up all over the play kitchen in her classroom. Poor little girl. I hope the other kids in her class don't give her a hard time for messing up their kitchen.

Grace is an imaginary friend!

Last week I had a very interesting phone call. It was from someone I had never met. She told me her name and then explained to me that her daughter, Grace, has had an imaginary friend named Grace Parke for the past year or so. Her daughter Grace talks about this imaginary Grace Parke all the time. She tells everyone that Grace Parke has red hair and a baby brother, and just moved to Las Vegas. Colette, (Grace's mom,) told me that they even had a birthday party for Grace Parke.

So anyway, Colette blogs about Grace Parke sometimes, and recently a friend of hers, who happens to be in my ward, told her that she knows a Grace Parke. Colette got my number and called... It turns out our girls were in a class together at a rec center last year! We arranged to have the two Graces meet at the park today. The picture above is the two of them after they were reunited. They had a great time!