Kevin Minnis

I have learned alot this week about our judicial system. Some good and some not so good. I was summoned for jury duty this week. The first thought was “what am I going to do with Jayden and Josie?” The other thought was “I hate going downtown.” Thank God Kevin’s work is flexible. I had some options for the kids, but didn’t want to bother anyone. So Kevin stayed home and played Mr. Mom. (I think he likes his job outside the home better). (I liked the taking care of the kids part, it’s the fridge that pissed me off. –Kevin)

Anyway, I made my way down to the courthouse bright and early Monday morning. I found a place to park and made nice to a lady aimlessly finding her way too so we could look lost together. We found where we were supposed to go, along with the other 100 people or so. I got settled in the “Jury Room”. And settled is the word. I always wondered why it took so long for a trial to get started. Man, it’s because picking the jury and getting that ready, takes HOURS. The judicial time clock is very slow. They may say, “We’ll be back in a couple minutes to get you.” That actually means, “Another 20-30 mins. and we’ll come and get you.” It was almost like sitting in church, but knowing you’ll be able to go home for an hour and not have to sit on the hard pew anymore. Well, that’s not the case. I managed to ride the pine for about 7 hours on Monday, three hours yesterday and another 2 and a half today.

It wouldn’t have been so bad, but there’s alot of sitting around and doing NOTHING! Alot of time wasted and alot of government money wasted. It was very frustrating and very overwhelming all at the same time. By the time I left on Monday my head was POUNDING. So, Tuesday roles around. I was to return for the jury selection on a trial, which I ended up not being on. THANK GOD. It was a sex abuse case. The victim: 11 year old girl. I don’t think i would have been very objective considering kids are my profession. I got told I wasn’t going to be on the jury and was relieved. Only to find out 5 minutes later, I’d have to come back on Wednesday. GGGRRRRR!!!!! So I went in today (Wednesday) and wasted another 2 and a half hours of doing nothing. I was actually told, along with 50 other people, that had better things to do, that we could go home. Man, it’s such a waste. Can’t they come up with a better system for jury duty?

So I’m relieved today to know, that my civic duty is done for 2 years. But there needs to be some change. Stop wasting people’s time. Get things going in a timely matter. Very annoying and very frustrating. I wouldn’t have minded doing “my civic duty,” but I also have two children to take care of and why would I pay for day care? Like the state is going to reimburse childcare costs. I even called Kevin’s mom down here today thinking I could be in the court room until Friday. So not only did this whole thing affect me, it affected Kevin, Jayden, Josie and Kevin’s mom. If I had a “real job” and didn’t have to worry about the kids it would have been a good experience. It was nice to see how some of the court stuff is done that you don’t see on TV. But change the system and make it easier for everyone. I don’t wish this upon anyone. But if you do get called, take a book, magazine, I-pod, and whatever else along, to keep you busy. You’ll need it. Oh, and a cushion for the pine!

Jury duty was only a small portion of Kevin and my great week. We ordered the wrong windows to replace Josie and Jayden’s room. We have to take those back and get the right ones this weekend. We got a storm door, only to get it home and find it was the wrong size that they had given us. And our fridge gave out on Saturday so we had to buy a new fridge. We lived out of a ghetto cooler until today! This week can be over any day! I’m ready for a new one.

Well, when it rains it pours. It all started Friday evening. We were getting something out of the freezer in the fridge and noticed that not everything was frozen like it should have been. So, Saturday I made the phone call to a service place to see if they could come out and look at it…nope, wouldn’t be able to look at it till Monday. Okay, so Monday came along and the repair guy replaced the fan in the back and said it should be good to go in a couple of hours. Two hours later the temperature still remained a cozy 65 degrees. Well, Kim and her parents and I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at what new refrigerators cost and find one we liked. So we went looking. I called the repair guy this morning to see if they would take the electric motor back that he put on cause I didn’t want to put anymore money into it…nope, anything electrical they don’t take returns. (Anyone want to buy and electric motor? Here I come E-Bay). I also had the repair guy come back out to see if he had any other ideas. He said that the compressor was out too and that it would be about $500 to replace. So, Kim and I finally found a few refrigerators today at Lowe’s (they have a large select) and after about an hour and a half (the kids were very good during our search) found one we liked that they had in stock. Yay, we get a new fridge tomorrow. Case in point…you are better off replacing a refrigerator over repairing it. Sad to see how much of a throw away society we’ve become. I’d rather fix what I have, but it is definitely not economic to do so.

Oh, but it’s not over
Saturday Kim’s Mom came to town so we could go pickup the windows we ordered two weeks ago at Lowe’s. We decided to also get a storm door while we were at it. “I need a 36×81 storm door like this one.” I told the helpful Lowe’s window guy. Took the thing home and was going to install it with the help of Tony…Opened the box and wouldn’t you know I got the only 32×81 door that they had. For some reason the Lowe’s guy gave me the wrong one. So, we took all the child seats out of the Vibe loaded the door up (Yeah, it can actually haul an 8′ article) and exchanged it. I’m kind of glad though as the windows that we got were designed for a “drop-in” replacement instead of a regular replacement. The replacement windows that I should have gotten have a flange around the entire window which is what I needed. So, this Saturday Tony and I will make another trip to Lowe’s to return these windows and order some other ones that will work.

It gets better
The highlight to all of this door not fitting, wrong windows, fridge done-n-gone broken, and Jayden doing a face plant is that Kim is on Jury duty for the week. That left me to stay home and take care of the kids yesterday and this morning. She’ll have an updated entry of her own to explain how wonderful our judicial system really is.

It’s okay now
I guess through all that has happened this week I’m just glad that everyone is mostly healthy (Josie had a cold Sunday and Yesterday, but is feeling better today) and no more things are breaking (hopefully). Thank goodness for Lowe’s interest free for a year get out of jail card. haha

Well, it finally happened. Jayden turned 2 on Tuesday. Boy how time has flown. He thinks he’s such a big boy now! Over the weekend we had Jayden’s birthday party. He had a good time and was wore out by the days end. He was spoiled rotten with toys, toys and more toys. Because Jayden is always so excited about play kitchens, we decided to get him one of his own. Along with it, he received a lot of play food and accessories. He loves it to pieces and is ready to cook you up a meal when you come over. He doesn’t know yet that metal can’t go in the microwave! I think he takes after his dad because his mom is no Betty Crocker.

We decided to have something different for his birthday party this weekend. Most parents would probably get a clown or go some place cool, but we decided to have some fun with Pop and candy. You can watch the Mentos and Diet Coke video on YouTube. I think Jayden had more fun with that than he would have with a clown. haha (Or maybe it’s his parents and family that had more fun). Here are some pictures as well of the Mentos & Diet Coke fun.

On Jayden’s B-day, we took him to the Blank Park Zoo (Pictures). Although, it’s not quite like the Omaha Zoo, we still had a good time. He got to feed the goats and watch his dad get attacked by them. Probably his favorite thing was riding the train. He LOVES trains right now. Especially Thomas the Tank Engine.

We took the plunge and got Jayden and Josie’s pictures taken last Friday. It was a challenge but we managed to get a few cute poses. Some of you will be receiving copies in the mail, but you can look at them on line soon. We’ve started the fun process of painting the outside of the house. We are leaving it white but changing the trim to a reddish/burgundy/cranberry color. Right now it’s a little bright. We hope it darkens a bit when we put another coat on. We are at least getting the front done, and then we’ll worry about the rest next spring/summer.

Josie is growing like a weed and changes everyday I swear. Jayden has started to pester her a bit more, but really could care less about her. Hopefully someday he’ll stick up for her!

Let’s see. Where to begin? Life has been busy. Kim’s Mom, Pat, had surgery on her shoulder as a result of someone not cleaning up spilled water in the hall at the hospital she works at. We went down over the weekend (May 25-27th) to visit Kim’s Mom and Dad and make sure that Pat wasn’t doing anything she shouldn’t. Then we headed back home to have some fun for the rest of Memorial weekend. We took Jayden out to Big Creek State Park so he could play in the sand and water. We took Jayden to the splash park when it was in the upper 80s a week ago or so and he didn’t seem to like the water much. Instead, he liked to play in the grass and follow the fence around. Not sure what that’s all about.

In spite of Jayden graduating to his “big boy chair” and gaining another 2 pounds (not much, but at least he’s holding steady), he’s managed to gain his terrible twos attitude a bit early. This past weekend we went up to Hope and Mike’s wedding in Emmetsburg, IA. The wedding was short and sweet, but Jayden thought he should make a big deal out of it and wasn’t the quiet little boy he usually is. So, I spent half of the wedding in the atrium of the church with Jayden. Next we went to the reception for about a half an hour. Jayden proceeded to want to run around. Kim and I decided we’d just leave early and head back to Rockwell City to visit with her brothers. I guess the lesson in all this is that I don’t think we will be able to take Jayden to another wedding anytime soon. I don’t blame him any, he’s almost 2 and he had been riding in the car for about 2.5 hours.

Kim did okay on the long trip, but I think she’s paying for it now. She (and I) can’t wait to have the baby! We’re not all that excited about the birthing process or the sleepless nights, but more for the comfort of Kim and getting back to normal.

So, yeah, that’s almost all that’s happened within the last month.

This weekend has been pretty quiet. It’s been a while since we’ve just stayed around Ankeny and did very little. Friday I had off from work. It appears that Pioneer is becoming more of government than a business as we get the third Friday off in March now instead of Good Friday. Not sure what that’s all about. Oh well, at least they still give us time off.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. I think it was the week of February 6th, 2006 that I started to grow a goatee to get ready for Broox’s mustache party that he had on March 17th. Lucky for me that my hair is leaving the top of my head so I could win the entry for longest/most hair for a mustache. Here’s a picture of me starting out. I think it’s with maybe a week’s worth of growing. Here’s a picture with my full goatee and finally, a picture with the mustache and “handle bars”. haha. The party was a blast and I’m glad that I got to go. Saturday I had to shave it off. Not because Kim wanted me (she hated the facial hair), but because it was annoying to have. The initial itching was done, but I just hated it being around my mouth. It was weird shaving it off as I felt like I was naked. Even just shaving off the middle of the goatee made my chin feel cold, but now that it’s all gone, I really feel the difference. I can actually feel the wind hitting my chin. haha. Oh yeah. And the Gillette Fusion that I won at the party works awesome!

Here’s the full set of pictures for the mustache party. Thanks for the good time Broox!