Katrina is 3!!

Tonight was Katrina's birthday party! Katie is three!! She has been telling that to everyone who will listen!

We had a zoo theme for her party and it was a lot of fun. We had family (Gramma, Papa, Uncle Weston, Aunt Laura and cousin Stone) and lots of friends (the Foxes, the Molloys, the Jorgensens and the Bouds) to help Katrina celebrate. We had hot dogs and chips and lots of yummy fruit and then we all sang "Happy Birthday" and Katrina blew out the candles on her cake. We put in the movie, Madagascar, which is the zooiest movie we have, and the kids all had fun goodie bags to take home.

Katrina is a wonderful three year old and we are sure glad she has been a part of our family for the last three years! We have been very blessed to have her here.

-Lora

See more Zoo-Party pics HERE.

My brush with Jury Duty

I have been called to Jury Duty many times in the past, but I have either had a reason to be excused (leaving the country, giving birth, etc.), or I called several days in a row and was then excused over the telephone. This was the first time that I was actually called to go down to the County Courthouse to report for Jury Duty.

When we arrived on Tuesday morning we registered and then, just as they were about to show the Orientation video, they called a large group of us up to one of the courtrooms. We got there at 9:30am and they started calling a group of eighteen up to the jury box. The judge questioned these eighteen, replacing those that were excused for hardship or other reasons. (I learned a LOT about the jury selection process that I was unaware of. I thought that they talked to all the prospective jurors and then whittled it down to the ones that they needed.)

Early on in the discussion the judge named the charges that were being brought against the defendant. He was being charged with rape of a minor, lewd and lacivious acts on a minor and felony threat. When I heard that my heart just about dropped out of my chest, and you could see that many of the other jurors felt the same way that I did. I did not want to have to sit through a case in which I had to hear all the details of how this man allegedly raped and abused this twelve year old girl. Many of the jurors said they could have sat on a trail for burglary, possibly even murder, before they wanted to deal with the nature of the charges in this case.

It was fascinating to me to watch all the people who, within their minds, knew what the law was and how a person is innocent until proven guilty, but in their hearts, grappling with the idea of being able to be fair and impartial, given the nature of the charges. Several people were saying that they figured he was guilty because the district attorney's office wouldn't bring a case to trial in an overburdened judicial system if they didn't have some good evidence. The public defender and the district attorney asked several very leading questions that gave us a little bit of insight into the possible evidence and arguements in the case. At one point the public defender asked one of the jurors that had recently been through a divorce if she would be bothered to know that the twelve-year-old girl's mother was married to the defendant and they were going through a divorce at the time of the incident. (The DA objected to that question, so he didn't pursue it.) The DA asked several times if the jurors felt that being under the influence of alcohol and meth meant that you were not responsible for your actions. She also asked if we thought that having a mental issue meant that you were not responsible for your actions. The jurors all agreed that being under the influence, or mentally ill, did not mean that you were not responsible for your actions or that you were not capable of intent. And so it went for most of the day.

At 4:30pm a full jury has not been selected, so we had to come back again this morning. At 9:30am we were invited into the courtroom, but then a few minutes later we were asked to step out again. We waited out in the hall for nearly forty-five minutes before we were asked to come back into the courtroom. The judge apologized for the delay in the trial, but explained that the defendant had decided to accept a plea deal and that the case was over and we were all excused. Whew! His voice seemed to get kind of tunneled and far away, as though it wasn't real at first, but when I heard the collective sigh of relief from the rest of the jurors, I knew that I had heard what I thought I did and it was over. I am glad that the twelve year old girl didn't have to sit on the stand and relive all that she had gone through. We all wondered if the depth of the discussion we all went through yesterday made the defendant doubt how well he would be able to do in a jury case, and so he decided to accept responsibilty and go to jail. I am just so grateful for the blessing of not having to be on this jury.

-Lora

Our "new" OLD piano

We had two sources that we were looking at to try to find out how old our piano is - BlueBookofPianos.com and the Pierce Piano Atlas. We used the online questionaire on BlueBookofPianos.com, and we checked the library system for the piano atlas, but it is a reference book so we can't check it out, and the nearest library that had a copy was in Coalinga. I called the library and asked if they could read the information to me over the phone, but instead the very nice librarian copied the information and mailed it to us.

Both the Pierce Piano Atlas and bluebookofpianos.com give us a year of manufacture for our piano of 1916. Wow! By comparison, the Biola Congregational Church building we received the piano from was built in 1921.

Our "new" piano

Okay, so this piano is NOT new, but it's ours! We finally have the piano that we have been trying to get for a few months now. Our piano teacher works with the choir director at Kerman High school who is also the choir director at the Biola Congregational Church, and they had this piano in one of their classrooms that has been sitting for years and they were offering it to anyone who would come to take it away. It took awhile before we had a weekend free to go get it, and today was it!

We had help from Ed Hagar, who brought his trailer, Eddie Molloy, Steve Kaufman and then Ryan Hergenroeder, our across the street neighbor, brought the keys to unlock the church for us.

We had never seen the piano before, so we weren't sure what to expect. Although it is obviously well used, with scratches and dings, etc., it is a beautiful piano. It was set on casters, so it was easier to move than we expected, and when the guys went to push it up the ramp onto the trailer, it went on MUCH easier than we all expected.

We all went back to Kerman and then unloaded the piano. This actually turned out to be the most difficult part of the process. Getting it over the threshold and then over the wood floors without gouging them was the challenge. We rolled the piano onto a rug and then pushed it across the floor, which worked out well.

We put it into the spot where it is going to sit for now and then got to cleaning it and taking a good look at it. It is really dusty but very pretty inside. It is BIG and takes up a lot of room. The living room just got quite a bit smaller.

We are now the proud owners of a Royal Cabinet Grand piano that was manufactured by the Krell Company. It is mostly in tune, and it is definitely going to need some work, but we are so glad to have a piano in our home now. We have been going over to the chapel as often as we could to practice, and that is difficult and time consuming. It will be very nice to be able to sit and practice here at home when it is convenient!

We have tried to do a little bit of research on the internet to try to find out what we can about this piano and how old it is. What we have found out is that the Krell Company made pianos between 1889 and 1949. We are hoping to get more information soon that will narrow down. We also are going to get it checked out and tuned soon as well.

We are very grateful to have this piano!

-Lora

See all the pics HERE.

Rebecca's Baptism

Rebecca has been waiting for this day for a long time! She has been very anxious to turn eight so that she can be baptized! And today was her day!

After Church today we gathered in the Primary room in the Kerman Ward chapel and celebrated Rebecca's enthusiastic decision to follow the example of the Savior and be baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There were a LOT of family and friends there to support her and show their love.

Rebecca was so excited she could hardly contain herself. We kept telling her to calm down a little bit, but the more we thought about it, we knew that she was just reacting, in the only way an eight year old knows how, to the good feelings of the Spirit. Amanda gave a very good talk on baptism and then Rebecca was baptized by Kevin (in VERY cold water). When she came up out of the water, she and her daddy gave each other a big hug. Her teeth were chattering as she got out of the font, but the smile on her face was enormous!

After everyone had dried off and changed, I gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then Rebecca was given the Holy Ghost and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a blessing by her dad. (Happy Father's Day Kevin!)

Afterwards, we all went outside and took a big huge group picture of all the family and friends who were there, and then several of them came over to our house for a late lunch get-together. Rebecca's Gramma and Papa were there, her Gpa Marshall, her Aunt Stephanie and cousins, Megan, Jeremy, Tracy and David, and also Uncle Scotty and Aunt Lea. There were many friends there as well, the Foxes, the Molloys, the Jorgensens and the Kaufmans. Wes, Laura and Stone showed up later on in the evening.

I don't know that at her age, Rebecca can fully appreciate the blessings of this day and all the people that were there to support her, but I know that she will one day.

-Lora

See all the Baptism/Father's Day pics HERE.

Gpa Marshall's 90th Birthday Party

My Gpa Marshall, Richard Allen Marshall, has been around for 90 years. He has seen a lot! He knows a lot and he likes to talk about the things that he knows. He is very opinionated, but not the type of person to make you feel that your opinion is not important if he doesn't agree with you. He has lost most of his sight, but not any of his heart. He was so thrilled with his party today and the fact that everyone who came had a good time and got along so well.

We left Kerman early in the morning and headed toward the coast. It was a beautiful day, and the traffic was pretty mild. Although we did take a lot of the back roads and smaller highways, so that may have been part of it. We, of course, also stopped here and there along the way to do some geocaching.

The party was at my Aunt Lindi and Uncle Rich's house in Arroyo Grande. Lindi and Rich have a gorgeous home and it was so nice of them to welcome us all there.

My mom and Herb flew down from Alaska. It was really great to see them, if only for one day! My mom just recently retired from over 30 years of teaching, and she is really enjoying the ideas and opportunities that lie ahead of her. Herb is looking really good. I have never seen his beard so short, but it hasn't finished growing back in yet. Nothing else has changed though. Same sense of humor.

My brother Jeremy and his wife Renee came from Castaic with their twins, Zachary and Lily. The kids have grown so much and they are so cute! Lily is quite the charmer and Zachary is checking everything out. Jeremy has quite the upper body muscle mass going from constantly holding two kids, one in each arm!

Lindi's daughter Kerri was there from Stockton, with her husband, Michael, and their daughter Hayli. Hayli is adorable with big, huge brown eyes! Kerri and I have seen each other a few times over the year as we have passed each other going in and out from visiting Gma in Fresno.

Lindi's son, Jason, couldn't be there because of work commitments, but his wife, Cheryl, and their sons Justin and Jared came.

Jordan really wanted to come, but just recently started a new job, so he gave Gpa a call while we were all there celebrating. It was clear that Gpa really enjoyed that call.

We had nibblies and talked, we took lots of group pictures, and then we sang to Gpa and some of the great-grandkids helped him to blow out his candles. We all signed a mat that will go in a frame with a photo of all of us for Gpa.

We all had such a great time talking and sharing stories and experiences. Even though we don't always see each other all that often, I love the fact that we all just pick up where we left off.

After Gpa went back to his home, we all went to a pizza place called the Klondike Cafe that has an Alaska theme. It was fun. We got home MUCH later than we wanted to, but that's okay. It was worth it to be able to spend such a lovely day with family!

-Lora

See all the pics HERE.

Blogging my weight loss journey - Month 5

This month has been both good and bad.

Bad because I didn't try as hard as I could have. Bad because I gave into temptation more than I should have. Bad because I didn't really reach the goals I had for myself this month.

Good because I lost 2 lbs. and 7.5" this month. Good because I went to buy some new clothes this month and I didn't have to shop in the Women's Department! Good because I fit into my size 16 jeans this month. Good because I have been getting a lot of compliments. Good because I am feeling good about myself and how I am doing!

This month was extremely busy and it is easy to get lazy about your goals when you are busy! Some days I would be so busy I would miss a meal and end up eating more at the next one to make up for it. With as full of a schedule as I had it was very difficult to have the time to exercise, and that made a huge difference! Plus there was a birthday party and a weekend vacation. I think I did really well to have lost two pounds, rather than gaining any!

Month 5:

Total weight lost: 38 lbs.

Total inches lost: 50.25"

Goals for this next month:
To pass 178 lbs., which is the halfway mark
Exercise five times a week