EspiCleaning

I have always wanted to start a business. A friend of mine cleans houses and she wanted to be able to go to school for nursing. So I suggested that we start a cleaning business so she will have time to go to school. And EspiCleaning was born. Her name is Esperanza and she goes by Espi. She already had a small clientele so we decided to keep the name so if we decide to down the road we can roll the houses she cleans into our business.

It has been quite a process. We decided that she would be in charge of the cleaning ladies and I would handle the office stuff. Neither of us knows how to start a business so it has been an educational adventure. Everything is finally set up and hopefully the houses will start rolling in. I guess we will see.

My day in court

Well I went to court today.

After we got the notification of citation in the mail, we anxiously waited to get our "courtesy notice" which is the worst named thing on the planet! Our courtesy notice informed us that the fine would be $416.00. FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN DOLLARS!?!?!?! With a fee like that you would think that I was a hardened criminal with a rap sheet four feet long.

Before I got the courtesy notice I was just going to write a check and consider my lesson learned. The notification of citation informed me that "Red means Stop" I considered myself informed and was going to do just that in the future. However, when I got the courtesy notice (and after I had awoken from my shock coma) I decided that I needed to go to court and fight at least the fee. The eighth amendment protects us against excessive bails and fees and I was set to fight for my constitutional rights (I consider 416.00 for going through an intersection two seconds too late on a first time offence excessive).

I set up my court date and have been nervously waiting away the days. I have been going over and over what I was going to say for weeks. I was planning on listing all of the things I was doing right at the time: hands in the right position on the steering wheel, using my turning signal, not talking on the phone, seat belt buckled, staying in my lane as I turned, not speeding, having all the proper documents (licence, insurance, registration), not being under the influence, etc. I also thought that I would point out that the fine would buy 9 months worth of diapers (with a pending baby that is how I now think).

So I went to court this afternoon after spending the morning picking out the perfect outfit that said "I am a cute little momma to be who should have pity heaped upon her and the fine thrown out." I got there at 12:30 the required time and there was like a million people there. Half of the people were in jeans and there were only a few other women in dresses. Some people looked like they had come from working in the yard. I was a little surprised since I was trying to look like an upright law abiding citizen and some of these people definitely did not. We stood in the hall outside the court for half an hour until they opened the courtroom doors. We had to watch a video in English and Spanish (if we left the courtroom during the video at all, even during the Spanish portion we would be considered a no show which is a 400 fine).

The judge called people up 10 at a time alphabetically so I was there for a long time! I was absolutely amazed at some of the charges, people who didn't have insurance or a licence, people who were driving at excessive speeds, one guy was weaving in and out of traffic and passed on the right shoulder, they all had fees less than mine! What!?! Something about this just doesn't seem right. The judge went through everybody so fast reading the violation and then asking what they were going to plead. If you pled not guilty you set up your court date and if you pled guilty or no contest you got your fine. He was really direct and to the point not talking with anyone other than the business at hand. I had been praying that the judges heart would be softened and that I would know what to say and do. When I walked up there he smiled (a first from what I could see) and asked me if I had recognized myself in the photos (there had been a couple of people before me including the guy before me who had the exact same violation as I did and he hadn't asked them this. an attempt at a joke? also a first). I laughed and said I had. Then he asked me how I pled, I said "Guilty." He asked me if I wanted to go to traffic school. I did if it would lower my fine. He said that because I had a clean record (also a first) he would lower the fine . I felt that my prayer was answered in that the judges heart was softened, especially since he was so nice to me, this just didn't include a big cut in the fine. He lowered the fee to $337.00 plus $61.00 for traffic school.

So over all I spent three hours at court to save $18 and I still have to go to traffic school. However, at least it won't show up on my record. And I have learned my lesson that "Red means Stop!"

Natalie's Paparazzi Photos

Here are some of the latest photos from Natalie's newest Paparazzi fans (which we just retrieved from the mail--sorry so small).

Yes, the paparazzi happens to be Mr. Red-light Photo Cop. She NEVER breaks the traffic laws (for real she never does, she is ALWAYS getting after me to use my signals, not change lanes in side street intersections, slow down, etc.). But the one time she does, her paparazzi was waiting to snap her photo. There is a nice little video that goes with it, but I am not technosavy enough to copy it from the website and embed it here. She is rather upset by the fact that it was her that got caught and not me. There have been various "its not fair, it should be you" mumbled this evening. The ironic thing is she was on her way to the Dr. to get a letter to get out of Jury Duty. Yeah how "random" is it that both of us get a Jury summons the exact same day for the exact same day. Me thinks they just picked our address and said, "hmm, how many registered voters live here?" Then the court didn't want to accept her note because it was electronically signed and not physically signed. So now she has to go back to the Dr. and have them sign another one, then take it over to the court house in person to get out of going. The reason she is getting off is she can't sit for very long because "Stitch" is causing her crooked pelvis to act up and create lots of back pain.

Needless to say she is not going to chance yellow lights again.

Smuggling Basketballs

When I first got married my dad would often tease me about what I would look like when I was pregnant. He would say that I would either look like a cherry tomato on a toothpick or that I would look like I was smuggling a basketball. I believe the latter is winning. Last month when I went up to Utah to Women's Conference, Evelyn (the 19 month old that can foretell the gender) pointed at my stomach and said, "ball." Apparently she thought that I was hiding one from her. She LOVES playing ball. I am now 40 1/2 inches around and have almost grown out of some of the maternity clothes.

June 2, 2009

June 8, 2009

Old Wive's Tales

So we just thought that we would post about the best way to determine what gender your child is.

Ring and String Method: First off you have to find a first grade teacher that is part of a burly motorcycle gang (we mainly just ride to eat; "Live to ride, ride to live") to perform this one. So the version that we have heard is you take a ring and suspend it on a piece of thread over the mother-to-be's stomach. If the ring swings in a circular fashion it will be a girl. If it goes in a relatively straight line, it is boy. The ring didn't seem to go in any particular direction, but according to Steve it will be a boy.

Consult the Chinese Lunar Conception Calendar: Google this one. You have to figure out when the baby was conceived along with using the mother's lunar birth date and it gives you the formula. Our result was it will be a boy.

Heart Beat: If the heart beat is above 150 beats per minute it is supposed to be a girl. Our baby's heart rate is at or above 150, so the result is a baby girl.

Ask Your Religious Leader: One of the bishopric members at church is dead set that we are having a girl. He claims he has never been wrong with his predictions. He informed us of this while we were shopping at Target and ran into him.

Ultrasound: Get an ultrasound. Ask the person running the ultrasound machine to try to zoom in between the legs and give you their best guess as to what gender you are having. Two different machines and two different ultrasound pilots both say boy.

But the most effective method is,
Ask Your 19 Month Old Niece: We asked our 19 month old niece "what's your cousin's name?" She would consistently say "Dan" and then run off to go play. The funniest part about this method is when you try to explain that there is a baby in Natalie's tummy to her. She got a bewildered look on her face then it turned quizzical as she lifted Natalie's shirt to try to look in through Nat's belly button. I don't think she believed us that there is a baby in there.

So of these 6 methods it looks like the ring and string, Chinese calendar, ultrasound, and ask a little kid methods seem to be accurate. But we won't know for sure until the first part of October.

Signs of Life part 2

Well the garden isn't the only thing that is sprouting around here. We have been taking pictures of my belly as it has been growing and I have wanted to put them on here for a while.

March 11th
March 29th (probably the last time I could zip up my jeans)

April 15th

April 20th

I put this put this picture on the blog because I love my belly button (yeah I know weird) It is half innie and half semi-outie. Even at this early time it started to spread out and flatten.

Also April 20th

April 20th too.

April 26th

May 13th (not the most flattering pic)

May 19th

(Note the belly button is almost flat and the outie part is starting to really be an outie.

May 19th

37 inches around. I wish I had been measuring the whole time, but I think I started out at about 28 or 29 inches.

Today we went to the doctor and they did a little informal ultrasound for us. We had to switch insurance and as a result, doctors. Our doctor is Quin's boss's wife. She was so great. I hate going to the lady doctor and thought I had that all taken care of when I went to my previous doctor. The records haven't transferred yet so we had to do the lady exam all over again. I wasn't too keen about that in the first place and then having your husband's boss's wife do the exam was another cause of discomfort. It makes for an interesting office Christmas party. But like I said, she was so great and when she did the ultrasound she took like a million pictures. She kept saying "oh, that is so cute" while hitting the print button.

Some great shots of the little feetsies.

The top one is of the arms. They are crossed up by the head.
We're not really sure what the bottom one is.

In one picture the baby was sucking it's thumb, it was so cute! You could see its little fingers and the thumb up by the mouth moving.

The cute little body.

What do you think? Boy or Girl?

Signs of Life

Woohoo! The heat (triple digits during the day) plus lots of water seems to be working. We planted the garden last Thursday night and today is Tuesday (5 days exactly) and we have sprouts. The corn, the zucchini, and one tiny little spinach plant have all sprouted. There wasn't anything poking through last night either. After I mowed the lawn we checked on the garden and got our hopes up, but it was just stray grass clippings. But today the corn is an inch tall, and the zucchini has definitely pushed through the dirt. The spinach looks very delicate still. Now I hope the heat and sun doesn't kill the little sprouts.

The zucchini is also about an inch and a half tall.

The planting method is to put 4 corn plants in one box. Here you can see 2-3 plants in each location, which will need to be thinned down to 1 per spot.