I peed!

My mom has been here with us since Friday, helping with Jack's party this weekend and then helping with Jack this week. I had jury duty starting Monday, which is a posting of its own, and the babysitter is out of town, so I wanted her here for Jack since I had no idea what to expect with jury duty. Mom is really good about putting underwear on Jack when she's around and helping with the potty training. It kind of takes someone else here to get my butt in gear because otherwise, it's just easier to change a diaper. Anyways, Mom started him on Monday in underwear and taught him that if he had to go he needed to yell "Sissy, peepee!" or "Sissy, poopoo!". He did okay, telling her most of the time, but most of the time it was too late when they got to the potty. He did make it on a couple of occassions and he was so proud of himself! The kid is so ready for this. It's just going to take consistency and work on our behalf.

So anyways, yesterday when I got off work Jack, Mom and I headed to eat at Cracker Barrell. Here's my biggest problem with potty training. He almost always tells me in a public place that he needs to go, but I have a real issue of putting him on a public toilet. I have bought one of those seats that fold up to go in your diaper bag that sits on top of a potty seat, but I'm just not in the habit of bringing it with me everywhere I go yet. So our waiter comes to give us our ticket and Jack looks at him, grabs his own crotch and says "I peed!". The waiter had no idea what to say. He said "You did? Okay?". As we're walking out of Cracker Barrell, Jack looks at a random customer, waves at her, grabs his crotch again and says "I peed!" and she just laughs and said "Okay!". Today I have Mom working on who to tell when the time comes to go potty.

Jury Duty
I never write a posting just about myself, so I thought I would just lump this one into Jack's posting. As I stated, I had jury duty starting on Monday morning. The way it is done in Memphis is you go one day to select your week. There are a few thousand people there and you just line up when a week is called you want and hope you get that week before it fills up. This was the week I chose. I had to be downtown at 8:30, at least a 40 minute drive from our house without traffic, and the parking is 3-4 blocks away from the jury room. I talked to several friends, who had jury duty recently and it was a piece of cake for all of them. Everyone was done by Tuesday afternoon and they just brought magazines and books to read during the wait. So I packed a small cooler of drinks and snacks and a couple of books and thought it would actually be a good way to kick back and relax for a few days.

After the almost 2 hour orientation Monday morning, my name was one of 65 called for the first trial. In my mind, I was excited. I thought this meant I might actually be done that day, possibly in time to return to work that afternoon. Shortly after entering the courtroom, however, we were told that we were chosen to take part in jury selection that afternoon for a trial that would last the duration of the week and that it was a sequestered jury 1st degree murder trial. During our 2 hour lunch, we were to return home to pack our bags and make arrangements for child or pet care until Saturday at the latest. If we were one of the 14 chosen, we would be taken immediately after jury selection to a secret hotel where we would stay the rest of the week along with the officers guarding us. Panic set in. While walking to the parking garage for lunch, I started bawling my eyes out uncontrollably. I don't like surprise. Tell me in advance that this is what's going to happen and I won't like it, but I won't have the same reaction as I did that day right there on the spot. I'm sure you're thinking what are the chances of me getting chosen for that 14-person jury out of a room of 65 people, but there have only been 2 sequestered jury trials since January and I was chosen for the 3rd one. Also, in a room of 300 people that morning, I was one of 65 chosen for this trial. My chances were good in my mind.

I'll spare you the details of the rest of my day, but I sat for 4 hours through jury selection and at the very end at 6:15 that night, I was dismissed. I never even got called to the jury box for questioning because they had their jury before my name came up. I guess this is a classic case of most things you worry about in life never even happen.