Ticket to Ride, Part Two

Okay. Part two. Our original court date was two weeks ago, but I wanted to go into Ohio to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday with her, so I called and got a continuance for two weeks. That put the court date at Wednesday, June 25.

Once I discovered that this ticket required a court appearance, I informed Bella that she would be accompanying me. I didn't lay it on too thick, I figured she'd be nervous enough. I had no idea just how nervous she would be.

The morning of, Bella was on a video chat with my mom.

Bella: "Sorry, Grandma, I have to go. My mom and I are going to pick out a cute outfit so they don't send me to jail."

I really had no idea that Bella thought that this violation could lead to jail time. And, my mom only passed on the above quote AFTER we returned from the courthouse.

We did take what we know about costuming and apply it to our choice of clothing. Bella wore a white linen dress with a ruffled collar and little lavender accents. She wore matching white sandals. I wore a white top, a black pencil skirt and black kitten heels. Doesn't white just scream innocence?

It took quite some time to figure out where to go and what to do at the courthouse. After walking back and forth from both courtrooms, checking the lists and writing my name on a little slip of paper, we finally settled into the seats in the courtroom. We sat. And sat. And sat. We watched prisoners in jumpsuits shuffle out, shackled to each other. We watched them stand, one by one, entering their plea, putting their heads down. Then we watched them shuffle back, dejected. It was incredibly demoralizing.

Bella went through quite a series of emotions. When we first sat down, she said, "I'm nervous." I said, "Me, too. I'm glad you're here with me." She smiled at that, proud that she could make a difference. Later, she got squirmy and bored. She drew in my notepad for a while. We started whispering back and forth. Eventually, the bailiff came over and told us to be quiet. Bella looked shocked. She put her head down, claiming to be tired, and tried to fall asleep. We had been there just over an hour.

Somewhere in this time, I saw a friend of ours who is an attorney. We had carpooled together the previous year. She saw us after a little bit, looked shocked and came over to ask what we were doing there. We gave her the Reader's Digest version. She said she'd be right back and went up to look at the stack of files by the judge. She came back over and said we were still way down at the bottom of the pile. She would see what she could do.

After the next "defendant" was done, they called us up. I stood at the podium and instructed Bella to stand next to me, far enough away from the podium for the judge to take in the gratuitous cuteness of Bella. Our attorney friend whispered to the judge for 30 seconds, which felt like 30 minutes as we stood up there in silence. Finally, our friend said, "Just look at Bella. Isn't she the cutest?"

The judge turned to us.

Judge: "Are you Kathleen Hickey."
Kat: "Yes, sir. I am."
Judge: "And, besides your attorney, who do you have with you today?"
Kat: "This is Isabella."
Judge: "Are you Isabella?"
Bella nods.
Judge: "Is this your mother?"
Bella: "Yes."
Judge: "Your attorney says that you made a mistake and you're sorry. If you can promise me that this will never happen again, I can dismiss all charges and let you go home."
Bella smiles and nods gleefully.

Stunned, I turn around to leave and our attorney friend walks us out. She had told the judge the situation. She added that "Kat is one of the best moms I know." She asked him to take the opportunity to lay it on a little thick for Bella so that she would take more responsibility for her car seat and buckle. He did, all right.

So, we went home with vows to do better next time, at least $200 that we thought we'd have to give to the government and gratitude for the generosity and kindness of good friends. All in all, best case scenario for a trip to the County Courthouse.

Ticket to Ride? Part One.

We got pulled over. For having such a lead foot, I really haven't gotten pulled over in a long time. I think I got pulled over about 7 times in the year-and-a-half between getting my license and turning 18. No tickets, though. I said "yes, sir" quite a bit and tried to seem very innocent and remorseful. At some point, that just stopped working. Maybe it was the minivan instead of the cute little sedan. Maybe it was the kids in the car - the whole - endangering innocent lives thing. Or maybe I've just lost my mojo.

Back to the point. It was Liam's birthday, May 19. Grandpa Ken took Liam golfing after school and I picked the girls up at the bus stop and drove straight to the chiropractor appointment. Bus comes between 3:58 and 4:04. Appointment is at 4:15 because the chiropractor refuses to give me a 4:30, which would actually be realistic. And he's cranky when we're late. And it takes about 18 minutes to get from bus stop to chiropractor's office with ideal traffic. So. Impossible to be on time, right? If obeying the laws of physics, gravity and Indiana? So, we defied the only one of the three we could.

We got pulled over when we were about 5 minutes away. The nice police officer informed me that he pulled me over because: (multiple choice)
A) I was speeding.
B) My plates/registration were expired.
C) I had a child in the back who appeared not to be in a seat belt.
D) All of the above.

If you guessed D, you are a sadist. And also correct.

I was speeding. True. It was May 19. Apparently, my plates expired on May 15. I had the plate in the garage and I was waiting for John to put it on. The registration said that the new one expires on May 28, 2009, so I assumed that the current ones were the same. No, the nice officer informed me. In 2008, they expire on the 15 of the month and in 2009, they will expire on the 28th. Fantastic.

And so we come to C. Buckling up in the car has never really been a priority for Bella. She usually took care of any other little thing in the car (putting on her shoes, brushing her hair, talking/fighting with siblings) before buckling up. We have tried: "Your job is to put on your buckle first, as soon as you get in the car." We have tried: "Don't do anything else until you are buckled in." We've tried yelling, screaming, pulling over and waiting until she does what we ask. She growls at us. It's less than fun.

Back to May 19: We're halfway to the chiropractor. I look back and Bella is sitting in the middle seat, lap belt only (no shoulder belt) and not in her booster seat (required in Indiana until 8 years or 80 pounds). I got angry and told her she had to be in the booster and not in the middle. She unbuckles to move into the booster seat sitting right next to her. According to the police man and Bella's combined accounts, Bella decided to "bounce around" and say hi to Jackson in the seat in front of her before settling into her seat belt. This seems to be the time when the police man "allegedly" clocked me driving just a skosh over the speed limit. With expired plates.

You'd think that would be bad enough. That calling to tell the chiropractor that we were waiting on the side of the road to get a ticket and wouldn't be able to make it would be embarrassing enough. Nope. It appears that since one of the charges was a child restraint violation, that I had to go to court for it. Awesome. Who's coming with me? You got it. Bella.

!Feliz Dia de Padres!

And a Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. As I said to John this morning, nice job spreading your seed! [wink] Hope you have a wonderful day full of the smell of animal flesh searing on the grill, the crisp flavor of an ice cold beer and the warmth and love of your family.

Ah, those olden days before DVDs and electricity...

Maddie and I were chillin' the week before last. Mamaw Dot took Liam and Bella back to Ohio, so during the day I just had Maddie and Jackson. Maddie and I were watching a movie - Cinderella 3. No, seriously. It was so bad, it didn't even go straight to DVD, it went straight to Disney Channel.

Anywho, there was a scene where Cinderella was out in a meadow, singing.

Maddie: "This part reminds me of that one movie we watched with Grandma Dot."

Kat: "The Sound of Music?"

Maddie: "Yeah! That's the one! Back in the olden days, they really liked that movie. I think it's kind of boring."

This from the child who sat attentively through "March of the Penguins" in the theater and after it was over and we were walking out said, "Um, that was just a movie about penguins."

Who was that masked man?

I retract my comment that the current soccer league is perfect. After the drama of Liam's soccer coach no-showing last week and Grandma Dot having to step in, this week proved to be interesting in a different way. It was the Liam show.

Liam basically took the ball to the net every single time his shoe touched it in the first quarter. He scored at least two goals and some of the kids seemed to give up at trying to stop him. In the second quarter, the coach tried to change it up a little by putting him on defense. That worked really well in some ways. None of the other team's players got anywhere NEAR the goal. Liam would go after the ball and boot it to the other side of the field. This would have been really great if any of his players were on that half of the field, but all the offensive players from his team were huddled around where the ball just was.

The coach took him out for a while, but then greedily put him back in because the game was kind of boring without him in. So, he scored a few more times. At one point, a player from the other team was dribbling the ball near midfield on the side of the field John and I were on. Liam runs up to the kid, says "thank you," steals the ball away and scores. John and I look at each other. "That was borderline," I said.

I have no pictures from this game because I put the camera away. I just didn't want to be that mom who is shooting pictures of her kids whooping your kids' butt.

The hatred of grownups...

We have an atypical policy on cursing in our house. When I discovered that I have a bit of an impulsive potty mouth, I re-evaluated calling profanity "bad words." If the words are bad and I use them, that would make me "bad," right? So, I took to calling them "grownup words." This way, I can use them and you can't. Someday they may be smart enough to see through this logic, but for now, it works. If one of the children gets caught using a grownup word, the consequence is scrubbing the toilets, several loads of laundry, paying bills online or one of the other numerous joys of being an adult. After a few warnings, the kids using profanity really hasn't been a problem.

We also don't allow them to call people names like stupid, fat and other things we feel are disrespectful. We also don't allow them to say "hate". Hate, even in small doses, breeds hate on a national and world level. Words reflect consciousness and we don't want our family, even in adulthood, to use unkind words.

Grandpa Ken relayed a story about a time he was in the car with just Bella a few months ago. They were driving along and Bella was telling him about something that frustrated her. (which could be anything because we are all so much less enlightened than her...)

Grandpa Ken: "Oh, Bella. I hate it when that happens." He caught himself and said, "Oops. Sorry, Bella. I'm not supposed to say 'hate'."

Bella: "Don't worry, Grandpa. You can say it, it's okay. Just kids can't say 'hate.'"

Dork sidebar

In case you notice that my pictures are a little crisper, or that maybe my photo composition is better (?), I just wanted to recommend two things. First, I'm taking a photography class that is totally amazing. I still scratch my head at the people who adjust the f-stop on every photo, (because I'm trying to shoot pics while Jackson is running away) but my eye is getting much better.

Second, I bought a new camera. If you've been thinking *forever* that you were interested in buying a dSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, AKA one of those big cameras with changeable lenses, I'm really happy with mine. I bought the Canon Digital Rebel Xsi (450D). I did a lot of research and asked photographers who all agreed on this one. The wonderful photographer who shot Kevin's wedding recommended it highly.

The combination of new camera and photo class has been perfect. I don't know if I would have ever figured out how to really use this camera to it's full potential without the class. Now I just need a second hard drive for all the pictures. :)