Plea to dog owners

Hello All, we are in Louisiana awaiting the arrival of my first nephew. Today my sister and I were on the highway on the way to Target when a dog in the back of a truck, started hanging from his collar from the side of the truck. The driver had no idea that his dog was dangling and getting strangled while he cruised along the highway at around 65 mph. I slowed down cause I didn't want to run over the dog if it got loose. I started honking trying to get the drivers attention. I got the attention of the car in front of me who was actually a lot closer to the truck. The dog eventually slipped out of the collar and made it's way to the side of the road, dazed and pretty banged up, but out of harm's way. The car in front of me sped up and stopped the truck and told him that he lost his dog about 3/4 mile back. Thankfully, I didn't have to stop, since I had an almost 9 months pregnant woman and a toddler in the car. So I'm hoping that he got his dog back and learned a very valuable lesson. So for all you dog owners out there, please, please don't tie your dog up in the back of the truck. Put him in a kennel or inside the truck. And always pay attention to the dog if he's in the back. Things can happen very quickly and luckily this dog survived.

Anyway, just wanted to warn everyone out there about this dangerous practice. We are having a good time here and enjoying some much needed vacation. We'll have plenty of pictures to post after the baby comes. Stay tuned...

Finally some rain...

We finally got some much needed rain today. A huge thunderstorm rolled through this afternoon and gave us some rain. After it passed through, a beautiful double rainbow filled the sky. We got some pictures of it.


This is from the backyard:


It was so clear!


From the front yard, you can really see the double rainbow in this picture:





I've been working like a mad woman since I got back from Covington. So that's why the blog has been neglected. Jeff is back from Moscow and has tons of pictures from his trip. He's in charge of that posting, so we'll see how long it takes him to do it. :)

And finally, congratulations to our friends Stephen and Amanda. Little Emilie Kate was born last night in Baton Rouge. We can't wait to see them next week when we go back to Louisiana.

Pictures from Covington

I have one more day in Covington, so I thought I would post some of the pictures we've taken so far.

We had a bbq at my mom's house on Saturday, then we went to Global Wildlife Center today and I went to my best friend's brother's wedding on Sunday, so there are pictures from everything.


http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffery.mauldin/CovingtonJune2008

I'm having trouble embedding the website, so you'll have to copy and paste this link in a new web browser. Sorry!

My trial and travels

So as you all know, I got picked to sit on a jury this week. I couldn't discuss anything about the case until after we had reached a verdict. Well, we finally ended yesterday so I am free to talk about it. It was a juvenile case that happened in Galveston. The story goes there was a group of teenagers (around 13-14 years old)that met at Sonic. One young boy named Erick, started "flirting" with the waitress that was on roller skates. She went to take out the trash behind the building where it was dimly lit. Erick followed her back there and somehow, she ended up face down on the ground and he was on top of her. Another young boy, DayDay (probably spelled wrong, but that's how they pronounced it), yelled, "She's down, she's down", ran over there and unclipped her money bag while Erick held her down and then those two ran off with the money. They have plead guilty to robbery and have been convicted already. Now the juvenile on trial was Darian, or Dada as they called him. He was at the scene and we had to say if he was involved in the robbery or was an innocent bystander. We heard testimony from several kids that were there, the girl that was knocked down and a cop and a detective. The kids were "sworn" to tell the truth, but you know how that goes. One kid was obviously lying. We could tell because of his body language and his story didn't match anything else we had heard. But anyway, after one hour of deliberation, we concluded that the state did not have enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dada was guilty of "robbery", so we unanimously voted that the charges were "untrue", which is how you vote in a juvenile case. There were many holes in all the stories, and this was NOTHING like Law & Order. The lawyers weren't as polished, names kept being confused, the witnesses were scared teenagers and there was just not enough evidence in our opinion, to prove he had any part in the crime. So anyway, that was my first experience with jury duty and it wasn't bad at all. I actually got to leave town earlier being on the jury, than I would have if I wouldn't have gotten picked. So everything works out. I left for Louisiana around 12:30 and arrived here a little after 5. Not too much traffic until I hit Baton Rouge. Then last night we went out to eat with a group of people that my sister and brother-in-law know and that I know as well. I then went back to a friends house and we played rock band on the PS2. I only know how to play the guitar (since we have guitar hero), so that's what I played. I surely didn't want to sing, cause that would have been torture for everyone else and I would have most definately been booed off. Anyway, I had a good time visiting with old friends. Today we're packing up and heading to my mom's house for our family vacation. It should be fun. Anyway, that's all for now.

Moscow

So as most of you know, Jeff is in Moscow supporting the latest shuttle mission. He said that he has taken lots of picutures, but he has only sent me one. So here it is...

Jury duty and new shutters

Today was my second day of being a juror. It's not too terrible, but there are definately better ways I can think of to spend my day. I have to go back tomorrow, but I think we will be done, and I'm hoping by lunchtime. I'm not allowed to say what kind of trial it is until it's over, so you'll have to wait and see! I plan on leaving for Louisiana after I'm done, so I'm hoping to get out at a reasonable time.

On another note, I got out kinda early today so I got to be here when the new plantation shutters were installed. My friend Dee Ann was kind enough to stay here and let them in until I could get home. They look awesome! So much better than the paper shades we've had up since we moved in. I have the before and after pics here.

Master bedroom before:


Master bedroom after:



Office before:




Office after:


Bedroom 1 before:



Bedroom 1 after:



Bedroom 2 before:



Bedroom 2 after (we just got faux wood blinds in here):





I think they look a ton better and I love the versatility. Now I can actually let the light in!

The day...

Today I went down to Galveston and reported for jury duty. I had to be there at 11:15 and I made it on time. Short story short, I didn't get picked to stay, so I left at 12:15. Not too bad. But I called at 6pm and lo and behold, my name was on the recording, so I have to show up at 9:30 tomorrow morning, again in Galveston. So on to day two.

On another note, I got a call from our shutter guy and looks like our new plantation shutters will be installed on Wednesday! Yahoo! They are supposed to be here at 4pm, so I'm hoping I don't have to go back to Galveston on Wed. If I do, I'll have to have someone come babysit until I can get home.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm sure I'll have more news tomorrow.