Court, Class, and Chillin'

This past weekend was even crazier weekend than the one before, so allow me to speak of it in three separate parts so as not to overwhelm you with the random nature of our activities...

Court

Tim and friend/consigliari/Moot Court partner Matt Panach advanced to the final round of the Moot Court Competition, so I left work early on Friday and Timothy's family (minus Auntie Leah, who was suffering through a Disney World vacation and was sorely missed) came up from Eldo to attend. The competition was decided by three very important and "real-life" judges - I would totally botch official titles if I tried to give them, but I think one was a Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and the other two were maybe circuit court something or anothers... Don't quote me on that. [There was an Arkansas Court of Appeals judge, a Missouri Court of Appeals judge, and an Arkansas Circuit Court judge - Tim] Point being, they were pretty important folks when it comes to the Arkansas judicial system and they did not hesitate to exercise their powers of authority when questioning the guys about their cases. Nonetheless, the guys maintained their cool and showed those judges whose house they were in.

Ultimately, Team Timothy smoked the opposition, not only winning the competition as a whole, but also taking home the award for Best Brief and Timothy with the Best Oralist honor for the both rounds (for those of you keeping talley, that's 3 awards for best oralist.) Oh, and $500 each, which will be spent on new golf clubs. Which I'm fine with. Really.

After a celebratory supper at Logan's, Tim's family made their way back to Eldo - but not without contributing lots of cute things to Alex's expanding wardrobe.

Class

At last, the long awaited and anticipated Childbirth Preparation Marathon!! We spent the entire day on Saturday getting the "accelerated" version of the typical 6 session class. We, along with 4 other couples, learned many fascinating things, including the many ins and outs (literally) of the female body. I think Tim learned some things that they don't even teach in health class. In fact, I even discovered some things that, in 27 years of being female, I never knew (or wanted to).

We spent a good portion of the time trying various relaxation techniques and practicing lamaze inspired breathing methods, which, as it turns out, were more entertaining for Timothy and I than I think they were meant to be. All the other couples took this portion of the class very seriously. But for Timothy and I, simultaneously trying to balance on large rubbery exercise balls while synchronizing "hee-hee-hee-hoos" and massaging each other's hands incited those uncontrollable giggle fits that one often experiences during church, funerals, or other situations where giggle fits are completely inappropriate.

We also watched those infamous "birthing videos" - you know the ones I'm talkin' about. Not the pleasant ones that take care to avoid the icky bits and focus on the mother's face and only pan down far enough to see the clean and freshly swaddled newborn baby as the doctor places it on the mother's gowned chest for the first time. No sir, we're talking videos where the mothers are completely buck naked and the cameraman is all up in her business - clearly in the way of the OB that is trying to deliver the baby - taking care to capture every intimate moment including all of the icky bits.

Somehow, despite the unsettling nature of these activities, we left feeling completely settled and ready to get this show on the road. Although you can never be truly prepared for something as unpredictable as childbirth, I guess just having some visuals to reference makes it all a little easier to grasp.

Chillin'

After our long day at class, we were ready for some rest and relaxation that didn't involve big rubber balls or imaginary contractions. Saturday night was a big one in the world of NCAA Basketball, so we gathered with our peeps (the Primms and Reeves) at Buffalo Wild Wings to chow and watch some tournament games. Said "peeps" are all fairly new parents, so being the good friends that we are, we made sure to refresh their memories with all the gory details of our childbirth class in case they had forgotten (or repressed) what it was like. We ate a ton, then headed to the Reeves' for the afterparty. Many wild and raucous hours later, we headed home to crash, with visions of ... still dancing in our heads.