Everyone gets their day in court

The ticket debacle is finally over! (If you're new to the story, read here and here).

Today we went to court and after waiting for a couple of hours (we were the very last case), we met with the prosecuting official & our attorney. After telling our side of the story to the prosecutor, she decided that we were right--we didn't warrant a $1000+ ticket for "not yielding to an emergency vehicle." They dropped it to a faulty headlight charge. The attorney tried to get the judge to lower the fee, but the judge was a stickler (which we saw as we watched him take care of all the cases before us), and left the fee as it was.

On the way home I rented Twilight (FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!!) to celebrate. HH is working late to make up for not working this morning. I'm going to watch the movie and eat crunchy popcorn to displace some stress. Maybe I'll stare out the window at the freakish SNOW for a while.

Special thanks to Meghan, who was going to watch Chick today (until Chick woke up and puked).

And special thanks to M&D N, who were willing to drive an hour to come stay with a sick Chick.

And finally a special thanks to Grandpa J, who was a great babysitter for both girls & who must have been great with Chick because she was yelling "Bye bye, I yuv you" out the window as he was driving away.

Ticket fee: $124
Attorney fee: $450
Relief that at least it's all over and done: Priceless

Follow Up to "Why is your bumper in my tire?"

So last weekend's exciting run-in with the police didn't end as I thought it did.

Today Dave went and got the mail and there was a $1065 ticket for "Not yielding to an Emergency Vehicle."

So, if any of you local folks know of a good, honest, reasonable lawyer in the area that would handle this kind of thing, please let me know via email. We will definitely be contesting this.

Not the greatest weekend--especially when combined with our Jeep breaking down (leaving Dave stranded in the rain on a Friday night) and costing $1500 to fix, and all sorts of other "sand beneath the clamshell" things.

My prayer tonight might honestly be "Hope you know, I'm having a hard time." (See Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk in the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference).

"Why is your bumper in my tire?"

So just a quick note about our exciting adventure last night. We were a couple of blocks from home when a police car started following us. They didn't turn on their lights until we were on our street, and Handsome Handyman drove 1/2 a block before he was able to swing around to a free stopping spot. They must have viewed his turn around as hostile (Handsome Handyman was just thinking that they'd like it better than driving the rest of the way to our driveway)...and Handsome Handyman is always "cautious" (read: SLOW) in answering when he's been pulled over anyhow. I don't think it helps that they asked such a weird question, not "Do you know why I pulled you over?" but "Why is your bumper in my tire?" If I were driving, I would have to take a minute to figure that one out too...

Anyhow, they right away had him get out of the car, pulled a gun, and HANDCUFFED HIM! I didn't see the gun, thank goodness, because I started freaking out just from the handcuffs and their attitudes! "OFFICER, WHY ARE YOU HANDCUFFING MY HUSBAND?!" They took Handsome Handyman over to their car, ran the usual background checks, and talked to me (since I was clearly distraught)... "Is your husband on any medication? He's acting weird."

When the background checks were done they let him go-- no warning, no ticket (they pulled us over because we had a headlight out, of all things). We went home and had a few good laughs to relieve the stress of it. Handsome Handyman asked if I was going to write about it on my blog, and said that I should have run home to get the camera. I didn't, of course, but if you need a visual try watching COPS... but instead of having them pull over the drug dealer or guy packing a gun, picture our little family (chick asleep in the back seat) with a headlight out.