Weekly Update

I've been meaning to post all week...we've been outside so much that I've barely gotten my e-mail checked. Oh well...it's good for the kids.

Let's see...Tuesday, we were outside all day. I started planting my impatients (8 flats to be exact!) and was feeling pretty good about the yard. A neighbor, Alicia, and her kids walked by and we stopped to talk. She began on her way again when I heard really loud music (I thought it was thunder). All of the sudden, a car comes screaming up the street. I look towards the top of the street and see Hannah and Daniel riding their bikes. All I could do was scream "slow down" (it was a really bizarre scream). He was going fast enough that had he hit the kids, he would have killed them. Honestly, I don't know how even one of them didn't get hit. So, some punk in the back leans his head out the window and starts screaming "f*&^ you!" At this point, Alicia is on the corner talking with another neighbor, Jackie. Jackie starts screaming at these kids too and they start screaming at her. They never stopped at the stop sign at the top of the street and took the corner at around 30 mph. I'm shaking and am almost in tears by this point. Jackie starts walking down the street towards me, on the phone. She got the license plate number and had called 911. An officer's on his way. Jackie's furious; I'm hystercal. She calms me down a bit and Mike arrives home. We let him know what happened and that we think it's a kid down the street. Mike says that he's going to talk to this kid's dad so he's not blindsided when a cop comes knocking at his door. The officer arrives and Jackie and I pounce on his car. I feel so badly for this poor officer...I don't think he realized what he was getting into with us. Jackie's screaming "I want the fear of God put in this kid!" and I'm screaming "that punk would have killed my kids!" He assures us he'll take care of it. At this point, Cheryl (the kid's mother) comes down the street, clearly concerned that Jackie and I are talking to a cop. She stops and asks what happened. We tell her and she furiously drives home. We all head home. About 20 minutes later, Cheryl's at my door. She said that she called her son to ask him who's blue neon he was in. He said that he was on a moped. Crap...I did see him go by on a moped. I didn't realize that there's another teenager (not belonging to Cheryl) on the street. Hmmmm...lots of apologies to Cheryl (I never could place her kid in the car but Jackie was sure he was there) and it seemed to be over for now. Jackie calls around 8 and tells me that the cop called her to tell her that they found the kid and the mom. The mother assured him that this kid would be severely disciplined.

Wednesday, there was a little more planting and more outside time. We had our Secret Sister reveal at Pargo's Wednesday night. It was nice to go out and chat with friends. Pargo's makes a good margarita! LOL

This morning, I took Jacob up to the bus stop and was walking back when I ran into Jonna and her kids. She told me that James was on a rampage...he had taken down 3 trees yesterday and mine was next on his list because he was tired of looking at it. I told her that was fine...it wouldn't upset me at all. She chuckled and I went back inside. A little after 9, I look outside and see James with a chainsaw in my backyard. He's already got half of the tree down. I walk out to ask him what his favorite cookie is (I'm planning on making him some cookies as a thank you) and he said that it's no problem. The tree is so dead that there's no sap left in it and that he could carry the whole tree with one arm. 5 minutes later, the tree was down and on it's way to the dump.

Daniel, Hannah and I met Barbra and her kids at the park this morning and then went out to lunch. Her second child, Lindsay, is so much like Daniel was at her age...no fear. She's such a peanut but follows right along with the bigger kids. I'm convinced that second children are a special breed.

The kids and Mike were outside for quite a while after dinner...it gave me lots of time to get the house back in order. I even got the floors mopped! So cool! We gave the kids a bath and started to read the bedtime story. I was laying on Hannah's floor and Mike was reading Jacob's library book about salmon. I guess he thought that I wasn't paying attention because he says something about the male fish mounting the female fish. I sat up and said "what? Does it really say that?" Mike starts laughing hysterically and says "I didn't think you were listening." He keeps reading but is having a hard time containing his laughter. By this point, Jacob's getting mad that Mike's not sticking to the actual words...he keeps inserting Daniel and Hannah's name in various places. Daniel thought it was really funny. Jacob did not. Needless to say, story time tonight was kind of a waste.

So, there's only one more day to go for TV turn off week. And, yes Michelle, I will get to watch Grey's on Sunday (it's finally a new one!). I have to say, it's been very nice to have the TV off in the morning and evenings when Jacob's getting ready for school and when we're eating dinner. We may have to keep that. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be!