The neighbors from hell

Do you have problem neighbors? How does a non-confrontational woman deal with really bad neighbors? I try not to let the little stuff bother me. Over 12 years I have watched this family deteriorate. I feel sorry for them. At the same time, I pray every day that they get foreclosed upon, or she loses her daycare liscence, or the sneaky little boy finally gets caught doing something really bad and they takehim away.

The stuff that goes on over there, I can't believe she still has clients. My son's birthday party, and they are throwing stuff over the fence. Fishing lures, of all things, at least not injurous, like the time theythrew rocks and hit my littlest onein the face. Non-confrontational I may be, but that time I went over there angry. I pounded on the door for 5 minutes. All the little daycare kids went running inside whenthey heard my DS scream and start crying. You would think at least an adult daycare provider could answer the door? Nope.

It wasn't until I found her phone number and left a message on her answering machine that they could tlk to the cops if they didn't want totalk to me about it that they returned my phone call. The Grandmother was apparently filling in for the care provider, she wasn't there. Grandma proceeded to let me know she didn't know who did it, but that it wasn't her grandson.

Today, after watching more lures fly over the fence, I clean the pool and find a large, sharp, shard of concrete at the bottom of my pool, along with several Maryland river rocks, and more fishing lures. I'd had it. DH and I walked over there and knocked on her door. She didn't answer, but one of her daycare kids did. We ask for her and she comes to the door all defensive already. We tell her, we are not trying to be a bother, but this shit needs to stop.

We tell her about the party, she says she wasn't even home yesterday. We tell her that's besides the point. Her backyard was full of kids throwing stuff over the fence. She says she'll have to ask her son about it. No apology, no remorse. So then we give her the rocks and the concrete. She tells me it wasn't her daycare kids, they haven't been outside, an outright lie, because I was watching them while they played with a ball in the yard, and threw more fishing lures. She also proceeds to tell me it wasn't Anthony, becasue he's not home. I told her, I saw with my own eyes the fishing lures flying over the fence and the girls outside playing ball, and she proceeds to ask them if they threw anything over the fence. No they say.

I tell her I'm sure you couldn't afford to spend a mortgage payment on a new pool liner anymore than I can, and she needs to make sure it stops, and we left. So what do I do? What are my rights? Certainly not the first time I've thought of spending a mortgage payment on a video surveillance system to protect my property investment, since it seems I'm always lying to her. Show her proof? It's a damn shame. I have to hope their only goal was the willfull destruction of property, and not the injury or death of one of my kids or pets with that sharp chunk of concrete. Damn shame. Do I pray for them, or pray for deliverance from them? Any suggestions?

Bak 2 Skewl

DD started last week. The DS's got an extra week of summer, but they, too, are back in school. I so hate to see the summer end. Summer is sun and swimming, the beach and amusement parks, sleeping in and staying up late, vacations and visits. I love all the seasons, but summer is my favorite. This summer was especially great. The new pool lead to many days outside with the family. The barbecue was fired up almost every day. The patio got a lot of use, and we ate together as a family every night. Even DH said this was the best summer he could ever remember. PLUS, I finally caught up with a missing bff on Facebook, and we managed to get together for a weekend and meet each others families. Makes Labor day almost a killjoy. I am sad that the pool needs to be closed soon.

Strangely, the kids were ready to go back to school. DD missed her friends, and was looking forward to her Dance minor this year. She has already brought home the first fundraiser of the year, as well as the first field trip permission slip. They are going to hit the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire on October 14th. She will perform with the other 8th grade Vocal majors from Cab Calloway, and she has to wear a costume. Very exciting for her.

The DS's New School held their annual beginning of the school year tribunal. Noah wants to have a bug class. The boy is buggy about bugs! I can see him going into Forensics like Grisholm from CSI and being able to tell how long a body has been decomposing by counting the bugs and studying the maggot life cycle. Ewww!!!

Kenny is jealous about the Field trip. I did tell him he could write a proposal and set up a field trip as well, but he is afraid he can't do a good job. That is his focus for the year, to learn how to conquer his fear of nearly everything. I don't know how much of his issues stem from fear, and how much is from distrust and a distinct lack of faith in anything. but we will do what we can for this young boy, and hope for the best.

Another summer is gone, but Fall is just around the corner. Here comes the beautiful changing colors of the leaves and the denuding of the trees. Halloween is drawing near, always a fun holiday, and DD has asked for a Broadway show for her coming birthday.

My hope is that the mildness of the summer bodes well for a crispy cold and snowy winter, with lots of snow days, huddled in front of the fire place and nursing hot chocolate mugs to warm our frozen, snowman-making hands. Goodbye summer, you will be missed!

Stay-cation!

The pool is in! After spending all that money last year on landscaping the back yard (to help sell the house) we decided to stay. With the downswing in the market and nobody enjoying a whole lot of job security, we decided to stay where we are comfortable. So...we decided to put in a pool! This will pay for itself in 2 years, as we can vacation at home.It took one nice day for the great company we hired to put it in. Now its just a matter of getting the chemicals right. Of course, as it has rained 20 out of the last 24 days, our yard was more of a swamp than a backyard, and boy did the installation leave a mess! There's tons of top soil, not to mention the sod mixed in, left in a huge pile. And we still need to finish backfilling. Had a landscaper come today to tell us exactly what we can do with it all. He'll give me a price in 3 - 4 days, I'm sure it'll be a doozy! So, if anyone wants lots of clay filled, rooty, soddy topsoil, come have at it! and if you want to put in a little manual labor on the back fill, we'll put up some beer and a barbeque and a dip in the pool after!

Back to School

Time to get the kids back to School. What do you do with 5'7" twelve year old, with great fashion sense? Take her to Fashion Bug of course! She loved the graet looks, even though I spent twice the money as I do on the boys, and got half as much. An almost 13 year old with big bones has to fit in. Of course, do they sell size 12 shoes? Oh no, of course not. Nice of them to think of the larger fashion girl, but they don't think about the feet. Where do you find size 11.5 wide for a girl? We ended up with the plain ugly black shoes for her performances in 11W from Walmart. Her palazzos are so long and wide at the feet, no one will really see them anyway. I also found a pair of size 12 bobos in plain white canvas and got her a set of washable markers with which she can draw on them over and over again. But anything attractive? Sure they offer these things on line, but you can't try them on. And in the past, anything from a 9 WW to a size 12 has fit, and when we finally found sneaks, a men's 9 1/2 is what we had to settle for. I couldn't tell her they were men's shoes of course, she would freak out and not wear them. But she says they are the most comfortable sneakers she has ever had. They are a pretty lime green, one of the schools colors, and hopefully she'll not find out. The idea of showers with the other girls has got her freaked out. Me too, of course. Maybe they've stopped that heinous practice of making all the kids get naked and shower together. Can it cost all that much to invest in a few shower curtains for privacy's sake?

Crazy Camp!

Man, was cub scout camp crazy! It was so much fun, a new activity every hour from Sunup to Sundown. I'm exhausted! The Boy Scouts working as guides were fantastic. My man Taylor handled Noah's initial determination not to join in way better than I was. He was great. We are still singing those "repeat after me" songs. In the pool twice a day. BB gun target practice, Arts & Crafts, speed boating, row boats and kayaks, fishing, it was all great. My little wolf boy fell asleep 3 times the first day, all that fresh air and hiking. What a great experience. One really scary moment, it was dark, we had a campfire going out in the fire ring, and my little wolfie was making his way around the camp and tripped over a log and went down on his arm and screamed bloody murder. My first thought was that he had fallen face first into the embers, I jumped up from the picnic table to rush to him, but Scoutmaster Tom had been much, much quicker.I had no idea he could move that fast! Picked him up and laid him on the picnic table, and we all stood there shining our flashlights on him trying to figure out what was wrong. checked his knees, his face, everything looked ok, but he was still crying. Finally he got out where it was he hurt, and it seems he sprained his wrist a little. He calmed down, and we went to bed. In no time at all he was talkative again, with a few ouches sprinkled in. In the morning, he still hurt a bit, so after breakfast I walked him over to the first aid center, where they gave him a bag of ice and winked over to me that he was fine, really. But he had had enough. He wanted to go home, so we packed up and came home early. He's been telling his war story ever since, to everyone he sees, how he "broke" his arm at camp. He's happy and feeling good now, but he's still milking it a little, and we've given him an arm brace, that he puts on and takes off as he wants, running in the house to get it to show his friends his broken arm, then pulling it back off to continue playing in the sand. Of course he had to take it to Grandma's with him. He's such a cutie!

Cub Scout Camp!

I'm packing tonight for cub scout camp tomorrow. Just me and my youngest, a wolf cub now. I can't believe how much stuff we need for 3 days and 2 nights, my goodness. Extra of everything, in case somebody falls in a swamp. In the pool every morning. The Cub master is making me get up at 6am, that's before sunrise, almost for Pete's sake. Well, I've taken Monday off, in the hopes I will get a bit of recovery time. Alas, we have 2 folks coming to give us estimates on flooring, a dumpster coming, and our real estate agent is coming to give us some pointers on what we need to do to get ready to sell our house. I can't wait. (That's sarcasm, I know you can't hear it in my voice, so I thought I'd point it out.) See you in 3 days!