Mr. Fun is out of town so I had to take the trash out myself, LOL! As I was doing that I remembered it was recycle pick up the next morning. As I was rolling the bin out to the curb I noticed two police cars in front of my neighbors house. Shes a single mom so I got worried. I called my other neighbor to ask her if she knew anything. She had just left her house and the police weren’t there. So she said she would come back home drive past the cars and see if she could see where the police were.
They weren’t at my neighbors house but across the street and one house up from where they parked. My neighbor and I stood out front talking and here comes another police car with two more officers in it. Not two minutes later an unmarked car comes around the corner and one street clothed officer jumps out. Theres a lot of standing around for a long while. I decide to go back in and check on the kids and eat dinner.
After dinner I walk back out and another police car comes around the corner followed by another unmarked car with two street clothes officers in it. So I call my neighbor and we are talking and wondering what the heck is going on. And ANOTHER police car comes around the corner..NO JOKE!!! Thats 13 police officers at this one house now.
They left with little baggies and a yellow box. And just like that they all drove away at the same time and the two guys that live there were left behind.

So I am left wondering. This is isn’t the first time police activity has been at this house. Last time they took one guy away in cuffs in an ambulance.

Oh and I am the NOSY desperate housewife of the block, LOL!!

Being sad and depressed is not for me. It’s just not my thing. I can usually have a good cry and get on with my life. Lately that isn’t so. I would cry and still feel like crying some more. I was on the edge of tears for days. Every little thing would set me off. But yesterday was the day that turned it all around.
We had the kids out front playing, it was too beautiful out to stay in unlike the last few weeks of bitter cold weather. Then the neighbors started to wander out, soon our driveway was filled with boys playing hockey and our neighbors lawn was full of giggley girls. Us parents gathered together talking, enjoying an adult beverage and watching our children be children. It was what I had been missing. I didn’t realize this untill coming in and putting the kids to bed. I felt happy again. There was no struggles at bedtime and I was happy to be me again.
Last night was extra special for the neighborhood. The ederly couple on the street had pizza delivered and the pizza guy stopped in front of our house and let us shovel all the snow out of his truuck. It was a good size pile. The kids in flip flops,sundresses and shorts went wild. So pizza guy, thank you for giving us your snow. You didn’t have to do that but you did and brought such happiness to our street.

OH!! We also had the police called out to our street AGAIN. These grumpy old people(different couple) think they live in Sun City or something. A cop turned the corner and stopped in front our house. He asked if we thought our “CHILDREN AT PLAY” sign was a traffic hazard. We said no and his response was “neither do I” and proceeded to tell us that someone called and complained about our sign. We told him we knew who it was and pointed him in the right direction.
He drove up the street and on his way back he stopped again. Said he gave her an earful and she then said that she was concerned because there isn’t any parents out. He laughed and told her that there was at least six parents out when he drove by. Let me stop you here………There are many children on this street, the oldest being 13 and youngest 6 months. There is never not at least one adult out there with them. Even when the 13 year old is out, so is his mom or dad. So this woman that has a liscense plate that reads “TWO WORDS” and speeds up when she sees our sign tried to change her story after realizing that the police support and encourage us parents to make drivers aware that there is children out playing. We were in disbelief that she would stoop that low and actually call the police because she has to slow down when driving on a street full of children being children. Last time she got annoyed by our sign her husband walked by and said “let me see how far I can kick your sign” Can you believe that? First off, they bought a house in a neighborhood right across from a elementary school. If they don’t like children this may have been the stupidest thing they could of done. And second, they don’t even have to drive up our street to get to their house. They can just as easily go down the next street over.

Kids packed in the car, one screaming for a toy. I am running back in to get said toy so child will shut up and my neighbor pops around the corner. Shes carrying what looks to be her mail, I say hold on and grab toy. As I am closing the door she says ” I’m just bringing you your mail” . Looking at her like she’s on crack. She holds up a mail key and says its been in the lock for two days so she finally got brave enough to open it and see who it belonged to. It was us *blush*. She asked me if it was my doing and if this is why I don’t check the mail (hahhahaha, very funny but so something I would do). It was actually Mr. Fun who checked the mail last. He tried to blame our oldest huckleberry for losing the mail key. She was so excited that it was daddy and not her. She said ” I knew I didn’t lose it” and lets out a big ole belly laugh.
This brings me back to the mailman…. He has put two days of mail in our mailbox. Don’t you think he should of brought us the key ? Is he really that lazy that he can’t bring us our key? Turns out we had some sensitive mail in there, gets me all pissy thinking about what could of happened if it ended up in the wrong hands.
So my question is, would you complain? And who do I complain to? Because regardless if you would complain or not I am complaining. I don’t know who to complain to though.

Last night we somehow got to talking about our first cars which led to what we did in our first cars(all of you get your minds out of the gutter). Chinese firedrills being one of them. All the kids (oldest being 12) were wondering what we were talking about. So us four moms put our chairs in the street and acted as if we were in a car and showed them what a chinese firedrill was. At first they were like “HUH?? our moms are just plain crazy” After we did it a couple times they wanted try and they had a blast with it. Mr. Fun who was laughing at us then says “people actually put chairs in the street to do that?” He was so serious. I was on the ground laughing trying not to pee my pants. I thought he was joking but he was so serious. He had never even heard of a chinese firedrill. Come on? who hasn’t done a chinese firedrill at least once in their life? Okay maybe theres the not so fun people that don’t get it and are above the chinese firedrill but they have at least heard of it,right?

My challenge to you is to do a chinese firedrill the next time you are out with friends. Come on, I dare you. Still not gonna do it, then I triple dog dare you.

Can I get a WOOT WOOT ? We have one house on the street that has a single male and room mate living there. We refer to this house as the party house. People are always over. They come they party they leave. These friends of the party house are not always respectful of the children on our street. They speed around the corner like they are qualifying. Us adults will yell “CAR” and the kids know to either get out of the street or stay on the sidewalk. These drivers think that when you see kids you speed up. Once I almost, almost being the key word, threw my empty glass beverage bottle at a car because they ran over a newly opened birthday present. Didn’t even slow down when they heard the awful crunching sound. ASSHOLES!!!
So we recently had two undercover cops move onto our street. The reason we know this is because they were celebrating with a stretch limo the night a case was solved….. they were invovled in this case–> Serial Shootings And one of their mothers has a bigger mouth then she probably should.
Okay back to this party house……since these cops moved into the nieghborhood the party house has been silent. The yard has been free of anything but the nice landscaping. We were out last night and not one speeding car, not one asshole driver speeding around the corner. It was so nice and I actually found myself relaxing.

We had a block party last night. Lots of food, alcohol and fun. We were out later than ever before. The kids were running through the spinklers at midnight. Neighbors that usually don’t come out were out. Of course they didn’t stay out as late as the regulars did but it was fun to have them out for a little while. One nieghbor invited some family over and I was kicking myself. They both had babies and toddlers. If I had ordred my business cards I would of handed them one. I got to hold these babies, I have realized I do not miss having a teeny baby to tend to. T is at an age where he tries his hardest to keep up with the big kids, I like it.
Now back to the block party……..I was sitting there looking at these kids,all 12 of them(ranging in age from 16 months to 12 years old), and thought “this is what growing up is all about”
I remember running amuck in the street, riding my bike, having water fights and playing ball with the neighbor kids. I am so happy and feel so blessed that we moved onto a street that has such great people to share our life with.

Noticed new nieghbors moving in over the weekend. Last night while we were out playing the Grandparents drove by and told the kids to go say hello if they wanted. So our kids wandered down. Turns out theres two girls. JJ is so excited, shes no longer the only girl in her age range on this street. She was doing the happy dance. After meeting the girls, not so sure they’ll mesh very well though. These girls are very much tom boys and JJ is very much a girly girl. She does dance, they play softball. JJ prefers a dress, they don’t wear dresses. I am happy there are more kids on the block for sure. Maybe it will chase the grumpy old people on ;-) Speaking of one grumpy old couple, this new family moved right across from them. They have a basketball hoop and I see the nieghborhood kids that this grumpy old couple tries very hard to avoid all down there playing lots of basketball.
I hope i’m not old and grumpy.

Now to let T in on that little secret.

T is feeling better and now onto the task of getting this house back in order. I am not ignoring the blog world just nothing much happening.
We were out with the nieghbors last night. We all decided that costco pizza (dang that place opening 2 minutes from home) would be better than everyone going in to eat. Crystal,T and I ran to get it. The boys*clear throat* men wanted more beer. So we walked out of costco with two thirty packs of coors light, tillamook cheese and 3 large pizzas. What they must of thought of us. By the time we got to the truck we were laughing so hard we had tears and couldn’t stand up.
We were laughing because they put my pound of cheese in a box. Like I really need a box to carry my cheese. I know its one of those “you had to be there” moments but heres a visual.

Now did they really need to put the cheese in a box? Did I really need the box to carry my cheese?

So then Crystal decides to get the beer in the truck. She’s shoving the 2nd 30 pack with all she has and yells to me “i can’t make it fit”. I finish buckling T and come around and respond with “What the hell woman,its a surburban for crying out loud”
These two elderly ladies were staring but trying not to stare as they walked to their car with a basket full of fruit and vitamins,which weren’t in a fancy smanchy little box like my cheese.

It felt good to laugh that hard and that long.

I am convinced these will be T’s first words. Theres 8 kids that play on this street often. 3 of them belong to me. We live on a semi dead end street. I say semi because our street doesn’t go through,theres a block wall at the end. But you can turn right onto a street that leads back out to the main road.
The speed limit is 25 mph. This is too fast. I wish it was 15 mph. Anyways….
We do allow our kids to be in the street. They play wiffle ball,they ride their bikes,they toss a football and yes,they even cross the street while playing hide and go seek. But we have a safety concern. Cars whip up and down this street like they are trying to qualify. We always yell “CAR” whenwe see a car so the kids know. And even if our kids weren’t allowed to play these games in the street kids are kids and they aren’t always thinking. If a ball goes rolling out into the street 99.9 % of the time the kids stop. Theres always that chance that a kid isn’t going to be thinking and some idiot driving over the speed limit is going to be coming around the corner. This is a nieghborhood and kids should be allowed to play. We have a small “caution,children at play sign” but sometimes cars either don’t see it or don’t care.
Last night we had an incident that still has me a bit fired up. A car came around the corner and was easily going 35 mph,easily. So i stepped out into the street. He slowed but didn’t stop. There were 6 parents out at the time and we all yelled SLOW DOWN!! About 15 minutes later this guy comes back in a different car with a buddy,races up where we are,slams on his brakes and yells “the speed limit is 25,keep your fucking kids out of the street” First off,our kids weren’t anywhere near the street when he came around that corner,thank goodness (they were actually in the house getting a treat)and second he was going over the speed limit. They take off while flipping us the bird. How immature can you get? I also wonder what he would say if he hit one on the kids because he was driving like an arrogant asshole?
We got to talking about contacting the city to get a sign put in. I came home and started researching them. Found out our city and many other cities don’t recognize “cation,children at play” signs.Saying drivers disregaurd these signs and they give a false sense of security. Which I can see. So then I found a site about speed humps. They cost $1200 for one and the residents have to pay for it. Some streets you can’t have one. Lots of regulations on speed humps. Being that our street is not a long street and has a brick wall at the end,i doubt our street will qualify. But I am still going to get signatures and send the petition in. If our street qualifies I will take donations and pay for it myself if I have to.
If you drive in a nieghborhood,how fast do you drive? Think about the kids that might live in the houses,that might be playing ball in the driveway or riding their bikes and dart out. Kids are not adults. We can tell them 1 billion times to look before crossing the street,don’t run after the ball,let us get it and so on and theres always that chance they won’t be thinking.