Mistakes in Motherhood

I need more hours in the day between 11 and 2; at least 4 more. I feel like I have accomplished nothing lately… I have not had enough time to heal my mind, body, or my soul, and because of that I feel out of sync. Today was one of those odd days where synchronicity was completely necessary. I had just started trying to pick up my house when the house painters came by and I was settling them in when my new cabinet door was delivered and installed. As soon as the painters sealed up my house (trapping me inside) the school called to tell me Christopher was sick and needed to come home. I get him home, I get lunch for Sophie and myself and before I have time to relax, it is time to go get the older boys.

My neighbor down the street is a Vietnam vet, so once I had the kids home I walked over to apologize for all the traffic since he is the unofficial neighborhood watch. He’s a pretty cool guy who is retired and sort of looks out for everyone, especially those who are single moms or young. He adores my kids and is always praising how smart and well mannered they are. His wife is super sweet too and they are on my short list of neighbors I love (which is a pretty long list actually). I must have been putting off some strange vibe today because he seemed to think I was dressed up for something. I laughed a little because I think the “fanciest” thing I did was brush my hair and put on my necklace. It is a diamond and white gold journey pendant that Bobby got me and did not know it until I told him. How that equates to looking fancy is beyond me… but I wonder if he would have thought I had a hot date or something had I bothered to actually put makeup on or something.

PS. Today was day 5 sans the NFH (neighbors from hell) and I have to say, it has been the quietest 5 days in a year; even with all the construction I have had going on here lately.

PPS. I got tired of Bobby complaining how out of date my ‘Cast of Characters’ section is and updated the photos and bios a bit.

PSPS. Isis had her Great Dane reunion on Sunday. I hope to get pictures up soon, possibly when I have 4 extra hours in the day.

1 Comment | In: A lot about nothing, This is how I roll | tags: Family, Health, House Stuff, NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Ramblings. | #

Wow, feels like my entire life revolves around moving. From the bids I am getting for our deck, bathroom outlet switch and cupboard door…. to the storage unit I rented today to move stuff out of the house that we won’t need until Virginia, to the most awesome news of all….. IT IS SEPTEMBER!!! Which means the neighbors from hell are MOVING!!! YAY!!! They have been slowly moving stuff out for weeks, I am sure the homeowner would love that they are parking on his lawn to haul stuff out in true NFH form. Their garage is packed full with identical electronic boxes…. I guess no one can have enough DVD players and stereo receivers… right??

Today, the contractor that came by was giving me tips on maximizing my value and he said “your biggest downfall is going to be the tricked-out-hoopty next door. People are not going to want to live next to people who look like they live in the hood”… wow, he can peg them just by their cars… niiiice.

Monday, our realtor is stopping by and I am so excited to finally get some answers to the big questions… like how much can we get out of this house for, what do I need to do to make it marketable, and should we turn the nursery/office into a nursery, or an office? LOTS of work until Monday, there will be no rest this weekend!

No Comments | In: A lot about nothing | tags: Family, Moving, NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Sleep Deprivation. | #

We started with the landscaping project on Thursday. Changes are slow, but exciting. I have been posting pictures on my facebook, but not my Flickr and I will post before, during & after pictures here once the work is done.

First of all, the NFH’s have still been quiet. The SUV that took all but one of them away last week, returned today, so we will see if the peace lasts.

Also, the Great Dane behind me has been quiet too, it has been wonderful.

We are replacing our back fence, which is right next to the fence of the neighbors behind me. When mine came down, we realized that our two crappy fences were being held together by the gravity of each other, and her Ivy vines. So after they propped their fence up, I decided it was time to pay them a visit to offer to share a fence if they paid the couple hundred dollars to remove their fence by my guys. They agreed that our plan would benefit us both mutually, and it looks like at least the portion we share will be going down Monday.

They are such sweet people. A retired couple and he plays in the band. They explained to me that the Great Dane was driving them nuts too, and they talked to the owners and lent them a bark collar that ran out of batteries some time that second night. On the third night, the new family was moved in enough to stay at the house and bring the dog in. I have not heard a peep from him since, so I am pretty sure he was just lonely.

Days like the last few make me really like my neighborhood.

No Comments | In: This is how I roll | tags: House Stuff, Me, NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Ramblings. | #

Tuesday night, around midnight, I head a loud ruckus of heavy items being drug across the sidewalk, people talking loudly, and similar noises. I looked out the window and the NFH’s were parking at the end of my driveway, loading tons of people and stuff into a SUV. I rolled my eyes and headed to bed. The next day….. nothing. I see the person in the NFH household take the two trashcans to the curb, and about a dozen bags… but they were facing the street the way the trash company requests for easy pickup. I can almost envision the waste management person grinning, as I see them out there almost every week trying to get the cans turned around and picking up all the stuff overflowing.

It was a gorgeous day outside yesterday, absolutely beautiful, so all day we worked in the yard getting it cleaned. Only once did I hear their dog barking in the back yard. It stopped almost as soon as it started as he was brought into the house. Then last night, no music, no visitors, no parties…. I was in shock!

However, stupid and inconsideration are qualities you can depend on. If the expected parties don’t offer it, you should expect someone else to, and that is just what happened.

Around 7pm I hear a dog barking, deep throaty LOUD barks. woofwoofwoofwoofwoof. The dog is not even taking breaks to breathe. woofwooofwooofwoofwoof. After 3 hours of it I am starting to slowly feel my soul dying. woofwoofwoofwoofwoof. I go out in the front yard to see if the pitbull is sticking his head out one of the bedroom windows next door and is causing all that noise. I go out front, I see nothing… no cars, no dog, nothing. But I still hear the dog; woofwoofwoofwoofwoof. I go out in the back yard, the noise is even louder. We had some people visiting my neighbors on the *other* side of my house that had two large huskies that would sometimes bark, but those neighbors would never let any of their dogs bark 3 hours. I turn on my floodlight in the back and there it is. Directly behind the NFH is the person who volunteered to pick up their slack. Locked onto the back deck, these new idiots had trapped a 150+ male Great Dane who was not too happy about being confined. woofwoofwoofwoofwoof. We are not on hour FIVE and I am wondering two things… why have they not brought the dog inside? and how is the dog not hoarse??

I figure I will just go to bed, since my bedroom is in the front of my house, no way it will bother me, right? Wrong. woofwoofwoofwoofwoof. His voice carries through three back yards all the way to the front of my house. I turn on my fan, turn my TV to a music channel and set the sleep timer. I still hear him, but it does not bother me anymore. It does however bother *my* Great Dane who is downstairs, in her crate that she sleeps in, barking back!! Her bark is her insecure, whiny bark. I yell at her the few times she does it, and she finally gets the hint.

What gives? I *finally* have all four kids healthy, no coughing child across the hall, no parties or 7-11 type traffic next door, and someone leaves their dog outside all night? Is this karma for flipping off that little old blue haired lady??

No Comments | In: This is how I roll | tags: Fur Babies/Pets, Insanity, Me, NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Ranting. | #

I am SO insanely pissed I don’t even know where to begin.

Ok, Wednesday at 10pm I am in bed trying to sleep and the music next door is pounding so loud I am getting a major headache. I call the non-emergent police number and report it. The music stops so I call back and cancel my report. I guess they were changing a CD because 2 minutes later it is back on and I give up and stick a pillow over my head. At midnight I guess the CD was skipping or something because I wake up to BOOM-BOOM-BOOOM-BOOM-BOOM. It sounds like rockets going off next door. They finally turn it down and I get what little sleep I have left until kids are needing to go to school in the morning.

Thursday I pull up into my driveway with my kids to unload them out of the car to be greeted by a cloud of cigar smoke. Austin is gagging and hacking while at least 7 or 8 guys stand about 10 feet away all puffing on cigars. I get the kids in the house as quick as I can. I forgot to mention I had to pull in at an angle to make sure I did not hit either of the cars that are literally right at the edge of my driveway.

Last night the music starts up again. It is SO freaking loud I literally CANNOT hear my TV or a word my children were saying in the same room. I have two glass cups on a shelf on the wall that I had to pull down because they were vibrating so loud I was afraid they were going to break. I could see the pictures on my wall moving and I was just waiting for them to fall down. Two hours into it I call the non-emergent number. They tell me someone else has already called and that they will be there as soon as they can. It takes me forever to get the two little ones to sleep. My four year old tells me “Mommy, my room is so loud I cannot even hear my dreams!” I had to shut off Sophie’s jumparoo because it kept going off on its own thinking there was a baby jumping in it.

At 11:30 I decide I will just put a pillow over my head, I am so exhausted I feel like I am going to pass out. I hear a ton of commotion even louder than the music outside. There are two people revving their cars up outside and a group of about 11 children and adults talking super loud at each other. Someone else in a car is honking their horn. I call back and update that they have now become even MORE obnoxious.

At 11:57 the music finally stops and I take the pillow off my head. Ten minutes later my room fills with light as the police pull up in response to my complains and the other neighbor’s call.

So today at noon my doorbell rings and someone I don’t know is outside. I step out and she explains to me that she is either a friend or a relative of the woman next door. She explained that her 18 yr old son died of a heart attack and that is why there were so many cars. She stated the police had told her that “the lady next door called to complain of the noise and traffic”. I told her to let the neighbor know I am sorry for her loss and that I have kids that cannot afford to lose a night’s sleep because the bass is louder than their own thoughts. She tells me she cannot attest to the noise because she was not even THERE!!! I explain again that this is an ongoing thing and most of the neighbors either have small babies or are retired and we are all tired of 2-3 parties a week since OCTOBER.

Here is where I am pissed. When I called I stated I would like to remain anonymous. *IF* the officers really did say “the lady next door” that is hardly anonymous. It is quite possible that the person at my door this morning made up that the police identified who I was. I was not going to lie and say it was me, but I was not the only call last night either.

This is getting so old. I HATE living next door to party central.

4 Comments | In: A lot about nothing | tags: NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Ranting, Sleep Deprivation. | #

Well apparently, according to my observations this morning, it takes ONE HOUR. NFH (neighbor(s) from hell) started the car around 6:50am this morning, and when I got home from taking kids to school at 7:30am it was still running, no one was around, and I could not imagine it needed *that* much time to warn up.

So at 7:40 I decided to call our cities finest and they immediately dispatched a patrol car. As luck has it though, the NFH must have heard his ears burning because he decided to stroll out, scrape the snow from every surface of his car (why the roof needs de-iced is beyond me) and finally left.

The dispatcher I spoke with when I called back to cancel the patrol was super nice. She told me to call *more*, and that things I considered nothing more than a nuisance, could be more serious (heavy traffic all hours of the night, loud parties, unattended vehicles, etc).

My other neighbor has cameras on the front of his house, he states he has seen enough stuff going on next door to conclude our neighbors are more than just inconsiderate. Next time I won’t be waiting an hour.

1 Comment | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Lame-o, NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Ranting. | #

2:00 AM Monday night- the music is so loud I put a pillow over my head and cannot drown out the bass, I am so tired I don’t feel like getting up to find the non-emergent police number. I finally find ear plugs in my night stand, and I can still heat it, but it is quieter.

10:00 PM Wednesday- I try to go to bed early because I am exhausted from lack of sleep. The music has been on for an hour and Sophie is awake because she cannot fall back asleep after being woken up several times by noise. I find the non-emergent number and call the police if it is late enough in the evening to make a noise complaint… they say we do not have a specific time, any time it is loud I can call. I try to sleep but Sophie is so tired and fussy, she normally goes to bed around 7:00 PM. About 45 minutes later I call the police back to tell them that the music has stopped and they can cancel the complaint, the dispatched relays the music has stopped because an officer has already been out and told them to shut the music off.

I got a video today of the dog, just in case it tries to hurt my dogs or anything.
It barks at the littlest provocation, lunges at the fence, etc. I don’t feel comfortable letting my children play in their own back yard when the dog is out. They don’t seem to be bothered by all the barking. The bag of garbage out on the back porch is a nice touch.

No Comments | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Add new tag, House Stuff, Lame-o, NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Tirade. | #

Back in August, our old neighbor’s moved to another state and decided to rent out their house. In October or November, in move the renters, who have since been named the Neighbor’s from Hell (NFH for short).

I tried to be nice, I waved and said hi, any exchanges were ignored.

In comes the beater… the beater is a big boat of a car on super thin wheels, raised up with HUGE rims. It’s like a granny can on stilts. Drivers side window is nothing more than a plastic bag and the paper tags on it expired sometime last year. The thing leaks oil like an oil tanker in Alaska and when it gets started, it sounds like a dozen Harley’s starting at the same time. I had to get my alarm desensitized because the vibration was so intense it would set my alarm off.

Then the loud parties started, sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning, at least once or twice a week. On the eve of Thanksgiving, we finally had enough and called in the local authorities to stop it. They turned it down, but I still got to lay awake for another two hours listening to base. Same thing on Christmas eve, but they turned it down before midnight so we let it slide.

Throughout the week, we have other minor annoyances. I put my trash out and they park one of the 4 or 5 cars that frequent the house in front of it, making the garbage men to have to manually dump my trash instead of using the lift. They also have a habit of parking in front of my driveway, leaving just enough room for me to get out as long as I back out at an angle, drive back up, angle out again, drive up again, angle out across my grass & sidewalk. Not cool.

Garbage day comes again, we go to put out our wrapping paper and boxes from Christmas, but our can is full with THEIR garbage! I give them the benefit of the doubt and pay the extra $2 for extra trash pickup. I call the agency who handles the rental, and she defends the tenants making us sound nit picky and like all the problems our our fault for not having a lot of parking between our driveways..?? (We have invited them to park in front of our house to solve the parking issues). Bobby goes next door to be neighborly, not bringing up any of the problems we are having, but just being nice and she seems nice enough… but things just get worse. Now excuse me for not running over to be the welcome lady, but I am not about to go out of my way to be nice to someone who cannot keep her household from being disrespectful.

I start trying to call and email the owner with little or no response about fixing the fence that borders our property. I figure I will get around to it in the springs, but then the NFH bring home a “puppy”, puppy is Cujo on crack and loves to hear his own voice. All day and all night long. Cujo likes to charge the fence barking at my kids, my dogs, me, my guests, anyone walking down the streets, etc. Apparently Cujo’s owners are deaf (explains the loud car & loud parties) and blind, as it does not bother them that Cujo is sticking his head through window screens to bark at the outside while inside. Did I mention Cujo is a freaking PIT BULL???

Tomorrow is garbage day. I take out my trash knowing it will be a tight squeeze because it was half full from when I forgot to take it to the curb last week. However what I don’t expect is that it is full….? Odd thing is, the trash is not my own, it appears to be from a birthday party. I let it slide, take Austin to school, clean house a bit, take more trash out and I notice their two cans are already down on the curb. As usual, it is two full cans, but also a bag and a box all overflowing with trash. Odd, same bags as the bag in my can, same plates & party ribbon, etc. I know I will be stuffed full by the end of the day, and I am not about to pay another $2 for their trash, so I take it out and set it next to their house, in plain sight. 12 hours later, it is still there.

Tonight I am having major concerns about the fence. Yes it needs replaced, now more than ever, but Cujo scared the holy hell out of me. I am thinking of just putting up a second fence right next to it just to have a second layer of protection between us and Cujo, also, I don’t feel like dumping a couple thousand dollars on wood, if Cujo is just going to ram it down. So I emailed the owner again telling him this, but I really don’t expect a response. I have also made a report with the city about the unsightly, unregistered car, but again I am not holding my breath.

I am not about to go over and try to be their BFF, and I am not wanting to waste city resources by placing the police on speed dial (old Bewitched television reference in 3, 2, 1…) and establishing myself as Mrs. Kravitz. So how have you guys dealt with NFHs? Did you make nice nice, strike out, or flood the neighborhood PD station with complains? I am sure this is going to be a regular feature, these guys are clueless!

2 Comments | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Confessions, House Stuff, Insanity, Lame-o, NFH (Neighbors From Hell), Passive Agressive, Ranting. | #