Back to what the neighbors have been up to.......

How I feel these days.

As you remember, when they moved in we got this.....

You got to like them, but you don't want to live near them.

Certainly not below them!

Then they added one of these....
She's named after designer shoes and has surely ate all theirs by now. And she actually resembles the dog on the left. We get to suffer the howling and barking (young pups need their packs constant thumping of her feet back and forth, all night long. Anyone remember, "Pushing a rock. Pushing a rock."


We then had the hilarious episode of Cops right outside our kitchen window....

This is not the scene out our window - ours was very dark at 3am!
The main themes:
No one was driving the car illegally parked in the handicap spot.
Everyone under the age of 21 was drinking.
How did we know you were the real police?

To catch my reader base on more current issues.....
They have added to their family:
Yes, they have added a Mastiff. This puppy is named after a candy bar and at 10 months weighs in at 160lbs. I have given him his own name: Thor, God of Thunder. That is what he sounds like down here, running back and forth as he and his new canine friend play.
To be fair - this was love at first sight for me! And it was returned! Mastiff are known as gentle giants.

But this is not what you want living above you.

Mastiff is to dog = Lion is to cat.

There are strict laws involving "picking up" after your pet in our area. There are even pretty nice $$ fines if you don't that are well posted. They own two large dogs now and I have never seen them with a plastic bag. And all grass near our home proves it. And sidewalks as the mowers hit the piles and redeposit them along their path.
The boys did come down a week and re-apologize for noise. It was a nice visit and they got to hear first hand how noisy their apartment was while others and dogs were still upstairs. One even gave me his phone number so we could call him to complain rather than say.....the police. They were properly mortified. It did quiet down a bit - until this weekend.


Rand got home from work and told me I should peek outside and see what the boys and a massive amount of their friends were attempting to haul upstairs. It was almost the size of my Jeep. There were 6-8 muscle bound jocks struggling to move it. Rand said he watched them for awhile before coming in. And they were about 6 steps up at this point.

From what we can hear and feel, I'd say they have one of these as well.

They are still entertaining - frequently. We are still replacing light bulbs at an amazing rate. That comes from what sounds like people just plain jumping up and down. Our wall pictures will even "move". The vibrations from their home theater system set (the sub woofer?) increase my pain. We wish they would at least watch what we are watching so we could hear what we are trying to watch. We have tried to call and say it is too loud, but I don't think they can hear their cell phones over their tv.
I'm still on medical leave. Everyday is spent trying to control the pain. Grocery shopping is still beyond me, but I try. Yesterday I did okay but couldn't buy anything that weighed over a couple of pounds. I just could lift it. Too much pain in my hands. I manage 1-2 doctor appts. a week. My new meds are more than double the price of my old ones. I have had no income in a month. The doctors staff screwed up my leave paper work- sent in all but 1 side of 1 sheet. Seems that was the most important one. Every week, I try to fix it, but someone, somewhere, will screw up another part.
Sucks to be me.

We got a surprise - Lilly!

"Lilly, Gramma needs a picture of your smile."
I did this is sepia tones to cover the the red eye and her shiny face.
My red eye application had stopped working!? Strange!
The shiny is from all the vasoline I cover her with after a bath.
Lilly has extremely dry skin and eczema.
Major moisture is needed just to get her through a night.

The potty training is through - she is trained! Dry nights and everything.
Gramma was teaching her the relaxed method of taking a poop.
According to Lilly - Mommy likes to coach her by making grunting noises.
According to Mommy - Lilly told Mommy to stop before she pooped her pants!

This baby bed was out of commission for a bit. A friend of Grandpa's fixed the minor need and Lillie was pleased to see it back. This baby bed was originally Sandra's when she was two!

My earliest memories of my Grandpa are playing with a top. I thought he was so awesome - Grandpa could make it Go! He would sit on the kitchen floor with me and make the top spin and sing. I probably wasn't much older than this. I still am not real good with a top. Lilly lets me try, then she goes and gets Grampa.

This is Camper doing her best E.T. imitation.
- she was hiding in plain sight from Lilly!

12:15 am
Mario Brothers ringtone playing

"Mom?"
"No."
"Really?"
"Your kidding? Who else would answer my phone this time of night?"
"Seriously. Is this you Mom?"
"What do you need Willie?"

It's fun to mess with him.
With any of my other kids a phone call this late means an emergency.
Willie calls all times of day or night with no thought of what time is it and might they be asleep. Multiple times a day. Everyday.
Though lately he has been stranded a couple of times by an old truck he is fixing up. Which is why I even answered. Usually even that is not an emergency, except in Willie's world. Willie is not mechanically inclined - but that's another blog.

"I was wondering, if it's not too late, if you could look, I don't know if you would have anything like this, but maybe, I was wondering, Cause I didn't know, If it would be alright......(ETC)!
"Get to the point very quickly now!" Wondering if I have to get dressed.
"Were you asleep or asleep asleep?"
"What's the difference?"
"Did you go to bed or fall asleep watching TV?"
"No matter how I got there, I prefer to remain asleep. What do you need Willie?"
"So anyway, I was wondering if you had any baby pictures of me."

At this time of night???!!!!

"No, I threw most of them out. I was done with them"
"Really? Okay, never mind then."
"Willie, pictures are kept forever - passed down generation to generation."
"So, do you have any of when I was little?

Mind you he has seen the entire albums involving his adoption, homecoming, growing up and even photos from his 21st birthday last summer.

"So I was wondering if you had any photos of me when I was like Lilly's, Anna's, Jaeden's age?"

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Old girlfriend alert! Old girlfriend alert!

"Why do you need them at this time of night and what do you need them for?"
"I could just come and pick them up."
"I'm not giving you my albums. You get them when I die."
"I can come over on Sunday and make copies of all of them then."
"That's impractical Willie. What particular shots are you thinking of and who do you need them for?"
"I just need some pictures for me."
"Don't lie to me! You are going to tell me why you mentioned Jaeden. Are these pictures for Amanda?"
"Well we have been talking. We're just friends."

Will and I discuss whether or not he is telling the truth and and I finally tell him this conversation could take place during daylight hours.
Willie finally told me he had started his own photo album and wanted a few pics of himself.
Why this takes so long to get to and if that is the whole truth - who knows? It is suspicious that he mentioned the old girlfriend's toddler out of the blue.

So far, Willie has not managed to have a girlfriend that didn't take advantage of him. This particular one used him all she could and the gig was up when he proposed. She went on to relapse on her drug abuse problem and lost custody of her daughter.
And this is not the worst girlfriend he has had. The most recent one holds that prize.
Willie is going to be a great husband and father someday.
But he when gives away his heart, he will do anything for anyone at any cost to himself. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bimbos that will use that to their full advantage.
And Willie, being a gentleman to the end, will protect them from this Bear.

The Scoop on Poop
I missed a call the other morning. Once I heard the message I was really sorry I missed the call, but then again, messages are keepers.
Lilly had called.
She was shouting in delight and singing, "I pooped in the potty - na na na na na na!". Over and over again. She was thrilled! This is a keeper of phone messages!
That was the only thing she hadn't done in her potty training. She is completely dry, but would bring her mom a diaper when she had to poop.
We had tried pretty hard while she was here. She had the want to, but seemed to have a mental block for letting this one 'go'.

Sandra called this evening and Lilly has been 100% since mastering "the poop factor".
In fact, Lilly has even went above the call of duty.
Where they live, they have shared bathrooms and showers, but do have private sinks in each room. Sandra also has a potty chair in their room for Lilly.
Sandra was talking to another mom when Lilly interrupted with, "I poop! I poop!"
Sandra ran her to bathroom but Lilly told her "No! My little potty!"
Sandra ran Lilly back to their room and began to help Lilly take her britches down. Lilly fought her every bit of the way. Lilly finally said, "I already went potty! I used my little potty!"
Lilly wasn't indicating that she needed to go; she was exclaiming that she already had! (I pooped!)
Sandra, just a bit wary , peeked into the potty chair. A couple of tell-tell smears, but no real evidence.
"Lilly, what did you do with the poop?"
"I cleaned my potty!"
Sandra instantly thought , "Oh no!" and peeked into their room sink.
Yes, that is where Lilly dumped the evidence.....so to speak.
Lilly is very independent. During initial potty training, she would often surprise her mom by handing her the bowl from the potty chair with a proud, "I peed!"
Once Lilly went down the length of the hallway, no clothes, bowl of pee, just to show her mom what she had done all by herself.

That reminds me of a Willie Story
Willie (age 10-11?) was taking his very first sports physical. I also brought Rob in for the trip to the doctor's office - he was up for an allergy shot.
Willie started squirming and announcing he had to go (this is how Willie reacts no matter where he arrives or when - we refer to it as marking his territory everywhere he goes)
And of course they were running late on appointments. I let them know Willie needed to drop his lab work early.
I sent Rob back with Willie. I knew that Willie being told to pee in a cup and keep it sterile would be a problem. He would need guidance and he was too old for Mom's help.
Rob took this task like any good big brother would. He argued profusely at the idea of overseeing his little brother peeing in a cup. Especially the little brother with legendary aiming issues!
It didn't take long at all before Rob was back at my side. Alone.
"Where's your brother?"
"He doing alright."
"Does he know how to finish?"
"I don't know."
I headed back there - fast!

For physicals, our small clinic just handed out plastic drinking cups. No lids.
This was a very busy day at the clinic.
People were rushing everywhere down the halls and in and out of the lab.
And there in the middle of the rush hour was Willie. Shuffling very slowly. He was hoping to gain someone's attention. Professionals are rushing within inches of this kid, but not noticing he is- without guidance (a nurse or mom) or do they note what he is doing.
Willie is not lifting his eyes off the cup in his hands. Steadily shuffling as slow as humanly possible, only moving millimeters at a time.
As I approached him, I saw fear in Willie's eyes. Willie had no idea where he was going with this cup. Mind you - the bathroom did have a pass through, but he was new to these things and didn't listen to instructions. Rather just leave his sample behind, he decided to take it with him to find someone to give it to. Everybody was ignoring this young man, shuffling slowly, eyes not leaving his cup, he was in total fear of spilling his cup........which was filled to the brim! Actually a bead above the brim would be a more accurate description.
I quickly called a lab person over - I wasn't touching that cup!

A Snapshot of the This Week so far......

We had a Lilly visit last weekend.
This was Lilly desperately avoiding a nap.
"Little Baby" looks like she lost the battle.
By the way, I hate to jinx it -
But - Lilly is potty trained!

Camper getting ready to snooze in the sun.

Saturday morning breakfast.
We shared the making and eating of this lovely fruit tray.
The beverage served was chocolate milk, of course.

Happy Halloween

Anna the Kitty was my only visitor.

Anna got a grocery sack of diapers Lilly won't be needing, a sack of daytime pull-ups (we kept the night time for emergencies), a sack full of sipper cups Lilly refuses to use - she prefers big girl ones (ones I can pull the guts out of so they drink like a regular cup), and a snack size bag of Goldfish Crackers - which were her "treat"!