Mental Anguish

Perhaps my previous post was a bit dramatic, I just didn't have the mental where-with-all to go through the story one more time.

The associated press version is: Mesa and Gilbert SWAT teams were called out 8 am Tuesday morning to respond to a drug bust in --Apartments. Four suspects were apprehended after tear bombs were shot into the apartment. Several packages of trafficed illegal drugs were found int he apartment.

So why do I get the feeling that by sitting here calmly in my apartment two doors down from said incident that I am defying all motherly instincts? Shouldn't I be frantically packing up our belongings, shipping our children on the next bus up to Idaho and screaming at the management about having been held hostage in my own apartment with small children while there is a gun raid going on next door!!! Granted yesterday after we were cleared to usher the kids to the van thus avoiding the release of tear gas from the bombed apartment I took my kids out of the complex and didn't really want to return, at all. I laughed nervously on the phone as I explained it to Josh and my Mom. I went and got a large milkshake and greasy fries. I drove around writing down he numbers on any "For RENT" house I saw. I did return by dinner time not being able to justify eating french fries for a second meal that day, after all there were no gun shots other than the tear gas bomb and policemen really are nice sounding on the large intercoms. Yet, when I returned 'home' all the neighbors were casual and talking together as if the morning was only mildly unusual.

So do I just ignore what happened? Continue on said plan of waiting until offers go thorugh on houses we want to buy? Do we jet out of here before anyone knows we packed a box? And why was it so easy to get up, say forget it, and mop the floors to be ready to go to story time at the library?

"Don't worry sweetie, the nice men with guns are helping us get to the car..."

needless to say...our move-out date has been expedited.

Gunga Din

Saturday night we watched a movie called “Gunga Din” which I picked strictly for its title. While we were living with Mildred (a lovely 93 year old woman), she constantly had old movies on her TV. One night we went upstairs to watch some black-and-white with her. We watched a cute movie that will forever remain titleless since it was on AMC and they don't have commercials and the fact that even if I did hear the name, I would forget it. The black-and-white was a cute show in which a lady mistakenly ends up with an orphan baby and then likewise get it mistaken for her bosses seed. At one point this awkwardly positioned couple is having one of the ‘my baby is so smart’ conversations in the park with a veteran parent couple and the new pretend dad says ‘oh yes, our infant recited all of Gunga Din just last night” it was a funny conversation that Josh and I have used ever since as the ultimate display of ridiculous one-up-manship. If ever we catch ourselves in a bit of that silly prideful comparative conversation then we stop it with a quick reference to Gunga Din. So when I saw the movie I had to pick it up. Much to my great happiness, it starred Cary Grant! The show was hilarious. Grant at his most comical and rather young. And the movie gave away the secret to the often referenced Gunga Din, it is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling. Now I might just get literate and read the poem!

Laugh it Up

Today while Faith and I were reading books on the couch, I looked over to see a giant rat sniffing at our screen door on our front porch. Luckily my cousins had kept rats as pets so I was not terribly afraid of the large vermin on the porch, just surprised. I quickly went to block the drain exit on the porch with the cooler and then went back inside to call the apartment complex. The nice thing about living in an apartment (and it may well be one of the only nice things) is that when you have large vermin you can get someone else to take care of them.

When I called the office I got the "WHAT?!" response followed by "but we don't have rats here." Sorry bud, you do now. They quickly dispatched their two kindly maintenance men that came skeptically and unprepared. A broom was not going to do the trick. After seeing our hidden friend camped out behind the barbecue the all believed me that there was a six inch black rat on my porch. They jumped back a bit from the porch and pondered on what they would actually do. Assessing that the rat was cleaner than a regular trash monger, they figured he was safe enough to capture by hand. It then took about 5 minutes for one man to find leather gloves while the other guy proceeded to aggravate the calm creature by forcibly trying to get him into a 5 gallon bucket, which it promptly jumped out of. Faith and I watched calmly from our side of the screen door.

After the attempt to get the poor creature into the bucket, Faith determined that he was hiding in the corner because he was scared and the best way to lull him out was to get a story to read to him. She promptly went to get a book and sat down next to the screen to show the rat the pictures. Soon thereafter the leather gloved custodian came back to pick up the misplaced pet and carry him away. Little did I suspect that the worker would want to carry the rat through my apartment and out the front door so that he didn't have to vault the balcony. I told him to get a firm grip and then he could pass.


Adventure concluded. I laugh. Josh apologized. I just laugh. It makes life worth it to have such funny experiences happen while living in apartments.... after all, my Grandpa Virgil was famous for saying "There's no use in complaining cuz no one gives a damn anyways."

Unsolved Mystery Uncovered

On Friday night when Josh and I left for a date, Faith was secure with her pink blankey, on the couch. That night when we returned, I tucked her into bed assuming that blankey was there beside her. Much to my amazement, in the morning when she tapped me to climb into our plush bed, pink blankey was not draping behind as I pulled her up. We cuddled for awhile and then got up and went on with our day. As she was about to go down for her nap, Josh and I realized that something was truly missing. Blankey had not been spotted that day at all! Where had it gone? I suppose we had not been direct enough with the babysitter about the importance of watching all silky blankets as well as the children. Faith was momentarily distraught that blankey could not be found. We looked all the usual places, and then the unusual places. I quickly subsituted in a fleece yellow blankey, which served a cuddling purpose. Yet the absence of the long comforting friend disturbed me! Had it been stolen? Had Faith left it outside and some stray cat taken it away to make a cozy bed? Had the babysitter dealt the ultimate punishment and banished blankey to a stinky death? WHERE WAS BLANKEY?!?

For days now I have been trying to calm down the nagging in my head as to the location of blankey. I kept trying to be reassured that it couldn't have been eaten by monsters or fit down the garbage disposal. It just had to be some odd place. It wasn't in the cars, or the fridge, or under any of the blankets or mattresses in the house. All closets were interrogated and found innocent. Yet blankey was still missing.

All it took was one good laundress to find that missing sleeping companion. Upon replacing all clean and folded clothing to their own rightful holding place, the misplaced misfit was discovered. Blankey had been camping out in the bottom drawer with Josh's jeans. Why? We may never know. But for now, blankey sleeps softly with her reunited mistress.

Make this a tradition...please

Josh and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on Friday night (late of course, no fun celebrating on the same day, right). We stayed up later than we have for approximately four years, but I just couldnt skip out at intermission! Despite my body's protests, my heart and eyes were captivated by our Oddette and I just couldn't miss her heart breaking end. I have waited years to finally see a professional performance of Tchaikoskvy's "Swan Lake." It was worth every moment.

For our second anniversary we saw a production of "Carmen" in ballet in Boise. We loved that one too. Great music and just mesmerizing altheticism. Even after my very limited attempts at Yoga and trying to hold my leg in the air for a few seconds I appreciat emore their balance and agility. Not to mention absolute grace! I kept thinking how lovely it would be to watch Faith dance that way, or dance at all (booty shaking doesn't count)!

Halloween 09

No coats.
No knocking on doors - just enjoy the decorations and people wait on the driveway to give you candy.
No frostbite. Faith is sitting next to her kitty pumpkin.