Philly or Florida?

I guess it is time to make that life altering decision for us. Wade just got back from Philly and wants to purchase a practice there. I'm still set on Florida and am leaving Fri to go check it out. The thought of living in the NorthEast and being a "Yankee" doesn't seem especially appealing to me. But then again, neither does alligators in the lake in my back yard, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and hurricanes. Sigh....

Toddler's Exploits

Daniel sure has been trying my patience the last few weeks. From pouring a new jar of cinnamon out in the kitchen, to getting into my flour and sugar jars and pouring them both, newly refilled, out all over the kitchen, to pouring baby powder out all over the hallway. Every time I turn around he has stripped down naked and it takes me forever to chase him down and get his diaper and clothes back on. So, I was thinking hard this morning about the other kids. Did they drive me this crazy? Then I realized, Kade was much worse. At least Daniel doesn't get naked in public. Kade, on the other hand, managed to get down to his diaper in Sacrament meeting once before I caught him. While shopping he was playing on the little kiddie toy with Kyrie while I was browsing and the next thing I know he comes walking over to me naked with a poopy diaper in his hand. He was a climber and got into everything he could including the sharp J Heinkel knives (which by the way Daniel gets a hold of the butcher knife every chance he has and runs with it totally freaking me out. Yes we have taken to putting them up even higher above the fridge.) Kade also managed to immerse himself in the fountain at Sarah's wedding. He escaped our home/yard in Alabaster and I found him a few times in the busy road being saved only by his guardian angels. He has been lost at Lagoon as a 9 year old bringing both him and his mom to tears. The last few years he has been much better, but both Jacob and Daniel have picked up the slack. Thinking back on these things, I am surprised I'm not grayer than I already am. I will post some of Jacob's and Daniel's exploits later.

Skunks in Beverly Hills

Who would've thunk it? There are skunks in these here hills. Every morning and evening for the past week, there is the distinctive stink of skunk in the air around here. Now, I know from personal experience in Alabama that opossums, racoons, fox, snakes of all varieties, squirrels, rats, and all sorts of creepy crawlers will invade the city and your home, but not once in 11 years of living there did we smell skunk. I didn't know they could live in the city too.

Ahh...The Craziness Continues

So I got another email from our landlady yesterday. She forwarded an email she had received earlier in the day from our lovely upstairs neighbors. It basically said, "hey, have you talked with the Fosters about our complaints? We haven't noticed any changes in their behavior." Let me tell you...I blew my top. I have purposely not been home much at all this week during the day, and the older kids and I have been out after school daily for a few hours, basically coming home to eat and go to bed. I sent this nice email to our landlady telling her that I was very angry about all of this, that I saw the neighbor outside the night before and he had said absolutely NOTHING about too much noise to me personally, that I am miserable in my own home and it isn't fair to my kids or myself, and on. She phoned me back and was so very nice. She agrees with me completely that the complaining borders on the asinine as we are quite at night and they are complaining about everyday noise that I can't control due to the house. Apparently we are not the first that they have complained about and she is as tired of it as I am. She said she would let us out of our lease early if we felt we needed to move, which I think I will do as soon as we know where we will be going. There is nothing worse than paying $4000 a month in rent and feeling like you can't even breath in your own house for fear of pissing off the crazy neighbors. Wade, being a bit more diplomatic than I, went upstairs to speak with them. Their main complaint?...they like to sleep in on the weekends and we are up too early for them. They said it was too loud yesterday morning. Daniel and I were up at 8:30 getting ready for church as everyone else laid in bed until after 9:00. I know we didn't make that much noise. Like the landlady said, they sold their home and moved into an apartment. What the heck do they expect?

Well, onto a lighter note. Kade had his Christmas band concert last month. I didn't get any great pictures as my camera flash wouldn't compensate for the darkness. Someone took this one and posted it on the schools newletter page. Isn't he so handsome?

Celebrity Sightings

So, to date have seen...Nick Nolte, Kim Catrell, and today I saw Steven Speilberg. I think I may have also seen George Eads of CSI and Neil Patrick Harris, but it could also have been a couple of guys that just looked a lot like them.

BTW, I hate living in LA. It sucks and so do our neighbors.

What's Wrong With this Picture?

I know I have utterly failed to teach my kids anything about cleaning up after themselves when I am on my hands and knees cleaning the floors, after having picked everything up and asking them to help, and kid #1 is on the phone talking to a friend telling me she can't do anything because she has to finish her homework, kid #2 is playing on the computer, kid #4 is sleeping and given a pass as he is only 2, but kid #3 walks by me hard at work, pats me on the head and says "hey there Cinderella." I must have been channeling her really well...

Psychotic Dreaming

Wow, I had one strange dream last night. I posted the whole of it on The Lackey Legend if you want to read about it. It ended up with these two boys overlooking a field as far as you could see of totally spherical boulders each with a severed head on it. They represented everyone one of the boys had ever known. Now, I don't know what my psychie is trying to tell me, but after 2 weeks of vacation from school and attempting to keep my house semi livable while all 4 are home, I'm pretty sure I'm going a bit crazy. Add to that the fiascoes my two year old keeps creating and you can only imagine that I should pretty soon be having a complete and total melt down.