Let 'em burn

our neighbors to the north are sooo frustrating. there happen to be two different experiences yesterday that have caused me to think about this crazy world that we live in and how different people are just from house to house. First of all, we think these people are either drug dealers or some other kind of "service". we're not really scared of them or anything, but the traffic that goes through their house it outrageous. but lately there have also (as in the "traffic" with them) has been quite a few young kids running all over the place. two of them actually live down the street, but are over there everyday- and yes, if i leave my front door open to create a breeze through the house the will walk in, they are those types of kids. So, i was standing on my front porch letting jared get some fresh air and enjoy the weather and two of the girls start calling to the little boy "conner, conner!!" (who, by the way is the brother of one of the girls) and as soon as he looks they start doing one of the most provocative dances I have ever seen. granted they are like 7 years old so it really just looked stupid- but they were grabbing certain areas of their body in embarrassing ways. I just stared at them with a dirty look- and then my favorite part- they run away saying "that lady was watching us!" yeah, that made me feel old- i'm not a lady. anyway that's another topic for another day. But seriously, what is wrong with parent's these days? why do they think that it is ok to let their children see things that even adults should not be watching
ok- then- later that night at about 9 pm, my other neighbor to the south who we love and is in our ward and is trying to find every excuse to get rid of the other neighbors- comes knocking on our door saying that she thinks the drug dealer's house is on fire but she wants a second opinion before she calls the fire department. there are no lights on in the home, an absurd amount of smoke is coming out the chimney, their dogs are inside barking like crazy, and we see a glow coming from the window- so yes, we conclude that it is going to burn down. She calls 911 and we make jason go knock on their door to see if anyone is home. Well, they were there, and apparently it was a large candle by the window that was burning, and they had just lit a fire in their "fireplace" (which we have been told that there isn't one in that house- they have a fake chimney like us) and they pretty much told jason exactly where he needed to go- if you know what i mean. Michelle (our nice neighbor) is already on the phone with 911 and sirens are approaching and the mean neighbors proceed to use a slur of profanity and tell michelle how much they hate her and she just needs to mind her own business. So, lesson of the night-- if you have probable cause to think your neighbors are going to die- just mind your own business!! Honestly, who is really going to do that. ---(side note, after the police officers arrived they briefly entered the alleged burning home, though they weren't allowed to go very far, and when talking to us afterward concluded that they too think that they are drug dealers and that they possibly are living without power --{for those that don't know they were stealing our power for the first 3 months of our living here} -- soooo, hopefully this ends up being a good experience and the city will have reason to kick them out.

For the Beauty of the Earth

if you look at these pictures, you can see how spring is affecting us. i just love the randomness of our house. our backyard, huge as it is, is nothing but weeds and ugly trees (which by the way are going to be taken care of by 200 youth coming to our poor downtrodden neighborhood to do some service) but on the one side of our house are the most amazing flowers. there are tons (and by tons a mean like 10) of them -on the side of all places! couldn't they at least planted them in the front for all to see? luckily they can be transplanted, but still, it is kind of weird.

9 months and growing....

Jared is finally growing steadily!! We are so very happy. I took him today for his nine month check up and his once slumping growth chart has finally gone back up. He still is only 17.9 pounds-- which means he is in the 7% for weight-- but it is an improvement from his last "official" checkup. He is 28"long - 46% for height- so at least he's average. Everything checked out just perfectly and his doctor was very impressed with how well he is finally doing. He did say that he doesn't think Jared is anywhere close to getting any teeth-- at least another 6 weeks or so! He's just going to have to keep using those gums! In these pictures he is in absolute heaven. He figured out that he was strong enough to tip over his toy basket and make quite the fun mess.

Green

Have I ever mentioned how happy the color green makes me feel?? Yes, even in random spots like this VERY bright green we just painted our bathroom. It is now my favorite place in our house...... kind of odd I know.

Knowledge

I never realized just how important our continuous knowledge gaining process on this earth must be until this last week. Every since I had Jared, I seem to have been a term behind in my online classes. I knew eventually that it would catch up to me, and yes, now that I have one month left 'til graduation, it has. I had planned to dedicate this last week solely to finishing 3 of my six remaining classes 'cause they are due today. Well, maybe I just needed a strong lesson in procrastination or someone or something really did not want me to finish those classes. Saturday night I was up all night sick as can be with some crazy stomach flu that left me bedridden for 5 days to follow. I felt like I had another parasite or something. I never get sick. Ever. But of course, this week I did and it was bad news. Finally I wake up Friday morning feeling wonderful and ready to work my buns off, and I have an incredible pain in my neck that paralyzes the entire right side of my body. It made me cry it hurt so badly. (and for those of you who don't know me that well- it has to be a pretty bad pain 'cause I sure don't cry that easily.) It was so very frustrating. I did get two of the three classes done over the weekend, and luckily for me "someone" has lost my third class CD so I can't do it - really, it has disappeared into thin air. This gives me at least another week to finish it after they send me another disc. Anyway, there was a lot to learn from this, but I think that most importantly it taught me how important it is for me to finish this degree. I will graduate at the end of this month, and there is absolutely nothing that will stop me. I know that the only "thing" that we take with us when we die is our knowledge and this week I received quite the testimony of that.