The Puddles

So this is my tomato plant.  It has suddenly developed brown spots on the leaves. My husband hates that I even have these plants (he wants the killing to end), but he never reads my blog so I’m safe!

My mother-in-law was a huge help to narrow the issues down.  I have bought bigger pots to repot the plants, but have yet to do it.  Too much to do.  I hope that will help.

I just really need to make sure that they don’t die.  I will never hear the end of it.

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Bad mom.  There was a really long period of time where I did a bad job of posting pictures.  I have no excuse.

This is Ainsley’s day to dress up in old clothes and be an old person.  Of course, she is wearing one of her sister’s skirt that I gathered, but it makes her look ancient!  The powder in her hair helped.  And of course, one of my reading glasses.  It was a pair I grabbed out of desperation when I really needed glasses while on vacation.  Chris says they are awful and told Ainsley to keep them forever.  She’s had fun with them. This is our last 100th day parade.  She is the last one in kindergarten.  I think I am more sad about the last day of kindergarten forever than I was about the first day of kindergarten.  It just means that my babies are growing up.

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In general we have the best neighbors.  Lovely, wonderful, quiet people.

One of my neighbors who lives a few houses away has decided to start parking on our lawn.  We are accommodating people, but this has been going on for over a month.  So after consulting Chris, he was ok with me going and talking to them nicely about not parking there.  The grass has always struggled there and now it looks really bad.  So parking on it doesn’t help.  And by the way . . . they don’t park in their own yard because they just put new grass in and don’t park on anyone else’s yard but ours.

I thought (my first mistake) that the worst that could happen was some uncomfortable feelings while we talked about it.  Boy could I have been more wrong?

As soon as I asked, the 70 year old mother started in on me.  When I started apologizing for even asking, she yelled for her daughter to move her car and then shut the door.  I realized this wasn’t a good situation so I started walking home regretting my decision.  So the first daughter comes walking out and starts in on me.  Yelling at me for being inconsiderate and rude.  Called me a liar and a horrible neighbor after living there for only nine months and had never had the decency to go over and introduce myself to them.  I turned around (second mistake) and told her that I had lived there for three years and had never seen her before and how dare she call me a liar.  I asked her why she was doing this to me.  She said she had a right to park any where she wanted to and that she was parking on public property.  By this time, the second daughter comes out of the house and is walking up to me yelling at me.  She continues the accusations.  Then another daughter comes walking out screaming.  So four grown woman are standing in the street with three of them screaming at the other  while one stands in shock.  I can’t believe this is happening.  I’ve never had a neighbor do this.  Let alone an entire house full of adults doing it.

The end result was two of the daughters asking for a do-over and introducing themselves to me so that we could start properly.  I was rattled.  I went home, called Chris and cried.  What kind of people do this to others?  I am always shocked and amazed by humanity.

After spending and hour with kindergarteners that afternoon, I realized that I needed to make amends with my neighbors.  I can’t make them change their ways, but I can change mine.  Since (according to them) this all stemmed from us being poor and rude neighbors, I should go over and try to be better.

So after school, the kids and I took some of our prized Thin Mints, wrapped them with a ribbon, and headed over.  The neighbors just happen to be in their driveway, but as soon as they saw us coming they headed inside.  We at least caught the father before he got inside.  I greeted him and told him that after this morning I wanted to start over and do better.  I introduced myself and the children.  He, of course, didn’t offer his name but wanted to start in on me about how I was rude to him over the years (the problem is that they have been keeping a checklist of my faults).  Like not coming over and introducing myself. Geez. I told him that I wasn’t here to rehash the morning.  I wanted to start over and that I didn’t realize how I was being a bad neighbor and wanted to do better.   So after offering him the cookies, and redirecting our conversation away from my rudeness, I asked if we could speak to his wife.  The wife was another repeat of the husband (rehashing the morning and my rudeness and then my attempting to redirect the conversation with apologies and a willingness to do better). I offered her the cookies and she refused them.  When I told her that this was a gift to help start this relationship over, she finally took the cookies.

It ended well, but here is what I learned today.

1. All adults can revert to childish behavior easily.

2.  Grass is not worth getting in a war with your neighbor over.

3.  I can’t change anyone but myself.

My neighbors obviously don’t feel that they have done anything wrong (I heard at least a dozen times “we lived here for 34 years” and “my parents are exemplary neighbors”).  So if I want this to work, I am the one who is going to have to put forth the effort.  I don’t need them to be my best friend but a little peace in my world would be good.

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So I found my camera.  I’ve been taking pictures with it off and on for five months without ever downloading the pictures.  So I finally did it today.

The posts are random in nature and I apologize for that.  But this is my online record keeping of my family activities, so I am a little late but at least they made it in!

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This picture is Ainsley and I hanging out while we wait for the church’s float to come by at the Conroe Christmas Parade!  She wasn’t feeling well enough to ride on the float, but she and I went to at least support her siblings while they walked in the parade.

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This was a wild night for Boy Scouts.  The kids got to drink hot chocolate, hear a story, get candy, and received their cars for the pinewood derby.  Even the girls got some hot chocolate!

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Madie was able to participate in the Wilkinson Honor Choir.  She really enjoyed doing this and had a good time.  They had to meet every Tuesday after school but she learned a lot about singing as a group!

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This is the first year that both of my girls went selling! Don’t they look great!  And so enthusiastic!  This is the best part of the entire cookie selling process . . . right before we sell a single box of cookies!

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you get an entire lane all to yourself!  Our Girl Scout troop went shopping for our Campout.  It only took a little bit but was a lot of fun!!!

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There is only one time that I have seen Girl Scouts run smoothly and efficiently.  Girl Scout Cookie Load Day. This large scale adventure is a sight to behold.

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