Peyton Place

Good morning, B.

Wow, look at that. I wrote before you responded! I wanted to check in this morning in the event that I don't get time this afternoon. JB et al come in at 6:20 tonight, so I will pick up JJ from basketball at 5:00 and go straight to the airport. Pray it doesn't rain, because I have to take the truck, (not enough seats in my car) which means putting their luggage in the bed of the truck....it's already raining now. Otherwise I'll have to borrow S' Suburban which isn't that big of a deal, but. Can you end a sentence like that? ...but. You know what I mean.

This morning I got up and went to the bus stop with the kids, even though it was a little rainy and I didn't feel like going, because I had good neighborhood gossip to share with my bus stop buddies. We have these new neighbors, W&E, who moved in next door to R&K this summer. Long story short, she home schools and he's in Amway. That should tell you more than you need to know right there. They have two kids, 4 and 7 years old, who are pretty sweet. The thing is, they let them run all over the neighborhood completely unsupervised, at all times of the day and night. Evidently, every single neighbor is having problems with them (except me, JJ's too old for their kids). My friend T unloaded all of her frustration on me last night at the basketball game, which is funny, since we're not all that close and I don't have anything to do with this family. But S definitely is involved, and all the things she shares with me are the exact same things T was telling me last night, and my other neighbor V told me a few weeks ago. Turns out this woman is leaving her kids at peoples' houses for hours at a time, particularly at meal times and nap times. She dumps them off and disappears; sometimes she only leaves the boy. The thing is, he's 4 and he's not potty trained, so he pees anywhere he wants to...outside, inside, doesn't matter. He's peed in everyone's house (on the stairs, in bedrooms, wherever). But the thing that had T so upset was that she's got an icky feeling that something not right is going on over at their house. To be honest, I have that icky vibe too, even though I deal with her very infrequently. Sometimes your gut is right on, though.

I have no idea why I told you all that...just that S came over and continued the conversation with me over coffee this morning and I'm only just now getting started on finishing my house. No much left to do, then hit the grocery store and try to get the rest of these essays done before I pick up JJ. I may not write again for a day or two, but I'll try to get to the page sometime while the guests are here so as not to have a four-day hiatus.

Happy Thursday...are you wearing your new shoes today?!
Love, A