Crazyness in our neighborhood yesterday

This past weekend we went up to my dad and stepmom's so they could see Lexi for her birthday, since they won't be able to make it this coming weekend. It was a great weekend and it gave us a chance to celebrate our niece's birthday, which we never get to do since she was born the exact day Lexi was (1 hour apart!) and we live almost 4 hours away from eachother.

Anyways, we get home last night and I notice some strange people standing on our neighbor's front porch (they live across the street from us) and all of the front porch furniture is gone. I go inside to get the girls dinner while Nacho unloads the car. He comes in to tell me that he's going to talk to our other neighbor Kim to see what's going on because now these people have taken a ladder out of their truck and are proceeding to climb in through a second floor bathroom window. Kim happens to be coming out at the same time to confront the people and the girl with them claims to be the owner's niece and she was told it was ok. She goes inside to a now unlocked front door, gets the guys and they all haul ass out of there....taking the light fixture from the dining room with them. Nacho and I are beyond confused at this point because who breaks in to take a light fixture? Kim tells us that earlier that day 3 flatbed trucks pulled up and the owners stripped the house of EVERTHING. They ripped out the granite countertops, the kitchen cabinets, the built in double oven, the dishwasher....you get the picture. Yep, they were forclosed on and before the bank takes possession at noon today the took everything they possible could. I can't believe it. The window coverings and air conditioning unit are still there so I'm sure they'll be back in the next few hours to get those. Oh, and the idiots who broke in there last night (who probably are friends of the soon to be ex owners) left the bathroom window wide open when the left. And we're pretty sure they would have taken more if the whole block hadn't been standing outside watching them. I know somebody called the police at some point, but they never talked to us, so I'm not sure if they even came down to check it all out.

I'm sure the bank will be thrilled when they go in to change the locks today. And I guess the owners are blaming the bank for being forclosed on. Turns out their original house payment was $7,000/month and after their ARM expired went up to $8,900. Trust me, the mortgage company was negligent in ever letting anybody have that kind of loan, but were is the personal responsbility in all of this? They had to know they couldn't afford that. The forclosure notice went up about 3 months ago, but they moved back in, so we thought they had worked something out with the bank. Turns out they tried to rent it to some poor young girl and got caught by the sales office, so I guess they just decided to live in it.

I don't know, but the more I think about all of it the angrier I get because this makes for forclosure #2 on our street -we only have 11 houses total. Like our property value wasn't already in the tank. I'm scared to know what this is going to do it.

RSVPing

Can somebody please tell me what's so damn hard about RSVPing to something, especially when it's specifically asked for? We are having Lexi's 3rd birthday this weekend and even though I asked for all RSVPs by yesterday we're still waiting on over half our guest list. For most people that might not be a big deal, but because of the sizes of our families that's still at least 35 people who haven't answered. I have no idea how much food to buy and at this point there won't be any party favors because I'm not about to buy them for kids who may or may not show up. And I even make it easy by providing my phone number and email address, so that people who don't want to talk or don't have time to can just drop me a simple email. This is nothing new, so I shouldn't be surprised, but it doesn't change how frustrated I am over the whole thing. The only thing that makes this funny is watching these same people stress out when it's their party and they're not getting any RSVPs.

So, if you're one of the people who hasn't RSVPd yet and you're reading this, can you please take the 30 seconds to do so now? Or I might decide not to feed you if you do show up.

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year again....where the stupid pumpkin patch stops traffic. Literally. I feel like kind of a hypocrit even typing this because we've actually gone to said pumpkin patch, but it's not going to stop me from complaining. Some brilliant planners decided a pumpkin patch right on the side of the freeway was a great idea. The problem is the minute the corn and pumpkins start growing, traffic comes to a dead stop. I was coming home on Sunday, the 21st of September...a full 6 weeks before Halloween, and the traffic had already started slowing down. It's pumpkins and corn people!! It's nothing special. And it's there every year. Not like it changes. And to the idiot drivers in this area, it doesn't matter if there are people there or not - they stop to look anyways. Last year, the weekend before Halloween traffic was stopped over 20 miles back because of this stupid pumpkin patch. I hope I don't have to go north for very much because I'll be pissed about this for the next 6 weeks if I do. But since I'm sure we'll end up there again this year, I'll be sure to wave to all of you who feel the need to stop and look.

Names

Quick update first: the glucose screening came back negative, so I don't have gestational diabetes, so yay for that! I am however slightly anemic. I had the same problem when I was pregnant with Samantha and it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed with eating more iron rich foods and taking an iron suppliment every other day. So I guess I'll do the same this time.

Now if we could only agree on names for this little one. At the rate we're going it's going to be No Name Lua. I knew it wouldn't be easy, based on how long it took us to come up with names for the girls, but I didn't think it would like this. Our tastes are polar opposites this time around. I thought we had agreed on a boy's name, since Nacho was the one who suggested it, but now he's not sure, so we're back to square one on that too. We've tried making lists and vetoing out the other person's, but that just gave us a full list of crossed off names. I do have hope still, since we didn't come up with a name for Samantha until 2 weeks before I had her. But I did tell Nacho if we don't agree on names by the time the baby is here, I'm letting Samantha name him/her. Not seriously, but I did remind him that I'm the one who fills out the birth certificate. So when you ask if we've picked names and we tell you no, we're honestly telling you the truth.

Dr's appt. update

I had a doctor's appt. on Tuesday and it's the first time I've had to take both girls without Nacho's help. Let me tell what an experience that was, lol. The baby is doing good - heartbeat around 150, still measuring about 2 weeks ahead, but she assures me that's nothing to be concerned about, and moving all over the place. She did tell me that she believes the baby is laying with it's back against mine, which is why I can feel it EVERY time the baby kicks, moves, etc. and why I'm having lower back pain, which has been happening a lot this pregnancy. I'm really hoping this baby decides to flip because I had back labor with both girls and I'm not looking forward to having it again. As for me, I've gained a total of 12lbs - dr. wishes it was more, but since I've still got about 12-13 weeks left, I think it's fine. Which also means that I start my 3rd and final trimester on Wednesday. I can't believe we're in the home stretch already. So I've got another appt. in 4 weeks and then they start going to every 2-3 weeks (which is how I know I'm close to the end). Oh yeah, I have to my glucose test on Monday, so if you could all pray that I pass it, that would be great. I haven't had problems in the past and I don't want to start now.

Ballet has started again

Ballet has started again for the girls and this year we have changed studios. There is a multitude of reasons on why we did, but the biggest being that Miss Amy, Sam's beloved teacher has taken some time off from teaching and she was honestly the only reason we stayed at the old studio.

So we just did week 2 of ballet at the new studio and the girls seems to be loving it. And when I say we, yes I mean me too. Little did I know that the 2 year old program is actually a Mommy and me class. So not only does Sam have to sit and watch, something I'm sure that is driving her nuts (although she's been so well behaved), I get to actually dance with Lexi. I'm almost 7 months pregnant. Can I tell you, it's one thing to *know* you look like a giant whale pretending to be a graceful ballerina...and a whole other thing to actually be able to see yourself in the wall to wall studio mirrors. Luckily she's only in this class until the end of October, when she'll get to move into the 3 year old class with Samantha. This is a day we're all looking forward to: for me...I only have to drive to the studio once instead of the 2x on Thurs we're doing now AND I can sit in the lobby while they dance and not partcipate. For Sam: she doesn't have sit and watch others dance while she can't join in and finally for Lu: who informed me on her first day she doesn't actually want us in her classroom, she wants to do it herself.

Don't get me wrong, I've loved being able to share this with Lu since as the 2nd born, she's mostly been dragged around to Samantha's stuff or at the least had to share it with her. So this all about her and she gets my attention. I just wish I could have done it when I wasn't so pregnant...and so sore...and so tired. But that's for another post ;)

Today

is the first morning I'm by myself and I'm not sure what do with myself. Even though the girls have been back in school for weeks, the way our vacation and holidays fell, they've only been going on Wednesdays, which is the day I help out in the classroom. I'm sure they're doing fine, but I do worry a little bit about Lexi since I think she might actually believe I go to preschool with them. But she did give me a kiss and hug this morning and ran into the classroom, so I guess I don't actually have anything to be worried about.

But I've done the laundry and picked up the house, resisted the urge to drive through Starbucks and now I don't know what to do. I'm sure there is a million things I could find if I actually tried, but that doesn't seem like much fun. I do have plans to work on Lexi's scrapbook (like actually start it before this baby comes), but I think that's a project better put off for future weeks.

I guess I'll just take the rest of my morning and relax, something I don't get to much of. Because the next few months are going to fly by and I'll no longer have the time to myself.