Perspective Is a Funny Thing!

So tonight I did a Neighborhood Watch BBQ.

Last time I did one I was really discouraged and thought that if I didn't get more of a turnout this time I would just stop doing them all together.

Perspective is a funny thing though.

Last time we did the BBQ on a weekend and I felt like few people showed up because they really weren't that supportive.

This time we had fewer people, but I wasn't nearly as put out... why? Because it was a weeknight (I know some people work later etc), school is starting soon (aka "Ahhhhh I forget to buy my kid a backpack!!!"), and fall coming soon ("holy crap... I need to start thinking about Halloween Costumes already!").That and some of the faces we saw there where new, so that was encouraging!

And maybe it also had a bit to do with the fact that there's not expected to be another neighborhood thing until Spring...

Yeah, that could be part of it too. :) Oh, and the fact that we finally raised enough funds to get some signs put up... YAY!

Hoping it will start to feel like summer...

before I have to start doing school shopping.

Last weekend I went to Boise for a Bloggersnacker with some of the FMH women... it was an all weekend long thing where you bring yourself and stuff to spend the night and of course some munchies. It was really fun and I really wished I could stay all weekend long, but alas I had to be home by Saturday night due to the Neighborhood Watch BBQ that I was in charge of. So I ended up leaving the delightfully hilarious FMH ladies with whom I wish I had gotten a chance to know better, really early in the morning (well, really early if you have stayed up till 2 the night before...) in order to get back to IF in time for the BBQ without konking out on the long (and might I say BORING) drive home alone from Boise.

The BBQ turned out okay I guess. At the moment I'm rather frustrated with my neighborhood. They say they will support you in something and then don't follow through. I'm having a bit of difficulty finding anyone willing to make it so that if I NEED to skip an event I can... and needless to say, donations toward the signage are going rather slow. Honestly there are a lot of houses in our neighborhood, and all it would take is 20 of them donating $5 to get the signs up... Ya, it's going slow, and I must say I'm rather underwhelmed. If I don't start seeing more support from my neighbors I think that I may just come to the conclusion that most of them aren't interested in having a neighborhood watch (some are interested in it mind you! just not many) and I will bag it. It's not worth the time and effort working on things that people aren't interested in or willing to support. Let alone the fact that I'm having everything translated into Spanish and not ONE Spanish speaker has shown up to either of the events. Why am I doing this if no one is benefiting? I regretted not staying at the Bloggersnacker in Boise.

Monday I went to the Chiropractor and got my back adjusted, then Wednesday I called and canceled further appointments until I can afford them. Started to seriously consider going back to school... and was going to start looking into it yesterday but got distracted somehow. Which happens often do to the kids asking to go do something like this:

 or this:

:) They are sweet and I love them to death....

Today is the last day of Goober's Summer School. He was behind in reading so they asked if he would do summer school, which actually I would prefer simply because me keeping a schedule for him and I reading to each other is a bit of a mess... and often doesn't happen. I know.... bad mom. Anywho, with summer school he was less likely to get any farther behind than he already was so I jumped for it.

Well, today is the last day, and I had a Dermatologist appointment to get to this morning. I didn't realize that Goober was likely to get out early today until he told me last night. So I let him skip out on school, because honestly, I was worried he would come home when I was gone to my appointment and totally freak out. My friend Erin watched them while I went to my appointment.

I love having friends that I trust with my kids and that I don't feel like I'm imposing on when I do. Plus, she has dogs... which Turbo HATES, but which are good for him because he really needs to learn to be okay with them. Erin is sweet and manages to keep him untraumatized. They are sweet dogs too, so he has absolutely no reason to be afraid....now I just wish he would internalize that!

The doctor froze off two spots on my skin so now I have ouchness, but I'd rather that than cancer... Thankyouverymuch. Fair skin can suck.

So anyways, June was nuts and I felt like I hardly had a moment to think let alone relax! Hopefully July will be better and I will find that the kids don't pick on each other to the point that my sanity goes out the window. I really need to look into when the Library does "reading time" and when the pools next session of lessons are even though I'm not terribly sure we can afford it this year. It's a safety thing though, so I really really WANT to afford it for them.

Tomorrow our family is going to my parents house for our annual fireworks! My parents get fireworks for the group, we have a BBQ then light them off, when they are done we move to the back yard and watch their little towns fireworks because the view is really good :) It's wonderful to be able to do that, if my kids get too droopy I can always go lay them down inside! As always the weekend of the 4th is always a bit insane, this year our city is moving the celebration from the 4th to the 3rd because the 4th is on a Sunday (don't ask me... I don't really get why celebrating our Independence is not Sabbath worthy... ) so because of that my parents little town moved theirs to the 2nd because they don't want to have to compete with the bigger city (now, I DO get that).

I don't know if we will be going to the parade or not... mainly because if the kids are up late the night before they may be a major handful the next morning, but we will see. I would really like to go.

Anyhow, that is that.... as they say. Oh! and I taught myself how to do a 4 strand braid. Yay me! lol

Neighborhood Watch program

Okay! So I said this week would be busy but I didn't realize I needed to schedule out 2 weeks from my little va-cay!

Last night was the Neighborhood Watch meeting that I trapzed all over the neighborhood for...I was really worried that I would have only about 3 people show up. It would be just my luck to get shin splints handing out fliers and then have no one show up. Can you tell I was nervous about it?

Anyhow, the turn out was actually pretty goof for putting out the fliers a week in advance without the meeting time on them! There were probably about 25 people there and the officer that did the presentation said he was impressed because the last meeting he had gone to for a larger neighborhood then ours had only had five people show up! Not only did people show up, they seem eager to help out. YAY!

So in 2 weeks time we scheduled a neighborhood BBQ so that we can hopefully get to know who ALL of our neighbors are and not just the ones that are well organized. :) Hopefully I can get THAT organized alright without spending an arm and a leg on it... wish me luck!

Walking in the Rain

So today has been nuts. I have to get a certain amount done or I'm hosed, so this morning I woke Missy up early and got Turbo out of bed and dressed quickly and immediately left the house to run errands. It was about 8:30am when we left.

I got to the copy place to get my fliers for the neighborhood watch copied and cut out and found that they didn't open until 9am.

This really sucks because last night I wanted to go to the self serve 24 hour copy place and get the fliers done so that I could start putting them out in the wee hours of the morning... you know, after exercising and before Goober got up for school. But low and behold the place had closed down and the other self serve one is in another store that locks up after they are done.... what is the point of having a self serve copy place if people can't access it at any time? They need to totally put one in a 24 hr service station or something, cause seriously this city is how big and RIGBY has a self serve 24 hr copy place....

 Then I realized the bank didn't open until 9 too. Ugh. So I headed to the DI to empty the back of my van, because I've had stuff in there For-ev-er (said like the kid on Sandlot). Thank goodness they were open, and then by the time I got back to the other places they were open too.

I then spent all morning taping fliers to people's front doors and mailboxes. It was nice weather this morning, did I mention that? Only a few sprinkles here and there, and they were kinda Oregon-eque... you know misty, so not a problem. I headed back to the house about noonish because Goobers last day of school was a half day and we needed lunch anyhow, then we headed back out....

'Cept this time it was raining.... had I realized it would rain I wouldn't have stuck fliers on mailboxes, I would have gone back and put them on front doors but I was wet and tired and I still had more houses to do!!!

This little project of mine took from 9am this morning until 2:30pm to complete... at a certain point we had to go back to the house and get the van because the kids were cold and becoming wet in spite of the Wike and the Umbrella...

Needless to say, my kids weren't terribly happy about it all.

--------------

Update: After all of that, I found out that the time of the meeting was not on the fliers....