Thanksgiving Brawl 08'

Setting: Thanksgiving was dwindling to an end. We were cleaning up the dishes and putting up christmas decorations, christmas carols playing and children playing in the front room. Suddenly, we hear a blood curlding scream, the kind when someone has been shot or something really bad has happened. Dan rushed to the front window and yells for me to dial 911. Instinctivly, I do. But I have no idea why, except that there is someone screaming in front of the house. As I am talking to the operator I, look out the front window and see about 10 shadows across the street at our neighbors house in a big ball on the front porch. There was a full swing brawl taking place. I could see kicking, and punching and alot of tackling. Glass was being broken over peoples heads. ( Mayhem in a nutshell.) I hurriedly sent the kids into the back of the house in the family room and had to explain to them if there are gunshots to get on the ground. It took the cops about 8 to 10 minutes to get here and by then our neighbor had ordered everyone to "leave before the cops get here". By the time the cops showed up (9 of them) everyone had disbanded and drunkenly driven off. An innocent passerby stopped his car to try to break up the fight and ended up getting whacked on the head with glass while his wife and kids looked on. ( These are the reasons we don't intervene in situations like this.) Needless to say, I will give an update on what caused the brawl when we find out. Otherwise, it was just another eventful night living in Mission Viejo "Safest City In America".

School Pictures

School pictures came back about a month ago. Although I hate school pictures, I buy the minimum order just to help out the school. So, instead of sending you a 5x7 and 2 wallets to hang on your fridge to be ignored for the next year... I am posting them on the blog.

Reed 6th Grade, He hates his teacher Mrs. Young.

she reminds us of our neighbor Pam. (If you have heard our Pam stories...or been lucky enough to see her in her swimsuit in the front yard (or without in the back).... you will understand.) Funny enough, Pam is also a 6th grade teacher!

Ashley 3rd Grade. She loves her teacher and is Miss Perfect in class.

Emily, 2nd Grade. She hates homework!She loves art and drawing. She works so hard on her drawings in class she sometimes just decides not to do the actual school work. Every girl has her priorities.

Heidi, Preschool. This picture was taken by one of the preschool moms. I love it. She should be the school photographer.

November Sunset

Tonight's sunset from our front balcony. They don't call it the golden state for nothin'.

Halloween 08'

Halloween night I made the traditional Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin. ( As usual, it was delicious.) The only glitch was my punch bowl that has the punch squirting out of a skulls eyes, didn't seem to squirt punch. Thus, taking away from the gory ambiance. The neighborhood met at our house for trick or treating at 6:00. We herded 12 kids for an hour and a half :( This halloween was good because the kids didn't seem to get as much candy as usual. It was really hot so Reed pooped out at the bottom of our hill and went home so his candy reserves were cut in half. He also had 2 friends spend the night and they stayed up until 4:00 am. By morning he only had 4 pieces of candy left. Yippee! I only have to deal with one day of "behavioral issues" instead of 15. Emily's school class is donating their trick-or-treating candy to kids in the hospital so that takes care of that! I am now picking up endless candy wrappers and pulling lollipops out of the carpet.