Desperation brings Invention

I have to laugh at John and I sometimes - because I'm usually afraid to try something new, but John really jumps in there and makes anything work!

Yesterday was fairly busy for us - we had several visitors bring us freezer meals... which I have to first say that our church family is AMAZING!! We've gotten a meal delivered every other day since James came home... and it's all been incredibly helpful and YUMMY! I love collecting new recipes - as most of you know... so expect some of these to appear on Kim's Cuisine in the coming weeks.

So with three meal deliveries yesterday - yielding us three different kinds of soup, a chicken pot pie, a baked ziti, and a chicken & rice casserole... we quickly jumped into action to get ourselves a refrigerator for the garage. Up until now, we really only felt like we needed one desperately at the holidays when we host the get together for my Dad, Sisters, and all the families... but it sure will be wonderful having extra space for make ahead meals and to keep some drinks cold.

After all our deliveries - we went to the hospital to visit John's Aunt - she seems to be improving little by little... her grandson asked her if she felt okay, and she replied "I guess" which was the first time she'd talked in several days. She hasn't been able to say anything since that we know of right now, but she sure does make lots of sounds and try to tell us everything she normally would say. I can't imagine anything more frustrating than knowing exactly what you want to say, but not being able to make it come out - you can just see it on her face that it's just a nightmare. We continue to pray for Aunt Mary to recover from this so that we'll have many more years to share in family fun with her.

We left the hospital at about 9, and picked up dinner for ourselves... we got home, fed James, ate... and at about 11:30 I went outside to put our trash out for the garbage men... I walked out to see a huge group of kids, and as I was walking to the trash can... the kids started yelling at each other and getting ready to fight. At about the time I got back into the house - we heard a series of pops... which I'm still unsure if they were gun shots or if it was some sort of firecracker. At the time there were about 6 to 8 carloads of teenagers out there... So we called the police... by the time we got off the phone with the police... all the kids had scattered and were gone.

The family at the house involved is a nightmare set of neighbors... we just dislike them A LOT. They sort of stick out in our neighborhood because they just aren't the typical folks you'd find out here. They are really loud, spend all of their time in their garage hanging out (seriously it's like a living room made with lawn chairs!), have really incredibly mean unruly dogs (a pit bull included), and the young men are just thugs in general that look like they might be in gangs. (I know - I'm judgmental...but they scare me honestly.)

So anyway - as I sat at the window for about an hour and a half... I watched 6 cop cars come to the house, search the yard... question a bunch of folks... leave...come back... and then search our yard and porch as well. It was really sort of scary, but in the end - I think that while the kids across the street certainly attracted this bad situation - I feel like by the way the police handled it - that they were the victims in this particular instance.

By 1 o'clock, we were beat... so we were faced with what to do with the little man... put him in his bassinet and fight it out, or in our shear desperate need for sleep... John came up with a brilliant plan. He took the bouncy seat, strapped it to the foot of our bed... in between us... and let him sleep in his bouncy. It worked... he did wake up to eat at 3ish, but then we put him back in and he slept until around 8!

I am still fairly tired today, but I know it could have been much worse if we'd opted to fight it out. Tonight - I've got a girls night out scheduled with some of my church friends, and I can't wait! I know it'll be fun to get out for a little bit and laugh with my girlies! I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend... and be careful out there!

**Also if you haven't heard about it - there has been a big recall of Children's Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec, and Benadryl... there is an article in the New York Times about it. It seems that some of those products have too much of the active ingredient in them yours might not be part of the recall, but make sure that what you have is safe before giving it to your kids!