Adventures in the 'hood

Nearly 2 weeks without the internet or TV. I've been living in a hole! What's a girl to do? Well, first off, unpacking went quite nicely without the added interruption. I just looked in my camera to see if I had any pictures to post...there weren't any pictures on there! Normally after this long I'd have a few hundred. My groove has been shaken. I guess you don't want to see pictures of a U-Haul or boxes anyway do you? No, I don't want to disappoint my adoring blog fans (cocky enough for ya?).

Whilst unpacking I found my box of books. Several of them I have not read. So I finished a few that I had started and read a couple more. It's funny how I can read a 700 page vampire book in a day and a 300 page John Grisham book took me 6 months. Man I'm lame. Well, I happened across a book that I got as a present a while ago and had been meaning to read for quite some time. It's called "I Am A Mother" by Jane Clayson Johnson. 127 pages shouldn't take too long. Well, I started reading it one night before bed and I was done within an hour. It really is a pretty good book for any woman to read. There are a lot of insightful quotes and scriptures that seemed to really help me at this moment in time. So I went to bed that night feeling lifted up and inspired and really felt that I was absolute "super mom." Fast forward to 4:00 the next morning when I'm sleeping soundly and a 2 year old prances into my room, slurps my face, and climbs into bed with me: a Barbie in each hand, one for her and one for me. A quote from the book came rushing back to me:

"The poet William Ross Wallace wrote that 'The hand that rocks the cradle is the
hand that rules the world.' I love those words. I even believe them; but
how can I rule the world when I can't keep my eyes open?"

Ah, in the midst of the move, we thought it would be an excellent idea to move Jaydin to a big girl bed. Might as well make two huge changes for her at once. In the mean time, we have had no sleep. She has taken 1 nap for a total of 1 hour in 2 weeks. It's funny how naps not only make HER less cranky, but they make ME less cranky too. The very morning of that incident, I decided that her door would no longer be left open a crack at night.

In dealing with no sleep, we have been dealing with a lot of 2 year old temper tantrums. I guess the first week we were here, she spent a lot of time in Time Out. For the last few days anytime we tell her no for any little thing, she says "Sorry mom, sit on time out!" and runs to her sit on her bed. Now it's a fun game. Did I mention I love 2 year olds?

We are adjusting to our new surroundings in the "big city" fairly well. Jaydin has met some new friends on the playground. Good thing she watches Dora...she knows how to say "Hola" and "uno, dos, tracy" so now her and her friends can communicate. I have been having a fun time trying to figure out where everything is. Without the help of Google it's been a bit of a challenge, but I'm slowly finding my way to the grocery stores and other places I need to go. The biggest change we are facing is now that we live in the 'hood I stay up all hours of the night worrying. I'm such a lame-o. We really live in a safe area, I just watch too much Law and Order and Dateline. The other day, Brady had to go to work at midnight. I had just gone to bed, so I was only somewhat conscious. He was in the kitchen making himself his "lunch" to take with him. All of a sudden, I heard two loud bangs right outside my window. I went running into the kitchen and this is how the conversation went:

J: "Did you just hear those gunshots?"
B: "I heard bangs, but I don't think they were gunshots honey. Go back to bed."
J: "No, they were gunshots. I saw a flash like a gun went off. There's a gang war outside my window."
B: "Jamie, go to bed."
J: "I'm going to look out the window and make sure no one's dead."
B: "Jamie, if you heard gunshots, do you really want to look out the window and have a crazed gunman see you looking at him? He'll shoot you too. Go to bed."
J: "Well if I can't look out the window, you're certainly not going to go outside to get in your car. I don't want a dead husband. I'm serious, you can't go to work. You have to stay here."
B: "I'll be fine."
J: "Ok, but as soon as you get to work, you need to call me so I know you're still alive with a crazed gunman on the loose."
B: "Ok, go back to bed. I love you."

So I go in my room, but of course I can't fall asleep. I decide to get on the floor, creep over to the window, and peek out the very bottom, very carefully so no one will notice me and shoot me...I couldn't see anything. Meanwhile, Brady makes it to work and calls me to tell me he made it out of the gang fight alive.

B: "No one is outside, I don't know what the noise was, but I'm certain now it was not gunshots."
J: "Well the gunshots happened almost a whole 10 minutes before you went outside. Do you think they would shoot someone and just hang around? Maybe I should call the police."
B: *sighs patiently thinking his wife has gone insane.* "You don't need to call the police. I didn't even see any dead bodies or blood or anything."
J: "Well maybe he's a bad shot and missed. There were two shots fired. Maybe they both ran away."
B: "Then you go ahead and call the cops and get charged with making a false police report."

So instead of calling the police I just sat in my room in the dark until morning.