My Soapbox for the day...

Ok, let me preface post with: 1) I love animals, particularly dogs. We don't personally have a dog because I'm not prepared to deal with the maintenance of a dog with the ages of my kids. 2)I like to think of myself as a good neighbor (you see where this is going, don't you?). Feel free to ask around (well, except for the family to the right of us...)

Here's the story:
Our neighbors moved in about 1 year ago. They had 2 small, barking dogs. We tried to ignore it for about 6 months. This wasn't just any ole barking dogs-- it's was the hour upon hour barking dogs. Finally, I talked to the wife, and she apologized. She told us that one of the dogs (the main barker) was getting ready to be put down b/c he was old, blind, and could barely walk. I was assured that once this happened, the problem would stop. Ok, fine. We endured another month or so of barking until finally, said dog was indeed put down. Enter puppy beagle. Now, I know what you're thinking: that darned beagle is going to pick up the barking where the dead dog left off. That's where you'd be wrong.

The other dog (some sort of terrier...maybe a Westie?) picked up the barking slack. This went on for about 4 months before I ever said anything. Maybe it was just adjusting to the new addition (i.e. the Beagle). The dog barked for about 3-4 hours each day-- NONstop, from about 4-8pm. We even had several nights that the dog would bark ALL night long, waking us up every hour throughout the night. This wasn't the a-bark-bark here and a bark-bark there. This was constant barking, like you might have thought the dog was going to keel over from barking so much.

Finally, about 2 months ago (mind you, this has been going on for 10 months!), I went and knocked on the door to request AGAIN for them to please bring in their dog. I was "greeted" by the husband, who informed me that dogs bark. REALLY? I had no idea. I told him that I understand some barking, but I felt that more than 2 hours of barking was too much. He said, 'sorry, the dogs have to go out.' I responded with "well, do you think that once they start barking you could bring them in?" He pretty much said nope and to get over it. Ok, fine. You want to play that way? I would occasionally go over and knock on the door to ask them to bring the dogs in. Even when they were home, they wouldn't answer the door. I could see the TV on, hear them talking, but they refused to answer the door.

Another month goes by. About a month ago, I started researching the Fort Worth city noise ordinance. What did I find? I found a link to the animal control sector, which talks about barking dogs. Low and behold, it's NOT ok to let your dogs bark that much. So, I gave them a call and filed a complaint. In case you've never done this, here's how it works: within 72 of the filed complaint, they pay a visit to the barking dog's owners. After that visit, if/when I hear barking, I keep a log. After at least 10 logged days, I can take them to court. With enough evidence, the courts can elect to take the dogs away. Obviously, this is not desired, even by me. But, I felt that I had no choice. So, I started my log.

Surprisingly, the barking got MUCH better. There was still the occasional 2-3 barking session (which I did log), but it wasn't daily as it had been before. I had high hopes that the call to animal control solved the problem (despite the husbands protests).

This past Friday, after we got the kids down for naps (around 3pm), we heard them let out the dogs. (Every time I say that, I can't help but start singing "Who let the dogs out"). We were doing some gardening/flower planting. Dogs started barking. We were having a dinner party later that evening, and we were planning to do it all outside. We figured SURELY they will bring the dogs in by then. NOPE. They barked the entire time we were outside, except for the few times that we shouted at them to shut up. While we had a wonderful evening with friends, it put a major damper on the evening. Everyone left at 8:30...still barking. We go to bed at 10:30...still barking. We're going on over 7 hrs here.

Dave finally tells me to call the police. It's one thing when we're awake and it's annoying. It's quite another thing when we can't even sleep because of it. I felt a little silly calling 9-1-1, but what else were we to do? We weren't for sure if they were home-- TV was on, a million lights on, but no one was answering the door. The police said that they would send someone out when an officer was available. We figured it would be at least an hour or longer. I decided to make 1 last effort at knocking on their door. No answer. While I was walking back to our house, we heard sirens. Then, 2 cops pulled around the corner. I have no idea why they used their sirens. Maybe they were bored and just wanted to let loose a little. Anyhoo, to make this LONG part of the story a bit shorter: the cops concluded that no one was home (after LOTS of LOUD banging on the door, and shouting: "This is the Ft. Worth Police. Open up." Very official sounding... They gave us some suggestions: keep filing complaints, blah blah blah.

Just as they were getting ready to leave, guess who comes home? Yep, the barking dog's owner. I have no idea what the cops said to them, but as they were walking to their house the super nice husband looked over at us and shouted "JERKS" and stomped in the house. What I didn't say, but wanted to: "THE FEELING IS MUTUAL!"

Just when you think this story is over, you'd be wrong. Last night, I was out for a girls night out. Dave was in the driveway getting ready to take the boys to the park. Well, our super friendly husband neighbor approached Dave and started shouting at him. He claims he used to be a cop, and that he has cop friends. He told Dave that if we want to play hardball, he'll play. He said that he will be watching us and any time we so much as cross the line he will turn us in (we have no idea what line he's talking about). He did tell Dave that we better not ever have expired tags or inspection, etc. Dave says he was pretty irrational and almost crazy. Dave told him that we weren't trying to be bad neighbors, but that we felt like we had no other choice because they weren't doing anything about the situation. Dave left, took the kids to the park, and returned about an hour later. This time, the wife comes over to talk to Dave. She is much more sane-- apologizing, in fact, for her husband. She said that they will do everything in their power to limit the barking dog. She would like to visit with me about some possible options (since, let's face it, the dog is going to HAVE to be outside sometimes. I understand this!!! I really do.). I haven't had a chance to go over and talk to her yet, but I am hopeful that things are going to be much better...

Uncle Trent

My brother, Trent, was in Mexico last week on business and managed to get an over-night layover here in DFW. He got in around 6:30pm on Thursday and had a 6am flight to catch on Friday. But, we made the most of the time we had with him. Of course, the kids took advantage of having a human playgym:

We put all the kids down, and had a late peaceful dinner with just us adults. We followed that by a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. A fun evening, and what a special treat to get to [unexpectedly] spend the evening with my little brother!

A glimpse from a 4 yr olds point of view...

Yesterday I let William take a few pics with my camera (as opposed to his camera, which is a real digital camera, but it's for kids, so it takes pathetic low-quality pics). I wouldn't let him move more than a foot away from me, for fear that he'd drop it and break it. So, this isn't the perspective I'm sure he'd choose to share, but it's his perspective nonetheless.

Dave will be super happy about me posting this last one. It was just too funny not to share!!!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

One thing we LOVE about Spring is the perfect park weather! Just about every night we head to the park after dinner. Here are some snapshots of our adventure tonight:

Hudson LOVES to ride his bike, and truth be told, he's MUCH better at it than William was at this age. But, it's nice to have that handle for those hills he just can't peddle up, or for when he starts to veer off-course.

William is turning into quite the biker. He usually alternates between his bike and his scooter. Tonight was a bike night, obviously.

We had to make a pit stop at the pond to feed the ducks/fish/turtles. Tonight the turtles ate the bread. William has a habit of tearing off a few little pieces, and then just chunking the rest of it in. Hudson is a much more deliberate turtle-feeder.

Hudson is such a great little sharer. Here he is sharing some of his bread with William after William threw all of his in at once:

Dave pointing out to the boys where the turtles are.

Now on to the park. Hudson has become quite a little climber!

William took a break from the playground to hunt for the perfect "fishing pole", which he found, and is seen here fishing.

One of the benefits of having boys: outdoor plumbing!

First Game

William's newest sporting endeavor is t-ball. He's loving it. He had his first game yesterday. It's so cute to watch the little 3 and 4 yr olds play. They just have 1 inning-- everyone bats, and they don't count the outs. It's only about 30 minutes long (which, trust me, is plenty long!).

Their team name is the Red Dragons, which William thinks is pretty cool.

of course, Hudson wanted in on the eye makeup action.

William "plays" second base.

William's "at-bat". He missed his first swing, but on the second time, he nailed it out to second base.

approaching 1st base. His only issue was that he didn't want to run, so he walked s.l.o.w.l.y. all the way to first.

after the game was over, everyone got to run the bases one more time. William is #11.

Game #2 is Thursday night. Maybe he'll run to 1st this time.

Easter 2010

We had a wonderful Easter. We have found that having a big Easter lunch is too much with the ages of our kids. With naptime at 2, it just makes lunch too stressful. Plus, I don't know about your kids, but mine are always super cranky after church. So, for the past 2 years, we do Easter dinner, AFTER naps. When everyone is much happier. It has worked wonderfully. Plus, they have lots of time to hunt eggs, eat candy, eat dinner, and play play play. 

This year, we had a picnic in my parent's backyard. We invited a few families over from church and had a smörgåsbord of food. We had lots and lots and lots of appetizer/finger foods. It was delicious, and frankly, it's my favorite kind of meal. It was nice to have it be so relaxed. The adults ate on the patio, and the kids parked themselves on a picnic blanket. Thank goodness for those Oliphint girls (our pastor's family). They are amazing with our kiddos, and the kids LOVE them.

They are both constantly making silly faces. Whatever face William makes, Hudson copies him.

Brotherly love...:-)

Family pic.

The race is on...

Caroline and Katie enlightened William as to what is in those eggs. Needless to say, the candy got eaten as the eggs were found...

Kelly helping Hudson find more eggs.