Neighborhood Watch

I hope everyone had a nice 3 day weekend! Our plans were ruined thanks to our home falling apart, but it ended up being a good thing that we stayed in town. The first reason it was a good thing that we stayed came up on Friday evening.

It was just before 5pm, I was on my way home from work and I stopped at the mailbox on my way back as I always do. I turned off my car and got out, then suddenly heard the most piercing blood curdling scream. I looked franktically around for the source and saw my 65 yr. old neighbor (one I had never met) in the doorway of her home struggling to get outside. I then saw a man (her husband) had her by her arm and was trying to yank her back inside. As the screaming and struggling continued I ran over and shouted to her asking if she were ok or needed help. She responded for me to call the police. I ran back to my car, got my phone and dialed 911. While I was calling I ran back to her house and shouted at her husband to let her go because the police were on the way. He let go of her arm and she slipped outside and shut the door. She was was shaken and had lots of red marks and scratches on her arms, but looked otherwise ok. She explained that her husband had been drinking, and attacked her. She didn't say much else. I filled in as many of the gaps as I could on my own for the dispatcher, and waited with her till the 4 officers arrived and went inside for her husband.

I went inside before the cops came out so I don't know what the outcome of the ordeal was, I was just so glad that I happened to be outside when she needed help because there was no one else around and who knows what he would have done to her. I have no tolerance for such things. Looking at this cute, sweet little old lady sitting on the ground, shaking and holding her knees, it rememinded me of my grandma and how I would feel if someone had done something like that to her. If the cops would have let me (and the guy wasn't 6'2", 230 pounds) I would have gone in myself with a baseball bat and showed him what I thought of him! It was a good reminder for me that we need to watch out for each other and ourselves, especially as women. Know the signs of abuse!

The rest of the weekend was less eventful. The water damage people finished up on Friday afternoon and we had a contractor come out Saturday morning to start repairs on the ceiling and walls. He worked for several hours and managed to patch all the holes, but tore out more floor.
While he was tearing up the downstairs, I spent hours organizing our office and file cabinets. When Layne got back from work, we went to IKEA to see if we could find a dresser to take some of the burden from our closet. We found just the thing and brought it home.
I'm like a kid at Christmas when it comes to new things and started putting it together right away. I was at it from about 8pm till we went to bed at 11:30 and I still hadn't finished. Layne helped a little bit, but was tired from having to work early that day so I told him I'd do it myself. It was a BIG job! I put the finishing touches on the drawers Sunday after church and we had fun sorting through the closet, and filling her up! I know that probably doesn't sound like "fun" to most people. But we both LOVE getting organized so it was fun. Right after we finished, my sister arrived from AZ!

Kim has been at home for the past month and a half and I was so excited to see her again and have her back in Utah for her first semester at BYU. We had dinner and caught up while she caught up with the last several episodes of 'So You Think You Can Dance' that we had saved for her. Saturday night and Monday morning were STORMY!! It was raining and hailing like crazy!
The contractor came back first thing to continue his work on the house. Kim did some laundry then headed down to Provo to get ready for her first day of school. Layne spent the morning studying for the GMATs while I read Twilight. There is nothing like reading on a stormy day off! The contractor put up tons of plastic, but still, everything in the house (my lungs included) got covered with a thick layer of white wall dust. Lovely.
The sun eventually came out but we drove by one of those temperature signs and it said 52 degrees!! Today's high is only 72. It's BEAUTIFUL! After grocery shopping, we went and saw that movie, "The Rocker" with Rainn Wilson aka Dwight. It was pretty much what we expected, funny but stupid. I could have done without seeing as much of Rainn's bare behind as I did, but there were some really funny lines.

Ok, I have to tack this on here because I just got it in an email from a co-worker and it's TOO cute! This is someone's backyard in Anchorage, AK. Amazing! Proof that ALL children (and some adults) like playing in the sprinklers in June. Simple pleasures. Enjoy.