Can I have my old neighbors back?

I like this house, I really do. I like the neighborhood. I like being close to the kids Grandpa and cousins. I like the ward and I am beginning to like the school. I hate being on such a busy road and I am seriously tired of most of my neighbors. It all started with the neighbors directly behind us yelling at my kids in a really loud and hateful voice to "shut up!" or other such nice words. He would yell this a couple times a month and scare me and the kids. This would happen during the daytime at like 2pm or when the kids are just playing. However, my kids are loud and the ones I babysit tend to be screachers when they are playing. I understand his frustration and finally I had a conversation with his wife and just told them to call if they are being overly noisy and I will bring them in. He was apologetic for the way he handled it.

Before all of that, though, he (I believe) called the city and tried to get me in trouble for running an in home daycare. The city representative came out and tried to see if I was breaking the rules and such and I found out the rep didn't even know the rules himself! Stupid! So, I informed him politely that I know what the rules are and I am not in violation of any of them. So that is over and I think things are getting better. Uh huh. Not quite.

During spring break, my kids are having a koolaid sale to raise money for the book fair and they have included the kids I babysit. While we are out there, the police come by. Now, I am thinking I doubt they are stopping just to support a koolaid stand. I wish! No, one of the neighbors complained that I am not supervising my kids, that they are out alone on this busy street. My next door neighbor was outside with me at the time and we both were shocked! I was like, are you serious? I am ALWAYS oustide when my kids are, it's just too busy of a street. What the heck?!? The officer was very nice and said he could see the instant he pulled up that there was no problem and I am just thinking I dislike my neighbors! It could not have been the ones that yell at us cause there is no way they could have seen us unless they drove past and wanted to stir up more trouble. So I am thinking it's another jerky neighbor.

Then this morning, I am walking home from the bus stop when my next door neighbor, with whom we have a pretty good relationship, starts in on me about how we are not doing our fair share in the yard maintenance. He was a bit rude about it, but he had a very valid point. We hadn't been doing our fair share. In case you have never been over here, our front lawn is not divided and so we end up sharing this big expanse of lawn with them. Our sprinkler systems are even interconnected. It is weird! Keep in mind that we also have landscaping service included in our rent, but they only come every other week and apparently that is not enough for him. He told me on Monday that he wanted to have the lawn mowed and I told him we couldn't get to it until Saturday. I meant it. We have no time with 4 kids in bball, we are both gone in separate directions EVERY night. We both work and Jon is never around either. So, Saturday wasn't good enough so he did it himself. I thought it was nice but now he was a bit steamed. I understand, I really do, but I am in over my head and am just trying to hang on every day. I don't have time and my husband doesn't have time to maintain the yard to his standards. He is very particular about it's upkeep. A little bit anal. But, they are very nice people and their son has become a good friend to Connor. And he really does have a valid point, he got the lawn fertilized and even fixed our side of the sprinklers.

So I tell him I understand and will try to stay on top of it, but I don't know how I will do it. So, I tell Bryan about this and he, of course, gets a bit upset too and is frustrated by our lack of time. We did it to ourselves with allowing the kids to all play, but I felt like our kids have sacrificed so much that this was something they all really wanted to do that I would try to make it work. So, I came up with this compromise: our neighbor (who doesn't work right now, btw) would continue to maintain the lawn until baseball is finished (middle of May) and we would maintain it from that point through the summer. He thought that was a good compromise and even apologized for coming off a bit to strong. So all is good there now, but man, how am I gonna ever keep the lawn up to his standards even then?!?

At this point, we are considering moving when our lease is up at the end of July. We will see what happens between now and then! Anyway, just venting a little bit and missing my old neighborhood really bad!!