Getting to Know the Neighbors.....

We're all sick today...except for Joe. He's at work. But, since we're confined to these walls until we get better, I thought I would write about an experience we had on Friday night....and also one we had this past June. I am posting a picture of our current neighborhood, so that you can get an idea of where we live. As you can see, it's not the ghetto, but you might think we live in the ghetto after what happened on Friday night.

Friday night Joseph and I were doing some online Christmas shopping after we put the little ones to bed. I'm not sure the exact time, but I think it was after 10 p.m. We heard some commotion coming from somewhere. Joseph excused it as some teenagers in the area just goofing around. I thought I could hear children screaming so I asked him to go check on our girls (our current house isn't that big, but because of where the girl's bedroom is, sounds get muffled and I wanted to make sure it wasn't them). It wasn't Brynn or Abby, so he went and looked outside the door. I knew something was wrong when he came back in quickly for his shoes, phone and coat. At that moment I heard a child's voice screaming hysterically. I grabbed the phone and dialed 911 and Joe walked across the street to see what was going on.

As I talked to the dispatcher, I asked Joe what he thought was going on. He told me to tell the dispatcher to send police fast. He thought it was major domestic violence. The children were in tears yelling uncontrollably, "Don't hurt my mom!....No!...Please don't hurt her!" The dispatcher proceeded to ask me questions about the neighbors. I felt very unhelpful that I was unable to answer any of them. I know nothing about these neighbors. I wouldn't even be able to recognize them if I saw them in the grocery store or somewhere.

As I was talking to the dispatcher, things inside the home got worse, so Joseph rang the doorbell. I was scared because I thought something might happen to him. He was worried that if he didn't do something, the children might end up in trouble. That's when the fight came outside. When they opened the door, a man in his early 20's, clearly under the influence, had been beating up the father of his girlfriend. The father had gashes all over his face and blood running all through his face and hair. I was still on the phone trying to give whatever details I could to dispatch in case the man got away. I couldn't hear what he was saying at the moment, the slurs in his speech made him inaudible. I thought he was speaking in an Asian language because of what he was saying and how loose his tongue was, later Joe said that it was just the MF bomb said so many times over and over that is started to sound like a different language. (Hey, that is a foreign language to me!)

Surprisingly he didn't get in his car and drive off like we thought he would. He stood in front of his car telling them how he was going to sue them for everything they owned...and this and that. Then he started coming in my direction. I ran in the house and locked the door, peeking out of the peep hole. He walked passed our house and down the street, so I went outside again, and then the police finally arrived. Joe spoke with them for a minute, and then he came home. The police, paramedics, fire engine, and this lame drunk and probably high guy (still kicking and screaming threatening to sue) were outside our house for a few hours. I took these pictures on Saturday and as you can see, it looks pretty calm now.

I felt bad for the dad because of his injuries, but I was really disturbed by the fact that there were children close to the ages of my children who had to live through that and then sleep in that house that same night probably in terror. I don't know if they were the children of the girlfriend or if they were half siblings of her's but I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. It's so sad that innocent children suffer because of the poor choices of adults. Things like this make me feel so grateful for gospel standards for in this truly there is safety and peace.

On to the story that happened this summer. This is the house where we lived in Rancho Cordova. Again, I think you'll agree, this is suburbia, not the ghetto. Well, on Father's Day, which also happened to be Stake Conference for our stake, I had Aaron in his high chair and I was feeding him some breakfast. The blinds to the sliding glass door were opened slightly, but they were on an angle where I couldn't really see out very well. I heard in the neighbors yard that the lawn care people were mowing their lawn. As I was moving back and forth getting things ready for dinner later that afternoon, I noticed some flesh outside the sliding glass door. At first my mind thought of the lawn care people and how I had seen them look for shade next to people's houses to sit in while they took a littel break from working. Then I said to myself, "Wait, we don't have grass in our backyard yet..." I peeked out of the blinds and just about fainted. I saw someone on the groudn next to our sliding glass door. I wasn't sure what he was doing or if he was even alive. Joseph was upstairs getting ready for church and so I ran to the stairs and whisper yelled for him to come quick! He came down and called the police. They came and woke the boy up. Apparently he had gotten wasted, thought this was his house and walked into the backyard to get in. Luckily we always lock our doors, so he wasn't able to get in (reminded me of my cousin Kory's experience in Spanish Fork).

We lived a good 10 minutes or so from the city, so we shut the blinds so we didn't have to look at him while we waited for the police. The funniest part is that the boy left his bike on the side of our house inside our gate. We took it and left it outside the gate next to our driveway for about 2 weeks, thinking he might come back to get it. He never did, so when we moved, I called the police to come and take it away.

Anyway so there are some of the crazy things that have happened to us while living in California....and so it begs the question....Do you know your neighbor?