Enjoying the Journey

Bear with me here, as I try my best not to lose my mind as I tell you this story.

I remember sharing with you in this post, that we have a neighbor below us who has been giving us a hard time. Last week, my landlord showed up at our apartment telling us that our neighbor had filed a complaint about us. This upset me greatly. But, I tried hard to move on. Especially since our landlord said that we were doing everything correctly and that we should allow our 2 and 4 year old to be the boys that they are.

However it looks as though things have gotten a bit worse.

This evening my children were playing, etc. They were being loud and we did tell them to quiet down. However, the neighbor downstairs gets upset even if they are walking fast down the hallway. Which is what ended up happening, and our floor received a very loud thump thump. But this time, we weren't so gracious and CJ, feeling a little irritated, stomped back to her. She retorted, hitting her ceiling/our floor even harder. And then it was over.

Or so we thought....

Almost a half hour later, there was a rap on our door. Thinking that it was our downstairs neighbor coming up to "discuss" things, I opened the door. Instead, standing at my door, dressed in full uniform, was a POLICEMAN. Yes, you read that correctly, we had an officer waiting to talk to us.

May I just note something here? Never in my whole entire life have I ever had the police called on me. NEVER. And really, when you get right down to it, her beef is actually with my children.

Oh. My. Goodness.

He was very nice. He informed me that there have been "several" complaints about us and that he needed to tell us about them. Okay... are you serious??? Complaints about us?

I think I was in such shock that I forgot my manners. CJ came over and kindly invited the man into our home.

He went on to explain that the woman downstairs is very upset with all the "romping" going on up here. She has had it with the noise. She requested that he come up and talk with us.

Again. Oh. My. Goodness. Is this really happening right now?

We explained everything. Infact I began to get a little upset about it all. He noticed and gently said, "I can tell you are getting choked up about this." Ah, yea.

He was very nice. He said there is no way that he can press any sort of charges, since, in his words, "we weren't throwing any beer parties, having half naked women dangling from the porch, or playing loud thumping music." Did he just talk to me about "half naked women?"

One more time. Oh. My. Goodness.

He sympathized with the fact that we had children and even shared that he has a son of his own. He said that his own child has more energy then mine put together. However, we just need to do our best.

Our best??? How many times during the day do I tell my children, "Quiet down. Don't jump. No running. Walk quietly. Please stop doing that." Maybe 100 million! They are BOYS! What do you expect. And we live in an apartment complex. Quietness is not part of this sort of living situation. Trust me! The guy caddy corner to me had a party going on this weekend and I got to listen to it.

Ugh.

After the police officer left, CJ and I stood there with our mouths hanging open. Did that just really happen to us? We were both fuming, trying not to get too upset. Of course, at about that moment, EJ came running down the hallway. Yelling at the same time, CJ and I, informed him, "Stop running!"

Letting the shock settle in for a moment and knowing that the night was still young and my children had lots of energy, we did what any respectable parents would do. We took them to Chik-Fil-A and filled them up with some ice cream full of sugar! And then we brought them home and had them do laps up and down the hallway!!!! Not really, but that would have made my day!!! We did have ice cream. But the children played there at the play park. And we brought them home and put them straight to bed.

In the meantime, we were already considering new corridors for our family, since our lease is running up at the end of January. This may have just made things more final for us.

Posted in: on Monday, December 04, 2006 at at 8:25 PM