Married Leos

Well seeing that our lovely neighbors are not going to pay for our window to be fixed (at least not the entire bill ) I had no choice but to go and file a police report so that I can call my insurance company and have them go after these people to pay. The police officer came over, looked at the window and told me to right out exactly what happened, and while I did that he would go over and talk to the people and see what they had to say.

The cop came back just as I was done writing the whole story out and he mentioned that he got their side of the story, funny though because he said that the owners were not home but the sitter was there and told him what happened. I don’t remember talking to a sitter about the window the day it broke, at any rate he asked if anyone saw this kid break the window so I knew right away that these people were going to use that as an excuse not to pay for my window. Ok, you guys want to be assholes about it bring it on, I have witnesses that heard the mother tell me that her son confessed to breaking it!

The report will not be done for a few days I will then be able to pick it up and call my insurance company. The nerve and ignorance of people. I swear if I see that kid on my property I will call the cops, I am getting sick and tired of people playing stupid and trying to get out of their responsibilites! Plus the cop mentioned that there will be a juvi officer involved. What? Why? I asked, he said because the kid is 13 years old and he admitted to doing property damage. Oh great says the King, just what we need, more freakin’ drama!! How was I suppose to know that a juvi officer would be called. Well maybe this will scare the crap out of these people and have them pay for my window. I told the officer I didn’t want the kid in trouble with the law I just want the window fixed, but he said it was out of our hands and up to the juvi officer. So the saga continues…….

Here is the beginning of the story

Ok, I guess I am having a real bad year so far (a long post is coming soon). I finally got four estimates on having our escape window fixed. The numbers are not pretty either. The lowest is $454.00 the highest is $620.00. I went over to our neighbors house with the estimates and the guy was shocked to see me. He basically said that he had been thinking about what happened and that “he ” felt they shouldn’t have to pay for the whole bill. WHAT??????????? EXCUSE ME????????????? He kept stating that his kid did say he broke it but that it was an accident, AND??????????? (was my thought). I answered back “I don’t feel that I should have to pay for a dime getting it fixed whether it was an accident or not”. I also told him that if my son had broken someone’s window that I would expect to pay for the window getting fixed, would I be happy about it, no but my kid did something wrong, he is my responsibilty. So he said he would talk to his wife and would get back to us. In my mind all this time standing there I kept thinking, small claims court because there is no reason I should have to pay for anything. Oh and let me add that the kids story changed yet again, so now there are three stories.

While I was out getting the big one from work the woman came over to our house, I’ll let the King fill you in on their conversation. What do you guys think? Should we just go ahead and pay for half or be firm and expect the window to be paid for by the neighbor?

Well the woman came over and started talking shit about how she has come over to talk to me as a ” parent ” and how we know our kids flaws, blah blah blah …. my kid has ADHD, he’s clumsy, he has balled his eyes out, he’s been punished, blah blah blah. She just kept talking and talking and talking. Her new story was that her kid was actually trying to take the stone back to where it was taken from when he lost his balance and dropped the stone and it hit the window.

She don’t think she should pay for the entire window, not because of the price, but because it was an accident.

Ya know if her kid was playing with The Boy and they accidentally broke the window, I might not expect them to pay since he was playing at our house. But in reality he was actually trespassing since he was not with our boy, so they should be responsible. That is going to be my logic / reasoning.

Mini vans really are MINI and are not meant to take a family of 6 on vacation.

Do people south of Chicago not know how to use the ramp to merge onto the highway?  I saw way too many people stopped at the bottom of the ramp waiting for a break in traffic.

Do these people also not know that the ramp to merge onto the highway is so that you can get up to the same speed as the traffic you are merging into.  If I am doing 75 I don’t need to slam on my brakes because you are doing 45 coming off the ramp.

Don’t take a trip with a Mexican woman with no patience, in a mini van, with 4 kids.

Police escorts are normal at funerals except it seems in Chicago.

I guess its customary in the south to have your church group bring food to your house for a post funeral meal.

Don’t assume your mother made hotel reservations for you.

When ordering pizza outside Chicago don’t tell the waiter you are from Chicago.

A five year old gets a bit antsy when strapped in a car seat for 15 hours.

It hurts to get pinched under the arm ( repeatedly ) when driving.

Don’t trust a GPS on a cell phone belonging to a White Sox fan.

Follow the person whose house you are going to ….  NOT another out of town person with the same map as you.

I wish this could have been a road trip for a better reason, we had to make the trip to attend my Grandmothers funeral, she passed away last week at the ripe age of 90. My Grandparents moved to NC about 9 years ago to be closer to my Aunt who’s daughter is a nurse, she was going to help take care of my Grandfather who had Parkinson’s Disease. Shortly after moving down there my Grandfather passed away, that was the last time we took a trip. Which leads us to this trip to NC.

DAY 1 - Thursday

The plan was to leave at 6am, that didn’t happen, it was my fault, but since it was my plan to leave at 6am it was OK that we left late. I got up at 5:15, only 15 minutes later than I was planning on, hey I was tired, got to bed late on Wednesday. I took forever to get the MINIvan packed up ( it is called mini for a reason ). Minivans are not meant to be taken on trips with 6 people for 5 days. Even though we packed light ( very light ) there still was NO room in there for the kids. Two in car seats the other two big kids in back sprawled out with their feet sticking wherever they could find a crease to stretch them out.

The trip went very well considering the cramped space and all. It was made easier for the kids with the portable DVD players my parents bought for them. All in all they were very quiet and we only made 1 non planned potty break.

The only real excitement which no one but I was privileged enough experience was me hitting a flying bird, well he had already been hit and fluttering hopelessly before I …. well you know. At our first unplanned stop I got to see and remove the …. you know.

We got to Lexington KY about 4:30pm their time, got to our room which was nice but for the cost of it should have been nicer. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, therewas a living room area with a TV, a kitchen area with a sink micro and fridge and also a bedroom area with 2 queen beds and a TV. I looked at the room rates on the door and it was $400+/night for 4 people and we had 6. We didn’t pay that much for the rooms but that is insane, so what if there are complimentary cocktails from 4:30-6pm and free anything you want breakfast.

Later that night we had dinner with my parents in the hotel restaurant, a bit pricey for what was on the menu but at least there was a kids menu. They picked up the bill for dinner and the hotel. Thanks Mom and Dad.

DAY 2 - Friday

We got up at … well I don’t remember when we got up, I know it was later than I planned again, probably about 6:30. The Queen and I went down and got everyone some breakfast about 7ish and brought it back to the room so everyone could eat and get ready to go.

When I went down to take the luggage to the van, the reception area was filled with ladies all dressed up in their best Kentucky Derby clothes and big hats. Why are big hats required when attending the Kentucky Derby?

The ride to our destination in NC was once again much quieter than I had expected it to be, the kids were entertaining themselves with the movies we brought with us and they didn’t have to take many breaks. Since we had a big breakfast we skipped lunch and just ate snacks in the car, that saved us about an hour in travel time and an extra potty break. We arrived around 4:30pm about 7 hours after we left, we made very good time.

The Queens cousin got us a corporate rate at the hotel she uses for out of town clients, that was much appreciated. Under a $100 per night and only slightly less room than the Embassy Suites the night before.

Late that night we had dinner with the Queens cousin, we had a good time, thanks for paying for dinner.

DAY 3 - Saturday

We needed to get up a bit early to get to the funeral home today, the hotel had a free Continental breakfast, which basically equals a snack, so while the kids were getting ready the Boy and I went down and stacked up donuts, fruit, bagels and juice and took them back up to the room for the others.

We left about 8:30am and arrived at the funeral home around 9am, 30 minutes early. We waited around for my parents to get there but as usual they were running late, my cousins whom I had not seen since my Grandfather passed were there already there. My parents were taking too long so we decided to just go in without them.

The wake was only an hour since all of my Grandmothers family , what little she has left is in Illinois and she is now in NC. There was a short service after then we proceeded to the mausoleum for the conclusion of the service.

Afterwards we went to my Aunt’s house, she gave us mapquest directions, my brother said he would just put it into his cell phone, so I followed him. His leading skills have something to be desired, I thought when someone is following you, you are supposed to go a little slower so they can easily follow. Not him, he was doing 20 over the speed limit. He then proceeded to vary from the directions from my Aunt and took us down a dead end, nice GPS on that phone. Then he misses the exit, so we have to double back. Even with all these mishaps we still made it there right behind my Aunt.

We stayed there for a few hours, before we left we went through my Grandmothers things to see if there was anything we wanted, I put dibbs on the TV and the entertainment center ( just kidding ). The Queen took the pics of our family and I snatched the recipe book.

When we were leaving the girls ( my cousins and the Queen ) were talking about getting together atleast once a year. I have only seen these cousins probably 5 times that I can remember. Usually about once every 8-10 years it seems like and we don’t really keep in contact via email or anything else either.

After we left there I went back to the hotel to change clothes and we went to a Mexican restaurant with the Queens cousin, the food there was good and a nice change over the food we had the last couple days.

DAY 4 - Sunday

Since there was no real need to get up early I let everyone sleep in ( till 8:45 ), we got on the road about 9:40. What ensued was the longest 15 hours ever.

An hour and a half into the ride Twin 2 says ” Daddy I gotta go to the bathroom “, Ahhhhhh!!!! Not already. Everyone gets out and goes to he bathroom. But they cannot use the bathroom unless they buy something, so the queen comes back to the car with a bag full of junk.

Hour and a half later, again ” I gotta go to the bathroom “.

This is going to be a long trip.

Another stop a few hours later.

Next stop was for lunch / gas, I figured I would make it one stop and of course someone had to go to the bathroom about 15 minutes before I had planned on stopping. Usualy not a big deal but when you are driving through the mountains there are not many decent places to stop to eat. This was no exception, we pulled into someplace called O’Malleys, a Irish place in the mountains of TN, go figure. The service was good, the drinks tasted funny and the food was just ok. 40 minutes later we were back on the road, I looked down the street and there was an Applebee’s, damn we could have went there.

So far the drive has been less than pleasant, the kids are doing much more complaining than they did on the way down and we are only about 6 hours into the ride back home. Did I mention I was planning on driving all the way back in one day?

Since we were on a straight stretch of road I let the Queen drive for a bit.

Well we were driving for a couple hours when someone needed to go to the bathroom again. Since the Big One had asked the night before if we could stop and get ice cream on the way home I saw there was a Dairy Queen at the next exit so we stopped and there and got desert.

The rest of the way home had more exits and traffic to worry about so I took over the driving again when we left.

The Boy kept taking his seat belt off and the Twins kept snitching on him, I told him that they were more uncomfortable in their car seats than he was. He says ” I had to sit in those seats before and it was not that bad “. There was a comment about someone acting like a baby which brought on the Quote of the Trip from Twin 2.

Without further adeau the Quote of the Trip : ” I am a baby aaaannnnddd I .. LIKE IT! ”

It was a welcome laugh during a fairly aggravating trip.

We made our last gas / potty stop about 10:30pm, it was finally dark and I was hoping that the kids would just fall asleep. They fought it for about 30 minutes then finally fell asleep.

FINALLY, quiet time, everyone was asleep, it was only me and the open road, I cracked open a 5 hour energy drink and set forth on the home stretch. 2.5 hours later we pulled into the driveway.

I am still awake, everyone else is tired and going to bed, I suppose I will too.

I am sure the Queen will have some other comments on our trip. If the big one took any pics I will get some posted later.

Ok so as the King previously wrote, his cousin was over helping dig the holes for the deck. The four younger kids were watching TV when the King and his cousin were done, the Big One and I were in my bedroom watching our soap.

The King runs up the stairs and says, What broke?” I said “I don’t know. I didn’t hear anything.” The Kings says he heard a glass brake, the sound of a window.  So he looks to see if any of the kids broke the windows in their rooms, I checked the main floor while the King and his cousin go to the basement. The King sees that someone had broke our escape window in our basement with a huge pink rock.

Both guys run outside to see if they see any kids running away, I too go out to see if I see anything, of course we don’t see not one person around. So we all go inside, I tell the King that I am going to call the cops so that they can finger print the rock, he laughs at me. I said “look, I want the punk or punks that broke our window to pay to get a new one!” I then decide to go back outside again, perhaps the kids that broke the window would sneek back to see what the damage was. So I peeked around our fence, maybe they were still hiding. Nope no one.

So I figured I would go to our neighbors behind us to see if maybe they saw kids running from our area. As I was just about to go towards the house directly behind us, I noticed a kid looking out his kitchen window at me, his house is diagnally from ours, to me he had a guilty look on his face.  So I said oh what the heck I will start with his house. So I go and knock on the door and the kid answers (still with a scared look), I asked him if his mom was home, he responded “no”, so I then ask if his father is home he replies hold on, a guy comes to the door and asks if he could help me, all the while this kid is standing there looking like he is ready to pee his pants. So I told him that someone had broken my window about 15 minutes ago and I was wondering if he had seen anyone running from my house. He quickly looks at the boy and says “didn’t you just come in 15 minutes ago?” The boy says, “no, I came in 30 minutes ago” The man says “oh I don’t think so, do you know anything about this lady’s window”? The kid replies “no”. I mention to the man that his boy was at my house playing with my boy and another friend earlier in the day, and I then asked the boy if he knew where my boy was, he said no but that all three boys went for a walk and that my son had wanted a pink rock from the house next door to this boy that looked like he had something to hide, and then he said that my boy was the one who broke the window. My first reaction? Yes it could very well be my son, I could see him do it. So as I was going to find my boy, the man told the boy that his story didn’t make any sense and that he would have his wife come to my house as soon as she came home and talked to their boy.

So I go looking for my boy and find him at the other kids house that was hanging out with him earlier. I told that kids mother that my son was in deep shit and told her why, she responded “oh no no no, your son and my son have been in my back yard for at least 30-40 minutes, her husband said the same thing, he was out in their back yard building his deck and said the boys could not have possibly broken the window. So I tell my boy to come with me and ask the mother if she could come too so that we can tell this man that our boys had an alibi.

So we approach the house and the man opens the door as we get closer, he states that his wife just got home and is talking to their son, I mention to him the where abouts of my son and his friend, then man says his wife will come out as soon as she is done talking to their son. Ok, fine no problem is my response. I walk to the front of my house and tell my husband that I think I have the found the person who broke our window.

As we are talking the scared boy and his mother come to our house, she introduces herself and states that her son admitted braking the window but that it was an accident. She continues her story stating that her son was coming to our house and tripped over our hose and that he fell toward our window where the rock was laying on top of the silver metal thing that is right infront of the escape window, (I cannot think of the name of that metal thing). I looked at her and thought to myself “are you fucking kidding me? You believe that story?” OMG!!! Of course I hate when parents always have in their conversations “oh my son/daughter would never do that, I HATE IT! Here I was going to beat the crap out of MY son because this ladys son said that my son did it, now he changed his story!! First of all the hose were nowhere near the escape window, so he didn’t trip on the hose, second there is no way that a rock that size would be able to balance itself on that metal thingy, IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!! So of course she says “well if its replacing it that you want us to do we will do it. NO SHIT DUMB ASS AND WHILE YOU ARE WRITING A CHECK TO PAY FOR MY WINDOW THAT YOUR SON DIDN’T BREAK ON PURPOSE I HAVE SWAMP LAND TO SELL YOUR ASS!!! My son proceeds to tell the kid that he knows he did it on purpose because the boy was mad at my son because he had wanted to play with a certain water gun that the third boy was playing with, so they had exchanged some words and the kid left, looking like he was on his way home. So this kid gets pissed at my son and he takes it out on my window, nice huh.

I called several places for estimates, and I cannot believe that no one likes business. Only one person called me back and gave me an estimate of $454.00, well I dont care what the price is this lady will be paying for it. The kid had his nerve to come back, this time with some other kids and he started pointed at my son, this lady has no idea how nasty I will get when it comes to protecting my young, her son needs to stay on his side of the block and stop crossing over to our yard. What the heck is wrong with parents believing that kind of story? I would have never believed that story from my son , not in a million years.

I was so determined to find out who did it and I am so glad that I didn’t stop looking. It felt like a needle in a hay stack in the beginning but at the end it was easier then I thought.