a second nightmare

I need to sit down and write my thoughts before everything gets carried away. I'm writing them on my blog as proof and also so that others know what happened and rumors don't spread.

Abby ran away... again... this evening. This afternoon we were moving boxes from our garage into our front room. When we finished we failed to notice that we didn't lock the front door as we were carrying boxes in and out. Later, I was up in my room trying to do chores and clean up, etc. when I heard the phone ring so I went to answer it and then shortly after I heard a door open but was not sure which door (whether it be a bedroom door or the garage door or the front door-- I didn't know). So I dropped what I was doing, and went down stairs to find the front door open and the dogs about to escape. Then the phone rang again and I didn't answer so that i could grab Abby before she ran off too far. Well... I was too late. Abby ran off with our cordless phone and someone saw her by herself and stopped the car. They tried to call us, (but I didn't answer) and as I got to the two ladies, who had her, they were hanging up with the police. They said they tried to call but I didn't answer so they called the police with OUR phone. They said the policed tracked our address from the phone and knew where Abby lived and would be over shortly. I took Abby, said I appreciate the concern and walked back home and they drove off.

The police showed up to our door about 20 minutes later. And lo and behold, one of the two cops was the same officer that was with Abby the first time she ran away. I had Andrew answer the door, as I don't do well with authority and I was shaken up from the experience. And they talked to him about two minutes and then only wanted to talk to me. Andrew sent me out while he changed Abby's diaper (Abby was in time out for running away... and screaming/bawling her head off... which of course never looks good to the police).

The police officer then disrespectfully yelled at me. Told me I was a bad mother, said that the child ran three blocks away (where I then corrected her and told her it was two houses away, when I caught up to her running. as they weren't there to know the facts and I didn't want it to look worse than it was... it's bad enough already). The officer said that I needed to look up sex offenders in our area as she claimed there are a lot and that Abby would likely be taken by one (Andrew and I looked into it this evening, there are 10 in our town and none near us from what we could find on the internet without having to pay money). She said that I should have a dead bold high on the door (which I DO, and we found out that, no, she can NOT open it). She told me that I was irresponsible for not having a dead bold to keep Abby safe, as we were standing RIGHT in front of the door to prove that i DO, in fact, have a dead bolt! She remembered Abby as being half naked last time and told me that I should not be taking care of my child. She looked at our house and asked my age, and told me I was too young to be a mother. I would like to note that she was talking to me as if she was a drill Sergeant. She said that last time she was with Abby for 20 minutes before we showed up to find her, which was false and I politely let her know that. And she said that she could prove it by looking into the log records and I told her to go ahead because it was not true. So the second police officer who was in and out of the conversation looked into it and they didn't have any log records of it. The Police officer told me that I was not listening to her and not understanding how serious this is that she has run away twice in a month (even though, I told her several times that I know it's serious and that I do not let her run out in the streets and do not want her running away. And I told her that I try to do everything in my power to make sure she doesn't). She told me that she "believed my act before, but now she's not going to fall for it" and accused me of lying.

When Andrew finished changing the diaper and brought her out, because they wanted to look at her, she then told Andrew that he was a bad parent for sleeping during the day and not being able to watch her responsibly (even though he works night shifts-- and yes, we did let her know that). I told her that I felt she was being rude, disrespectful and not professional. She replied with a, "I'm not listening to her" and then said she was going to file a form for child protective services. She also stated that she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that Abby did not live with us any more. I shrugged my shoulders like, go ahead, we're great parents and we do what we can, they won't be able to find anything on us because we aren't bad parents! (I wake up all the time in the middle of the night, in fear the door is unlocked and she'll get out, and it's, of course, always locked, but I always check. I'm pretty paranoid and was shaken up about the first situation so I check ALL the time) -- which of course made her more mad. They then took two pictures of Abby for child services, then left.

And that's about the gist of it, more or less.

I guess we'll go from there. I will be going in to the police department to file a claim against officer Aragon, for false accusations, intimidation, disrespect and not accurately finding facts or looking into things before accusing me. Any other suggestions of what to file against her or how to do file a claim would be helpful.

We wish she wouldn't try and run away to the park. She was just at the park for an hour or so this morning... so it's not like she doesn't ever get to go.

Anyway, I'm sad, brokenhearted, hurt, sick--like throwing up sick, by things said and done. Prayers for us would be great. Hopefully they won't take Abby away, as we love her very much.

The Orton Family!: Shelf Reliance Give away

The Orton Family!: Shelf Reliance Give away

Shelf Reliance Give away

Shelf Reliance is going to start giving away the Harvest 72″ (below) twice a month. It's perfect for year-supply of food storage. Go to their blog to find out more information on how you can try and win one.

http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/

Racking up points with the police....

The police came to our door today. This morning Abby opened the door that goes from the garage to the backdoor and then managed to open the garage door by stealing mommy's purse and playing with the garage door opener and opened the garage door with out any of us knowing (So no... Abby didn't run away this time, thank goodness). The dogs, Maddie and Shelby, seeing the opportunity to go through the side door into the garage and outside through the garage door, took it.

It took me a while (not too long) to realize what had happened, but when I went out side, the dogs were by our driveway running to come inside. I let them in and two hours later animal control and a police officer show up at our door. Some one called and said that our house had dogs that were savagely running after people. Now our dogs wouldn't bite anyone unless they're trying to attack me or my family. They have accidentally nipped a few people trying to release a ball that's down their throat from catching it in the air, while someone's trying to pull the ball out of their mouth, to play catch. Which hasn't bothered anyone because it's their fault they put their hand in the dogs mouth to get the ball. Otherwise, our dogs are too scared to go after people.

So... the definition of savage to dog control means to tear flesh, the people who called had no flesh torn, so their complaint was false. When I looked it up, it's to assault and maul by biting, rending, goring, etc.; tear at or mutilate... which I'm positive they wouldn't do unless someone tried to hit them with say... a baseball bat-- which may have happened, I don't know. I didn't see anyone around when I let them in.

Anyway, they saw Shelby, our black lab and realized that this dog can do no harm. And that it's not in a black labs nature to do anything of that sort. So we all came to the conclusion that our neighbor's are stupid and left.

My question is, if they knew what house the dogs belonged to why 1, did they not let me know that they were out??? and 2, why didn't they come talk to me instead of calling the police?!?!

Welcome to the neighborhood!! :D

We'll call this, potty training gone VERY VERY BAD.

This afternoon after doing some painting, I looked over and realized Andrew and Abby were sleeping in front of the TV, and I wanted sleep too. So I went to take a little nap upstairs, I'm almost positive when I went upstairs, that the door was LOCKED.

I woke up to Andrew saying, "Liz, do you know where Abby is?? The front door is wide open!" We searched all around the house, the dogs and Abby were missing. I went looking on foot Andrew went looking by car. And down the street around the corner and almost to the next street I walked into two police cars.

Police officer walks up to me, and I tell him I'm missing my two year old daughter (which always ALWAYS sounds worse saying it out loud to a police officer than in your head). He acts like he hasn't seen her, takes my information down, sees my husband drive by and THEN realizing Andrew's stopping to come with me to talk to him, says he has her. (I know it's bad to lose your baby, but honestly, do you really have to act like you don't have her when you do?! And why stop the act when your husband comes? It was mean, it's hard enough knowing she's missing! Why play games with the wife and not the husband?)

This is where the potty training gone bad is....

Anyway, she was heading to the park and was at a house that looks exactly like ours and stopping to pick flowers with our two dogs with her. Abby startled and mad that she needed to use the bathroom and mom wasn't around peed in the bushes. Trying to figure out what to do, she started knocking on the door to say she peed in the bushes. The lady worried, was trying to keep her dogs from our dogs and find out where Abby's parents were-- and surprise! we weren't there, because we didn't know she was gone and we were sleeping!

When the lady's husband drove up his driveway he tried to get a hold of the dogs who were mauling her to death from peeing AND not staying near home. Unfortunately, the dogs went running away from him and left Abby, with no diaper or underwear on, at their house. Not seeing any parents, they called the police.

Side note: Our collie is good at telling on Abby when Abby's doing something wrong/getting into trouble. Maddie comes and licks me and wimpers and then points with her nose to where Abby's getting in trouble. As soon as I notice and get up, Maddie takes me, by making sure I follower her, to Abby only to find out that Abby's in trouble. Maddie then goes and lays down and lets me handle the rest. Maddie is also typically good at making sure Abby stays close by. When Abby starts to wonder Maddie licks her face until she starts walking in the right direction-- to me or home. This time Abby just ignored the mauling and licking and kept walking.

Anyway, she was found diaperless because we're trying to potty train her. If we put a diaper on her she'll NEVER tell us when she needs to use the bathroom and just use a diaper. If we put underwear on her, she'll use them like a diaper, which means cleaning up after a lot of pee and her not getting the point (we tried this for a couple of months). But if she doesn't have anything on at all, she won't go until she lets me know that she needs to go and we do something about it-- thus when we're at home with no visitors, she's diaper less to try and potty train her. Which of COURSE, with my luck, is how she ran away-- diaperless. And she was caught peeing in the bush, which is where the potty training went very bad.

The police took Andrew's license number and gave us Abby. Well first they wanted Abby to have some kind of reaction to me to make sure I'm the mom. Which OF COURSE she didn't... she didn't say MOM!!! or anything. She did her usually, hand motion of I want to be held by that person, which presumably the police don't know or understand. But when she saw Andrew drive by in the car I heard her say (while I was talking to the police officer)"DADDY!!!!" in a very happy excited, I know him voice. And she did it again, when they gave her to us, so they trusted that he was the dad. They then repremended us, telling us, that this could have gone very bad had we been in a different neighborhood, but because it's a quiet nice neighborhood it didn't. (DUH, we knew that, that's why we MOVED here! Not that we were planning on her running away but because the last house we were in WAS that bad neighborhood that could have gone wrong).

I think normally they would have filed a report and done more had Andrew not handed the officer his license AND his military ID. The officer said "you're military? and andrew said yes" and then the officer didn't do anything more after that or write down any more.

We returned home to find the dogs trying to get into the house to tell us about Abby. When they saw that Abby was with us they stopped and just wanted to get inside to get a drink of water!

So, thank fully she was safe and we found her and we live in a good neighborhood. And we know that the dogs will stay with her until someone tries to catch them-- good dogs (although I wish they would have stayed with her the entire time-- but for not training them for this kind of situation they did well). And thankfully we got written off because of our military ID and didn't have further problems.

We have many blessings to thank our Heavenly Father for tonight. AND I guess a lesson on "we do not leave the house with out mom and dad's permission and presense, ESPECIALLY to the park" is probably appropriate. AND we need to make sure the she can't open the dead lock and that it's locked!

You're suppose to wake up FROM night mares not INTO nightmares. But thank goodness my baby is HOME!!

Andrew's no longer being deployed.

Great news! Andrew does NOT have to go to Iraq anymore in the fall for a year. We found out yesterday for sure. There is a stop loss rule which states that so many days before a unit deploys everyone listed in the unit MUST go (even if their contract with the army ends during/before deployment, or even if they're too fat and going to be kicked out, they won't be until after the deployment)-- if that makes sense. Anyway, they stopped this rule in the National Guard. Andrew's contract ends in November, a month before they leave to go overseas, so he doesn't have to stay in for the tour, he can get out-- and plans to (well planned to yesterday). However....

He did however talk to a recruiter TODAY about why he was getting out (i.e. not getting all the GI Bill that he's entitled to, schooling going wrong because of army not paying tuition like promised, Iraq, and only having 1 year left of school which puts him off ANOTHER year before he can graduate if he goes to iraq, leaving family etc, etc, etc, )

The recruiter figured out why he wasn't getting all the GI Bill he was entitled to (which has been a mystery for 3 years now). He told him that he could make a deal, if he stayed in, to move him to another unit to get out of Iraq so that he can finish school. Plus get all the money he was supposed to get from the GI Bill for the last 3 years (over $6,000) and continue to get the money he should be getting from it, as well as making sure paper work is correct so that they pay for his tuition. and then we'll still have health care with the army (so that any babies to come in the future will only cost us $25-- no not an announcement, but a relief). But it does require re-upping.

We have until Tuesday to think about it. I fasted about it today. And not surprisingly, the day I fast is that day that things miraculously start to fall into place from talking to the recruiter today.

We'll see how it goes, but for sure, Andrew will not be returning to Iraq in the fall for a year. Soldiers and their families who go through these deployments have my greatest respect and prayers. The thought of us going through it was tough, but we would have made it through. I'm glad we don't have to though.

love her, I enjoy her, but MAN a two year old can make life interesting when moving. :)

Instead of unpacking and cleaning I sat down and enjoyed my Sunday Afternoon. We finally rented a truck to take the rest of the small things: plants, junk drawer, hoses, dog crate type things, and brought them home. We're in the process of cleaning and fixing up holes and such that were even from us but from the previous owner-- as we want to make sure our $1000 deposit comes back!!

I love my new home and all the new appliances that I got sweet deals on from craigslist. One of them, I think my mother should own. It turns the oven off automatically once the cooking time is done, so you don't keep the oven on or forget about the oven -- that would keep her from ruining her rolls! I only wish that some one would adopt Abby for a month. I can't go into a different room without her ruining something!!!

Here's just a list of some of the things she's done in the last 3 or 4 days, not to complain but to give you an idea:

-poured dish washing detergent for the dishwasher through the strings and keys of our baby grand piano (and no, it was the powder kind)
-found a permenant marker and used it up on our furniture, newly painted walls, and onions not to mention herself! --she looked like a black baby. I felt like modonna for a day.
- locked the cats in a room long enough that they used the a different kind of litter box
-poured baby powder/aveeno oatmeal for the bath all over the new floors
-found bubbles and spilled the liquid all over the carpet --try getting an eternity of bubbles out!!
- got into diaper rash cream and put it everywhere including the walls i was going to paint


along with others.

I love her, I enjoy her, but MAN a two year old can make life interesting when moving. :)

New Ward

We went back to the new ward in Maricopa today, as we are moving in tomorrow. I was very impressed again. We went and visited this ward once 2 months ago, and when we went today, the bishopric, nursery, and relief society presidency knew exactly who we were and remembered our names! They said, "Did you finally get the house?" They've been waiting! (As have we!). It took our ward in Tolleson 6 months to finally realize we weren't visitors/new anymore and to have ONE person know our names. It took the Maricopa ward one Sunday and they remembered our names two months later!

They're pretty welcoming, and already have our membership records! Glad to be in a ward I'll enjoy-- hopefully. :)

New Home coming monday!!

In the last month, the mortgage company we were working with was supposed to have our loan finished and we were supposed to close (our 3rd closing date) by the April 24th. We told them if they didn't, we would look for a different mortgage company. Well, the 24th rolled around and instead of closing they came back to us saying that we had "more conditions that needed to be met"-- meaning they were still working on our file and wanted more information from us which was supposed to be finished two months ago. The only thing that the mortgage company didn't have from us is our first born, which I think is what they wanted next. Flat out-- they weren't working on our file like they are supposed to, they were trying to take money from us, and they were lying to us, and asking us to give them more than what is needed.

We were told us that we will have the loan EVENTUALLY but we'd have to look for a different house. So, we told them that we'd look for a different mortgage company instead, which is exactly what we did and should have done a long time ago. It took this new mortgage company a week and a half from getting our names to signing papers at the title company vs. 3-4 months it took the other guys that STILL weren't finished with our loan. So... needless to say, we signed papers last week to get the house. We were told that the house is ours but we wouldn't be able to gain possession of the house until tomorrow, Monday. We have to wait for the seller to sign all the papers (they had a 48 hr limit that they had to finish by which was Friday night/Monday morning) and then send the papers to the county to record that we own the home now. Which is all to take place tomorrow. We're really excited!!!

We already moved our piano (a gorgeous 1930's mahogany Brambach baby grand) into the house and put ceiling fans with light fixtures in the rooms--shhh don't tell anyone. And we also already painted a good majority of the main floor and epoxy the garage floor (all a shh don't tell anyone) -- as that would be pre possession, which is not tolerated in real estate any more. Something can always come up and we might not get the house, but the sellers sounded positive that we'll get the house as they're just wanting it sold and off their books (it was bank owned). Hopefully that's true, as we've already invested quite a bit of money into this house.


Hopefully you will all come visit us some time! We'd love to see you!

Happy Mother's day

I just checked my blog and realized it was almost exactly a month ago since I lost posted on our blog. I don't know where my month's been, but it's been really busy. Don't ask me what I've been busy with, because I don't know. But...

Happy mother's day to all those mother's and future mothers and wanna-be mother's out there!