The circus has come to town

The sun has risen......the morning mist is just lifting.....and we are waking up from our first night sleep in our new house....the summer breeze blows through our patio doors....Sam's mom is in the kitchen making us some nice beans and eggs for breakfast......and the birds are singing in our backyard....and there's a peahen sunning itself in our front yard.

)(*@#()&*@????!!!!!

Who the &#()$* has a peahen.....in the city?!??!!? Apparently here in Salem, you are able to keep small livestock in your house within the city limits...I think the city council only recently approved chickens as 'domestic livestock' within the city but apparently that rule must apply to peacocks because there is a whole family of them randomly wandering around our neighborhood!!!

First of all, our grass hadn't been cut for....hummm I don't know.....at least 4 weeks!!! So the front yard looks like a jungle and apparently ripe for the nesting of peahens and peacocks!!! Sam and his dad were out front observing the peahen wondering how the hell to get rid of it when the neighbors started to come out wondering who the hell brought the peacock to the neighborhood!!!

According to the neighbors....they have NEVER seen this peahen before and just assumed we brought it when we moved in....()!@*#()@*# really do we look like the kind of people who would keep a peahen as a pet?!?!? They eat EVERYTHING and leave droppings all over the place oh and they are LOUD especially during mating season!! Why the hell would we have this animal as a pet?!?!? But since it was sunning it self in our front yard jungle suddenly we are the 'owners'!!!


Eventually it moved on to someone elses yard....I asked some people at work who live in the same neighborhood and according to them, the peacock family has been in that neighborhood forever....someone just let them loose in that area and they just travel from yard to yard devouring every ones landscaping. So naturally the damn birds would find OUR yard on the first day in our new house....first the 'Mexicans' move into the affluent white middle class neighborhood but then they bring a peahen....it's a wonder we didn't get egged LOL :).

It's official.....the circus has come to town, complete with birds of paradise!!

After we got the whole bird thing figured out and we ate breakfast....Sam's mom decided it was time to jump right in and start cleaning....for the love of GOD does this woman ever quit?!?!?! Sam had to go to a football coaching clinic thing for the day, Luis somehow managed to sneak out and escape the Mendez cleaning cyclone....I turn around and Sam's mom is on a rampage....cleaning everything in sight with Sam's dad supervising!! I couldn't just stand there and do nothing.....so I started unpacking some clothes.

We cleaned ALL afternoon.....and somewhere in there Sam's mom made arroz con leche (a cross between rice pudding and a milkshake????) which takes like 6 hours to make!! She is absolutely AMAZING...I was exhausted!!!

Sam decided that the rest of their 'vacation' would be spent outside the house doing non house related things....never mind we have the black hole of boxes in the garage and I can't find the deodorant or my work clothes and have to go back to work on Monday....GOD FORBID we do ANYTHING at the house!!!

Saturday I had about as much as I could take....too much family....too much moving....too much Espanol....too much Hispanic food....too much weirdness....just TOO MUCH EVERYTHING!!! Luis was feeling the same way so we escaped to the store. Sam wanted us to pick up a vacuum cleaner, his mom needed more food supplies (for what I have no idea!!!), and I needed to just get away and to get paint. We were gone for....I don't know, an hour when Sam texted me....when are you coming home he says.

My dad decided to make an unexpected visit to the house. Now I've been avoiding my dad for about a month....I'm just too busy and cannot deal with his retirement boredom right now. So he keeps calling me but I won't answer....so apparently when all else fails....just come on over!!!

Rather than knock on the door like a normal person, he sits in front of the house stalking me. Sam finally went out there and was like WTF Dennis why are you creeping in my driveway?!?!? My dad has only met Sam's family once....and that was at our wedding 7 years ago!!! My dad has bugged me FOREVER about wanting to see them again but both Sam and I agree (as do his parents) that's a meeting we would just rather NOT have to relive again.

Well so much for that....dad spent over an hour at my house with my inlaws just chatting away!!! When I got that text I was like....ok now we REALLY aren't going home any time soon!!! So Luis and I drug out the 'run to the store' for as long as humanly possible!!! When we got back though my dad was gone so it was fine!!!

After we got back Luis went out with his girlfriend and instead of us all sitting around relaxing....we spent all afternoon out!!!! We went to Deepwood park, the mall, dinner, and to a movie.....we didn't get home until like 10:00.....on our way home we did make a pit stop at the grocery store....because CLEARLY we didn't have enough food at the house!!!!

By Sunday afternoon, I had reached my breaking point!!! It was Fathers day and my mother's birthday. I called them both and then Sam and I decided to take his parents to the Oregon Gardens....or so I thought!!! Next thing I know I am re-living every fathers day from my childhood nightmares.....Sam's dad wanted to go to the McMinville Air Museum God only knows why!!!

I mean that place is SUPER cool and all but lets just say as a child I went to every airs how, museum, and 'dog fight' reenactment within 300 square miles!! So let's just say its like PTSS (post traumatic stress syndrome) for me whenever I hear the words airplanes and museum together in a sentence!!! My dad LOVES aviation history and anything to do with war....not to mention he was a weapons specialist or something in the Air Natl Guard so my whole life has revolved around the aviation and war history.....this was NOT something I wanted to relive on this fathers day!!!

Anyway we went to the museum and had a great time....went to the IMAX thing there and wandered around for a few hours and it was really nice and relaxing (somewhat). We got home and had dinner and then next thing I knew it was 9:00 and time for bed....Sam's parents leave June 20th in the morning so all of a sudden the madness was at an end....or beginning depending on how one looks at it :)

So what have we learned about the whole house buying, closing, key obtaining, moving, and meeting the neighbors experience?????? Nothing EVER goes according to plan.....and things just randomly happen and go wrong with the Mendez family compared to the general population!!! Until next time Dear Readers!! :)