Now I live in California and it is noisy.

As many of you already know, the husband and I recently uprooted our comfortable, consistent, splendidly routine life in Wisconsin and moved across the country to California.

The entire moving process was one crazy adventure after another and will all be chronicled in future blog posts, however, today I simply want to discuss one small aspect of starting a new life in a foreign land. Neighbors.

We live in a great apartment complex. It is beautifully landscaped, our apartment is large and lovely, there are many wonderful amenities, and we even live across the street from a local brewery...convenient, eh?

There is just one, small, tiny, minuscule, ridiculously annoying, enraging little problem. The walls are thin. Yes, I have lived in thin walled apartments before. I have been privy to the private arguments of young college lovers caught up in scandalous love triangles, I have listened to other peoples televisions shows, etc. etc. While it wasn't ideal, it was never a problem.

Never before, however, did I live near a tiny little hellion like the one who lives above me. Now, I have never actually seen the family or witnessed their daily routine, however, based on what I gather from our apartment, their day goes something like this....

Mom wakes up around 6:30am and vacuums.
Baby wakes up shortly afterward and screams.
Toddler wakes up next and proceeds to jump up and down, in one spot on the floor, for anywhere between 2 and 3 hours.
Mom vacuums.
Mom attempts to give toddler and bath; he screams bloody murder.
Children eat lunch, mom vacuums.
Toddler is allowed to run, like a wild animal, through the apartment, with complete abandonment for several hours.
Baby screams.
Mom vacuums.
Several hundred more toddlers come over and all children are allowed to run, jump, scream, chant-yes, chant, and possibly throw themselves against the walls for 1-2 hours.
Mom slams numerous cupboard doors as she prepares dinner.
Mom vacuums.
Family goes to bed and repeats the next day.

Really, it is wonderful birth control because the only thing worse then living under it, would be living with it. God bless the woman living above us.

**Note: If this blog post mysteriously and inexplicably disappears at a future date, it likely means that I have made nice with the family living above us and would be mortified should they ever discover that I called their precious and loving little bundle of a joy a 'little hellion'.