my mom used to say, "like with like."  today was a like with like day.  everything i had to get done around the house seemed to involve playing the like with like game.

grace is hoping for some friends to sleep over tomorrow night...the perfect motivation for cleaning her room!  a mother's dream.

yesterday afternoon, 91 degrees at our house in connecticut....it's only memorial day.  it was lovely....while i had the dogs at the beach with a friend for a puppy play date! really, it's an excuse to have a little get together and chat about life with kids and laugh about parenting.

no matter what the parenting style, no matter who the child is, no matter how much of a rocket scientist or how much of a slacker or plain ol' genius, which is the category most moms find their children .....we know each others kids for lots of years, so there is no room for pretending.  we know.  we know the real story.  we have seen it for real.  after many years, i am grateful to know a mom who genuinely loves our kids and knows how much i care about her kids and mostly all kids....they all need us...

last week, while on our way to school after the dramatic "shotgun"events, we had a girl driving a red jeep cherokee...she was tailgating me.  the road to school has a 25mile and hour speed limit.  it was upsetting to see this girl, a high school girl....a relatively new driver, speeding on her way to school!  

i asked the kids if they knew who she was.  i was amazed that  the red cherokee girl was continuing her tailgate party at 7 in the morning!

grace knew who the cute girl was.  i was upset...just thinking of a new driver being so reckless.  i know i sound like "oh, these kids today"...that's not it.  i just care.  if that was my grace or my t.j., i would want someone to tell me. it could mean a difference in a family's life...literally.

biff and i had just talked about this.  parents have to care.  care for all kids, not just their own.  if everyone cares, it may just make a difference to the next generation...corny, but true.  i've always felt that it's important to be nice to every kid...even if some make us crazy....just because it's like we are a representative of the "adult" world.  maybe we can make a difference.  who knows.

t.j. got the address while looking out the back window.  grace popped it into my phone.  just in case.  it could make a difference.

on our way to the regatta saturday morning, we saw a police speed trap on the same road as the red jeep cherokee girl.

i slowed down to say hello to the lieutenant and say thanks for watching for the speeders.  we live right near this road and it's a constant concern...speeders.  everyone is in a hurry.

as we said our hellos and spoke of speeding i asked him if it was o.k. to give him the license plate of the young jeep cherokee driver...we told him we didn't want her to get in trouble.  we just wanted her to be safe.  we truly hoped that she could get the point.  not criticism, just caution.

the lieutenant understood exactly what we meant.  he was happy to make a note and speak to red jeep cherokee and her parents.  his feeling was that it's better to tell the parents now rather than have it on our conscience if we ever heard something had happened to the red jeep cherokee girl.

that was that.  we had a family discussion about speeding and driving safety.  we can only pray that our kids will drive safely when their day comes.

we drove off to the regatta. first thing sunday morning we went down to the beach to for the regatta...biff was taking his bike...for the exercise...he left a few minutes later.

while he was getting the dogs settled, he noticed a town police car driving down our street.  he thought about what a nice small town community feeling we still have.  he thought it was nice to know the police still do patrols through neighborhoods.  he started out to his bike...and had a moment of panic...the lieutenant  had pulled the police truck into the driveway!  he was walking up the driveway  and waved to biff.  like any good citizen, biff was terrified!

the lieutenant approached and said to biff, "you won't believe this!"  biff was still frozen.  the lieutenant was beaming.  "i had just set up my speed trap."  shaking his head and smiling, he started again, "the first car......the FIRST CAR!"

biff was still puzzled but polite.  lieutenent d. said, "it was her!  unbelieveable! the red jeep cherokee!  that high school girl was the first one out there this morning!  i didn't even get to stop by the house to tell her parents! "

the lieutenant and biff were amazed.  biff told the lieutenant that he was absolutely amazed....then he said, "but, that's my wife.  things like that happen when she's involved!"

he saved the best for last, "guess what?  she was clocked at 42 miles per hour.....in a 25!" 

that was awesome...and he wasn't on the hunt for her...she drove right into his speed trap!  it was meant to be.  someone was meant to slow her down....only this was priceless.  even the cop was amazed.  just like i said to biff on our first date.....while trying to get  a difficult bite of food into my mouth....i was struggling...biff noticed and we laughed...."stick around," i said.  this is only the beginning!

stick around! it's all true.