A Bit 'O Background

The title of this post is pretty self-explanatory, so here we go:
My name is Stacey, I'm 35 years old, divorced, re-married, three kids, two from husband #1 and one from husband #2, raised and still live in St. Clair Shores, MI, a tidy suburb of Detroit. SCS will always be home to me, although I alternate between feeling a comfortable affection for this city and a sensation of claustrophobic discomfort, similiar to Jim Carey's character in "The Truman Show". SCS has a pretty facade yet plenty of behind-the-scenes drama, most of which is humorous when viewed as a passive spectator. Currently the major issue in SCS is its rat problem. Residents of this city have been howling about the rats for months now, filling city message boards with complaints, sightings, and possible solutions, the most recent being a "rat bounty" program in which residents would be paid 5.00 for trapping and killing a rat. This proposal was shot down quickly amidst concerns of residents turning their backyards into rat havens (picture it!) to claim the cash and a mention of the bounty program on national news, which many believed put an unsightly stain on the city and (horrors!) we wouldn't want that! I don't disbelieve that this city has a rat problem...the sheer number of people protesting and posting about them is proof that they're around doing what they do best. However, we have lived in our house in SCS for well over a year now, and during this time my husband and I have seen only one lowly rat. One. The sighting occurred last summer around midnight as we enjoyed a balmy night on our porch. We saw the little critter scurry out of a neighbors lawn into the street and disappear into the night. We spent many more hours late at night on the porch, making the most of the too-short Michigan summer, and never saw another rat. So the problem indeed exists, but I have to question its severity. :) All things considered though, SCS remains a fairly safe, clean, decent city to live in, and I hope it remains as such. We plan to stick around for a while, and though the innocent familiarity of my childhood SCS days has faded somewhat, I still want my kids to view their hometown as a safe, comfortable, and fun place to grow up. And now this busy mommy has to leave to go pick up my two older kids from their dads place...hours of blogging time is not to be for me, but that's ok...it's all worth it. :) This blog might somewhat resemble a carnival ride...plenty of loops, twists, turns, and random changes of pace, but that's life with three kids. I believe I'm navigating it pretty well, most of the time. :)