Best Friends in Childhood...

I'm proud of the pic above. Not because it's some wonderful piece of photographic genius - it's good, not fabulous - but because of what it represents to my children. This is them hugging the little girl next door. We love her as much as if she were one of our own.

Tom and I both grew up "in the sticks". I had a neighbor next door, but they were a little weird - we played together a while, but they got weirder and weirder. Other than that, the nearest kids were several miles away. Tom's nearest kids were several miles away. We vowed when Jamie came along that we would make sure we didn't do that to our kids. When we first looked at this house, we saw a beautiful child of about 10 riding her bike outside of the house next to this one. I knew we were in the right place - there were kids here! That and the built-in bookshelves pretty much cinched the deal. When we moved in, we discovered that little girl on the bike had a sister that would be starting school with Jamie. And her parents are amazing people too. I so totally love my neighbors. Our lives are busy so we don't see each other as much I'd like, but our kids spend HOURS together some (most) days - and they have so few fights. It's pretty amazing actually. When they replaced the fence, they had a gate put in so the kids can go back and forth to each other's yards. They love it.

As soon as we had the chance, we bought the place from the landlord. We adore it here. My biggest fear is that my neighbors will decide to move one day. We know how very lucky we are. How many people can say that they love their neighbors and their neighborhood? I can only think of one person in our little few blocks that we don't really like - the party house - and really my biggest complaint is all the cars parked on the street are in my minivan's way. LOL!

Yeah, life is good.

:)