I Love My Neighbors!

It's a funny story how we bought this house 4 years ago. Long story short, we almost bought a house in the sub across the street, but it failed inspection (call us crazy, but replacing siding on a 10 year old house that had an attic that was infested with rodents didn't sound like home sweet home). Dejected, because we had already sold our condo and moved out, I was 3 months pregnant and we lived in my mother in law's basement. We were having a hard time finding the house that we could afford, had a floor plan we liked and had the 3 car garage (for Kurt) and a separate dining room (for me). Frustrated, Kurt told me to just "find a house" - but he found this home. That was a Sunday, we saw it on a Monday and we put an offer in that night. This is of course the peak of real estate in the Metro Detroit area when homes didn't stay on the market for years. Anyway, I just knew that I loved this house and it was perfect (with the exception of my oakey kitchen) - little did we know that we'd have the perfect neighborhood too.

We have a almost monthly Bunko, we have a block party, but best of all I know that I can count on my neighbors for just about anything. Dawn & her family have lived here since the sub was built. Ellen & family moved in just after we did, we experienced being new together. All of our kids play together great. What is even better is that Dawn and Ellen stay home too, so I have 2 ladies in close proximity who understand the tough job it is to stay home with your kids. I can leave my kids with them, I can get an egg, we trade magazines, coupons and pass off free cosmetics that aren't working for us. It was fantastic.

But it gets better - we swap childcare so that one day a week, all the kids go to one of our houses for 2 hours so the other 2 moms can go run errands or do whatever without 2 little helpers. That is fantastic....but it gets better. We also make meals for each other. Each week, one of us makes 2 extra meals and takes it to the other 2. It's not that hard to make 3 times as much food one night, but it is so great to have a meal where you didn't have to cook or dirty up a dish. Tonight Ellen made some meatballs and pasta with olive oil and Parmesan cheese. It was fantastic.

In my wildest dreams, I never imagined that I'd have these types of neighbors, but I THANK GOD for them everyday.