The Neighbors

With the recent move of my nice neighbors (and the arrival of new ones), I began thinking about all of the neighbors that I've had over the years. They've come from so many walks of life and different backgrounds. It's been fun to see how we interact with each other and if good fences really do make for good neighbors. I thought I'd share a little bit about each memorable neighbor that my family and I have had.

1) The Family With A Million Dogs - This is the family that lived in the house next door when we first moved into the neighborhood. They had two scruffy looking dogs that I was absolutely scared of...and I'm not even scared of dogs! They were mean and barked a lot and hated me. But every few months, the female dog had a litter of puppies, so there was always an abundance of dogs around (and underneath my window...barking...). The family had a thing for naming the puppies after Disney characters.

2) The Chihuahua Party Family - This family had a chihuahua that always escaped from the yard and caused trouble on our street (i.e. cars swerving, kids screaming, me trying to put him back in his yard). The dog eventually died as a result of his escapes after being hit by a car. The family always had parties until after midnight and swam a lot in the nice pool. They eventually moved.

3) The Fun Military Family - The new family that moved next door was a military family. The dad is in the Marines. They have 3 young boys and were a lot of fun to be around. They had a lot of summer parties too and it was fun to have little kids next door. They often asked Alex and I to watch their little Terrier, Bonnie, while they went on vacation. She's so cute! They recently moved to VA, so I hope to catch up with them when I move.

4) The Friend Neighbors - These neighbors live two houses down from me and I met them after their dog got out from the yard and I returned him to his family. The family was really nice and the mom and dad had 2 little kids around the ages of 2 and 6. I got to know them really well and became good friends of the family. A few years later, the mom had another baby boy. I ended up tutoring, babysitting, housesitting, petsitting, and more for the family. I love them a lot!

And I think that good fences do make good neighbors because we all need our privacy and "home space". I believe in establishing good relationships with neighbors because they are, afterall, those closest to us when we factor out friends and family. They might not be our closests friends or hang-out buddies, and we might not even like them that much, but when we look back on our neighborhoods, I think that neighbors are the aspect we remember most.

Blessings!