neighbors...

these are all the kids that belong to the moms who are my neighbors  that all threw the tea for teachers together (isn’t this starting out like “the house that jack built” story?). it was my 5th annual tea and the third year that some of these moms have helped with it. i actually love the tea so much partly because i like to get with these neighbors and hang out for a few hours. we make the kids eat last (after the teachers) and we make them serve the teachers and they are getting very good at it (the serving part, the waiting to eat part is still very hard for all of them). 

the photo was from after the tea when we let the kids loose and let them run all over the yard (after they had eaten all the sugary treats and drank the coffee frappe beverage). these kids have this much fun together all the time- even without the sugar and caffeine. we live in a GREAT neighborhood with some GREAT neighbors. there are about 6 more kids in the general couple of streets around us area that play with us regularly. and we have the ONE neighbor with the pool that lets us swim ALL of the time and that is so fabulous!

i will now sum up why i love my neighbors and my neighborhood, it all based on this one comment that one neighbor said after the party was over and just the moms were talking...

“i bet my bathroom is smaller than your bathroom”.

yes, this is what people in my neighborhood talk about, how SMALL our bathrooms are, and i LOVE that. we don’t live in one of those fancy neighborhoods where people have incredible large kitchens, bathrooms and media rooms. we live in a neighborhood with 40-50 year old homes with small bathrooms, old kitchens with funky linoleum, and no media rooms because all of our electrical outlets only accept two plug items (not three plug items and big media things need three plugs). 

by the way, my neighbor’s bathroom may or may not be smaller than mine, we have to measure. i do have a good feature in which if one is sitting on the toilet and another person comes in the bathroom, the door closes off the toilet area, so instant privacy! other than that, there is a TINY shower (not up to today’s code, my brother says). but i do have a sink with about a foot of counter space and my neighbor says that she has less counter space. believe me, it is a master bathroom for only ONE person at a time. 

i love our neighborhood because there are always kids out playing together in the street, running around the yards and in and out of slamming screen doors. there is always someone to call to help with carpool needs, lack of eggs when you are making a recipe, and all those various and sundry day to day needs. no one is trying to impress anyone else (at least, i am not trying to impress them, i live too close to them and they have all seen my in my p.j.s in the driveway running after the carpool with a lunchbox in my hand. so there is no reason to try to act perfect or that i have it all together, because if you live within 5 square miles of me just know that i will mess up and everyone will know it because i don’t mess up privately and quietly, i am public and messy and NOISY. and i don’t think they are trying to impress me. i think they are trying to raise great kids, get everyone to school on time, make some dinner, find a good babysitter so they can go out to dinner with their husband, and help out their neighbors. these are all gals that you could call anytime of day or night and they would help and they could call me and i would help. i know that is rare these days and i don’t take it for granted (at least not today). here is my list of gratitude for my neighbors...

dawn- thanks for taking millie to school on the morning when i was panicking because rosie had a REALLY bad nosebleed. thanks for always doing cool things in your house and letting us come and see and drool. i will be over to see your laundry room later.

karen- thanks for all your good advice on raising girls and for carpooling some girls after friday morning bible study every week. thanks for being a praying mom and for all your work with moms in touch- you are my role model.

chad- THANKS THANKS THANKS for having a pool! and thanks thanks thanks for being the cool day who keeps all of us cool by letting the kids swim all of the time!

susan- thanks for raising such great kids that are so supportive of my kids and thanks for the night rosie slept on your couch until i got home from the play.

brandie- thanks for all the cool cakes, for having maxx at your house so much that i think legally his last name could be the same as yours, and for loving ikea as much as i do.

thanks to all my neighbors for living next to us even though we are sometimes very selfish people, have imperfect kids, cars parked in our yard (and yours sometimes when it overflows our yard) all the time, not to mention a dog that barked too much. we are not the best of neighbors, but we are your neighbors and we take that responsibility very seriously and we don’t take your care for granted.