Boo'd!

When we moved into our house on post, I had expectations that I would be BFFs with the other ladies on the block. Our kids would hang out all day and we'd get together for wine and girl's nights. When we had new neighbors move in a few doors down, I even went over with cookies in hopes that we'd spend mornings at each others houses sharing coffee. Sadly, that hasn't been the case. However, after last night, I have a sliver of hope.

While I was preparing dinner, I heard a knock on the door. As I walked towards the front of the house, I heard voices and saw some punk ass teenagers in the area. I was reluctant to open the door in fear that they were selling something or asking for donations. I peeked out the door and saw a lovely purple trick or treat pumpkin with a note hanging out.

Inside the pumpkin was a bunch of candy, two rubber duckies, and some body parts that grow when you put them in water. Veronica and Adri quickly claimed the candy and split it amongst themselves. Fine by me, since I spent yet another day sneaking Snickers from the trick or treat bowl. We'll probably start "growing" the body parts this evening, after school.

I don't have much on my to-do list today, so Juli and I will most likely head to the store to pick up some goodies to boo another neighbor. I'm so happy that this tradition hit our street. I look forward to passing it on, and hopefully forming some friendships with the neighbors.

Have you been boo'd?

New Neighbors

I really don't do well in social situations with strangers, so I do my best to avoid them. But when we got new neighbors, I knew I had to go over and welcome them. Our next door neighbors came over to welcome us when we first moved in, so now it my turn to pass on the torch. It can be hard when you're at a new military base and don't know anyone. Especially when that Army base is at least a five hour flight from the rest of the country.

To make things less stressful, I just bought a package of break and bake cookies. No need to worry about mixing or cleaning or making sure you don't poison anyone. When it came time to bake, I was disappointed that I had only bought a 12-pack of extra large cookies. I still kept four of them anyway.

After baking and cooling, I placed the cookies on a paper plate and topped it with aluminum foil. Eight cookies fit perfectly on the plate. I wrapped some twine around it and attached the little card that I made on PicMonkey and printed onto cardstock. On the back of the card I wrote a little message and included my phone number.

It took a bit of convincing to get me out the door, but I finally headed over. Out of all the four places that we've lived, this has been the only place where the neighbors came and introduced themselves. I had to keep reminding myself how nice of a gesture it was. I timed it perfectly for 11 am to make sure that no husbands would be home on lunch break. I had no interest in dealing with that awkwardness.

After introducing myself and Adri, handing over the cookies, and chatting for a minute or two, I was back on my merry way home. I was glad that I went with "welcome to the neighborhood" instead of "welcome to Hawaii", because it turns out that they had literally moved over from the community across the street from us. How anticlimactic. I'll just consider this time a practice run for when we have a new family PCS here.

Have your neighbors ever stopped by to welcome you to the neighborhood?

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I Finally Met My Neighbor

We've been living in our house for close to two years. Our next door neighbors have been there about a year and a half. Yesterday was the first time that I've ever had an actual conversation with either of them. Yes. The first time I've ever spoken to my next door neighbor. You see, I'm not exactly the most outgoing person and according to her, neither is she.

What happened is that my monster of a dog climbed over the fence when he heard her mowing her lawn. I've seen him literally climb chain link fences, but we have a six foot wooden fence. I guess that's what happens when you combine an energetic lab with the muscle of a pitbull. She came to let me know that he had escaped, but was confused as to how he got out since the gate was locked shut. Crazy doggy!

My baby eater

We ended up chatting a bit. Her husband is also deployed, which I could tell by the fact that she has recently started mowing the lawn and taking out the trash herself. She has boys that are about the same age as our girls so hopefully we'll be getting together for play dates. I'd like to invite them over for dinner some time, but I hate cooking and I never know what to make anyway.

I'm hoping that the next time we PCS something will push me to go meet the neighbors within a couple of months at least.

Side note: I hate potty training!