Catching Up - Our Great Neighborhood

Last Saturday night Ken and Vickie Summers had a housewarming party to celebrate their new house. It was so fun. There were neighbors there we know pretty well, like Daryl and Vonnie, and then people we never even met at all.

There are 3 people in this neighborhood who actually grew up in this very neighborhood. Merle, just around the corner on Honey Lane, Allen, across the street, and Steve, who lives behind us (refer to the pipe bomb scare last summer). Merle said when she was little there was a really mean lady who lived in our house, so they didn't play here.

Paul and Catherine, who live just at the top of the dip on Stan's side of the street, were there. It is always fun to see them, and they brought Catherine's 81 year old mother along. She is going to be moving in with them soon. She is really funny - I'm looking forward to spending more time with her.

What was especially fun was that everyone was giving Ken and Vickie a hard time about actually having a house that is finished! And new, and nice, and not cluttered with junk! Because everyone in our neighborhood is just as bad as we are about finishing projects. Lots of people have rooms without trim, doors without doorknobs, unfinished bathrooms.

There is a new couple with teenage children who just moved into Ken & Vickie's old house, and one of their mother's is living with them also - Ana is her name. She seems nice too.

I think I'll have a tea party.

One neighbor said she had gastric bypass surgery 15 years ago. She used to weigh 320 pounds. Now she weighs about 125. She has kept the weight off all this time. She said the highest she has ever gotten again is 175, but she knows of several people who have gained all their weight back.

Stan and Lori weren't at the party because they were off on a 3 day trip with a group of people in their Model A's or whatever their little old car is. To the gorge or somewhere. And their little dog Shadow just died too. So I won't say anything bad about Shadow. Actually, there was one good thing she did once. One time the goats or sheep or maybe all of them together escaped and they were running around the neighborhood. Shadow actually rounded them up and chased them home. She went just as far as the gate, saw them safely in, and then turned around and went home. So maybe she wasn't all bad.

Sometimes we think about other places we want to live, and paying someone to build us a small, new, finished house. But there is something to be said for living in a neighborhood where everyone is nice, and in 18 years we have had not one problem with any of our neighbors.

Today I picked a peck of peppers and popped them into the freezer.