Goodbye Neighbors...

For almost 3 years now we have had the most wonderful experience of living directly across the street from some of our closest friends in the world (who also happen to be family :))Our address is 1033 and theirs is 1032, so I mean DIRECT-LY across the street. It has been a dream having them so close. But as all good things must come to an end...tonight was spent packing these friends up.

...And the moving crew...

We sat out tonight on the back of the U-Haul and reminisced all of the times that we have needed each other- it's crazy just how dependent you can become on neighbors sometimes. Like the time that I left the oven on and called Drason to come turn it off...or the time I ordered pizza and it beat me home...and I had to have Drason come pay the guy for me. Then the memories...like the Valentine's Day that me and Sonya came home and the boys were at their house making homeade sushi for us...with all the trimmings. Or Drason's 30th birthday where Sonya had all our friends meet at our house at 6 am so we could all storm in to his bedroom and wake the sleeping birthday boy (try that for a surprise!!)...

...Or the night that we kidnapped Livi, changed her clothes and returned her home with a surprise message for Son and Dra...our new baby!

Or one of my favorites that I was so glad they were here for was when my water broke- late night---and my Aunt Sis ran across the street as I stood in a puddle. We cried together and she told me it was gonna be ok...and got us loaded up to go to the hospital. Yeah, that was one of my favorite times she was my neighbor.
There have been lots of cups of sugar and eggs...gas for the lawn mower (and we've pretty much "shared" the actual lawn mowers themselves as they don't seem to both work at the same time E-V-E-R). We have had more pot luck dinners together (at least a couple every single week)...several yardsales... Our kids definitely bathe together at one of our houses...almost weekly.

Rich and Drason have spent so many hours keeping the neighborhood awake with their loud jam sessions in our garage...Sonya and I have spent so many hours sitting on our porches just talking. Seems like we never run out of things to say- even after 28 years.
We've just done a lot of life with these two. REAL LIFE...like the kind where you don't care if they come over even when your house is a wreck. Like the kind where you don't care if they hear you have a fight with your spouse. Like the kind where you can just be Y-O-U every day, for all the good and all the bad...and you know the will still be there...across the street...tomorrow.

Except that's about to change. Our best friends are leaving our street. But the memories will stay forever.

...Oh, and before I get too sad...let me remind myself that we do own adjoining property still that we will hopefully build our dream homes on someday...and our kids will again bathe together, but probably more in the creek than the bathtub...and we may have to share a tractor instead of a lawnmower. Some things change...some things always stay the same...but here's to memories for a lifetime!


The group...minus Jadybug (in my belly)...and Bane...possibly conceived on this trip...:) He he.