A Good Neighbor- Nay, A GREAT Neighbor

First off- I am going to acknowledge the fact that I spelled neighbor without the canadian 'u'. I greatly dislike the additional 'U' that we as Canadians are expected to add into words such as neighbor and color. They serve no purpose and therefore I never add them. Whew- got that off my chest- now I feel better. Maybe I will start evaluating each word individually and deleting unnecessary letters... I'l kep u postd n my prgres.

We have good neighbors. We have been blessed with good neighbors throughout our married life. Except the pot smoking, yelling upstairs neighbors we had when we were first married. But minus those first 6 months we have been blessed with Kade and Sarah for 3 ish years and now for the last 3 years we have had Clark and Jayne. Thanks for being so good to us!!!

I had never sat down to evaluate our 'neighborly goodness level' until recently....

And judging from this picture I would say we rank pretty high.
Anyone care to disagree?

Just to paint the picture for you-
Its 7:30 am.
It is raining like nobody's business.
The hardest rain and wind we have had all year.
It was actually pretty neat to see. It was so warm but a crazy- I would even call it hurricane-like- rain. You know without the actual hurricane.
Our whole household is up- of course- and we hear a honking.
A constant car horn honk. Not intermittent- constant.
We have only ever heard this honk one other time- and it was Clark and Jayne's car about a year and a half ago at 6 am.
At least it was courteous this time and waited until 7:30 am.
But they fixed that- it couldn't be there car again? Right?
And then it stopped.
Phew.
Then it began again.
This time I looked outside.
And there was Clark in his dress pants, shirt, and tie trying to fix his car honk.
I tell Justin.
He rushes down the stairs exclaiming 'I need to help him!'
Quickly (in record time actually) we found an umbrella and a raincoat-ish jacket and Justin braved the elements to help a friend.
What a great guy.
What a great neighbor.
I grabbed our camera- this was something that needed to be documented.
Here they were- dressed for clinic- out in the crazy rain with a simple umbrella to keep them dry.
It didn't really do its job.
I wish I had an after picture of them- but alas, my description will just have to do.
They were dripping.
It was incredible.
Justin had to change every piece of clothing.
We now know what it means to be soaken through and through.
(and by we I mean Justin)
And what it means to be a good neighbor.
Even if it means holding a flimsy umbrella during a torrential downpour while your friend fixes a really annoying car honk.
What will we ever do without Clark and Jayne.
Maybe we will just have to be neighbors for life.
You guys would like that- right?

Imagine With Me...

I would like you all to take a moment out of your day to imagine with me.
Imagine a wonderfully beautiful day outside, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, you can go out without a jacket on but its not so hot that you have to wear a hat or a neck bandanna (more on the neck bandannas to come) so we decide to go outside to play.
I got Rubes all ready and protected from the sun and I strapped Noni on my back.
This is when I realize that I forgot to put a hat on him.
I was too lazy to take him out and put him back in the carrier so I got my trusty sidekick Ruby to do the honors. That was a slight fiasco- she could use a little practice in the hat-putting-on department. We did the best we could with what we had.
When we were finally ready we headed out the back door.
Luckily Jayne was out there- so when Noni's hat fell of 10 seconds into our play time she was able to replace it- no problem. She's got some mad hat-putting-on skills.
Then we all played for a while.
Ruby picked up random pieces of wood and rocks yelling 'its a clue!' every time she found one.
(Keep in mind our park is made of wood chips- so this was a fairly regular occurrence.)
Then one of our neighbors came out - yes the spider loving one from this post- and we all played well together. Despite our differing of opinions.
Then Ruby and Ainsley got distracted from their clue finding and bike riding and they discovered an ant walking on the sidewalk carrying a piece of food. So naturally we all- Jayne, me, and our neighbor- went over to take a look. Ants are pretty amazing creatures. We were all forming a circle around the ant- discussing it with the kids.
This is when I had the overwhelming urge just to step on it.
so I did.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
NOT.
But Ruby did.
.
.
.
.
.
NOT.
Wouldn't that have been super shocking though?
It made me laugh later when I thought about what would have happened if I had done that.
Or if Ruby (my sidekick) had done that.
I did have the overwhelming urge to step on that poor ant. But then I reminded myself that I am no evil bug killing monster. Despite what my neighbor may think.
I had to walk away... it wouldn't have been fair to the ant.
But I can imagine the look of utter shock and horror on my neighbors face. It would have been priceless. What would he have said or done?
Imagine with me will ya?
And have a good laugh while you are at it.

P.E.T.S.

Imagine this situation if you will
A big, black, poisonous, hairy, child- eating spider with white dots and a stinger on its back, sitting near the hand railing on the play ground.
All the children from our wards play group on the playground- each of them unknowingly placing their hands near said spider.
Me the child rescuer removes shoe from foot and subsequently tries to save said children from said spider. Unfortunately I was wearing my pumas and the curves on these pumas are not conducive to spider killing.
The only man on the playground cries- 'Would you like me to get it for you?'
A sigh of relief from me as he comes to my rescue...
Then surprise as he grabs the spider (jumping a little because he was just as 'scared' as us)
murmurs something about a possible stinger and how the spider was nesting- then runs across the playground to some trees and sets the spider free....
Apparently he was coming to the spiders rescue- not mine.
Then he comes back to teach me a lesson.
'I don't like to kill things unnecessarily' he says
Thanks for the lesson...
If I had known you were a member of PETS (People for the ethical treatment of spiders) I probably would have been a little more discreet with my shoe removing- spider squishing action.
Next time I see a spider I don't want near me I'll come knocking at your door so you can save it.
I didn't tell him that there were 3 of those exact same spiders that I found in my house. Sadly for PETS man I squished them.
But I'm not a spider squishing bug killing monster- I swear.
I don't go around killing insects- or arachnids in the wild just for kicks.
I don't kill things unnecessarily.
That was necessary.
My neighbors are awesome!!!
(They really are)