Good Fences Make Great Neighbors...

Its the second day of Get It Scrapped's month long Get It Blogged Challenge, and today Sharyn Tormanen has challenged us to blog about neighbors...

You know...for the longest time I never really understood this quote.  Maybe this is because most of my adult life I lived in apartments and never really had a fence.  Instead I shared 4 walls with my neighbors, sometimes I was forced to listen to their music or their fights, other times I was forced to smell their fantastic breakfasts.  One year we lived in an apartment that had the heating coils in the floor and we lived on the bottom and never had to turn our heat on because the heat from the apt above was roasting us alive!  Then my husband and I's lives began to evolve: We had animals and a child and soon we longed more and more for a fenced yard of our own!

When we moved into our first house almost two years ago, we didn't know anyone.  And at first it didn't matter because we HAD A HOUSE, WITH A YARD and A FENCE!  Then one day after we'd settled in Lynnette knocked on our door and like an idiot I made her stand on the doorstep without inviting her in while she introduced herself and her family and told us about the community we were living in.  She brought us a wonderful bread basket and welcomed us to drop by anytime.  We became very good friends with Lynnette and her husband David, and her daughter and son -in-law Amy and Bruce, who lived in their basement apartment.

Some mornings I would wake up and Bruce was clearing the snow off our driveway or David had wheeled out our garbage can.  David helped us to fix our sprinkling system and had taken the liberty of making all of the repairs to our fence.  They put up with our barking dogs, whose spot in our garage was a mere 20ft from their bedroom window.  And Amy and I had become great scrapbooking buddies! So naturally we were saddened when we saw the for sale sign in their yard last fall.  Now empty nesters they had decided that they no longer needed the space of their 6 bedroom home and were moving into something smaller.

We still see the Paganos from time to time, they visit my work regularly and Amy and Bruce are in our Ward still.  But we are sad to have them leave!  However, I think the best way to honor them, and the memories that they left us with... is to strive to be great neighbors just like they were!  So this year when my husband and I make the repairs to our fence I will think about how "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors", maybe not in the sense that this quote's author had intended, but it will remain true for me just the same!