Nick

When I envisioned our home that we would raise our kids in, I always imagined a neighborhood (NOT a subdivision, but a neighborhood) with tons of kids running around. 

Like I had.

Like D. had.

We would run out the door and play and play and play until we heard my mom's tall-tell yell for us outside the back door, "SSSSSS  AAAAAAA  NNNNNNN  DDDDDDD   YYYYYYY"

We heard it, cleaned up, and ran home for dinner.

I never realized what a rarity that is.

That we had TONS of neighborhood friends all running around, clothes pinning cards to the back of our bikes to make motor sounds....riding to the local store to spend $1 on candy, watching backyard fireworks on the 4th.

When we first moved here, there was one family in our backyard.  The boys were fast friends, and so were the moms.  :)

That's it. 

No other kids.

And then they moved.

While I don't begrudge them their family's ministry move...we miss them. 

And then, Eureka...we have a new friend.

The nephew of one of our neighbors moved in with his elderly aunt to help her with home up-keep, etc.  And he has a son.  A son just a year older than A.  A son who loves all sports, just like A. 


He's only here on the weekends, when he visits his dad, but that's ok....that way I don't need to make rules about weekday playing.

He's incredibly respectful of our house and our family too- his family has very close priorities to ours.

Last weekend, Nick's dad had 4 tickets to a local hockey game.  D didn't really want to go, he wanted to say home and chill out on the couch...but agreed to go because he knew A. would go CRAZY!

And he did.  He was beaming when he came home- with a game puck and free t-shirt in hand.  Apparently, there weren't many people there that night, so the boys had the run of the arena.  Nick had been there many, many times before, so he showed A. the ropes.

Monday morning, I find this picture in my email in box:

Check out who made it on the arena screen (more than once, I'm finding out....)

I love neighborhood friends!