Home sweet home...

I am experiencing something very new in my life.

We moved into a subdivision in October of last year to my great delight. I am not a country girl by any means! We have lived in the boonies most of our married life. I have ran off escaped cows, listened to coyotes fight outside my bedroom window, had the tee total snot scared out of me by various glowing eyes in the dark, dodged diving bats, and watched big snakes eat live frogs out on my patio. I am not built for that kind of life! I do not like it Sam I Am!

I can honestly say moving was one of the best decisions we have made. We live in a peaceful subdivision, but it is still in a very rural area. It is honestly the best of both worlds. Charlie gets to go hunting about 2 minutes away and I have neighbors (beautiful glorious neighbors). Every person I have met is super friendly. Charlie has even found a few buddies in the neighborhood. He and the boys get together just about every weekend at our house to drink a few and play. They break out the corn hole and play a few games while talking smack to each other. I get the biggest giggles out of watching them strut across the yard and dole out high fives! After they have finished playing, they retire to the deck and out pop the guitars and mandolins. It is a beautiful sound listening to Charlie and his buddy Gill play together(unless it goes on until 4 am and I worry about them waking up the neighbors). I usually go to bed before they are done but I can hear them outside the window telling jokes and singing songs that Charlie has written.

Best of all...the kids have other kids to play with. They can safely ride up and down our street and I don't have to worry. We can go out for walks and go fishing in the pond. It was quite funny yesterday because I was watching two of my neighbors kids and they were outside with my two kids. The next thing I know there are nine kids riding their bikes up and down the street laughing and having a great time. It was so cool to watch. They were just riding back and forth singing Soldier Boy and enjoying being outside.

This is exactly what Charlie and I were hoping for when we moved here. We have truly been blessed with so many new friends. I believe God truly wanted us here (there's a story there). We prayed and prayed about it and believe this is exactly where he wants us. These are the people who have welcomed us with open arms and made us feel at home. When Missy died in January, we had only been living here for 2 months, but everyone was so kind and asked if there was anything they could do. Imagine that...two months and we were swarmed with offers of food and babysitting. Where else can you find that?

I look forward to the third Thursday of the month because the ladies of the neighborhood get together and play bingo. One of the ladies, Linda, invites us into her home and makes a great dinner and we play and chat and laugh. We are also trying to get a block party together for October and we are trying to put together some boxes of goodies to send to Linda's son's battalion in Iraq for Christmas. This is the kind of neighborhood I have dreamed about. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity in our lives to connect with some truly extraordinary people.