Will you be my neighbor?

Closing day was last Wednesday. Move-in day was Thursday, which meant that meet-the-neighbors-day was also Thursday.

It all started when Stephen and I pulled up in front of the house just to bask in its beauty one more time before we started moving stuff in. I accidentally honked the horn.

Twice.

The second time, Neighbor #1, who had been dutifully shoveling his driveway, came up to our car.

"Everything okay?" he asked,  sounding a little annoyed.

"Yeah yeah, everything's fine!" Stephen assured him. "Sorry, she wasn't trying to honk."

#1 hesitated. "You honked twice."

"Yeah, she wasn't trying to, we weren't honking at you," Stephen said.

"Everything is good with the car?" #1 asked.

Finally he went back to his house and we got to work unpacking. It wasn't long before Neighbor #2 came along: a friendly elderly gentleman named Robin Forest (true story).

"Are they showing you the house?" he asked.

"We've already seen it," we explained. "We just bought it."

#2 lit up. He told us three times that he was glad we were moving in. He then proceeded to tell us about his old bishop in Washington, his bishop's son, a sister missionary in the bishop's son's mission, and the man that she ended up marrying. It wasn't him, and it wasn't anyone we know. But it was very nice of him to tell us, all the same.

We drove off to get more boxen. When we came back, #2 came over again with more stories! This time he also asked if we were LDS and if we knew when and where our ward met on Sunday. I thought that was very sweet of him.

As we were making another trip into the house, someone driving by slowed to a stop and rolled down their window.

"Are you guys moving in?!" called the driver.

"Yeah, we are!" we called back.

"Oh that's great, nice to meet you!" she responded. "I live next-door. It'll be nice to have neighbors again! What are your names?"

"Stephen," said Stephen.

"Heather," I said.

Pause.

"What are your names?" she said, louder.

"Stephen and Heather!" called Stephen, louder.

Pause.

"STEPHEN AND HEATHER!" yelled Craig, even louder.

Pause.

"I can't...."

"I already met them!" piped up Robin Forest from the porch next-door. "They're Stephen and...."

"I'll be coming back soon, Robin!" the lady in the car interrupted. I don't think she heard him, either. "I haven't forgotten about you, don't worry! Okay see you guys later!"

"Bye!" we called back, and she drove away.

We didn't have much time to miss her, because she came back about a half-hour later.

"Have you guys gotten dinner yet?" she asked.

"Yeah, we just ate," we told her.

"Well I thought you might be hungry, so I just brought you a little something," she said, and handed me two cases of mini-cupcakes and a loaf of sweet raspberry bread from Smith's.

I was very touched! "Ohhh, thank you..." I started to say.

She smiled and jumped in, "Yeah, I get stuff from the store all the time for free! I mean, these have just been sitting out, so they've been chilling outside, they're still good!"

"Yeah totally!" I said. Huh?

"Yeah, so, I get stuff all the time. I'll just leave things on your porch sometimes, and you'll know who it's from, and it'll be great!"

"Wow, thank you!" we said, and went inside. Looking a little closer, I discovered that the cupcakes and bread had expired on December 27th.

But a nice gesture is a nice gesture, and nice neighbors are better than mean neighbors.

(They are also better than neighbors with squeaky beds who live upstairs of you, what?)