Update...

Sorry I have slacked so much on the blog! You'd think that being unemployed would give me more time to write. In fact, it gives me less to write about! So I'll try to be a bit more frequent about updates.

Hmmm... where to start. I guess I'll start with last Saturday. Casey and I got up and planned to be super productive. We were in the morning- we got a lot of boxes unpacked, and started organizing rooms. Around 1:30 pm we saw that the neighbors across the street were outside, and we had promised them our boxes because they are moving at the end of the month. We spent about an hour or so bringing boxes up from the basement for them, while they had a chain of people walking back and forth across the street to fill their garage up with the boxes. I was so glad to get rid of them! We can actually see the basement floor now!

After that, we noticed that the neighbors to our right were outside, so we started chatting with them. At some point, lawn chairs were dragged to our driveway, and there were upwards of 10 people sitting there with us. We got to know the neighbors a lot better, and had fun playing with all of the kids. (I know I exaggerate a lot, but there are TONS of kids on our street!!! Besides us, another couple a few houses down, and the neighbors on our left, we are the only ones without kids, and everyone else on the block has a minimum of two!!! Laura and her husband that live directly across the street have FOUR girls!) So anyway, there were children running around everywhere, and we were able to introduce them to Charley Brown. Once they saw him do tricks, they all wanted to give him treats and make him do more. I think he was doing tricks for about 45 minutes, and I'm surprised the kid didn't explode from all of the treats he was given! He loved all of the attention, and adores the children! I was really proud that he did so well with them. One little girl named Megan who is 2 years old apparently loves animals, and she walked right up to him and put his face in her hands. It was so stinking cute! He gave her tons of kisses (which was convenient for him since her face was right at his level...). I'm even more convinced that Charley will do great with kids when we eventually have them. :-D

Wow, I got off topic. Long story short, we spent the rest of the afternoon outside with the neighbors, and then Cathy and Ray (neighbors to the right) decided to have a cookout. We spent the rest of the evening until about 11:30 pm at their place. The kids played inside, and the rest of us sat outside, eating, drinking, and laughing. We had a lot of fun with them, and had a hard time leaving. Two of the moms had an onion fight (one put an onion slice down the others shirt) among other hilarious events that I will refrain from mentioning at this time. If they were out to prove that parents can still kick back and have fun, they definitely reached their goal. LOL...

In other news, the fence builders are here as I write this, which will be great for Charley! Now he can go outside and go to the bathroom without me watching him like a hawk. He saw a rabbit last night and took off, but luckily he listened to me and came back before he went into the neighbor's yard or into the street. I'm confined to the house until they are done building, but I have projects and things to work on, so it shouldn't be too bad. Charley's jumpy because he hears them outside and is dying to go see what they're up to. I expect he'll pout a bit since he's not going to get his way, but he'll get over it. (With perfect timing, he just let out a huge 'I'm bored' sigh.)

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. We're excited that the Hetrick clan is coming up around the 24th! They haven't gotten to see the house yet, and by that point we should have a lot more order to the place. It gives us something to look forward to!

I'll update more later when something interesting happens.

-Ash

PS: For Halloween this year, we're dressing Charley up at Charlie Brown, I'll be Sally, and Casey will be Linus. I'll definitely get some pictures!