Hi, my name is Carmen...

...and I love my neighborhood! Shortly before Nathan got home late this afternoon our neighbors who own the farm next door stopped in for a visit. Not all but some of them. We met the wife/mom and 6 of their 11 children. They were out picking the small amount of cherries they got off their trees that are near our property and decided to come over for a visit. My mom and Nathan have met some of the family but I haven't met any aside from waiving from afar. We had a nice conversation...about an hour long as a matter of fact. They are the Amish family next door. Our children were so excited to meet them and really wanted to play with them (the children that came over were 15 and younger...down to a cutie pie of an 8 month old) but they were a little shy (not my crazy kiddos but the kiddos next door). After a while, though, they were all outside playing and running around. The mom and I and my mom had a really nice visit. We have a cherry tree out back and Saturday our family picked cherries...Sunday we pitted, rinsed and froze over 60 cups of cherries. There are still more on the tree but I think we have our fill. So we offered for them to come over and pick from our tree whenever they wanted to.

So...back to loving the neighborhood...the reason for this post. Tonight after dinner my mom offered to stay inside with sleepy Abigail. While the kids played outside I helped Nathan in the garden and I took in the following scene. At one side of our yard is our neighbor at our tree with 4 of her children picking cherries, our children playing in the yard, neighbor girls kitty-corner across from us (very sweet girls who frequent our house often) waving and yelling hello, and then another neighbor who owns land next to the other side driving by with a wave and a smile. Ahh...the good 'ol country life. It's neat here...I love it!

Hey! Have I told you how much I love our neighborhood?! " )