Friends and neighbors

The other night we went to a fun party hosted by our former bishop of our old singles ward and his wife. It was so much fun! We had so many friends in that ward and it was great to see everybody. I loved having so many friends and always having something going on.

It got me thinking about how by the time I got to the 9th ward, I'd been in singles wards for a long time so I was getting pretty good at being single, and I'd developed some surefire ways to make friends and get involved. 1) Go to all ward activities, FHE, and anything else going on. Stay after to help. Talk to at least 1-2 new people at everything. 2) Go to things you are invited to. 3) Host a get together once in awhile and invite everyone you know. 4) Sit by different people at church and activities instead of sticking with your roommate the whole time. 5) Start networking (i.e. meet your friends' friends).

I've discovered these tactics don't work in a family ward. 1) There are no ward activities or any sort of get-togethers. 2) No one invites you to anything. 3) When you try to host something, no one comes 4) People are always chasing their kids so it's hard to catch people to talk to them at church.

The only thing I can think of that even somewhat works is to hang out outside. That way when other people are in their yards or taking a walk you can talk to them for more than 30 seconds. Am I just super lame or is this how it is everywhere?

Anyway, by spending time outside, we have realized that we have some very interesting neighbors. I was hoping to get some pictures to illustrate, but I couldn't figure out how to do that discretely. :)

Neighbor #1: The Bird Lady--Across the street there is a lady who raises exotic birds. Some of which squak extremely loudly and we can hear them from inside our house.

Neighbor #2: The Sign Builders--Next door we have a guy who builds signs for real estate companies. So we have like 50 signs in our driveway half the time. They also have a trampoline so all the neighbor kids are constantly over there jumping on it. And the dad is always trying to talk to me in Spanish. They are pretty nice though.

Neighbor #3: White Trash #1--These people have moved, but it was a single lady with 5 kids (plus she was pregnant as a surrogate mother) and her hooker sister. There were always different guys coming over and they would always sit and smoke in the driveway. One time they were having a dance party or something in the driveway at like 1 in the morning, and their music was totally nasty. Our other neighbors went out and yelled at them about 2 seconds before I was about to.

Neighbor #4: White Trash #2--This family lives across the street and the dad is always sitting out on the porch with his shirt off (and a big potbelly) and they are always talking really loudly so we can hear them loud and clear across the street.

Neighbor #5: The polygamists--When we first moved in and found out we lived next to polygamists, I thought it was really weird. But honestly, they are super nice and some of our best neighbors. The girls love Emmy, one of the boys comes to our Sunday School class and is awesome, and some of the kids are often selling treats.

Neighbor #6: The appliance repairman--There is always a fridge or washer or something in these people's driveway! Ha!

Anyway, I just wanted to document some of the interesting times we've had here in Springville before we move.