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Bridgett's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 7/2/08 -------------------- 10/22/07 7/19/07 4/21/07 3/13/07 2/20/07 1/6/07 10/25/06 9/6/06 8/28/06 7/25/06 7/12/06 6/26/06 6/14/06 6/5/06 -------------------- Bridgett's Introduction

Saying Goodbye to some Good Friends.....

June 26, 2006

Yesterday was a pretty sad day for me and for the younger kids. As I think I said in one of my entries, two of my good friends,  the first people I really  got to know when we moved here almost 3 years ago, are going to be moving. Each of the families got orders to be stationed at other bases and are leaving us here in Jacksonville. One of the families are being sent overseas to Spain and the other is going to Quantico, VA.

The family that is going to Virginia is the family that left yesterday and they were my next door neighbors. I know it may be kind of crazy for me to be upset about a neighbor, they aren't family or anything, but I have never really had to do this before, other than when I left OH. Which, when I left OH, I wasn't really close to my neighbors emotionally, I mean we were friends, and we would ask each other for things such as an onion or a cup of sugar if we ran out unexpectedly,  but they were Mennonites and did not live right next to me, but rather hundreds of yards away and basically did their own things and we didn't have a whole lot of interaction because I was so busy and they just kept to themselves most of the time.When I left OH I was also leaving my family there, but all in all it was a good thing for me to move away, away from my ex and away form the situation with him there. Also, when we moved here from SC it was different because the neighbors across the street that had become adoptive Grandparents to my children and a serogate Mom to me, moved away the same time we did. But, my neighbors, the P's (i"ll not say their actual names) and I or us, were good friends and knew we could depend on each other and we were emotionally supportive to each other.

I guess the P's move effects me more too, not only because they were really good friends, but because we moved here not knowing anyone or having any family here, and they became a little like old friends quickly. Their oldest child, a daughter  L, was my oldest's age, so she was the first child here that Joshua met and walked to school with on the first day after we got moved moved in. Their youngest child was a little younger than Brianna, but he loved to play with Brianna and would come over and ask if she or Asher could come out and play a lot of the time. And C, the mom, became a really good confidant and friend to me. There were times when DH was gone and the kids were totally driving me crazy, mainly my teenager, and C would try to give me advice or share with me what it was like with her little brother after her parents got divorced when he was young. Needless to say I think there were several times, especially towards the end of this school year, that she helped me keep my sanity when dealing with things Joshua was doing. We would talk about our teenagers and the wrong choices they were making or the hygiene they were not up keeping , the rooms they would not keep cleaned up, the socialization they wanted to do but yet wouldn't do what was asked of them.  Even though C had military support and other friends here that she had known for years and probably even people she had known when they were stationed here before, I tried to be there and be support for her, talking with her,  we invited she and the kids over a time or two for a movie, and some other things while her husband M was deployed to Iraq. Of course C was also the support for me when DH was gone on travel too. While M was over in Iraq they found a debilitating cancerous tumor on his spine that had to be removed by emergency surgery. Having been through cancer and chemo with my Mom, I tried to give C all the encouragement and support about the situation I could.  C was the neighbor that all this past school year helped me out by taking Joshua to school nearly every day. There were a couple times I took the kids because of  C having to go to an appt. or something, but for the most part C was my hero every school morning allowing me to stay at home and get the younger kids off to school and she got Joshua to school on time. C's daughter L, made them running late quite a few days and Joshua did the same several times, but C managed to get them there everyday before the bell rang. The P's are just good people, and they were people that I could trust and they trusted us. We kept on eye on things for them when they went away, I mowed their lawn several times while M was in Iraq after she cancelled the lawn service that she was not happy with, and they kept an eye on things for us while we were gone and got our mail when we forgot to put a stop in at the postoffice when we went back home for a couple of weeks. When M's and C's parents all came to visit they would treat us as friends and mess around with my little kids just as they did with their Grandson. Over all it is just sad that our friends are gone.

I know there is plenty of opportunity to get to know some of my other neighbors now, which I have been doing, but it is just easier to get the know the one that is living 10 feet from you, who's windows look into your windows and you can step out on your porch and have a conversation without having to yell like I have to with the neighbors down the cul-de-sak. We do have the P's new address and phone # to keep in touch in the future, but they just aren't here anymore on a dialy basis.  And who knows, the next people moving in to P's house may just be as wonderful people as the P's were. Really we have a wonderful neighborhood and most all the people are wonderful people and we all look out for one another, our children all play together, we all have get togethers and cook out and socialize while the kids all play in the cul-de-sak too. So, its not that we are alone here, just loosing a valued next door friend. We have other friends here especially here in our Cul-de-sak, our children each come to each others house to play or in our back yards to play on the swing set. With all the young children here we all keep an eye out for all of them. My house is pretty much so the borderline for the limit of how far up the street the kids can go, really they have to stay further down the road and aren't supposed to really come up out of the cul-de-sak as  far as my house is, but I know if I see someone going past my house that someone is in trouble. The four house's past mine do not have any young children and I'm the 3rd house in from the main road that goes all the way from one end of the housing development to the other (but we are at the no outlet end). so no one really needs to be going further than my house anyway for safety reasons.

Now we are anxiously awaiting our new neighbors to move in. The P's told us the new neighbors could be moving in as soon as this Friday. I don't even know their names, I guess I forgot to ask C that, but I do know they area Military family coming from Va ( the P's and they are kind of switching) and they have two children, one is a daughter Brianna's age,( which Brianna is just thrilled about), and the other child is a boy that is a year or two older than Asher. So, at least I know we have something in common right off, with having daughters the same age. Who knows what else there may be!

Until Next Time.........

God Bless,

Bridgett and Crew