Who Are The People In YOUR Neighborhood?

Military life has it's advantages. A year ago we moved "onto post", which means that we live on the Fort Hood installation in government housing. Now, sometimes a move like this requires sacrifices; we don't have granite counters or stainless steel appliances, we don't have any control over who services the utilities either. But the clear advantage is almost immediately presented in the form of a casserole or play date invitation (a knowing spouse who sees you have 50 million boxes to unpack and too many hands helping you!). This was certainly the case when we moved to our current home and I can't say enough about the super sweet women that I have the privilege of calling "neighbors". Everyone here realizes how quickly the turnover is going to be and friendships are easily formed.

The funny thing is, sometimes you only know one half of the household. Half the street is almost always deployed! I know all of the wives but haven't met many of the so called "husbands" (chuckle). So when it comes time to welcome someone home it's a big to-do for everyone on the street. It almost turns into a comical adult "is it time yet?" similar to when your kids whine "are we there yet?" The stars really had to collide for the following photos to happen. My family was leaving for a three week trip to New York the day before my neighbor was to return home from Iraq. Now, don't anyone go accusing me of injecting my husband and The Boy with "Hand Foot and Mouth Virus" just so we could turn around before Texarkana, spend 2 hours in the Emergency Room getting a diagnosis, and then driving the four hours back home, and canceling our big trip. But I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason and these are some pretty good reasons: