Neighborhood Shenanigans

 One of my former YW is heading out for her mission this week, so she had her farewell today. I went to a shindig at her house and y'all, she had a tiny turtle wandering around the yard and it was so cute! 

This was as close as I would get to it - turtles freak me out, you never know what they're going to do. And then of course, memories are best preserved by cameras, so we had to snap a pic. 

Then later in the evening, at popcorn time, we were discussing different types of braids. A friend said she didn't know how to braid a pull through braid, so I was showing her. I did the braid on my YW, and she did it on her husband, it was perfection. 

I was so proud of the braid afterwards! 

I need to learn how to do the top of the hair better, but this is only the second time I have ever done this (on another human) so I think I'm doing pretty okay. 

Christmas Snowman

So I looked long and hard for a neighbor gift, and came up with this gem. We had a million mason jars hanging around, so I was looking for something to do with them. I filled them with mints, hot glued on some buttons, and then hot glued a jaunty scarf on here as well. I printed a print from Pinterest, and here is where we found ourselves.

It says "This is Mint to wish you a Merry Christmas" and I just thought it was so dashing. I need to be better prepared next year, so that I don't have to be cramming all this in in a few days, so wish me luck with that ha ha.

Neighborhood Party

Today, my ward had the summer party BBQ that most wards seem to be having. I had made a last minute decision to go. Mostly because I had forgotten that it even existed until the afternoon of, when the bishop was dropping by people’s houses, letting them know that it started later that evening. Of course, when I saw the bishop walking up the drive, I realized I was wearing only a camisole with my shorts – I hadn’t put my shirt on yet. So I ran to the nearest closet, and pulled out what I think was a shirt that would fit me, and quickly put it on and got the door. It was when I was opening the door that I realize; I’m wearing a shirt WAY too big for me. Oops. Anyway, he told me of the party, and I said we may see them there, which is the standard for when I don’t think I’ll go, but don’t want to be rude. Later in the afternoon, I was like, no, I should go, support the ward. They wanted you to bring either a dessert or a salad, and I think we all know what I brought.

I decided to make it easy, and bring mini vanilla cupcakes with Nutella buttercream frosting, easy enough to make, and making them mini makes them easier to eat at a BBQ. So I made the batter, and filled up my cupcake cups, and still had tons of batter left over. So I baked the first batch, and then made the second batch. It made way more cupcakes than I was anticipating. I had thought it would make, like 48 or so, but noooo it made 82 mini cupcakes! Here they are, in all their glory:

And they ended up being really delicious if I do say so myself. It took a while, to frost 82 mini one’s, but it was totally worth it, they were gobbled right up by everyone. Luckily, I had left 12 at home for myself, so I could eat those at my leisure. But now, I feel good for socializing with my neighbors, and it makes me seem like I want to be social. Even if I don’t.

The Neighbors

I don’t know many of our neighbors. I’ve seen one of them at church, and a few outside, walking about. I’ve talked to one of them, they’re fans of RSL like Husband and I are. But other than that, I’m not really sure who any of them are. Its not that I’m unfriendly, its just that I don’t know that I need to have a friendship with these guys that extends beyond a friendly wave and a ‘hello’.

Husband is out of town yet again this week. Last night, after I’d finished with all my errands, I was calming down for the evening, watching a bit of TV. I had turned off all the lights, except for my bedroom, and I was in there, watching and working on some craft projects, when all of a sudden, the doorbell rang. I look at the clock, and its a little after nine. At first, I thought it might have been Sister coming to visit me, she said she might smuggle over her adorable dog. (Miniature Doberman Pincher, so cute!) But as soon as I thought that, I realized, Sister doesn’t ring the doorbell, so I knew it couldn’t be her. So I finally creep over to the door, and attempt to look out the peephole. And…I’m not actually tall enough to see out of the peephole. I was on my tippy-toes, trying to see, and I couldn’t get to that height. So I rolled the dice, and just opened the door, even though I was scared to do so. Come on, a random doorbell, I can’t see who it is, it’s night time, I’m alone? Of course I was scared!

And there stood….the neighbors that live above us, or as I have dubbed them, The Peroxide Family. I’ve seen them at church once, and around the neighborhood a few times, and they are a family of blondes. Which is fine, except that while the children are naturally blonde, the parents have white/blonde-ish hair that is very much fake. But that’s ok, I don’t judge them on that. I judge them on being quite noisy. They live in the apartment directly above ours, and they are quite loud. The kids are jumping everywhere, and clomping down when they walk, which I keep trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, like, maybe the ceilings/floor are thin, but still, my goodness. I always know when they are home, and what they’re doing when they are there.

Anyway, the point of their visit was to tell me about some cat food the children had spilled on our patio. They came to tell me sorry, and that they’d clean it up tomorrow. They asked if I had been asleep, since all the lights were off, and that’s when I realized I am an old lady, turning off the lights at 9. But that’s ok, I embrace it. So after the tiny children apologized, they went on their way. Truthfully, had they not told me they spilled it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. I rarely go out to the patio, but that was nice of them anyway. And it was nice to see them face to face, since I’ve really only seen them from behind. Also, after they left, it took about 20 minutes to get my heart rate to normal. I really need to not be so scared when I’m home alone.