Neighbors

Somewhere I heard "Neighbors are like family.  You don't get to choose them.  You are stuck with them."  Fortunately I have been stuck with a great family.  And as neighbors go I have been stuck with some great neighbors.  Growing up next door to the Rice family was one of my great memories from childhood.  I have many memories that I will likely share on this blog, but it is important to first understand their family.

The Rices had 8 kids.  Their oldest twin boys were the same age as my brother. The next in line was Brian who was only 2 months younger than me.  Next, was another boy that was a few weeks older than my youngest sister. (this meant that my older sister didn't have a built in neighbor playmate).  Their 5th and 6th children were girls.  Number seven was another boy and their last child was a girl.  All these kids were about two years apart.  (except the difference between the twins and Brian was three).  And to answer your question, yes they are Catholic. 

They started building their house at the same time my parents built ours.  Essentially we have known them since I was born (since I was born in that house...the same one my parents live in now).
They are one of the sweetest families you will meet.  They genuinely care about people and never hesitate to make others feel included in things.  We were always invited on their camping trips, mountain climbing excursions, or walks to our local State Park.  And every one of those trips was always an adventure. 

One day my Aunt came over to visit with her family.  This was my mom's sister.  She was married to Steve and had 4 kids (at the time).  We were all hanging out at our house when we noticed that Steve was talking to our neighbor Jim.   They seemed to really hit it off.  It didn't take us very long to learn that Steve and Jim were brothers!  Isn't this odd? How could two brothers not know where each other live and not make that connection earlier?  Well, apparently Jim & Steve came from a family of 14 kids and there was such an age difference between them that they hadn't really kept in touch.  Whenever our cousins would come to visit we would send them over to visit their other cousins.  It's such a crazy world!  

More neighbor stories to come....