Change...ING

This is a scary word for me.

Tommy knows I shy away from change. Ok, "shy," is not exactly the politically correct term to use. I guess the phrase, "throwing my body on the floor, flailing around kicking and screaming like a 2 year old," fits the bill much better.

I resist change like I resist the urge to sign up for the New York marathon. It pretty much does not exsist on my, "bucket list," of things, to ever, never, ever want to do, in life!

Somehow, though, I am in the middle of big change for me.

A few years ago I had a spat with my neighbor. It was more or less our kids that had the spat, but being parents that are fiercely protective of our little guys, it turned into a quote, unquote, cat fight, between her and I. And to be totally honest, it was never our kids that were the problem.

At any rate, we rarely talked in the past years, if ever. We just avoided each other and went on with our busy days and nights and, somehow, we just ignored it when our kids just started playing with each other again.

A few weeks ago we started talking to each other again. Nothing really exciting. Just chit chat here and there and basic things. Kids, school, families....etc. We started figuring out that we really did have a lot in common.

This past weekend we were comparing Christmas list notes. We joked about our, "early morning," Black Friday experiences and how we still needed to go and get a few other things at one store in particular.

Later on in the evening she busted me putting garbage into my other neighbors garbage can and asked if I would mind if she came with me, shopping, in the morning. I thought it would be fun since I rarely go shopping with any adults, let alone female friends.

We set out at human hours and hit 3 stores. We had quite a bit of driving to do so I was not even sure how our conversation, if any, was going to go. It was awesome. We found out that we both have a lot in common and we laughed so much about a lot of things. I loved having someone to hang out with and shop with and in the end, we discovered that our kids have quite a few, but very unplanned, identical Christmas gifts that they will be receiving. I thought that was awesome since all of our kids are pretty much the same age and they all play very well together. With everyone getting some of the same gifts, none will feel left out.

We spent the better part of the afternoon together bouncing more Christmas ideas off each other and just laughing about the craziness that is our lives... and I had a blast.

Today I found myself laughing in my family room as we sent text messages back and forth about the presents we were putting together for our kids while they were in school. Thankfully I did not crash into the wall, while I was testing one of the toys out, and we did discover that some of our matching presents are easily assembled in one single step. (Can't beat that!!!)

There was a time when I would have held a grudge for an eternity. I would have never given it a second thought and we would never, ever, have been seen hanging out in front of each others' houses while our kids play.

I am still getting used to the idea of the, "change is good for me," attitude I promised to adopt in hopes of bettering myself and teaching my own kids about forgiveness. I am pretty sure I can keep going with this one because I have lost out on quite a bit of time with someone I have a lot in common with and someone I can actually see myself going out shopping with, again, and maybe, just maybe, even having lunch with!