We Are Family

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but Chad's brother kind of bugs me. It has gotten a lot better, but is still there. Some tidbits from our past:

• He really didn't like me when he first met me. Something about me taking his place in his own family. Yeah right, like that could happen.
• On the day of Chad's graduation from college, after the ceremony, we went out for dessert (my hubs loves dessert). We had just officially set our date for our wedding, and Ryan was recently married to his lady. Theirs was weird, though, because she is Mexican, so they had a sort of quickie-ish wedding, to get her into the country, and then were planning a big ceremony here when she got here. Anyway, he turned to me (at the dessert place, when all of his family was away from the table, so there were no witnesses) and said "You do know that [the date of our wedding] is the day Maya and I were planning to have our wedding." Yeah, we totally knew, that is why we picked our date. Not because the church was booked every other weekend until November. Nope. And we are SO MEAN like that. JEESH.

That is all that I can think of right now. Poor Ryan has a bit of foot-in-mouth disease, I find it hard to believe he is malicious with this all. And he has some annoying habits (which, thankfully, annoy my husband, too, so we kind of chuckle together), like he is a close talker, and he always likes to give his advice, and he is competitive. Part of the problem with those habits (except the close talker-ness) is that I have those as well. I think it is a first born thing. But I think part of the disharmony with Ryan and me is that we are a lot alike. And I realize this, most times, as I am bitching about whatever is driving me nuts. But like I said, it is getting better.

Where am I going with all of this? It is looking pretty good like they are going to move into our new neighborhood. MY TURF. Woah, back up. Yes, I was actually thinking that this would be a cool thing a few days ago. I dig Maya (even though she has the audacity to share my birthday) and would like my kids to be close to their cousins. That was until I learned that they were looking at the only house available bigger than ours. UGH! And it just felt deliberate. Ryan called us on Saturday night (as we were leaving to go out; another one of his issues, he has bad timing) and was asking us some questions. Apparently they had been looking at the same builder, but in a different town, and was wondering about price differences, etc. Chad kind of talked to him more about our area/development, and then we offered to go through things with them, if they wanted. That was all we heard.

Then, last night, Chad gets an email from him (another thing, he never calls, always emails! ugh) saying that they are seriously looking at our area and has even been out there twice to talk to the builder. WTF?!? UGH. I go all freaky and call my sis. We discuss pros and cons (Chad brought up some good ones, like if we hang with the neighbors, do we have to always invite them? And when will their parents be moving to the neighborhood now?) and she settles me down. The size thing is bugging me, but I seriously love our house plan the most, so am ok with it.

Then I called Ryan. I just had to know more! We talked for a long time (which is weird!) and it was nice. He said that Maya was really pushing for our area, because in her culture, they are so close (proximity wise especially) with family, and she thinks it would be great to be closer to us (we are about 15 minutes away right now, but with moving, it would be about 30). He also discussed some options they were considering, and I learned that they are probably not going for this "bonus room"!!!! YEAH!! And folks, Denise now takes the lead! Ahhhhh, bliss. When he said that, all the stress flew off of my shoulders. I know, I know, it is sick. And, heck, maybe it wasn't about competition for them. But I know me (which means I kind of know Ryan) and I feel like it is, at least a little bit.

At any rate, they would be a street or three over, which is kind of closer than I would like, but also annoying walking distance (might have to get to know the neighbors so we can cut through). And hey, it might not happen.

****EDITED TO ADD: they are NOT 3 streets over; they are one. And their address is one digit off from ours (granted, on a different street). How many pieces of mail of theirs do you think we are gonna get each day?****