Sigh...

I appreciate having a roof over our head(I really do).I even love our 658 square foot apartment.Though small it has many nice features.A ceiling fan for one thing.It also has a small patio out back and a laundry room within it's small walls which houses our second hand laundry set.I love not having to go to a laundromat.But one of the huge pitfalls we've discovered since living here for a year and a half is the neighbors.There many rude neighbors.Sad but true.People who are well old enough to know better have littered our front door area with their dropped cigarette butts;they have even dropped them from the floors above onto our daughter's head and left burn marks in the rug we use to wipe our feet before entering what should be our refuge.Then there are the neighbors just to the west of us who play their stereo so loud at all hours our bedroom walls vibrate with the sound of their"rap **ap."It would bother me if it was country or heavy metal as well.The point is not the type of music but the volume level at which they play it and the time frames.I do not think they work so it is not an issue of them getting off work and unwinding at 2 AM!But early this morning(sometime after 1 AM)really won the rudeness prize.I was awakened from a sound sleep to the sound of my husband having to shout(and shine a flashlight at 3 small children out in the night playing in the sprinklers just outside our bedroom window.They were all about 10-12 years old.No adults in sight and they were laughing and shouting and generally making a huge racket.He shouted more than once for them to go away and they finally did.Sadly in the time we have lived here I have had to e-mail the office's on-site management far more often than I felt I should have to.We have even had to call the police a few times.And then are the times we have close up all our windows on even nice days like today as the neighbors are all out smoking and I am coughing like crazy which annoys my husband.It's times like this I wish we were living our dream of life in the country away from neighbors of any kind.And in a place with enough land to grow some fruits and veggies.Nothing like apartment life with rude neighbors to turn us into a couple of misanthropes.:-)We both long to live in a place where all we hear at night is the sounds of crickets.Sounds nice,doesn't it?Makes me sigh with longing.Perhaps one day God will grant us the desires of our heart on this.:-)Until then I shall continue to be grateful I have a roof over my head.
Blessings~Sharon