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episode one

Pilot: Between Neighbors

Episode I ยท August 17, 2026 ยท 24 min

Show notes

Welcome to our neighborhood. ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ

In our very first episode, we're introducing ourselves, sharing how Between Neighbors came to be, and giving you a little glimpse into the stories that brought us here. Carly briefly addresses what's going on with her face as she is recovering from Bell's palsy, while Kat opens up about living with MS and why our health journeys ultimately pushed us to start having these conversations out loud.

We also answer a few questions so you can get to know us beyond the diagnoses.

And yes, we've already had a post-recording discussion about talking with our hands and slamming the table. We're working on it. ๐Ÿ˜‚

Consider this your introduction. There's a lot more coming.

Transcript

Generated automatically from the recording, so expect the odd misheard word.

Hello, welcome to Between Neighbors. Well, I think I first need to start out by saying, like, if we put this on TikTok, people are gonna see that, like, my face does not work. It looks so good. Well, it looks a lot better, but you record this. I am.

Oh.

It really does. But I think, like, obviously, I can go into the story, you know, in a future episode, and it does look a lot better, but I'm still only talking predominantly with like one side of my face, which you can see. But again, like I can actually smile now. I'm not like looking like a zombie on half of my phone.

Oh, you never did.

Oh, I did.

I did, but that's okay. I mean, that's all part of the journey, and thank god I don't look as bad as I did.

I still I know, I know it's hard to put yourself in in that position, but I think it looks great.

Yes, so yeah, that's just like a little disclaimer of why I look like an iguana blinking too. Yes, my one eye blinks like three times as much as my other one. I mean, it's fine. So, anyways, welcome to Between Neighbors. Welcome. My name's Carly. My name's Kat. And we're neighbors, yeah, we are and friends, of course. Um, so yeah, should we just tell our audience a little bit about why we're doing this?

I feel like we both came to a point of just having similar things going on and happening and knowing that you have somebody that you can lean on, talk to. Um yeah, so um about 15 years ago, 15, 15 and a half, I was diagnosed with MS. Um, so that's a big thing. I was like 26 years old. Yeah, 26. Um, so it was like a huge like wake-up call, like you're so young. I just had my son, he was about six months old, so there was a lot of like crazy things happening, um, and it really helps you to kind of open your eyes to what matters. Um, I know sometimes you know we joke about it and stuff, like you have to have a sense of humor at the same time. I think humor helps always, so I feel like that's where we bond too, because it's almost like we have like I don't want to say we trauma bonded, but kind of, yeah, yeah. Um, so yeah, but we'll talk more about that too. Um yeah, 15 years, so it's a big thing to deal with. Absolutely.

Yeah, and I and yeah, I know we keep saying like we'll talk about it or whatever, but it really is truly crazy how your life can change overnight. At least for me, it was like I was completely normal Monday and I woke up and half my face did not work.

Right. Where with mine, it was like for years, like something wasn't right. Okay, and then it wasn't until I had my son, I had a C-section, so I'm thinking like, oh, this is something with that. Like, why is my leg numb? Why is this numb? And again, we'll go further into detail, but that was like, okay, something's up, and it's not until you, you know, you go to doctor to doctor that somebody actually listens to you and says it's not all in your head that you actually get heard. I always say you have to advocate for yourself. I know you obviously have been doing it, so that's really great. You know what I mean? Like I'm so proud of you. Um, but yeah, definitely something that um yeah, you don't expect. So, like yours was like overnight, yeah. Mine was just like progressively something, so you just never know.

Right, absolutely, you never know. And maybe we could give a little background. So, Kat and I, we live in a subdivision, and there is probably we have quite a number of younger moms. I I shouldn't say younger because we're kind of I mean, I still think of myself as young. I was like, speak for yourself, but we are young. Okay, like mid-30s, early 40s is like the range of moms. Most of I I should I shouldn't say all moms. There's a couple that do not have kids as well. So just like women um in this neighborhood, and we've all really gotten really close. Um, we have a book club, and for those who can't like see the video, book club is in quotes because it's really just a social couple of hours where we get together.

Well, we don't say no.

Like I didn't read it last time.

That's true. Yes, we get together and we talk, we vent, we bond, all of that. We have a really great group of girls, and that's how we met. Um, and yeah, and then then decided to start this podcast just because we both have gone through and are going through health journeys, and we're both funny and fun.

Of course. And I feel like it always is good to have, I mean, under a different circumstance, right? But you know, the cards are dealt the way they're dealt, so it's kind of like, okay, well, we can do this together and we can talk about you know what's bothering us or you know, your day to day, and and know that you have support, um, which is really helpful too.

Yeah. And as we, as Kat and I talked and brainstormed about like what we wanted this to be, we definitely want to bring like other people in too. Yeah, you know, like we don't want it. Obviously, we want to sit here and talk because we could talk forever about really anything. Um, but we changed from subject to subject, little ADHD, but that'll be an episode coming up, right? Coming soon. But um, we want to bring other people in, and it doesn't necessarily have to be health, um, it can really be like anything. Let's I just want to hear people's stories. I want to talk about people's stories and bond on like more than just surface level, and I think this will be a really cool place to do that.

I agree, and I'm glad that we came to this and that we made it happen.

Yeah, we're doing it. Yeah, why not? Yes, exactly. So, between neighbors, make sure you subscribe and check us out. We're gonna have some awesome content coming soon. This is just the beginning, so I think bear with us. Yeah, bear with us. We're learning. This is literally the first time we've ever done this. No script, yeah. Chat GBT literally just set up our whole settings. These are my brothers from like 10 years ago. Yeah, yeah, and we we have custom sweatshirts. Yes, of course. So, yeah, our first merch. Yeah, more to come. Definitely. Hey, gotta make it happen. Absolutely. Um, but why don't we do like some rapid questions or something like that? Oh my god, yeah. People can get to know us and see if they like us and want to listen, right?

Of course they like us. Hold on, I do have a really great um some questions. We'll just do a few, right? What do you think? Yeah. Okay, how about um coffee or wine? Oh my gosh, that's a hard one. I feel like I know your answer, but like it's hard for me too.

Yeah. But honestly, I've been getting into matcha more. Oh, it tastes like grand. Like the lavender cream matcha. Oh, weird. And like Starbucks? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I know I hate to say that.

They're not sponsoring us, so maybe one day. Soon. Right. Um, really? I feel like it too is like depends on the time of day. Sure, yeah. But I'm like a wine girl at heart. I mean, I like a mamosa in the morning. Not every morning.

Right. But like I like, I actually I like every type of wine. Like I like red, I like white, I like sparkling, I really truly like wine. Wine. Yeah.

Yeah. I love coffee. I feel like wine, secondary coffee, I have to have every really, yes. Like I go to bed thinking about my coffee when I go. So do you make your own coffee? Yes, I have that ninja machine and I love it. So what do you make? Like what I just make regular coffee.

So it's literally like just straight up black coffee that you put stuff in.

I might put a splash of like almond milk, a little fiber, and soluble fiber. It's good for you.

Yeah, and you said you're not old.

I'll just get my own.

You gotta get my fiber in my pocket.

Hey, I got my husband on it too. I'm just doing that's good. And yeah, I don't know. I like that.

Okay, well, there we go.

All right, early, early bird or night owl. I'm definitely early bird. You are, I'm night owl. Like, I love to everyone's asleep, I'm by myself, I'm scrolling TikTok or whatever, sending you memes at 12. I don't know if you see them or not, and like just watching my shows. Really? I love it.

Yeah. See, I am like that, but in the morning. Like, I will get up early. I like schedule send my texts out.

Swear to god. Like, I will literally wake up at 5 a.m. and be like, I need to text XYZ back. I need to like send this text message. So I like I go on the iPhone and I schedule send texts at like an appropriate time.

You are definitely typing and then I'm type B, maybe C. That is amazing.

So I'll schedule send my texts and then be like, okay, and then like once 9 a.m. hits, like all my texts go out, and then you know, yeah.

All right, who is more likely to be late? I feel like we're both on time. I'm like on time. Yeah, today was different because of work circumstances, sure. Sure, yeah. I mean, I don't feel like either of us are like no, I feel like if it says this time, I'm like ready to be there. Like for book club, I'm never late. I feel like I'm always almost the first person.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm probably wanting to leave the house. So that's probably why it's it. Um it says, who is the better neighbor? I don't like that question. Oh my gosh, it's a horror club. What do you mean, better neighbor?

I mean, I'm the president of the HOA.

Does that you want to say that I'm here? Citation. All right. Um, would you rather drain your bank account or have all your texts released? No, no, take my money.

I would release the text. You would? Yeah, I would release the text. Keep your money. I would keep my money. Okay. I mean honestly, I'd do anything. I feel like I don't. I mean, I definitely just talk some shit. But like nothing that I feel like would be detrimental to all the point where like people might be pissed, but it's like, eh, it's probably true. Yeah, whatever.

It's not like breaking the law.

No, I mean, no.

Um,

what is this? Would you rather accidentally like a post from 2016 or call somebody you work with mom? Um, I'm calling somebody mom.

Yeah, 100%. Like that I mean that would be embarrassing in a meeting for sure.

Yeah, but I feel like that's like when you were a kid, and you know, do you ever call your teacher mom on accident?

I haven't, I hadn't, but I had heard like I definitely heard that happening. Our kids doing that, but like liking a post from 2016 is like detrimental. Like, can you imagine? Like, like, like it's tw that's 10 years ago. You've been scrolling for all. So I'm doing it after everyone's in bed and I'm scrolling. Oh, and then getting that notification.

Oh um, would you rather relive high school or relive the first year as a parent? Oh well, come on.

I thought it was yours. You go for I mean, I would for sure go relive high school. Really? A hundred percent. Me too.

You're like, oh, I relive my first year. I mean, my first year as a parent was hard.

Mine was like a diagnosis. Like, I'm sorry, I love my kids, but like I'm not reliving that. True, yes. And now that I think of it, yeah. And honestly, oh god, I worked late all the time, and we lived, I wasn't like that far, but it was like a 30 or so minute drive back and forth. So like I get home and he's like ready for bed. I like kind of missed out.

Oh, okay.

So if I could relive it in a different circumstance, sure, sure. But yeah, now that I think of it, like, yeah.

See, I mine was COVID, it was 2020. Oh, so it was just like I was home all of the time, but we were like locked in home, it was just like a whole thing. So, but high school, oh my gosh, I loved high school. I feel like I'm back in and on kidding. Like in this favorite. I mean, it's oh, because we're back in our hometown. So that's another thing that's interesting. We both did. Yes, we both went to high school here, moved away year we years apart, of course. I'm the older one. Um and then we've now come back to our hometown. Yes, yeah. We both had the same soccer coach, yes, which is crazy.

He's still there, still rocking. Crazy, yeah.

Oh, it's wild. We have some of the same teachers. Oh, yeah. Miss Whacker. And then God bless her. There, yeah, there were some others too. It's just a small world, like coming back. Well, it's a small town, but also like coming.

Okay, it is small, but it's not like small. Right.

Like, what are the chances that I'm in the si I came in this neighborhood? I mean, you guys were all here already. Yeah. And then it was just like, oh, you know, so and so, and like our other neighbor, I lived, her aunt lived behind me in my old town, which was like an hour away from here. So it's just a small world. Yes. Did you want to talk about the kids? Like how many you have? Um, sure. I mean, we can. That's part of our thing too, is that we're still cool. Right. We're the cool moms.

My son is like, get out of here. Don't say my shit.

I had that first moment, and he's five years old. I was dropping him off at summer camp and I was like giving him a hug and a kiss, and then he's like, I said something, I said like Caden, he's like, Mom, don't do that. You know, like in front of his friends.

And I'm like, Oh, he's fine. Like around eight, nine, they don't want you like near them. But then like they do behind the scenes. Yeah. It's gonna get worse.

It's interesting because I feel like boys and girls are so different, and I have both, and I feel like the girls are very lovey and cuddly and like whatever, and now my son is getting to a place where he's more like I'm cool, I'm sports cool, you know?

Yeah, and I'm like, I please you have even my dog is a boy, so surrounded by men. I have two boys, and then you have a boy and two girls. Yeah, yeah.

And mine are older, high school and middle school. Oh my god, starting middle school.

Where my oldest is just starting kindergarten, yeah, which is crazy to think about. It goes so fast though.

Oh, yeah, I can't believe it. Even my son was like, I can't believe I'm gonna be, you know, already halfway through high school. And I'm like, you can't believe it. And I can't believe it.

I'm still 26.

I know.

I know it's like now we're the adults. Sometimes when my son is like, mommy, this or mommy that, I'm like, yeah, I'm the mom. Like I have to make these decisions, like I have to be the responsible one, yes, which is crazy to think about.

Oh my god.

I mean, I you kind of just like naturally step in the role, I feel like, but when you really take a step back and think about it, it's just interesting. I don't know. Yeah, because you mentally like, yes, you're older and more mature, and like we both are like working moms too. That's another thing, but I still feel like a kid at heart sometimes.

100%. Like sometimes I feel like should I not be doing this? Like, I'm too old. But then I'm like, no, because that's another thing. It's all mind over matter, and that also comes along with like health and stuff like that. Yeah. I feel like if you keep your like you think young, you will feel and be young.

Yeah, oh, I agree. Especially when having an illness, going through an illness. It's so easy to like play like almost like that victim card or like pour me and get into like that mentality.

100%. And you just can't. I oh my god, I this could be a whole episode. There's so much out there. I had to like I had to leave like groups on Facebook for moms with MS or certain medications that people take, and you join like a Facebook group, and I had to just leave because I'm like, yo, I don't know if I'm just delusional or it's a good thing that I am the way I am, because some of the people I'm like and everything with that, everybody's different, right? It's it's like a snowflake disease, no, no person has the same symptoms or anything like that. But some of the stuff I'm like you're gonna make yourself more miserable reading these things. It's just so much of the negativity, you know. People are already having a hard time like coping or dealing with it to then add like fear, that's what it is, like the fear-mongering. Yeah, it was a lot of that, and so I just I had to leave. And sometimes that's the best thing you do is just leave.

Yeah, I like I can relate in sometimes with like the Facebook groups because this is a little different though. My last pregnancy, and I'll talk about this in like a future episode. Um, I was pregnant with twins and I lost one at like yeah, 12 and a half weeks.

Oh my god, yeah.

So I can tell like a whole story about that, like what happened and whatnot. But I joined a bunch of like vanishing twin, um, these miscarriage groups, but then like I was seeing all this stuff that was just like making me feel bad about everything, and especially like within the miscarriage ones, like really devastating stories where I almost felt like I don't feel worthy because I'm still carrying like a healthy baby, and this is my first experience with like that loss after having like two healthy babies, and so while it was like very upsetting and sad, at the same time, it was like I just need to leave this and proactively looking at positive things to grow this healthy baby that I have left. Definitely, I didn't know that that happened to you too, though.

Yeah, that was but the like I always had like my cycle kind of off. So where I thought I was eight weeks and you go for your visit, I think I was like five or six. Okay, and so at that point it showed it, but one it looked like there was no yoke. Okay, okay, so then the doctor was like, Okay, it it shows two, but I wouldn't, you know, wait, like you know, wait, yeah. Of course I would wait, right? And then the next time we went, it was that like it just gets absorbed, yeah. Like there was no yoke sack okay for it. Yeah, yeah, my colleagues.

Yes, like I saw him, I like saw heard his heartbeat. Yes, yeah, yeah, little boy, yeah. And I'll talk about that in um in like another episode of like how I found out, like what happened, like then like they don't do anything because they want your other baby to be healthy, so like I carried like one demised twin for like the rest of my pregnancy, too. And then I had like some complications like giving birth because of it. I mean nothing big, but again, like I that will be a whole story time, yeah. So yeah.

Wow.

Well, and you have them back to back, right? Back to back, yeah.

I was literally

the day after your visit you got pregnant? A four months postpartum. Oh, okay. So not too bad because they're a year and one month, like but I was literally like interviewing au pairs, like I went through a full au pair process because I'm like, how am I gonna have a one-year-old, a three-year-old, and two twin babies? Like, I'm gonna lose my mind. Yeah, I need help, right? So, like, I like was there were two like South African women that were like in the running and they were gonna come. We were finishing the basement, they were gonna live with us and help me raise these kids.

Wow, this is your old house or here. Oh my god, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I wasn't here yet. Oh, okay. Like I just came, really. Wow.

Yeah, 2024 is when I had her June. So yeah. On that note, um, so yeah, this is our podcast, right? Um, we're not sure of like the cadence, or are we? How often are we doing these episodes?

I don't know. I think we'll figure it out.

Yeah, we'll figure it out.

I think our website, I think it says something like I think it does say Thursdays.

Oh, okay. So every Thursday. But I don't know. We already have at least like four different episodes like locked in.

Yeah, so we'll have an option or opportunity for our followers uh once they get them to go on and ask us questions, whether it's about your health, something you're going through that you want to get our opinion on, or just ask us directly. Um, it it will say like waiting by the fence. I believe that's what it says. Oh, cool. And then you can join. So it's off right now until we get that up and running, and then you'll send it and we can actually view it as we are live to answer.

Yeah, and our website is between dash neighbors.com. So check it out. Um, and yeah, we'll have a Facebook Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. So follow us. Absolutely follow us, and yeah, we're hoping to make this a great success.

Oh, of course.

It's always good to have a community, an outlet, like really like a good outlet. So we're hoping to bring like again on some good people to to talk through things, and we have some ideas. Yeah. So stay tuned. Stay tuned, like and subscribe. Yeah, click. See you next time on Between Neighbors.

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