Friends

I have been aware again this Christmas and New Year's Season of how blessed I am to have the most wonderful friends in the entire world. (I would like to break for a moment and tell those reading that as I sit here and write this my wonderful children are cleaning my house...J.D. vacuuming and Emily mopping...crazy but wonderful.) So back to my friends. This season John and I have been very busy catching up with friends, doing fun things, and have literally received call after call about hanging out....tonight my two best friends are coming to my house. Rebecca has cooked lentil soup ....she says it is a sign of prosperity for the new year...John is a little concerned about it so he is also grilling sausage to go with. Amanda is bringing dessert and I am making the sides. I have known Amanda well as long as I can remember.....since the first grade. We have great memories and more than I could even write about. Amanda met Rebecca in the 10th grade at Leon High. I didn't go to the same high school but Amanda and I remained friends and then she introduced me to Rebecca. Rebecca and I hit it off the minute we met and we have been the best of friends since. The three of us did everything in high school together, went to Bible Study together although we all went to different churches, talked, hung out, dated friends, went to concerts...etc. We then all went to TCC and to FSU. I seemed to be the one that always knew what I wanted right off, I went to nursing school, dated my high school sweetheart all through college, married him after college, and was pregnant by our second year of marriage. Amanda and Rebecca are both married but have not started families yet. They are so wonderful to always include my kids. Rebecca has taught my children music. Amanda has babysat and cooks with them. My kids love both of them. They are the type of friends that I can go sometimes two weeks without talking to and then pick up right back where we left off.....They truly are what kept me (and John) out of trouble.

Over the years I have had more great friends. John and I were in the youth group at church and our youth pastor and his wife were some of our best friends and still are. They too kept us out of trouble and were wonderful mentors to us even though they weren't much older. David and Debi had us over for dinner ALL the time while John and I were in College. We were over at their house hanging out, eating or talking. We went on trips together and even visited them in Memphis on our honeymoon. David has been an excellent mentor for John and someone to look up to and trust. David dedicated both our children at church, they were in our wedding, and have been there for every major occasion. David even escorted John to shands during his cancer treatment. We have some really great memories with them...vacations and all. Now we have kids and today actually got together for our kids to play at the playground.

John and I have been blessed to have other friends that we have known since we were dating...that too kept us out of trouble. We all had the same values, went to church together, wanted to do the right thing....I truly believe that this is the reason I was able to walk through the college years and come out with very little regret. Brian, Amy, Daniel, Eric are just to name a few (all were in our wedding). John still goes on a "guys trip" with the guys every year which to me is the best medicine for a man. He gets to relax and regroup with guys that have known him for forever. Amy and some of the other girls I have talked about go on a girls trip and have the same kind of bonding. Jeff and Harriet and Kim and Rusty joined our little group and all of us have gone our different ways, different Churches, even different towns but love each other just the same......we have gone vacationing together, shared hurts together, had children at the same time, shared joys together, kept each other accountable and just had fun. I was so sad when Harriet and Jeff moved away b/c John and I had just moved into their neighborhood. Harriet and I would always babysit last minute for each other. But even though we don't see each other as much we have been able to keep in touch and talk and visit one another. Even went on an amazing ski trip with them last year. Her and Jeff are great couple friends in that we have a lot in common, struggles and all! I love having friends that I can say I have known for 15 years or more! John was recently updating his resume and the names he put on his reference list were names of people he had known for 15-20 years. These are men that he really knows, talks to, and hold him accountable!

More recently I met my friend Ann who I actually probably see the most out of all the above people. I was so glad to find a friend that had girls....all the rest of my friends had had boys and Emily was the only princess! Emily and Katie and Olivia hit it off immediately. Then I had John Daniel and she had Cooper. This is John Daniel's best friend. Now Ann has Elle and I am about to have a little girl. It all works out perfectly. Ann and I probably have the closest schedule to one another and our girls do ballet. Ann is different than my other friends in that we didn't grow up together...we met each other as women and moms but we have bonded and find it easy to talk to one another. We share the fact that our husbands both work shift work which is something most people can't comprehend. Ann is fun and spunky and a very real and honest person. Very good to talk to!

I wasn't going to get so personal in this post...thought I'd just talk about how blessed I am to have such good friends but I love sharing about my amazing friends. I have been called a "goodie two shoes" (even was awarded this award at my 8th grade band banquet) and have been asked how I kept out of trouble and stuck with the straight and narrow for the most part in high school and college....well other than my faith and my parents...this is it...FRIENDS! They kept me on track, prayed for me, held me accountable, attended Bible Study with me, were there when John and I were dating, and to this day ask me how I am doing and really mean it! Recently Ann and I in our Bible Study that we are doing together read in Psalms about encouraging your friends and this can mean doing it sternly...I am so thankful for my friends that have done this! When praying for my children this is probably, other than their salvation, what I pray for the most..their friendships. I know from experience it is such an important part of growing up and as I now am in my thirties...growing still!