A Weekend of Girls

As I mentioned in a post last week, this past weekend I had a wonderful time visiting and reconnecting with some wonderful friends--Heather, Sherry and Amy are all sisters and my sister, Ruthie. Ruthie had meant to come be with us on Friday evening for the "sleepover" we were to be having, but due to being sick was not able to do so. :( However, she did make it Saturday morning and stayed all day, leaving all too soon after supper.

I tire easily so I had been mentally preparing for a weekend of being tired and busy. But, I don't know why I was worried. I should've known I would not be left to do it all on my own and these dear women all helped with everything, including helping me sift through all of my baby clothes to find anything that could be worn by a boy! What a blessing!!!

We spent our time talking, talking and talking some more. It had been years, as I mentioned in my previous post, and all we wanted to do, I believe, was talk. We laughed a ton too! :) We laughed and laughed and laughed. :) It was so refreshing, encouraging, uplifting. I think we all needed it and we were not happy to part ways, though I know they all missed their kiddos and hubbies! :)

We parted with promises of doing this at least once a year, and I hope we can see each other more often than that! :) We shall see, life happens and marches on, but I do believe we will make great efforts to not let more than a year go between visits.

The photo above is 1 of 5 I got. I mean, honestly, we were "just" talking and that's not interesting to anyone else! :) But, that's OK. We have scads of ridiculous and silly photos in our archives, so it was A-OK to not add to those. :)

I love these women. They have each had a part in shaping me and making me into who I am today. I hope you, too, are blessed to have friends like these. If you do, treasure them for they are treasures!

A Week of Preparation

I am so excited for this week!!!! I have a lot to get done, and I'm so excited to get to it! You see, I have 3 of my longest and dearest friends coming to visit me! Actually, four, because my sister will be here too. When we lived in Africa there was a family there with 4 kids, 3 of whom were girls. The oldest daughter--Heather--is about 3 years older than me, the next--Sherry--is my age and bestest friend and their "little" sister--Amy--is a year older than my sister and one of Ruthie's best friends! We did a lot of hanging out, playing, swimming, sleeping over at each other's houses when we were but mere kids! When we all returned to the USA (them to PA and us to OH) we stayed in touch with many letters (this was before the age of email), phone calls and visits. Our parents burned a lot of rubber on the turnpike! We have been in each other's weddings, have rejoiced at the birth of each child (there are 18 kids btwn all of us--when our wee babe is born, that is!) and cried at the loss of children and other family members. We have always been there for each other and God has blessed these friendships. It's amazing that we have stayed so close. Heather moved to CA shortly after she got married and so visits to her took us out to sunny CA--which wasn't much of a sacrifice for us if we decided to go during the winter. :) Her sister, Sherry moved to NY after getting married, and Amy has stayed in PA.

As though these reasons aren't enough to be excited to see each other, why am I so excited??? Well, because, sadly, it's been a long time since I've seen them all since adulthood. I haven't seen Heather in 10 years! I haven't seen Amy since my sister's wedding (almost 7 years ago!) and Sherry since my own wedding (5 years). I can not wait to see all of them! They'll all be coming without kids, except Amy, who just had baby #5 and she needs to be with mommy still! My sister will be joining us for the giant sleep over on Friday, and I'm sure we'll stay up way too late, laugh until we cry and just have so much to say we won't have any idea what exactly we're all saying! David will be gone at a conference Fri and Sat, but he's not too sad to be missing the extreme influx of estrogen that will descend on his home! :) He will, however, have to endure a little bit Sat night and Sunday. :)

I'll be sure to post photos after our visit. I'm just so excited!!!!!!