School Days....

I still have many more things to share while I was away from blog land......but today I will wait and instead say this.....

After home schooling for 12 years, it is now day 2 of my girls being in high school full time.
How do I feel? That is a good question. A question that I don't know if I am ready to answer.

I believe whole heartedly that even though it is a very overwhelming adjustment for them...they will be just fine. Adapting to crowded halls, angst teens, and multi tasking schedules is all part of the "right of passage" to growing up. In a short amount of time, those crazy schedules will be old hat to them and they will know all the secret short cuts around what I am told is the biggest school in Oregon.

As for me.....I am getting my walking in (I did 4 miles this morning) so that feels good. I was able to blog visit today and that is an accomplishment. And I am doing little projects around the house.

But I don't feel that I am really here. It is like I am not thinking and just watching me next to myself.
It will take me a while.

It is funny because I have a few well intentioned friends that have posed the thought, "Hey now that you have all this free time we can go for coffee, lunch, shopping, you can volunteer for this, and I need...........blah blah blah.

I have skirted around it all and not committed to a single thing. I don't want to be busy. I don't want to obligate to anything. I don't want someone else to plan my time. I know that I will eventually become busy...but those are my choices to make.

Don't worry. I am not angry. I just feel a small voice rising in my as I write this wanting to say, "Tout le monde!" (is that right Kitem?)

Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings.....

As this summer has progressed, I have been earning a grand set of memories to carry around. At the same time though, the past couple of weeks has found me in an emotional funk. It is frustrating because it is a mismatch of silly feelings that drive me crazy. You know, all of those little things that pile up and like to play a continual game of tag in your mind.

Feelings....didn't Barbara Streisand sing a song about them?
If it were not for the ever present guidance and comfort from God, I would spiral into who knows what. Truly, He has the guidance and strength, comfort and wisdom to completely lift this off of me.....and yet I am here because I keep holding on to the junk. Why not simply let go and deal with the things that I can deal with? Why make things so difficult?

Feelings are so erratic and non dependable. On the one hand, it is the ruling guide to love and happiness. It is how we passionately find that knight in shining armor, swim in the peaceful love of a child's embrace, and smile at treasured moments. We can intuitively know whom to trust and which door to walk thru because of our gut emotional feelings. And yet on the other hand, our feelings are what get us into trouble with fits of jealousy, rage, selfishness, and doubt.

I know I must balance my feelings with wisdom and judgement. It is the only way that the scales work correctly.
Maybe if I voice my swirls here it will help to get rid of things. That is one reason why I started this blog....to dare to give voice to myself for myself.

~~~~
I feel silly and ridiculous. After all that has happened here with the dogs, my heart started changing here when we had Trixie for a week. We are still in the same position....it is not financially the right time for a dog, yet I find myself looking thru the ads a few times a week hoping that someone will be giving up the dog that I want. I have names and everything picked out. I have things planned in my head that would make you laugh and label me as one of those wierd pet people. Meanwhile, I want to slap myself and say, "get over yourself girl. Now is not the time so stop pining over something that can't be".

***
I wish I could pick up the people that are dearest to me and hold them in a protective shield. I want to stomp my feet at the hurts and yell that it is not fair. And yet, I know that they have their things to learn and grow in and I must not rob them of that.

***
I really want a new camera. Again...slap slap get over yourself and stop being so centered. Now is not the time. It is like a song I hear on the radio station here. I have no idea who sings it but the beginning verse says, "Selfish heart when did you become the center of the universe?" I can totally own and relate to that song.

***
I have now found myself in a precarious position. This fall my girls will be venturing into regular high school instead of me home schooling them. It sounds though like I may still be home schooling someone else's daughter. I keep yo-yo-ing back and forth on this in my mind and I need to just sit and talk with her parents about it....when they come back from vacation. On the one hand, I gave my word 2 years ago that I would school her with my own girls thru high school. My word is important to me. My word is my honor, like a pulse, truth spoken, (wow is it character or a root of pride?) But on the other hand, we didn't know then that our girls would be going to regular high school. If I stick to my word and continue her education while her parents work simply because I made a vow...aren't I taking away their responsibility and robbing them of the 'next step opportunities'?

***
I know this is really silly, but I am realizing that I miss the rain. I know...dumb. I am loving the weather right now. We are having warm pleasant days with cool evenings. How much more perfect could the weather be? I know to be grateful and treasure each season. I know that we could live somewhere else and deal with floods, or tornadoes, or earthquakes. My husband served enough tours in Saudi Arabia and Puerto Rico that I know the stifling heat and lack of water our soldiers face. I know the season here will change soon enough and we will have rain every day. And yet I am realizing that I long to hear the sound of droplets drumming on the roof, smell the smell of dust washing away, and feel the splash run down my body.

~~~
It is okay, I am okay. This 'season' too will shift. It is a guarantee. I will get over myself and look to important things, real things, things that don't start with the word "I". Like I said, maybe putting it all to keyboard will help me let go.

I have been stuck on auto-pilot this week. My mind and thoughts are missing writing/blogging but at the moment I have been pre-occupied.

Pre-occupied with what you ask? Well now that we have a new water heater in place, praise God!!! (and thanks to my brother-in-law who is a plumbing parts delivery driver), I have been catching up on the laundry.



Plus with my in-laws coming into town tonight, I have been making sure the house is up to snuff.
No, the pressure isn't from them. They are so great and my mother-in-law is one of my biggest cheerleaders in understanding my time limits. I do the pressure myself because I want everything just right.

Tonight, we have 11 family members coming over for dinner. For some, that is a cake walk to prepare for and for others it is a huge amount to feed. I tend to sit right in the middle. I find it works best to simply not think about it and have fun.

The menu tonight is spagetti.....

and home made bread.

In the midst of preparing the above, below is a sample of one of the things I taught today....

-2X + 8 = -X + 2

Can you solve it?

What I Shared....

Standing up and sharing with the youth about some of my high school experiences ended up being an impacting time for me....and I think for them as well. I won't go into the whole evening here for the sake of......well I spoke for 45 minutes so I guess respecting your blog reading time would be the factor. Instead I will share with you a smaller section now and maybe another tomorrow.

~~~
This is the way I remember it........
When I was 13, my parents separated and then later divorced. I remember getting up to get ready for school one morning and my parents had my little brother and I sit down on the couch for a family talk. They said that Dad was moving out but that we didn't need to worry. He would still be around and we would be able to spend lots of time with him. Above all we were told to keep in mind that what was happening was not our fault and we were greatly loved.
Then they asked if we had any questions or had anything we wanted to say.
We didn't. My parents had always done a great job of protecting us from their frustrations and heart breaks, but we knew anyway. We just wanted them to be happy. And frankly, between Dad having to devote much of his time to work and the fact that he wasn't an emotionally expressive man....living at home with just mom didn't appear to look much different.

When school got out for the summer, my mom, brother, and I moved across the country to Oregon to live with and to care for my Nana. I started high school that year. (Ah, that time when all tweens and teens really struggle with their identity. Does anyone NOT look back and shudder at that time of their lives?)

Up until that point I had been an awkward freckle-faced red-head with glasses. Wearing thick glasses and dealing with a bit of childhood asthma left me with a huge sense of 'no coordination'. There was not a single sport that I could even pretend to do. Those kinds of circumstances just beg for name calling in the elementary school world. Most frequently, I was named Pippi Longstocking by my peers. Of course, the name was solely because of my red hair and not because of the strength and individuality that Pippi was known for.
Today I laugh and think it is so not a big deal, but as a budding adolesent, it was awful! So, I looked at the move as a new lease on life. No longer was I going to be around anyone that knew me as being backwards or dorky or un-cool.

I decided to do what society told me to do…..look like everyone else. I got my hair styled, I took full advantage of my Nana wanting to shower me with love by buying all new clothes, I learned how to wear makeup. and then I casually “lost” my glasses. I was so blind that I couldn’t see what I looked like without them, but I just knew that not having glasses was an important factor to really being liked and popular in high school.

I tried everything, and I really do mean everything, that I thought would make me popular and give me a new life. I soon learned though that a strategy like that will backfire in your face. I earned a reputation and that reputation grew bigger than me. Not only was I labeled for things that I had done but I was labeled for things that I had not done. You know, that is how things go. One person says something about someone else and pretty soon the talk of the town is larger than truth.

Halfway thru my 9th grade year, I figured I just didn’t even need to bother anymore. I had no goals, things weren’t working out the way I had wanted them to, I was always grounded, and I had a 1.57 accumulative GPA. I decided it would be easier to just stop living. I had thoughts like, “if I die then all the people who didn’t bother to care might care. Maybe if I could look down in the sky and see all the people at my funeral, that would bring me satisfaction."

I know, you are shocked at my thought process. There is no logic in it and revolves totally around my selfish moments...but that is where I was at. I was bored with myself and couldn't see past the end of my own nose.

So, one night before bed, I decided to swallow a whole bottle of Tylenol. Maybe you laugh at that, but I thought I was doing a brave thing. I awoke during the night to my mom and step-dad wanting to talk with me. She had found a letter that I had written to a friend and left on the bathroom counter. I had written it to be a suicide note, but I had worded it so vague that it sounded like I was just going away. Of course, my mom wanted to know where in the world I was going and talked to me thru half the night about getting my life straight. Didn't I know how much I was loved?

I sat there on the floor, respectfully listening….because that is what I was taught to do. But inside I thought, why am I not dead? I had no stomach pains, no dizziness, nothing that I thought I should be doing after taking a bottle of pills. I thought, good grief! I am so pathetic! I can’t even do that right!

Little did I know how greatly God was watching over me, before I even paid Him any attention. Let’s jump forward for a minute to 13 years later and I'll explain why I say that........

I was sitting at home and talking on the phone trying to encourage a friend whose grand daughter was in ICU for taking too much Tylenol. I thought it was really an odd thing to be in ICU for. I mean, I should know right? So I asked her respectfully what the problem was. My friend said that though Tylenol can be a great thing for helping headaches and pains, if taken in too big of a dose, it makes the internal organs weep of blood. There are no holes for a doctors to plug. The person simply bleeds internally and the doctors can do nothing about it. They stand by helplessly watching and monitoring, hoping that the body can filter out the abundance of poison before it gives up.

So here I am trying to console my friend and pray with her because her grand daughter matters, while on the inside I am freaking out thinking, “I shouldn't be here right now! I could have never had my family, never been a mommy, never moved on and experienced all of the wonderful things that I have experienced! God I know you have always cared for me but I had no idea how you protected me when I didn’t even give you the time of day!”

~~~

At this point in my sharing, I branched off into some different things that flowed with the moment. But for your sake, I am sure you would like a bit more closure to this part of the story......

~~~

So back to me sitting there on the floor, absorbed in self and failure while listening to my mom. I sat there for so long that my legs had completely fallen asleep. I didn't say a word to my mom about the things going on in my head or what I had just done. Instead, I angelicly convinced her that I had indeed heard her words and needed to go to bed so I could be a good student at school the next day. She then gave up and consented for our talk to be finished.


As I was standing up, my sleeping legs failed me and I started to buckle to the floor. Instantly my mom and step-dad were at my side to catch me. Mom looked into my eyes, with tears falling down her face she said, "See, we are here for you. We always will be. You never have to feel like you are doing things alone."

Something clicked in my head and thought process after that. I couldn't tell you if it was that pivitol moment or a build up of a series of things. But, I slowly started thinking over time that if I couldn't do bad things well then I might as well try to do good things well.

I didn't get it all right emediately. Really, no one ever gets it ALL right ever. But here I am today so grateful that God had other plans for a selfish little girl.

Oh and that pathetic GPA my freshman year.....
I graduated high school with a scholarship for "Most Improved Student" with a 3.57 accumulative GPA.

Love In The Cobwebs...

I was digging through an old box last night. It's a square foot locker type of box that was given to me when I was a young teen. Throughout high school, I had placed all sorts of trinkets, mementoes, love letters, and pictures into it. I don't know what drew me to move things around in the closet and fish it out. Maybe it was that I had the time to do it. My husband was out of town for work and the three kids were in the living room watching tv. Maybe the news of my upcoming 20 year high school reunion, that I refuse to attend, made me a bit melancholy.

As I was looking through it all last night, some of it made me smile...like the squished and dry corsage from my first prom. Some of it made me shudder...like an envelope of drawings from a old psychotic-stalker boyfriend (no really he was quite scary and threatening). Then some of it puzzled me as to the significance. You know, those things that we think we will always remember and then don't because we mature and life goes on.

Amongst all the memories and dusty cobwebs, I found this card (pictured above). I don't recall when or where I became the owner of it. The small copyright in the bottom left corner has a date of 1982. According to that date, that would place me at 11 years of age. Other circumstances and memories though, tell me that it came into my possession later in life. On the backside of this card is a small stamped price of 49 cents. In the middle of the card, I recognize my high school handwriting. It was a small and delicate script that I had an admitted personal pride over. (I certainly don't take the time to write in such a way these days.)

I had written in light pencil, maybe so it would not be readily noticeable to whomever came into my room, a list of 5 names from my high school life.

1. an old boyfriend. Actually, the first that I thought I was forever in love with. We dated for 2 whole years. It seemed like an eternity to my young ideals. I ended it when he said he had met a new girl and after knowing her for 7 days, he couldn't decide who he loved more...her or me. I told him I would be glad to solve his dilemma and never spoke to him again.
2. names two and three were a couple of friends that I idolized. As high school sweethearts they were convinced that as soon as school and civil law would allow them, they would be married and their love would feed and clothe their family and hold them together through any trial the world threw their way. As a group we all worshiped how perfect their relationship seemed to be. We even all met out in on the back cross-country track one day and performed a mock wedding ceremony for them just to see the stars shine in their eyes.
3. a cousin that lived close by. For some reason there was always a love/hate rivalry between us. Things were always really good or really bad and it killed me. We were family after all.
4. the last name was my mom. As some stories can go, I was a teen that created lots of waves in the home while I was trying to figure out who in the world I was going to be on a day to day and hour by hour basis. Even still, my earlier up bringing had taught me to always be aware of how others were feeling. So, despite my desire to want to be a horrid selfish girl....I still saw the cyclone that I caused.

As an adult, those are the things that I remember now. What possessed me back then to create that list? Why were those the names that stuck out instead of others? I can't answer those questions because I am not that scared and unsure 15 year old girl any longer.

Since last night, this card has caught my attention several times. I like what it has to say. The characteristics of love keep striking a chord in me and it makes me smile.

• It reminds me of relationships that I have had the pleasure of having in the past and those that I do have now.
• It makes me think of what the future holds unbeknownst to me.
• As I read between the lines, I recognize the strength and faith that it takes to be a parent.
• The words themselves do not speak the name of God, but it's verse completely embodies the wonderful FATHER that I know and speak to every day.

I guess sometimes it is good to look back over the past.

Quotable Ben Franklin...

Yes even on my day off, I think about school.

We have been studying the founding of this country for the past couple of months and just finished up a study on Ben Franklin. You know, as a kid, I thought history was so very boring. I would memorize whatever I had to just to make it thru the test and then promptly hit that metal delete button as soon as I turned the paperwork in. Now a days though, I can't get enough of history. I still don't remember it all very well, but I find it amazingly interesting.
I wonder why that is?......
Maybe since I am geared to be a romantic, I find the integrity and honor of yester-year to be so much more inspiring than the current society days I live in. I am sure there is more drawing me than that. But it is the first thing that comes to my mind.

I have been looking over the livable quotes of Benjamin Franklin lately and I find them to be a great array of rules to live by. Some are humorous and goofy while others could really make a differnce in today's society if they were paid attention to. You can find his list at this site.
Though they all make me smile, here are a few that I find of personal benefit:

• Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
• Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
• Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
• Silence is not always a sign of wisdom but babbling is ever a folly.

This is my current favorite...

If you would not be forgotten when you are dead and rotten,

either write things worthy of reading or do things worth the writing.

Thank you Mr. Franklin.

Reprieve....

Today is a holiday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be exact.

With being a home schooler, and also in the past with running a small school, I have had the fun task of choosing what days we take off and what days we stay open for education. This is a day that I have always labeled as a school day, not to be disrespectful in any way mind you. I simply choose to press forward with school.

The students have always grumbled to me, "The public school kids get to sleep in today. It's just not fair."

My reply has always been the same so they can quote me verbatim now. "If the good Dr. has the ability to look down from heaven at this very moment, he is blessed and honored that you have chosen his special day as one of higher education instead of slothfulness."

Ah, then how much was their surprise last night when I declared that today would be a free day. See, we had a notice posted on our door last night that the water utilities will be turned on and off all day long for maintenance inspecting. I decided that it would be too difficult to run classes without proper restroom and kitchen facilities.

So, in a new way for us today, Dr. Martin Luther King, we honor you.

Where Is My Brain....

This morning I had stopped at the grocery store to pick up more bread and milk. As I walked out in the parking lot with my two bags of groceries and came close to the car, I hit the unlock button on the key chain remote. I heard the "beep-beep" sound that had become familiar to my ears and went to grab the handle on the back door. It was still locked. "Hmmm....that is odd" I thought. "It must be time to replace the battery."

I hit the buttons again, this time locking first and then unlocking. My reasoning was that at closer range the system would be able to cycle through and perform to the complete function it was designed for. I noticed that the familiar "beep-beep" sound seemed far away. "Strange..."

I grabbed the handle again. It still didn't work. Because my mind tracks ahead 100 miles an hour forward in time to a million hypothetical things, I began thinking about all of the situations that could happen if I could not actually get in the car and drive home.
-the milk would spoil
-my math students would be waiting for me
-"Pippin" would get no lunch today since it was in my hand
-I would be stuck in the rain
-who would pick the kids up from school
-now I can't work at the office this afternoon

*Notice my brain went so far ahead that I never thought about the obvious.

Instead, I tried the button cycle one more time. ( no really I did ) There was the "beep-beep" so far away again. Slowly recognition crept across my mind and then my face. If only someone would have had a camera fixed on me at that moment, we could have tried out for that funny home video show on tv. I slapped my knee and blushed as I hit the button again to follow the sound to MY car.

My excuse? Everyone has an excuse, so here is mine.....
It is my mom's car. We have been hosting Japanesse exchange students this week. My mom and I traded cars to give me the seating capacity I needed ( my parents are the best! ). So, in the suburban area I live in, those big white Ford Expeditions are everywhere.

Bonjour......

Last night my "Pippin" and I had our first French class at the college. We aren't taking a college level credit type class, but a continuing educations class. (It is more cost effective to start out that way. Hmmm.... $62 or $300).

Since my father made the military his career for 26 years and my mother grew up in theWestern Pacific Rim and Hawaii, I am pretty familiar with the asian and polynesian cultures. However, I have always been attracted and curious about the french. It is such a beautiful language and an expressively passionate culture.

I am really excited to try and do this class. I know it is alot to bite off with my schedule and season of life, but I think I can accomplish something this term. "Pippin" and I will be able to study together and that should made learning a bit more easy.

For now, I will bid you au re voir.

See You At The Pole....

Today is: "See You at the Pole" day.

When I first heard of this day, it brought images to my mind of voting and filling out ballots. However, this day is actually about something entirely different. It is not political, but a matter of the heart.

What It Is: This is a time where youth who have a heart for Jesus Christ are encouraged to meet around their school flagpole before morning classes begin.

The Goal: to metaphorically (and physically if they want to) link arms together in encouragement to
1) pray for their school and classmates
2) pray for their teachers
3) pray for their city
4) pray for the nation
5) pray for each other

My daughter, Pippin, asked me to stay this morning and take pictures of the event. It was so encouraging for me to watch these kids, I counted 15 of them, stand up for their belief system. (I never had courage to do such a thing when I was that age.)
They sang songs of praise to God, shared their favorite Bible passages, told inspiring stories, and prayed.

Thank you Lord God.

Counting Blessings...

Nothing I write here this evening would make anyone say......
"Shazam and Great Scott! What an amazing post! I must share this with all of my friends and keep them in the know."

Instead this is simply for my own purpose. Several sweet and encouraging blessings have happened over the weekend and I don't want them erased from my mind by the ravages of the continued ticking clock of life.

1) I have now made it through the first week and a half of school. I think we might actually be having some fun too. Seriously, all of the students are doing great and trying to comprehend the new concepts I throw their way. There are only minor groans as I hand out assignments of essays to be written and algebra to be learned.

2) Our Saturday youth fun event was a success. I was really starting to worry by Friday night. It was my job to organize the long sought after Capture the Flag event. Even though I heard all summer long from the youth as to how desperate they were to play it, I couldn't get any commitments out of them for who would actually attend. This made planning carpools and food quite a headache for me and I feared the game would be a flop. Ultimately that little voice in my head was saying it would flop because of me. Why do I ever give that little voice the time of day? We had a turn out of 26 youth all decked out in camo gear and recon equipment. It was a huge success and today they showed off their blackberry bush battle wounds proudly as if they were golden medals of pride and honor.

3) The person who encouraged me to get involved with TIP asked me today how things were going. He was such an encouragement and wanted me to tell all the details of my calls so I could feel proud. When he asked me if I had any frustrations at all, I confessed that it is the driving to a destination that turns my nerves into a jumble. Don't get me wrong....maps are easy and I can read them no problem. It is just the idea of figuring out a super quick route from point A to B and arrive to any given place in the WHOLE Portland-metro area within 20 minutes that freaks me out and makes my nerves a wreck. And yes I must obey ALL traffic laws.
He asked if I had thought about an after market navigation system. Yes definately I have been thinking about it but as with most everyone else raising a family, finances are tight right now. so, he blew me away by telling me this....
"You do the research, talk to your husband, and let me know what you come up with and I promise I will pay for at least half of it."

Boy that came out of left field for me. Who does things like that?

4) Destiny's grandma came up to me today with tears of gratitude for making childrens classes happen at church. She said that it is such an encouragement to her to know that when she can only bring Destiny to church sometimes once in a month.......that Destiny is learning about the Real God of Realationships of Heart and Grace. That blessed me so greatly. Sometimes I get tired and my discouragement questions why I put all of the energy into it when I can't see emmediate results before my eyes.

After teaching a room full of energized 10 year old boys.....I needed to hear that today.

A book by its cover....

I was having dinner at our favorite fast food place with my girls this evening, when I found myself mentally jamming with the public radio station that was playing thru the speakers in the ceiling. I have no idea which station it was, but it was playing those '80s pop culture type songs that I grew up with. Yeah, those songs that bring back so many memories.....

Junior high had the sounds of Michael Jackson singing about Billie Jean, Boy George and Madonna leading our generation in individual and mature thinking.
Then I moved half way across the United States and was introduced to the likes of AC/DC, OMD, Depesh Mode, and Prince as I started high school and hormones raged.

"boom boom boom let's go back to my room......"
"I want your sex...."
"She was a fast machine....."
"rock you like a hurricane...."

Those songs and more found my head moving in time with the beat and smiling at memories. I could place incidents, friends, and situations with each song I heard. I remembered times when I didn't even know what those songs meant, but sang with the best of them simply because "everyone else was jumping off the bridge too".....and times when I did understand but didn't care.

As I was wading through it all, I looked up and noticed the expression on the face of my 15 year old. Shock maybe, embarassment, confusion......
I couldn't read it. I just know that my face got hot and red, like she could see those memories and read me like a book.

Friends

On more than one occasion I have received them...those emails that detail the characteristics of what an aquaintance is, what a friend is, a little while friend, and a life-long heart friend. Like I really need that reminder in bold faced type that tells me in black and white what my heart already knows?
Apparently I do though, for it is human nature to take for granted the best things around us.

Those emails do get me to thinking about people in my life, the people I brush up against that add spice and quality...yep even the quirky ones add spice.

I really have had so many supportive people around me over the years. I can recall only a handful (or so) of people that declared war on my person or my shadow. From childhood to adulthood, I have had all of those....aquaintances, little while people, friends, and life longers. They have all been there through different trials and different joys and I thank God for them.

As I look back though, there are two people that I have known the longest (outside of family of course and really they don't count anyway do they).

One I have known since early high school. We have always had that sort of relationship that makes people raise their eyebrows and firgure that they see the future writing on the wall. (Boy did we trick them though.) He was always, and is now, there being in effect my personal cheerleader as I went through boyfriend, heart ache, soul searching, marriage, kids, and stupidity. In high school and young adulthood, I had that disarming smile that never really clued people into my quiet self-absorbtion, but he knew and never gave up on me. Through thick and thin he has been there with a smile and honesty that only a life long friend can have.

The second person, she and I mirrored our growing up years in so many ways yet were in different states and sometimes even countries until 11 years ago when we met. It is amazing how God does that....how did Anne Shirley of Green Gables describe it? A bosom friend and a kindred spirit.
As we have raised our children together, learned about God together, and challenged life together; we have become so innertwined that strangers ask if we are sisters on a regular basis.
Whether we are rescuing each other from the dulldrums of putting away Christmas decorations, painting each others' living rooms, conspiring on the easiest way to get rid of pets without anyone knowing, or drinking the night away with cheap wine and chocolate (all in the name of stupid men) I know we are there for each other and that will not ever change.

I am so grateful to God for giving us the ability to have relationships, friendships.
And to you......I don't say it often enough. I thank you for being my friend.