Some of the blessings of life

Gentle Reader, I am blessed with amazing friends, and you are included. As I was typing this entry, I kept thinking to myself, I have amazing FRIENDS! If I know you and hang with you and have eaten with you, cooked for you, watched your children, or shopped with you, you are my friend and I count you amongst my blessings! I like spending time with you. And I'm so grateful to know you! I hope YOU know that! I hope YOU know that I am a better person because you are in my life! I appreciate everything you do and have done and will do with and for me, and for the opportunities I am given to do the same for you. Thank you! Besides my relationship with the Lord, my husband and my family, you keep me grounded and sane and add joy and happiness to my life, and I don't know that I can express adequately how grateful I am because of that.

I wanted you to know that because I'm about to launch into a bit about this weekend, while focusing on just one of my wonderful friends. And when I was re-reading this, I thought, Geez, it sounds like I got a girl crush on Miss K. And maybe I do, because I certainly adore her. She is so great that Superman J even said that if I didn't exist, Miss K might be in my place because she has all the qualities he was looking for in a wife (when he was looking). She's a good egg, that's for sure!

You know one of the best things about hanging out with a friend you've had for years? It reminds you of how you were and some of your favorite things you used to do "back in the day." I met Miss K when I was single and in graduate school, getting my MLS. She was in town visiting her sister, who is also a friend of mine, who asked if I'd show Miss K around one evening, and a great friendship was born.

I'm three months older than Miss K and I am continually amazed at how similar we think--she really gets me and she understands all those 80's moments (because she also graduated the same year) and she quotes movies that are contemporary with us (which I love), and we can pretty much talk about anything. But even if we don't always agree on stuff, she is an amazing listener and conversationalist. I kid you not, she can put anyone at ease and carry on a conversation with people who normally would never talk to anyone. She's just that kind of person. Delightful. It's one of the reasons she's so good at her job: she's a Communicator.

And, of course, she could have cared less about my crazy clean house...she was here to see me and the little family. Oh! What that does for the ego. Have you ever had a friend fly out Just To See You? Amazing. She was such a good sport with the girls (who, I firmly believe, came to think she came to see THEM!) and we went on quite an adventure getting some shopping done for Miss E's "Astronaut Party" (definitely a post for another time...), especially when we had to go to a store on the other side of town. True confessions? I really don't know my way around the "city" part of our city. Oh well. We made it!

Hanging with Miss K, though, totally reminded me of things that I did when I was single: I took care of myself. You hear it all the time, that in order for you to fill others' proverbial bucket, you must find ways to fill your own. Sometimes I think that's total crap (excuse the french), but other times I want to kick myself for not fully embracing it, because it's pretty true. So for me, it almost felt like a selfish weekend because I spent money and did things that I don't normally do all the time...just for me and on me or on stuff that *I* wanted to do.

Miss K and I went to lunch and dinner together a couple of times, we talked of her travels (which she does a lot for work) and relationships. Actually, we just talked and talked...even with the girls dancing and singing around our house (I told her at one point, that our home was filled with the sound of music pretty much all the time, and I did not lie about that! Ha!). We even got PEDICURES--and not just ANY pedicure. No, we got the deluxe spa treatment...which we thought was a good $25.00 less than we actually paid for (gulp!). But now we have a great story to tell, besides pretty toes, and some really cheap foam flip flops (which the girls love) and a tiny bottle of water that fits wonderfully in my purse (which the girls also loved yesterday after church when they were "thirsty.") More importantly we had 2 hours together to read tarty magazines and chat while someone else "worked" on us. As they say on that credit card commercial: priceless. It was a fast visit, but I felt I was a better wife and mother after she left...because I felt better. Does that make sense?

You know, thinking about it, it was a wonderful prep for Superman J and my getaway that is rapidly approaching. I'm so fretting about leaving my kids (for the first time since before we had kids!!! Yeeps!) that I was losing sight of the fact that I get to spend some quality time with my true Companion, and that it's okay to focus on just "us" for a few days, especially with New Baby's arrival just a few short months away. It's going to be just fine and it's all going to work out, and I totally trust Aunt D and Uncle J who are watching my kiddos, and my children are going to have a great time over there.

And when I get back, I'll be a better mother and a better wife, because that's what blessings and filling up of buckets do for you. You should definitely try it, maybe even today. :)