S.E + S.B = FRIENDS FOREVER

You never forget your very first best friend. I met mine in the 4th grade at McNair Elementary School. Stephanie Edwards. I thought she was the funniest person I had ever met. She was tall, like me, and she had brown hair which I remember to be curly. We hit it off instantly. Most Friday and Saturday nights were spent at the Lewisville skating rink. I can remember her Dad dropping us off in his red Porsche and I thought we were so cool! I also remember numerous sleep overs. We used to prank call people out of the phone book late at night. I remember calling one old man who thought I was his little Grandson. We chatted with him for a bit before finally telling him I needed to go to bed, lol. Sadly, I only got to spend 2 school years with Stephanie before she moved. We still talked on the phone, and occasionally saw each other, but over time we drifted apart.

I remember about 4 years ago, shortly after Jason and I bought our house, I was up one Saturday morning and I decided to search for Stephanie on myspace. I came across many matches and found one in particular that was in Lewisville TX. There was no picture so I could not identify her. I decided to send her a private message asking if this was the Stephanie that had attended McNair Elementary with me. Months later I finally got a response and it was her!! We exchanged emails and chatted via myspace. After seeing pictures of her she was just like I had remembered! She was GORGEOUS, and I was jealous!

Fast forward to today, just this past Friday night I enjoyed dinner with Stephanie at Johnny Carino's. (This has been our 3rd dinner date so far this year.) I cannot explain how cool it is to get to catch up after all these years. I remember our very first dinner at the Olive Garden, almost a year ago, and I was so anxious to get to see her after all this time. We chatted about our families and what we had been up to. She told me she had just graduated from nursing school and was working full time as a nurse in the Dallas area. (She had sold her race car to attend nursing school full time! how cool is that!) She told me about this guy she had met, named Grant, and she told me how she thought he might be "the one." Well low and behold not long after our first dinner together her and Grant were engaged! I was so happy for her. It was very obvious how much she loved him just by the way she talked about him to me. They had plan to marry in early June of '09 in Las Vegas, and I was so excited when she had sent us an invitation. Jason and I had talked forever about going to Vegas and this wedding was our chance!! Sadly, after the economic downturn, and the big lay off scare at my company, we decided that it was in our family's best interest to save that money just in case something bad were to happen. I had thought about Stephanie a lot on her wedding day and was so sad we were not there. Once she got back she posted a video of the ceremony and I watched it twice, and cried both times lol. It was beautiful and she was GORGEOUS!!! I was so thrilled for her. When she got back from her honeymoon we had made dinner plans to eat at the Olive Garden, this time she wanted me to bring Jaxon. I was very nervous about this as any mother of a toddler knows how dining in public can sometimes be VERY embarrassing. Of course I was right. Jaxon was a TERD!! (In his defense, it was way past his bed time!) I was bummed as I did not get to hear about all the fun wedding details that I had so desperately anticipated. I cried all the way home because I felt like our dinner was cut short. Thankfully 2 weeks later (this past Friday) we had a child-free dinner and we chatted for 3 hours!! It was wonderful.

I can't tell you how awesome I think it is to have been able to reconnect with Stephanie. Life gets so busy and hustled from time to time and it is nice to know that we can get together every couple of months or so and have dinner and just catch up. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to meet Grant yet, but I can tell you that he is a lucky, lucky man.

Dinner with Diva's

About of month ago my cousin Crystal (who works at Affirmative with Jason), organized a social gathering which she appropriately named "Dining with Diva's." Like a girls only club, anyone is welcome to join for good food and good conversation. Once a month one of the girls is asked to host (I think we have our line up for the next 6 months! I get to host in Sept!), which means she provides her home and dinner. Last night was our first meeting. Marissa (who also works at Affirmative) was our very first hostess. She made us some delicious cheese sticks, ordered yummy pizza, and we ate some pretty cookies. We sat around the table and chatted about the on going's in every one's lives. We laughed. We talked about work frustrations and told stories about our kids. We watched some pre recorded episodes of ABC's "Wipe Out," which apparently all the girls are fans of. (me, not so much, but it was still fun.) Crystal took order and got out her handy notepad so that we could organize the future dinners. She collected our addresses and verified which month we would all like to host. I believe my favorite quote of the night came from Marissa. Kimberly (who also works at Affirmative) volunteered to host the dinner in December:
Crystal: "Okay, Kim is going to do December."
me: "yay!"
Marissa: "Can we dress up?" (And what she meant by that was dressing up in costumes.....not dressing up in fancy girly outfits! LOL)
me: *gives Marissa a weird look.
Kim: "Ummm, no."

I think it was one of those, "you had to be there moments," but it was super funny nonetheless. We laughed about that for a good while, and joked about dressing up as reindeer and elves, lol. So, our first dinner was a great success and so much fun. I really enjoyed hanging out with these ladies and I hope they had as much fun as I know I did!!!

Summer Reading

I forgot how much I enjoy reading. I'm either too busy or dog tired by the end of the day to even consider opening a book. About 6 months ago I tried to get back on the reading bandwagon and bought, "The Friday Night Knitting Club," by Kate Jacobs.....and I never finished it. I've done that twice now....not finished a book. I started the Harry Potter series when it came out and never finished them either. I know, I know, I look really bad for that! I can say that I DID finish the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I actually read them all before the first movie came out. So, I pat myself on the back for that. I've decided to make a resolution. I will read ALL 7 of the Harry Potter books. Now, don't get overly excited. This is going to be a process. I'm jumping in slowly. By doing so, I've begun reading, "My Sister's Keeper," by Jodi Picoult. I know this has nothing to do with Potter, but this will help get me back into my reading routine. I've only read about 120 pages of my new book since my sweet husband brought it home last Sunday. I've tried to read a little everyday. It really is good so far and I am thoroughly enjoying it. A few of my friends have read this book and have read other books by Jodi Picoult. I was excited to know that she has several other books out, and have already considered my next read. So, I'm going to read 2-3 non-Potter books to get me in my groove. Potter is SUCH a commitment that I have to get into a good reading habit so that I can read them the way they are meant to be read!