Friends are the best!

In my life I have always been blessed with great friends.  No matter what stage of life I have gone through, I have had a circle of friends to go through life with.  I know that not everyone is that fortunate.  

There was a time in my life when I felt like I was on my own island though.  After college, many of my high school and college friends moved away (or stayed in their college towns).  I stayed in my hometown, got married, and started work.  I felt like I was in a different stage of life being one of the only ones married.  My other friends were still on the man hunt, or even better in my opinion, were still living it up with their girlfriends on nights out.  I had found my prince (though that first year of marriage there was quite a learning curve on how to cohabitate!)

But, through my job, I met awesome people.  I know have a circle of friends that have gone through so much life with me and I them.  We are raising our kids together, weathering the storms of change, and just doing life!

So when I have a chance to spend time with any or all of them, I take it! Which is exactly what I did last night. 

I swear my friend, Jenny, is seriously like the closest thing to a clone I have- personality wise.  We look nothing alike! She is a tiny, blond cutie! Me- not so much! Ha!

We met four years ago when I got hired at WL and she was my mentor teacher.  Also being from the Decatur area, we knew a lot of the same people.  As we worked together, we also shared life.  She listened to all my first year marriage stories and gave great advice.  I supported her and told her how fabulous she looked as she was due with her second baby (she did look fabulous though- totally unfair!)

We began to extend our friendship outside of school and our husbands hit it off. (Which was no surprise because Jenny and I are alike, so obviously our picks as acceptable husbands would be similar too).  For the past four years, every other year one of us has been pregnant (no lie, all our kids our like 9 months a part, excluding the queen of our play group, sweet E!)

After spending all year teaching together, you get used to talking every day. So with Jenny's family being on vacation and mine about to go, we knew we had to get together to catch up!

So Jenny picked me up at 5:30 (because we're cute like that) and we went to dinner at one of our favorite places, Paco Sol Bistro.  It is the perfect place to go sans kids.  From there we did some power shopping, stopping at Pier 1, the mall, and Target. (What night out is complete without a trip to Target?) It was four hours of non stop talking, laughing, and story swapping.  I literally had a side ache from all the laughter.  

I mean, just check out the pic below.  I must have just said something hysterical!

Not us
;)

I am so blessed by the friendships in my life, both old and newer!