Sweet Friendship

Last night I hosted a dinner party at my house for 3 wonderful, sweet, amazing girlfriends from HIGH SCHOOL. We just had our 30th class reunion a few weeks ago, and one of my best friends, Judy, couldn't attend because she lives so far away. Because she was in town for Thanksgiving, I decided to host a mini reunion in her honor. I had originally invited 10-12 people, but it ended up only being 4 of us... so we had lots of time to gossip (nice gossip... really!), laugh, while we tried to remember who dated whom, who broke who's heart, what we wore to the prom, why we did or didn't make the cheerleading squad, etc.

Here is a picture of the four of us last night... Becky, me, Linda, and Judy. I didn't meet these girls until jr. high, because I went to a different elementary school than they did, but I sure am glad God placed them in my life! Judy and I were flag twirlers together, I helped introduce her to her husband Jimmy Carter (no lie!) and also to Jesus. I was in her wedding 25 years ago (ouch!) and she is one of only 3 or 4 people that I remained close to when I moved to Atlanta for 12 years. Linda introduced me to my very first boyfriend... Danny S... he was her next door neighbor. Boy, did I fall fast and hard! Becky and I were also in cheerleading together and also worked very hard in CSF together... making teriyaki chicken skewers for scholarship funds until our fingers were frozen. I LOVE YOU GIRLS! God is so good to allow us to spend time with people who bless our lives, even though life has taken us on many different paths!

This week, my precious son, Stephen turned 16. As many of you know, Stephen was adopted at birth by my ex and myself, after a long struggle with infertility and losing 2 babies. He was SOOOO wanted and SOOOO loved. It was inconceivable that I could love anything or anything as much as I loved him. We've had a rough couple of years lately, with court stuff, and him moving back and forth between his dad and I, but through it all, I can honestly say that he continues to be the most adorable, talented, brilliant young man I've ever met, and he continues to challenge me to become a better person as I put into practice all I know to be true about being a godly woman and a godly mom. Here's a picture of Stephen with his 2 best friends as they came over to celebrate his birthday... playing poker and going out toilet papering! Stephen is the one with no shirt!

It was so much fun to take all my Stampmania goodies to work today to show my stamping buddies Michelle and Beth. They got to drool over all the cards I made and the swap cards I received and the door prize items I received. They were totally jealous, cuz they don't get to spend as much time stamping as I do... (I mean, they actually COOK and CLEAN for their families while I'm stamping!) My son Stephen went back to the doctor this morning to have his elbow looked at (he cracked it a few weeks ago... ONE GUESS what he was doing... yep, that's right...skateboarding! The elbow is slowly healing, but still 4 more weeks with no PE... Now he's fighting a cold and is asleep on the couch at 5:45 pm... AAAAAHHHHHGGGGG, he doesn't need any more excuses for not finishing his homework. These are the times I really HATE being a single mom, when there's no one there to tag team the whole parenting/ homework thing. Pray for me! In the meantime, here's another CRAB card I made last night. Since I was having so much fun making Mike's Birthday card, I had to keep on going.