Category Archives: friends

30 Before 30: #23 Meet an Online Friend in Person

3 Replies

In the past year, I’ve made awesome connections with some really amazing women in the blogosphere.  One of my 30 Before 30 goals was to meet one of them in person.

I met a fellow Mamavation Sista back in August.  I had just pledged to the Mamavation Sistahood and realized that Rachel (@rachhabs, To Hab & To Hold) lives about 2 hours from me, and only about 40 minutes from my parents.  We met up for lunch with our kids, and I knew right away that the woman was flippin’ awesome.

Since then, we’ve met up for a kid-free lunch, chatted on the phone, and have had countless text, Twitter and Facebook conversations.  This weekend, we did a 5k together.  I honestly can’t believe that I’ve known her for less than a year.  I think there’s only a handful of people that you meet in a lifetime that you can totally click with and, in my life, Rach is one of them.

The woman is hilarious.  She has three super cute, sweet children and a husband that shares the same name as mine.  I mean, that’s pretty cool, right? ;)  She’s also a major inspiration.  Since becoming a Mamavation Mom in August and going through two campaigns, she has lost 70 pounds.  SEVENTY.  I’ve asked her to be my workout coach after I have Baby Deuce!

Rach, thank you for being awesome.  Thank you for being part of my life.  I love your face!

Visiting the Wildlife Sanctuary

Leave a reply

One of my best friends from college, who actually was the maid of honor in my wedding, lives in our new city.  We decided to meet up yesterday at the local wildlife sanctuary so that C could enjoy the animals.  It was so awesome to see her again after two years, and C loved her!  He let L carry him around to check out all the animals. :)

We Love Our Home State!

Leave a reply

Hubster and I are absolutely loving being back in our home state.  We’ve been able to catch up with many family members and friends.  We joke that in one month of living here, we’ve had more visitors than in the two years that we lived in a neighboring state!

Some of the fun things we’ve been able to do this past month is welcome a new sister-in-law into the family at her bridal shower, host our friends and their three kids for the weekend, attend a college friend’s nearby wedding reception, have several visits with C’s grandparents and more!  We’ve been busy, but it’s been really fun.  We’re so happy to be back, closer to so many of our loved ones.  :)

Cousins!

I have the best sisters-in-law. :)

Standing up in our friends’ beautiful wedding.

When Friends Are Like Family

1 Reply

Last night, we celebrated my friend’s bachelorette party and it was a blast!  I’ve known L and her fiance, J, since college.  J was Hubster’s roommate for two years, before they both got involved in residence life.  L, J, Hubster and I used to have a couple’s night about once per week.  It was so much fun, and we all became very good friends.  L and J are one of the few non-blood-relatives in my life that I know would be there for me no matter what.  Life could take a million big shits on my face and they’d still be hanging around with their noses plugged.

I love them like I love my own family.  There are no words to describe how happy I am for them and how excited I am to be a part of their big day as a bridesmaid.

We’ve lived out of state for a long time, and last night it was so amazing to be with friends who still called me by my nickname (my initials with my maiden name).  It feels like they’ve known me forever.  They knew me before I lost my ability to trust.  They knew me before I was a wife.  They knew me before I was a mom.  They knew me before mental illness changed me.  They know me and love me for me, and there’s nothing in the world greater than friends who are there through it all.

Congratulations to L and J.  May your lives be filled with love forever.

When Do You Decide To Let Go?

Leave a reply

We’ve all had friendships end.  Some end abruptly with an argument, others simply fade.  The ones that fade can be as difficult as the ones that end dramatically.

A couple friendships that I once held dear seem to have faded away.  I don’t know how it happened, and I can’t recall when it started.  I’ve tried to reach out, even when the idea of putting myself out there was terrifying.   I didn’t know what to say or where to start.  A text wasn’t returned.  A Facebook post was ignored.  A birthday gave me the opportunity to leave a voicemail.

I never heard back.  My head knows that it’s time to stop trying to grasp something that’s no longer there.  My heart misses what we once had, and wonders why we’ve gone our separate ways.

Was it when I got married?  Was it when I moved away?  Was it when I had a baby?

Some friendships come and go with big life changes.  I’m trying to tell myself that it’s okay to let go.  It’s important to surround ourselves with people that love, support and uplift us.  Even though some relationships fade, there are new and different ones on the horizon.

On Living Far Away

Leave a reply

Sometimes it makes me sad that we live far away from our family and close friends.  I wish that we could just jump in the car and attend every birthday party, life event, holiday or random get-together.  We thought a six-hour drive was difficult when we moved here…but then we had C, and it is exponentially more difficult.  There is so much stuff to pack and plan for, and the drive is so much longer with him.  He hates being confined to his carseat, forcing us to make numerous stops and endure his loud protests.  PPD and 6-7+ hours in a car with an angry baby do NOT mix.

This weekend, one of my dearest friends had a bridal shower.  Hubster had a bunch of work to do and couldn’t leave for the weekend, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make that trip with C by myself.  I was so sad that I missed it.  I’m honored to be a part of her wedding and can’t wait to celebrate her big day with her!

We’re so excited to live closer soon so that we can see our loved ones more often!

My Friend Had a Baby!

Leave a reply

I heard via the wonderful world of Facebook yesterday that my friend was in the hospital to have her baby!  Maybe having C made me a softie, but now whenever a friend of mine announces a pregnancy or has a child, I get teary-eyed.  It’s a mixture of happiness, nostalgia from a flash of fun memories and excitement because I know the joy she’s about to experience.

So here’s to you, dear!  When I saw your Facebook statuses, I had a rush of memories from Bible studies, late night walks, and “rawhide.” ;)  I’m so excited for you and your hubby and, despite the distance, I hope to meet her someday.  Love you!

Being Silly on a Fun Night Nearly Five Years Ago!

Reconnecting With Old Friends

2 Replies

There’s nothing that I love more about social media than the ability to reconnect with old friends.  I’ve been able to keep in touch with several of them, but there’s one that really touched my heart tonight.

Maybe two years ago or more, I became Facebook friends with one of my best friends from middle school whom I hadn’t spoken with in many years.  We didn’t interact much on Facebook at the time.  A year ago, she got married and I was elated for her.  I remember looking through her pictures excitedly and commenting with congratulations.  We soon discovered that we were both expecting in April.  How crazy is that?!  It was fun to congratulate each other.  Then we found out that we were both having boys!  Her son was born a few weeks before C, and I love looking at all of the pictures she posts of him and her older son.  They are adorable and look like such a happy, fun family. :)

Tonight, thanks to the lovely world of Facebook Chat, we “talked” for the first time in a long time!  It made my heart smile to see that this friend who had been my basketball teammate, Spice Girl dancing buddy, New Year’s Eve bonfire pal and so much more is doing so well.  There is no way to measure how much time we spent chatting about boys “back in the day.”  I’m glad we both snagged a good one. ;)

Love you, girl!  Can’t wait to get together with you – hopefully sometime in the near future.

Home Sweet Home

2 Replies

*Insert Relaxed Sigh Here*

We went to visit family and friends over the holiday weekend and just got home!

I love getting home after being away.  Anything longer than a 7-day trip gets a bit exhausting.  We LOVE seeing all of our family and friends and fill as many time slots on our schedule as possible.  But it’s difficult not having your own bed, bathroom, kitchen…your own routine in general – especially for C!  Hubster and I are both people who need a little alone time to be able to function at 100%.

C did pretty well for the majority of the trip.  There were several fussy times caused by overstimulation and exhaustion, but he only had one difficult night of sleep.  I was impressed by his happy disposition.  I’m still amazed by how different his personality is now that he’s on formula instead of breastmilk.

We would consider our 9-day trip to visit family a major success!  We managed to spend some quality time with a bunch of family and friends and even went on a date – dinner and a concert!  It was a blast.  It made us miss living close to all of them :)

Our ideal place to live would be close enough to be able to drive to visit for the day, but go home at night.  Then it wouldn’t be disruptive to C’s schedule and we would be able to see all of our loved ones more often.  It seems like no matter how much you try to fit everyone and everything in, you’re only there for a short period of time – on a rigid schedule – and someone inevitably ends up hurt or upset.  We hate when that happens because we try so hard to make everything work!  Hopefully after Hubster is done with grad school, we’ll be able to get to that ideal location.

 

 

Friends Having Babies

Leave a reply

In the months since I found out that I was expecting, several of my friends have also announced their pregnancies.  I can’t even begin to say how excited I am for each of them!  We live out of state, so I usually find out via email and inevitably end up letting out a squeal of delight when they tell me their news.  I’ve pondered my excitement and decided that it stems from two places.

One, I now know the excitement (and shock!) that comes with a pregnancy – especially a first pregnancy!  I’m excited for what they have to look forward to, the way their lives will also be changing. I’m thrilled to be able to share in their joy.

Two, I’m excited that I’m not the only one of my friends going through the crazy, confusing world of pregnancy and expecting your first child!  Most of my friends are between the 23-25 range.  Besides one other person, I was the first of my friends to start having kids.  Now I’m glad to know that the hubster and I are not alone.  It makes me feel a little less old and…matronly?

Anyway, congratulations to my beautiful, pregnant friends!  I am beyond excited for you :)

Plans Change…

Leave a reply

For several months, we were uber excited to have NYE plans with some of our bestest of friends.  It would be about 5 months since we’d last seen them, and the hubster and I have no plans to make the long haul back to visit before the baby is born…so it would probably be another 6 months before we would see them again. :(

Then NYE got closer and the weather report came out.  Why on earth would it warm up so much that we would get rain?!  It is DECEMBER 31st for heaven’s sake.  So there it is – dense fog due to the warm air over the melting snow cover.

If it had just been the hubster and me, we would have made the trip while checking on the road conditions as we traveled.  I feel terrible not making the trip to see them, both because we really were looking forward to some quality fun time with them and because my friend had so sweetly planned an elaborate dinner menu.  But this morning, as our baby was kicking around in my belly, I knew that if anything were to happen I would never be able to forgive myself.

After all, this summer my doctor told me that we would have a difficult time conceiving when it came time for us to start a family.  Even though that part of our lives was about five years into our planned future, I was devastated.  The month before, we had just celebrated our first anniversary and my 23rd birthday…and now I found out we’d possibly never have children.  The next month I found out I was pregnant.

It is no small miracle that we’re expecting our little boy; and while it took me the entire first trimester to outgrow the shock of the situation, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  It’s funny how life surprises you. Less than 10 years ago, I thought I’d be this big-shot career woman who would never even want children.  Now I’m going to be a stay-at-home mom in just a few months.

So even though we’re both devastated that we won’t be able to spend tonight with dear, fun friends, I am also thankful for the reason we made this decision.  And we’ll get to see our friends tomorrow – so it will just be a postponement of one day :)