FRIENDS...what have they taught YOU?!

Friends are a choice we make. My first friend tried to take a bite out of my face. I don't remember this, but so I am told. It was 1971 in Shreveport, La. His name was Todd and our mothers were best friends. We moved north in 1973, and 14 years later our families had a reunion in Texas. Todd and I went on our first, and only, date. I arrived home unscathed.

Melissa and I have a friendship that has lasted almost 38 years, and if I had one dollar for every panicked phone call and only fifty cents for each giggle, I would far-surpass the estate of Bill Gates. We are quite opposite in some respects, but that has never stood in the way of our friendship as our hearts are in tune. We have become women and mothers side-by-side. Melissa and I talk or text almost weekly and she remains a chosen sister.

Sometimes friends come as a package deal, which is the case with Andra, Shannon and Lauren. We spent our teenage years hand-in-hand and most of our adult life side-by-side. We handled heart aches and applauded accomplishments. We welcomed husbands and babies. Over the years, and with the addition of numerous children and some relocating, it has been difficult to remain connected and that saddens me. My heart yearns for that familiarity. But the gift they gave me over those years is priceless.

Ken and I met in college through a common acquaintance. We shared a level of trust and openness I never shared with any of my female friends. I never had conversations of such depth with any friend prior to being blessed with Ken's camaraderie. There were many times that we lost track of time discussing a plethora of subjects and were surprised when the morning sunrise peeked through the shades. We met Sept. 14, 1989, and were married July 24, 1993.

Michelle, a fellow Nittany Lion, followed Ken and I to New York after finishing her Master's degree, where we continued to be the Three Amigos. Having endured a collegiate battle with cancer, she was strong and climbed the corporate ladder by never settling for less than her best. Michelle was beautiful, inside and out. Her zest for life gave her a gentle edge that made her a magnet for friends. The impact of her friendship is tattooed on my heart forever. On Nov. 8, 1996 she was promoted to angel. I still shed tears for her.

Jeri is my twin from another mother. Her husband Jeff, strangely enough, is so much like Ken it is bizarre. They were our first "couple" friends and remain some of our closest. Sharing the same wedding anniversary almost to the hour makes for great celebrations. Jeri and I are so close that sometimes we scare ourselves. I will never forget the day we had lunch together, each planning to surprise the other with our "expectant" news. Jeri is that friend who keeps no tallies. She can't tell you who called who last or how long it has been since we last chatted. It is refreshing to dial the phone after months of no contact and anticipate her voice because I know her tone will not be anything but sheer joy when she hears mine.

My current gal pals on occasion have me laughing until I think my sides will split. Before Anne-Marie, Michele, Goose and Sally, I was pretty certain that my girlfriend laugh meter had maxed out years ago. But our friendship goes deeper than laughter - much deeper. Our faith knits us together. Whether it is a trip to Wal-Mart for random needs, a text message for a good laugh or a phone call to check in on someone's stressful day, we stay connected. Our lives have yet to get in the way of our friendship, in fact, our the chaos, heartbreak and the beautiful celebrations in our lives sweeten our bond as sisters. Even on the worst days the laughter remains. Laughter truly is the best medicine within our sweet sisterhood. I truly owe my sanity to these four women.

From Todd I learned that friendship can span a country as well as a decade. Melissa has taught me a beautiful lesson in unconditional friendship. Andra, Shannon and Lauren showed me how a friendship can shape who you are and who you will become. Ken proved to me that honesty is always the best policy.

Michelle was a beautiful vision of what it means to be at peace with who you are. Jeri has given me the refreshing gift of being "real." Anne-Marie, Michele, Goose and Sally have blessed me with faith-filled friendship.

Think of the friends who have impacted your life. Reach out and thank them. Return the favor; you will be blessed.
Peace.

Basement Re-Do for my P-A-R-T-Y girl

So, when you get pregnant in the Spring, you are destined for a Christmas-time baby. And I have one. My daughter Emily, the 2nd child, was born on December 21st. Barring the fact that I almost died and never made it home for my first-born's 2nd Christmas, it was a great time to have a baby. I have pictures of her all snuggled with presents under the tree on that first Christmas.

Now she is 12!

But as she got older we had to finagle a birthday party without making people uncomfortable, both in schedule and in pocket, around the holidays. This year we opted to plan it WAY out into the future so her 12th birthday party we LAST NIGHT. Yep, almost 2 months later! :) She was fine with it because it gave us time to plan.

My husband envisioned a gaggle of girls and said, "Let's finish the basement." When reality struck, we realized there was no way we could finish the basement in two months so we settled for a really cool TEEN SCENE style set up that would be the place we could send everyone under the age of 30 when they came over to play Wii, spend their snow day, flirt wih or annoy each other. It was a beautiful plan.

It started by hoeing out the crap and moving what would eventually be IN the finished basement to one side and hanging a tarp to hide the carnage.

We have a LONG basement and one end has a little alcove of sorts that would work well for a TV and entertainment system. This photo shows a carpet, but basically it was a long cement rectangle when we started. My hubby found an awesome carpet remnant with pad and brought it home to start the madness. Then we wracked our brains trying to figure out what to do with the walls. We certainly weren't going to start studding and drywalling.

So, WALMART to the rescue. I invested in 40-some long vinyl party table cloths in various bring colors. You can see the cool lamp my husband picked up for them in the far right corner - those colors were my inspiration for tablecloth shopping. The really cool splatter paint banner was from my daughter's webshow, The Kim and Kelly Show - that is their backdrop.  My sons has a webshow as well, The Pete and Dave Show, and his backdrop is hanging across from hers in the other alcove we created on the left for the food/cake table for the party. Now the basement can be their "filming sets," too.

 You can see the gray tarp still hanging to the left...that was unacceptable and needed more color. :)

So more color we added...now you can see the food/cake table, too. We needed food, this was the FIRST boy/girl party. And if you are a mom of or have ever even just FED a boy, you KNOW how much they eat. This FEEDING ALCOVE was a necessity!

About 20 minutes before everyone was going to start coming, my husband decided it was perfect timing to start taking the leather furniture down so they would have the furniture we promised. This furniture has lived through the last 5 years of Izaiah and is now deemed BASEMENT quality. Translation: Mommy is getting NEW sectionals! So, anyway, it is then...20 minutes before I have a houseful of couch potato wannabes...that hubby realized our overstuffed 400 lb couches WON'T FIT THROUGH THE BASEMENT DOOR!

 We opt for the bilco door outside - but the ice storms have made navigating to that side of the house while carrying a 400 lb couch completly impossible.

Now, what? 10 minutes to spare (because I had a 10 minute why-would-you-wait-until-now-temper tantrum) so I jumped in the car and stole 18 bean bags from the nearest church ran to my classroom at church to borrow the  beanbags we use for our 5th/6th graders on Sunday mornings. The beanbags were fun and way more iCarly-style than leather couches (which will eventually be inthe basement - as soon as the ice melts)

I reused the "12" candles from December and in between movies and the JUST DANCE Wii Olympics, we sang and had cake. I love my kids' friends, I truly do. But having the option to sit upstairs with my husband and watch

MY NEW TV!

This morning when they all came up, I had the fixins for pancakes all ready. When I asked who wanted breakfast they told me they were coming up to get the vaccuum to clean up the basement before they ate.

And now they DANCE...no wonder they are all so skinny! LOL!

This is the only evidence that there was a basement full of teenagers last night!!

See why I love these girls so much?!

Peace out, Mamas!

 



Sanity's Blogtober TIP parade: 10/04 Girl Power!

You've got 'em. You love them. You don't know what you'd do without them!

NO, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT SHOES!

I am talking about your BFFs! You know, the ones you laugh and cry with. The ones who can call you a nerd because you cried when you dropped your 1st born at his 1st dance (eh hem) and you still speak to them. The ones who drive to their 1st tattoo appointment (eh hem) and make you laugh so hard you don't feel the steel rod piercing through your flesh. The ones who you can be yourself...and I mean REALLY yourself...in front of and be comfortable in your own skin!

I got 'em. I'm quite sure I have the best BFF posse on the planet, and I truly mean that! But, I am sure you can argue....and that's wonderful! I pray each and every one of you feels that way about a group of women (or even just one).

But, isn't it hard to make time for them? It is! It's either a busy schedule, a sick kid or an unforeseen glitch that keeps you from connecting with your 'peeps.'

BUT...and this is a BIG BUT (and you can have one of those with 2 t's, too, and they will still love you...I know this for a FACT!)...you also know how AMAZING it feels to laugh until you pee a little, to vent until you cry, to hug and not let go, to finish her sentence, get the "had to be there" joke because you were. You know how intoxicating that is? Isn't that proof enough that we need regular DATES with our girlies?

Obviously, the biggest tip is that we need to SCHEDULE that time! That's a no-brainer! But, making it memorable and all the more ridiculously fun, takes a little planning!

My tip for you is to, of course, plan time together BUT...another big one...do something you've never done before - something whacko - something that will bring 10,000 giggles in the years to come.

My BFFs and I did this just last year and we mention ALL the time how we need to do it again! There is an amazing outlet center only 35 minutes from our town, and we love to shop there. So, last year we planned a shopping trip, AND we got a hotel room nearby so we could extend our time together by staying out as late as we wanted and being goof balls till 3 am if we wanted to AND the room we rented....was a THEME room! LOL! Our PIRATE SUITE was SWEEEEEET!

Going that extra step made our typical shopping trip not so typical and it was truly an ODE to how crazy fun our friendship is!

So, what can you think of or what have you done with your BFFs that keeps you grounded and connected?

You know the drill: Leave your tip. Blog about something you need or can give tips for. Invited your readers to do the same. Link back to me. It's the BLOGTOBER TIP PARADE! 31 days, 31 tips for moms!

Peace.

Glub, Glub, Glub....

...last week was one of those weeks where my head was barely above water! Did ya ever have one of those weeks? You know the kind...you find yourself at the bus depot trying to sneak on a bus headed anywhere but somewhere that you'll have to get things done, be productive, and put on a brave face about it. Why would I be sneaking, you ask? Well, because I spent the last of my grocery money on STARBUCKS and I have no money left for a bus ticket to the place where moms get to sit and relax. Because, as an at-home mom I have "no job" as far as the bank is concerned...direct deposit makes sure I have enough for Cheerios and Cream Cheese but I get no salary because I choose to stay home. "No bus fair for you," says the Ticket Nazi! Anyway, I wasn't all the way to the bus depot last week but almost! It all started with my husband reminding me on Saturday that he was leaving for Las Vegas on SUNDAY after church. WHAT THE SNOT??! I totally forgot. I have a bit of an anxiety disorder that gets a bit worse when I have to stay alone over night. My parents (who live less than a mile from me) were at their beach house - guess they found the bus depot with some cha-ching in their pockets - and my neighbor works nights. GREAT! Home REALLY alone! We have a very close friend who is on the SWAT team so I know I could call him right after dialing 9-1-1 if anything happened...but he is also the crime scene photographer so I would be afraid I would jinx myself if I called him! So, for three nights I hooked up my STARBUCKS IV, propped my eyelids open with toothpicks and tried to stay awake so I could head off any intruder with my super hero strength. I laugh! There were also cheerleading practices, hip hop dance classes, homework..blah blah blah...you know the drill. Single-mommin' it STINKS big time! When he is away, I can't get anything productive done. I have to just focus on NOT hearing the noises of the army of crazed lunatics that might be jimmying my basement windows open. CRAP! So, what do I do to get through the days following the sleepless nights? CRAFTS, of course! (Renee Garcia, close your eyes!)

...thinking about doing a kids' art "how-to show" on youtube.com - something regularly occurring....could be fun.... I think he went to the Coleman School of Glue...

This is Coleman doing arts and crafts in the Ronald McDonald House in NYC! If you have not been blessed by Coleman Larson, please head over to www.carepages.com and register (it's free). Click on VISIT and type in ColemanScott (all one word). He will soon become your hero...he is already MINE! Then upon my husband's return, I kissed him, stole his wallet and me and my 3 BFFs headed for HEAVEN! A shopping/scrapbooking overnight... Ahhhhh, cooling towers just say, "SHOPPING!", eh?

Our booty! Why the pirate lingo, you ask? Because.... We had a PIRATE THEMED SUITE, of course! Duh!

LOL! It was a fluke thing - we had no idea this is what we were getting! We were hysterical...snorting and all...when we walked in! Seriously?

If it's true that laughter adds years to your life....we will all be around a LOOOOOOOOONG time! Michelle and Michele (aka Bob!)

Michelle (aka Goose!) and Anne-Marie

Yes, there are 4 of us and yes, 3 of us are Michel(l)e! We are THAT cool!

I spent the night with FIVE men!

LOL! I knew THAT title would get your attention!

Kenny Chesney...

Sammy Hagar...

Keith Urban... SWATCOP...one of my readers...

and the hottest one of them all... MY HUBBY!

Good weather (although over 100 degrees), Good music and GREAT friends! AMAZING!

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The OHM! (One HOT Mama!) weight loss group has begun! We have quite the following. Click on this post and put a shameless shout-out or just the link on your blog so your readers can join us. We are headed to the record books if we keep rallying new members!

So, for those of you who started last week, you should have a better idea of how many calories you were consuming and you should have chosen a GOAL weight. If you have no idea how to compute these stats, please see this link.

Tuesday we will start with STAGE 1. So, stay tuned. Anyone can join us by signing in to any one of the posts with an OHM! update in it. You can join any time, it is easy to start and you can follow along no matter what STAGE you are on.

*Remember: Before starting any weight loss/exercise program, check with your doctor.

The gift of friendship...

Heather from Rice-A-Roni-ville made me cry today! For those of you who don't know Heather, she is owner and head jewelry-maker extraordinaire of FAITH CREATIONS, LLC. This is not her first attempt at creating BLING, I did my Christmas and Birthday shopping for all my girlfriends with her in November. Go to her archives and find her Nov 1st post to see them! As a surprise, she made me a necklace from her new line she calls "Charming!" This time she has outdone herself. She has started making photo charms necklaces. Picture it...hand-soldered framed photos as reversible charms from necklaces. They are beautiful. Breathtaking...especially when its your own kidlets staring back at you from the photo around your neck. Here's mine!

Head over to her blog, email her some pictures of your kids and place your orders or just leave her a comment about how beautiful her work is. Let her know that you, too, think she ROCKS! 'Cause I do!

Thanks friend!