A Wonderful Week with Best Friends

A week ago today, I was sitting at a McDonald's catching up with a dear friend from Indiana. We had been attempting to meet for the day (the drive is a bit longer for her, but there is quite a nice antique mall near there, which is always a good incentive). I met Shirley close to 18 years ago when we attended Bethel church in West Lafayette, Indiana. Shirley and Jerry sang together in a group we called "The Ensemble" (ok--not an original name, but boy, could that group sing!). Our children are the same ages, and we just "clicked". Through the years, we've had many joys and sorrows that we have seen each other through. I haven't seen her in at least a couple of years, and was so excited to get to see her, that I forgot to take a picture of the two of us. Our visit wasn't long enough, but we plan on getting together with our husbands some weekend in the near future.

My week wasn't over, though. Friday, Jerry and I drove to Anna, Illinois to meet Sheila (my high school best friend of 42 years) and her husband, Dennis. We stayed at a bed and breakfast named The Davie School Inn. The innkeeper, Gary, was a fabulous host. Several years ago, the four of us (along with Stephie) stayed at a place called The Old Squat Inn. Trust me, we never, never want to go back there, but it has given us lots of laughs over the year. The Davie School Inn was perfect! Each room is named a color. It will come as no surprise to any of my life-long friends that Jerry and I stayed in the pink room. It wasn't overly pink, of which I'm sure Jerry was quite happy about. He has been hankering to try out a Temper-Pedic mattress, so he didn't care what color room it was. We were thrilled with our room. I liked that it was extra roomy, and the soft towels were an added bonus.

We got there well before Sheila and Dennis, so Gary suggested that we try The Blue Boar Restaurant. Once we got settled in the room, we headed out for dinner. Southern Illinois is like southern Indiana, and has gentle rolling hills, and it was actually in the lower 60's, so that was very pleasant. We had a nice dinner, and as we were leaving, we saw that next to the restaurant was a rock formation with a natural spring coming out of it. They had built a nice bridge and sitting area next to it, so we wandered over to look at it. The taxidermy animals were inside of the restaurant, over to the side from where I was sitting. I'm not sure what they are supposed to be representing (or doing), but as you can guess, I had to take a picture of them.

Sheila and Dennis arrived around 10:30, and we all met in their room (the yellow room) to enjoy the Gigi cupcakes that Sheila had brought. It was a wonderful way to celebrate a myriad of things: Jerry's new job, our 42 year friendship, my birthday (a little late) and just general love for each other. We planned on meeting in their room for breakfast, as Gary brings breakfast to you whenever you want (within reason, of course). Sure enough, at 8:30 the next morning, Gary knocked on the door and brought in omelets, hash browns, bacon, fresh fruit, pastries and orange juice. Holy cow it was good! Sheila's room had a table that four could easily sit at and enjoy the meal. After we sufficiently stuffed ourselves, we got ready for our shopping expeditions. Gary had told us of a town in Missouri that had a stream of fun thrift/antique stores, so the two of us headed out, while our husbands lounged around watching NCAA basketball.

 We easily found the town (which, thinking back on it, is a major surprise for us--yay for GPS). The stores were very fun to poke around in, and the prices were wonderful--much better than here in central Illinois. Just the outside decoration of the first shop was fun to see.

We poked around and shopped for most of the afternoon. By the time we got back, it was just about time for dinner. Gary had suggested an all-you-can-eat fried chicken restaurant that was fabulous. Our dinner had fried chicken, along with homemade biscuits and apple butter, homemade dumplings (savory), green beans, and cole slaw. Yum! This is a picture of the four of us at dinner.

 By this time, we were kind of waddling back to the inn, and spent the evening in our room catching up and making new memories. What fun Sheila and I have together, and we're very blessed that our husbands get along so well together. The next morning, Gary brought us baked french toast, sausage, and fresh fruit for breakfast. We sat and talked some more (we had a list of things to discuss that Sheila had written on the blackboard, although we did all get in trouble and had our names put on the board before the weekend was over) before we had to head out to get back home in time to pick up our beagles. I am so blessed that God put Sheila into my life all of those many years ago. We have been through so much together, and we don't get to see each other nearly enough. We've promised ourselves that we won't wait another 10 years before we do this again (and we will definitely go back to Davie School Inn instead of The Old Squat Inn). I'm back to catching up on things before heading back to work tomorrow. Spring hasn't arrived quite yet, but I'm hoping that by Easter, we will at least have a few warmer days. I'm also hoping for a good strawberry crop this year, so if that means that spring comes a little later than last year, I'm ok with that.

I hope that each of you have a wonderful spring, and that you count your blessings for each person that God has put into your life. I know that I thank God for both Shirley and Sheila and the love that they have given me, and I love them both. Thank you for the love and memories from both of you this past week.

Fall thoughts

It's been quite awhile since I last posted a blog entry. Somehow, the summer got away from me, and now that Labor Day weekend has arrived, I'm beginning to think of fall and fall things. It's past strawberry and peach time, and I'm ready to start picking apples and watch the leaves turn. I love fall evenings, but I don't like the thought of winter weather.

It was a strange summer. The last time I remember a summer so hot and dry, I was pregnant with Stephie and living in North Carolina. I would stay in the house until Jerry had started up the car and let it run with the air conditioner going before I would waddle out to join him.

This was the summer of weddings. Stephie's best friend got married the end of June and then my niece, Amy, got married the first weekend of August at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The Cafe Brauer right next to the zoo was the actual venue, and it was beautiful. I so enjoyed seeing my family, as this was the first wedding of our girls. Amy was beautiful, and seeing Joseph (her new husband) with tears in his eyes as he watched Amy walk in on my brother's arm, was indeed a special moment. One thing that my brothers and I did right was raise some beautiful, awesome girls. I was able to get a picture of my momma with her granddaughters after the ceremony.

L-R Stephie, Katie, Joseph, Amy, Momma, Lainey, Liz

See what I mean? Beautiful girls from a beautiful grandmother. Time really flew quickly, and it's almost hard to believe that our girls are old enough to be married. Amy is now living with Joseph in Barcelona, Spain.

Stephie accepted a job with a wonderful NFP company named Jumpstart. She works out of Dominican University in River Forest, IL and recruits volunteers to work with at-risk preschool children with their literacy skills. It's a perfect job for my bookworm. :) She loves, loves, loves the people that she is working with and is so excited about her new position. We are thrilled for her.

Jerry and I are both looking forward to some cooler days to enjoy some outside activities before we head into winter weather. I'm going to attempt to be better about keeping up with this blog, if for no other reason than it just feels good to write about what's going on--even if no one reads it or cares (which is more than likely the case, and I'm certainly ok with that). So many people I care about are struggling with various health or personal issues that sometimes it's good for me to reflect on the good things that have happened. At times, I get so wrapped up in the problems that I forget all of the good that God has done for me and the people that I love, and I have to ask for His forgiveness that I focus on the wrong things. I'm thankful for the love that I have from my family and friends, and mostly for the love that God has for me.

I hope that each of you has a wonderful fall season. Eat lots of apples, make some apple cake and enjoy all things fall.

Birthday Memories

Today is my birthday. I have no idea how I got to be 55 so quickly, but here I am. I don't "feel" 55 (whatever that feels like), and I like to be delusional and think that I don't look 55. Please don't burst my bubble. There are days that I actually believe my delusions and other days where I'm rational and realize that perhaps I don't look 25 anymore.

My birthday always brings back fond recollections of my birthday parties. Having the "joy" of having your birthday fall in the middle of winter (and a mere 6 days after Valentine's Day), meant that your birthday parties were confined to the house.  For whatever reason, God decided to bless my parents with all three of us in the middle of winter (our birthdays are all within the span of one month), so it was a string of birthday parties. I'm quite certain that Momma and Ma-Ma were happy to see March 1st come around. I don't remember having a birthday party without my friends. My first toddler parties were mostly the neighborhood girls and boys and their mothers. Complete with cake and punch, we mostly played with toys while our moms enjoyed visiting with each other. On occasion, a certain cousin of mine would sneak under the table to kiss one of the boys, but for the most part, they were pretty tame.

As time progressed, the boys went away, and it was only my little girl friends at my parties. What fun we would have! Momma would decorate the dining room and the living room would be set up for games. We would have a lovely meal that Ma-Ma would make (featuring something pink--one year, it was pink mashed potatoes, and another year it was pink cottage cheese on pears). Always, always, always, the cake would be a "polka-dot angel food", which was a white angel food cake with those colored sprinkles put in the batter before it was baked. As it would bake, the sprinkles would melt, and when you cut the cake, it was filled with colored dots. I swear to you, it made the cake better. You could actually buy the cake mix like this, but I haven't seen one in years. Ma-Ma would put a piece of wax paper over the center, so that she could ice it for the candles. This is from my birthday party when I was 8. I love that we were all so dressed up for our parties. It was from a different generation, and I feel that we've lost a little something when we spend most of our time in jeans.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on my birthday cake.

Debbie and Diane Wells, Tina Voss (facing the camera)
 and Lisa Poor (in the turquoise dress)

One of my favorite birthday gifts that year was my first cookbook that Tina Voss gave me. I still have the book (although it was used so much that it's pretty fragile). It is a great cookbook, and holds special memories for me.

Soon, we progressed to slumber parties, which is what most of my high school friends remember. I would like to think that they were my friends because of me, but sometimes I wonder if it was because they wanted to be invited to my slumber parties. They were the bomb! No exaggeration at all. We usually had everyone for dinner--or a late snack, which consisted of things like homemade pizza, or Ma-Ma's famous homemade ice cream (what I would give anything for some of that right about now). The boys and Daddy would disappear (this was a very good thing), so it was all the girls and Momma. The boys were usually staying at Ma-Ma's, so she would bring the food over and then disappear with the boys. We would giggle, have seances (I have no idea who we were trying to talk to, but it always seemed that the dog would make a noise in the dark and we would all jump), freeze the bras of the unfortunate girls that actually were able to wear a bra and always tried to stop the train. Our house was built across the street from a train track, and every night around 2 AM the train would come by. We decided that if we waved from our front bay window at the train, they would see us and possibly stop. Sure enough, with enough hand waving, the train would blow the whistle and many times would stop. It never occurred to us that they were changing cars on the train. Whatever. We had fun doing it. Soon, we progressed from not wanting boys anywhere near our parties to having various boys, both from our class and my older brother's class, appearing at some point in the night--especially from my brother's class. They would appear "looking for Steve" (who was never there) and pretend that they had no idea we were having our slumber party. Right! Every now and then, one of my guests would disappear for awhile with whomever had appeared.

We had a large, unfinished basement that had a pool table, ping-pong table, extra refrigerator and a television with furniture to lounge on.  But most of all, I have a fantastic mother that allowed us to just have fun and not worry about what we were doing. She knew that we were going to behave ourselves and just let us have fun. She is an incredible momma (as was my grandmother) and it is because of them that I have these dear memories to cherish.

l-r: Kevin, Erin, Stephie (holding Steinbeck) and Ryan

Thanks for allowing me to relive the memories of 55 years of February 20th. This birthday was made special by having my precious girl come home and bring some of her delightful college friends (to include meeting her new boyfriend). We went out to dinner and had a lovely time visiting. I'm blessed with my daughter and her friends, and I thank my family for giving me yet another wonderful birthday. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and friends, and I am thankful for everyone of you that have joined me in celebrating a birthday or two and helping me form these wonderful memories. Love you all!

A Biffle, a Boy and a Baby

This is the story of me and a family of three generations. Let me start at the beginning.

40 years ago last September, a new girl moved to Greencastle. Being from a small town, having a new person was always a huge deal. We discovered that we had both home economics and earth science together, and started to become friends. I invited her to a slumber party, but her mother was very wary of her spending the night at our house. Not to worry--I had my southern momma call her southern momma, and before we knew it, my new friend was able to come to my slumber party. Not to toot my own horn, but my slumber parties were the bomb. That’s another blog.

Before long, this beautiful, sweet girl and I became best friends. Every boy in the school was in love with her. I was thrilled to have Sheila as my new best friend. God placed her in my life at the perfect time. Junior high days had been very tough for me, and I needed Sheila. I still thank God for sending her to me when He did. All during high school, we became closer friends. Although she was a cheerleader and I was a band/choir geek, we still had a lot in common with each other. By the time we were seniors, and looking at colleges, we really wanted the other to go to the school we had chosen. I was eager to go to Indiana State, but she had her mind set on Western Kentucky University. Well, what did I have to lose by looking at Western? I walked onto the campus, and fell in love with the school. So, on August 17, 1975, Sheila and I became freshman at WKU. What a ride those four years were. I won’t lie and say that they were spectacular, because the four years had their ups and downs. We pulled away from each other for a period of time, but always were friends. By the time we graduated, we were good friends again, and Sheila was getting ready to be married. But, the day that we graduated, we found out that her dad had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and we began our adult life with a tragedy that only began to pull us even closer together.

Fast forward 32 years. By now, there aren’t very many people that I’m closer to than Sheila. We have seen each other through the divorce of my parents, the deaths of her parents, the cancer and death of her first husband, the births of our children, our marriages, losses of jobs, and now the trials that our children are going through. We have watched each other’s children grow up, go to school, and become beautiful adults. We joke about finding our nursing home together (she’s been known to tease me about my curls, but I’ve told her that I’ll be in the craft room while she’s getting that perm!). I don’t know what I would do without Sheila in my life. I have to stay her friend--she knows way too much about me. So, Sheila is my BFFL (pronounced biffle). Best Friend For Life. Apparently, from what I’ve been told, that is a step above BFF.

                                             
Now for the boy: 

31 years ago, a beautiful baby boy was born to my biffle and her lovely husband. You have to understand, that all of the years Sheila and I had known each other, she was going to have a girl and name her Elizabeth. So, all during her pregnancy, we called the baby Elizabeth. Well--until an ultrasound told us that Elizabeth would be a bad name for the baby, unless we wanted to rewrite the song, “A Boy Named Sue”. I still remember the day that Jim called to tell me that Sheila had given birth to a perfect baby boy named James Neal. Even though, technically, he wasn’t my child, I more or less adopted him as mine (I was single at this point of life). I was working in a children’s clothing store, so I bought him books, toys, clothes...and spoiled his sister, Rachel, just as much 14 months later. I loved these children like they were my own. Years later, when my Stephie was born, I knew that Sheila would love Stephie like she was her own. It’s just the way our friendship works. Neal is the boy I never had.

So now, Neal and his beautiful, precious wife, Rachel Jane, have had their own baby boy. Sheila is a Nana, and we are moving into yet another phase of our friendship. I’m so excited to enter this new phase of grandmother-hood and surrogate grandmother (for me). This is as good as being an aunt. I welcome little James Dominic Garvin into this world. You are so loved by so many people. God has placed you in a family that will cherish and love you all the days of your life. I pray that I can be a blessing to you and your family as the years go on. Even though I haven’t met you, I already love you, just like I love your daddy, mama and your nana. God bless you little one and until I hold you in my arms, may God keep you and bless you. Hugs and kisses from Miss Julie

Nana, Papa and their beautiful grandson