Little Ole Me?

My sweet friend, Lavender Chick, sent me TWO awards. Ain't she the sweetest darn thing ever? She is a pretty amazing person and one of the most sincere and gracious and hilarious women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. When you meet her, you instantly feel as if you have known her all of your life...which brings me to the first award she gave me:

This is called the Perfect Blend of Friendship Award and along with it, comes these answers which you must answer:

Do you have the same friends since childhood? I most certainly do!! Shauna, Christa and Deanna I have known since they accepted me into their circle in the 1st grade. They all went to the same school in Kindergarten so their friendships had already been formed, while I wasted my time in some dumb private Kindergarten. These ladies have been my backbone throughout my life and I still see Shauna and Christa at LEAST once a month, if not more. They are in my Bunco group that I've been in for 8 years!! I don't get to see Deanna near as much as I would like, but we still remain close and I know that she would be there for me in the blink of an eye.

Missy is my best friend and has been since the 7th grade. I can't say enough about her and how she has helped to shape my life. We may not talk daily like we did for so many years, but we sure don't let it go too long. You can read a little about her here.

Mandy is my cousin, but also a best friend. I guess you could say she's been my friend since childhood since I've known and loved her since the day she was born. There is no reason why we couldn't have been twins...if only we were the same age and had the same mother and father. (That one was for my uncle!!) Mandy is this ball of completely special that you just won't ever understand unless you meet her. She and I are so alike. We love the same things and both have a handful of crazy kids and one crazy husband each. I don't think there is anything new that one of us can pick up that the other one doesn't want to automatically do too. If I ever in the world had a sister, I would have picked her...but since I couldn't do that, I will settle for a cousin and a best friend!

What do you value most about your friends? The thing I value most about my friends is their kindness and loyalty. They always, every one of them, pull together within seconds to help each other out. They are miracles, they are my sisters.

Are your friends sounding boards? Uh. Yeah. Especially since I'm the most opinionated, non-quiet, on-your-soapbox person you'll ever meet. My friends, they have much patience.

To which I shall pass this award along to my life-time friends Missy and Mandy and Christa...I would pass it along to Shauna too...but we can't convince her to blog!!

The second award is the Blogging Friends Forever Gold Card Award.

This one has to be given to the following sweet friends of mine:

A Day in the Life How in the world can I explain Rachael to make you understand? I have known Rachael for quite a while. She came to be my friend because she is best friends with Shauna (one of those childhood friends of mine I talked about above). I have gotten closer to her over the years and have always loved her dearly. BUT, this past year she came to me from what I thought of as a pretty close friendship to alter into a forever friendship that has captured this incredibly special place in my heart. Rach stepped into my heart when I needed her the very most. I think she knew how much I was hurting and she was able to help me see things about myself that I was not able to see. She has been a breath of fresh air for me and a confidant that I can turn to any day, at any time. Love you lady.

Under the Stars and Dreaming. I met this wonderful friend about 8 years ago when we used to work together over in hell (just kidding). But anyway, you know those friends when you leave a job and yeah, they were great friends while you worked there, but you'll never see them again...well Susie is SOOO not that friend. She's a friend that I will hang onto forever. Without her, my life just wouldn't be quite right. Although we are different in many ways, we also have so many of the same loves and we can talk for 4 hours straight and still not be done. We have remained friends over the years, to which I cannot be thankful enough. She is one of the smartest, most clever and funny people ever in the world of me. I am so glad I have her in my life.

I shall end my post with the most wonderful quote about friends that I have ever read:

"A friend is someone who knows the song of your heart and can sing it back to you, even when you have forgotten the words."