I Always Picture Her Laughing...

I like to make a point to thank God often for special friendships. I blame it on moving away from everything familiar and safe when I graduated from college and got married. I love making new friends, but nothing replaces those solid, "been through it all" friends.
Friendship. It comes in the most unlikely places. God has blessed me with a handful of long-lasting friendships and my heart swells with pride when I think of each one of them. One of those beautiful friends is, Paige.
We met one another while working at a fitness center in our last year of college. I knew who she was. She was Miss. Conway…and the chance of making this girl a friend of Abby Jo's was well….slim! God had other plans. We became instant friends the first night I folded towels with her at the front desk of the gym. We found out we had the same major, same quirks, same sense of humor, same faith, some of the same friends and we wore the same Conway Regional Lands End polo three or four days a week.
We had different circles of friends. She was big into Greek life on campus and I was big into escaping campus as soon as I could each day. We connected though. We even made the Conway Regional newsletter with a funny write up on our abdominal routine. It was most funny and our proudest highlight. I would give anything to workout with her everyday. She had me in the best shape of my life. Anyway, we had good times.
When I think of Paige I see her laughing. That is pretty neat. How many people do you picture laughing when you think of them? I can only think of a few and her laughter is one of my most favorite.
We have shared many ups and downs with one another over the past seven years. She listened as I cried, I listened as she cried and then we laughed about it afterwards. She sang my "life song" (while playing it on the piano) at my wedding. It meant the world to me. I regret having a huge misunderstanding with her last summer while she was preparing for her wedding, Yet I am so glad we worked it out before Christmas. It was one of my best presents this past Christmas season. I think we are deeper, stronger friends now. I get sad when I think about missing seven months of her life and her missing seven months of mine. We got caught up though and it was good times. I am so excited about a lifetime of laughter with my beautiful friend, Paige.

This is one of my favorite pictures of us. We were leaving Destin and headed to Memfrica after a long weekend with the JAPA's (a special group of college girlfriends…Jenny, Ashlea, Paige and Abby) and almost missed our flight because we were being our high maintenance selves. I almost always wet my pants talking about it. We sprinted through the airport barefoot with our flip -flops in hand, trying to catch our plane….I am laughing out loud as I type. "Love It" …"Shut It!"

Nothing like a good and warm fuzzy post for a cold, miserable day.

Abby

A Blind Date & Leaving Comments

8 years ago today I met this sweet man in the picture above. We met on a blind date in the Bluff City (aka- Memfrica). He and I were simply going out to shut up his stepmother and my sister, who had decided that we were meant to be together from one simple fridge photo and a dog named Abby. Little did we know they would be able to pat themselves on the back for the rest of their lives . I am so glad we both agreed to go out for that one date on New Years Eve 2001 because I have had him in my life everyday since that crazy night at my cousin Hollye's back door when he arrived to pick me up to find a baby on my hip that he thought was mine. I remember those beautiful blue eyes and how they about popped out of his head as he stood at the door wondering why no one had mentioned my child. That baby on my hip was Claire. She was 1 then and had just gone number 2 in her diaper right before he rang the bell. She had Styrofoam all over her and me from playing in Christmas boxes. Needless t

All Aboard The Birthday Polar Express

Can you believe Henry Patton will be 4 years old tomorrow?! Neither can we. We celebrated his birthday last weekend with his first all boy party, polar express style. I had so much fun preparing for it, as you can probably tell! My mother who is never at a loss for words said it looked like Polar Express threw up in my house. She was SO right and we loved it! We had a breakfast pajama party with 7 three and four year old boys. It was such a fun time. I had his pajamas monogrammed with a train and his name. He loved them and I liked how they sort of looked like the ones on the movie. Henry loved all the bells I had everywhere. There is no doubt we believe at this house. We had the jingle loud and proud! I had his invitation made from a shop on Etsy and I was very pleased with them. One of his little friends came to the door ready for me to punch his ticket. It was so cute. I ran to get a hole punch and punched it for him. Every good party has to have go

Scavenger Hunt Answers

I know this is more than just my blog. But today I am going to hijack it to play in a scavenger hunt with the preachers wife and her friends. I'm going to answer some questions and hope to win!!!!!!! The Treasures 1. My name is Julie. I also go by Jules, Julia, Ju , and I will soon be called JuJu by Henry, my nephew to be! 2. I live in Arkansas and always have but have only lived in Lincoln county for three years. 3. My wonderful hubby is the Pastor of our church. How about that for a lofty title! 4. I have already answered this question in #2, but we have been at this church for three years (well, three years and 15 days!) 5. Yes, I have children. The lights of my life, the laughter in my soul, the stealers of my sanity are Samuel who is 12, David who is 8, Daniel who is 8, and Anna Kathryn who is 5. 6. We have been married for 16 years, and have lived in seven different houses. Not bad for being in the ministry! But have served at 2 churches for 5 years each! 7. I cook Sunday

Anonymous said…

Am glad you are maintaining your friendships from the past. They are important.
I like the way you refer to yourself as "an Athlete". I am so proud of you for perservering to become the runner that you are.
It all goes back to that father who loved you and made you compete on the track back in the 7th and 8th grades. He knew what a gold mine in the making he had.

Love ya,
YD

January 28, 2008 at 3:18 PM

Life with my sister

Search This Blog