More Blessings

As I was preparing to leave for my weekend in San Antonio, I was sharing with Honey that I was excited for 2 reasons. The first was that I was going to get to spend a whole entire weekend with my BFF from high school, Shelly. We never get to do that. The last time we were together for an extended amount of time was when the girls were like 6 mo old. Shelly, we must not wait another 5 years before we do this again. The time I spent with you was so refreshing and I look forward to seeing you again, soon.

I was so excited, in fact, that I left my camera at home. I was not able to take one stinkin' picture while in San Antonio. I was so bummed. But Shelly took some for me and shared her copies. So all of the pictures with actual people in them are from her. She always has been the responsible one. That's what BFFs are for, right?

Me, Shelly, and Janet (Shelly's mom) at the Siesta Fiesta.

Here we are with Beth, Melissa, and Amanda. Shelly is 2nd from the right on the front row. Janet and I are on our knees 1st and 2nd from the right. Melissa and Amanda are standing right behind Janet and I. Beth is on the floor right in the middle of the front row.

When we arrived in San Antonio, Shelly gave each of us in our little group of 12 a gift. She and her kids made us some note cards. Handmade with love from my BFF and her kids. How precious! And one of the cards had a verse from Psalm 16 on it. That was the text for the weekend. Coincidence? I think not.

Janet gave Shelly and I this book. It's a Bible study, but when you're finished, you will have the journaling done for a scrapbook legacy of faith. All you have to do is put it together. You can buy a scrapbook kit that goes along with the study, but you could also make your own. I love this idea! I will definitely make time to do this by this time next year.





The second thing I was excited about was meeting Cindy and Gayle. In case you haven't heard, Beth Moore and her girls, Melissa and Amanda, keep a blog. Through that blog came the idea for a little "meet and greet" in San Antonio. It was a place for bloggers to meet other bloggers face to face. In most cases, we've "known" each other for months or years via e-mail and blogging, but have never met face to face.


When I expressed my excitement to Honey about the Siesta Fiesta, he was less than thrilled. He's seen too many episodes of Dateline NBC and Law and Order. He was concerned that maybe these people were ax murderers in disguise and had less than honorable intentions. And what if the pictures they posted of themselves on the blog were fake? But I assured him that the Siesta Fiesta would be in a public place. And it would take place after three sessions of hearing Beth Moore preach the Word, and so even if they were shady, Beth would totally convert them by the end of the weekend.

Cindy and me

It was a little bit surreal, meeting the girls. Because until you hug their necks, it still feels a little like they are just the grown-up version of your imaginary friends. And if you've never tried to locate 2 complete strangers, and you have no idea what to look for or how to recognize them accept by the pictures you seen on their blogs, and all you have to work with are their voices over the cell phone and what color their hair may or may not be depending on if the mood struck them to color it the day before leaving on an all girls weekend, well, you haven' t lived.


I'm happy to testify that Cindy and Gayle are as sweet and genuine in person as they come across on their blogs. They even look like the pictures they post of themselves. Well, Gayle's hair is shorter now, but other than that, just the same. We got to eat lunch together Saturday afternoon and visit for a couple of hours. I hate not knowing when we will meet again, but I've been eternally blessed by seeing their beautiful faces and hugging their real life necks.




On Saturday afternoon, Cindy gave me a wonderful gift. It's my new goal skirt! I love it. When I showed it to Shelly, she said, "It looks just like you!" I can't wait to wear it. And, boy did I need some fresh motivation. After a weekend of Mexican food, guacamole, Starbucks, and ice cream to celebrate the first day of 3rd grade . . . well, let's just say, it wasn' t a very WW friendly weekend. It just looks so small . . . it will be amazing if I make it into this one.


As a little side note, I'm not sure why, but we didn't take a picture of Gayle with Shelly's camera. So I don't have one, but you can visit her blog or Cindy's to see one of the three of us. As it turns out, Shelly is a much better photographer than the maid at the hotel. Although, bless the little maid's heart, she tried. And I'm not sure what's up with the dates on the pictures. But I promise, these are in no way faked or counterfeited. We really did take them in AUGUST of 2008.


This weekend I was reminded of a song I learned during my short stint in Girl Scouts. "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold." My little troop even got to where we could sing it in rounds and harmonize and stuff. But, it's what I was feeling all weekend. I loved spending time with my life long friend, there aren't words to describe what she means to me. But it was also such a treasure to meet these new friends, to put faces and voices and hugs with the written words that have blessed me so.