Archive for the 'Friends' Category
May 12, 2008 @ 5:14 pm | Filed under: Family,Friends,It's a Girl Thing
Several of you have emailed or called, wanting to know how it was to turn forty. So here you go – a photo journey through one very memorable – very special - week in my life!
May 10, 2008 @ 9:13 pm | Filed under: Friends
One of my best friends graduated Magna Cum Laude from UT Dallas this morning! We (her friends) were immensely proud and I think the entire commencement audience might have had a clue when – in unison and…loudly – we chanted: “Rochelle! Go! Four point-o!” as she walked across the stage to claim her hard-earned diploma!
Enjoy this recap from our very special day!
Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com
May 8, 2008 @ 3:00 pm | Filed under: Friends
On the list of all the things that I treasure most, the friendships in my life are certainly at the top of that list.
I love to meet new people, and make new friends, because that’s a sign of growth and of expanding the borders of our lives. As we grow older, we gradually learn that we share bits and pieces of ourselves with many different people, and in many different ways.
But I also greatly treasure the friendships that go back…way back.
One of these special relationships is my friendship with Kathy. Even though we live several hundred miles apart now, the friendship we shared as little girls has only deepened and matured with the passing of time. I had the opportunity to catch up with her this past week when I accompanied Mike to Houston for the OTC Conference. While he worked and walked the tradeshow at the Reliant Center, I relished this unexpected time with a dear friend.
Kathy had suggested we meet at a restaurant in Uptown Park. As I drove into the exclusive shopping area, I thought about how on any ordinary day these shops would have provided a mecca of retail therapy to wile away the afternoon. Today, they still looked intriguing but that wasn’t where my head was. I didn’t want to shop. I only looked forward to sharing good food and great conversation with an old friend.
I arrived first and spotted her the minute she walked up the sidewalk and to the front door of the restaurant. The first thing I noticed was how fantastic she looked. Expecting her first child, she is co-owner of a great little coffee shop and works there herself about ten hours a week while working her (day) job in the financial offices of a large Houston pediatric cancer hospital. I’m pretty sure she’s in the running for Wonder Woman of the Year.
We began to talk as we were led to our table and we didn’t stop talking for over two hours. Long after we’d finished our salads and tea, we continued to sit and chat and catch up on one another’s lives.
I’ve known Kathy since we were both five or six years old and in kindergarten. Even though we never went to school together (she attended parochial schools, I went to public school) we spent many of our available waking minutes together during our growing up years.
We lived just down the street from one another on Bayshore until we were both about eighteen. Through the years, we’ve talked through just about every major life decision with the other and have always found a true confidante in one another. We can go for weeks and - many times - months without so much as an email or phone call and then dive right back into conversation as though we’d never had a lull.
Having these couple of days to catch up and spend time with Kathy was an unexpected oasis in my busy life, and a much needed one. And if you live in the Houston area, or the next time you’re through there on a visit, make sure you stop in at Fill Your Cup. It is an amazing coffee shop where the coffee is great, the employees are warm and welcoming, and the owner is an exceptional person.
And…my friend.
April 26, 2008 @ 6:47 pm | Filed under: Friends,Summer at the ballpark
“Shall we get a babysitter?”
Denise and I were on the phone, finalizing our plans for the next night’s game. Mike and I had invited the three of them to be our guests.
“Uh…not.” I laughed. “If the girl (our nickname for ‘our girl’) doesn’t come, then the deal is OFF.”
She laughed too. “That’s what we figured.”
Now, obviously we would have still welcomed them even if they had felt the need for a night out without the baby but – Uncle Mike and Aunt Staci certainly loved seeing her reaction to her very first baseball game!
She also strolled away from the game with a brand new pink Roughrider’s cap and a matching tot-size pink bat! From start to finish, she was totally into people watching and acted as though she’d been to zillions of games!
(As you can tell, we need to convert her mommy to the Rangers/Roughriders part of the league!)
America's favorite pasttime, baseball, Roughriders
March 31, 2008 @ 11:33 am | Filed under: Friends,It's a Girl Thing
Sometimes a smile and the face of laughter is all the caption you need!
This photo was taken one year ago at a ladies retreat and – YAY! – that same annual conference is only THREE DAYS AWAY!
I have no doubt that the speakers will be awesome and anointed.
I have no doubt that the music will be inspirational.
I have no doubt that the Spirit of God will move in a great and mighty way.
And I look forward to all of that!
But you know what?
I really just can’t wait to spend three days laughing and loving God with these women – my friends.
March 14, 2008 @ 9:44 am | Filed under: Friends
A year-and-a-half ago I made a huge, scary decision.
I decided, at 38 years old, to return to college and finally chase down this one dream that I had let intimidate me for so long. While it’s been challenging, this journey has already also been one of the most rewarding. I’m halfway there – too far in to think about looking back, too far away to truly be able to anticipate graduation yet.
One thing that has made this adventure so wonderful is that I have a couple of very special people to look to for inspiration and motivation. This Spring – I am living vicariously through two of my best friends!
Dawn just graduated from Liberty University with a Bachelors in Business Management, and was just accepted into a graduate program where she’ll be earning a Masters in Human Services with a specialization in marriage and family. Dawn is married to Kevin (practically my second brother) and they are the proud parents of two beautiful children, Simeon and Anna. They pastor a flourishing, revival church in Indiana.
Rochelle will graduate in eight short weeks from UTD with a Bachelors of Art in Psychology. She, too, is a busy mom to Keilani (8), wife to Kevin (different one!), and a great friend to me. We’ve been celebrating a lot this week because Rochelle has just been accepted into the masters program of SMU and will be pursuing a Masters of Science in Counseling Psychology. (Oh yeah – today is also Rochelle’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Ro!)
Will you join me in congratulating my friends and these tremendous milestones? I said this blog was going to be all about fiction, faith, and FRIENDS, so what better place than Glimpses to recognize the accomplishments of women who bless my life on a daily basis?
I am so very proud of them both.
March 5, 2008 @ 2:54 am | Filed under: Friends
“Life is short, but wide.”
____________________
I spotted her as soon as I walked in the door of Fish City Grill last night. She moved from table to table – chatting, hugging – always with a huge smile on her face. She spotted us soon after we were seated and came over, scooting into the booth next to me.
“Can you believe it?” Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears and her hug was tight and warm.
I clutched her hand and looked around the restaurant, taking in the host of people that crowded in, making it appear more of a weekend crowd rather than that of a Tuesday night.
“This is amazing.” I really had no words to adequately describe the scene, nor my own emotions.
Everywhere I looked, people were smiling and mingling and greeting one another. It looked like one big family reunion. Except this family was a fairly new one. Not long ago they were strangers; now – because of one shared vision – this unlikely group of people had found family within one another.
I first met Darlene almost five years ago at a dinner party. At that time Coventry was still a seed of a dream inside her heart, but it was a seed that was already bursting at the seams.
I remember standing in the living room, having met her only moments before, and already I was held spellbound as I listened to the details of a dream she’d claimed as her life’s mission. I have to admit that even to me – a big dreamer myself – this seemed like a long shot. A huge undertaking.
Still, I couldn’t help but catch a bit of her excitement as she shared her wish of being able to move the special needs day facility from her home to a separate location where a trained staff and medical professionals could provide classes, health care, and occupational training.
Two years ago I got a catch in my throat as I drove past the new facility, seeing the first real sign go up in the front. Local families with special needs young adults began to learn about them and the family began to grow. A speech therapist came for a visit and – even though they couldn’t afford her services – she stayed on and now offers a full day of her care each week to the facility. Numerous volunteers and sponsors – including Fish City Grill – have taken on the burden of the Coventry mission.
Now maxed out with 17 day residents, the center is in the middle of planning their new, spacious facility that will sit on the land directly behind their current location. Set to house 60 residents, the next phase is to add residential living, more classes, more training, more medical partners.
Yesterday, as 15% of all Fish City’s sales went directly to the center, two different sponsors stepped up, both matching the restaurant’s contribution. By the time we left the restaurant, weaving in and out of the long line that still waited to be seated, I couldn’t help but think back five years to that first, initial conversation where I’d learned of Coventry.
I stepped outside and took one look back, choked with emotion at what I had just witnessed.
It was a realized dream.
Proof to us all that one small seed of a dream – housed inside of a heart that is passionate and committed – can bloom into the most beautiful portrait of reality possible.
January 27, 2008 @ 4:42 am | Filed under: Friends
“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
____________________________
We sat around my dining room table – The Planner, The Initiator, The Encourager, and The Entertainer – and I listened to the sound of my friends’ animated chatter and their infectious laughter.
We had finished our dinner of shrimp cocktails and Mojo grilled chicken salads and now our plates were pushed back and our individual calendars lay open before us. We tried to move quickly through the months, penciling in important dates, events, birthdays, trips, and church group activities, but, invariably, each thing penciled in would prompt a new thought, a new idea, or a new tangent of conversation.
At one point I settled back in my chair and just listened.
Listened to the sound of friendship.
I looked around this small circle and thought how lovely it was to have this group of girlfriends in this stage of my life. I’ve never known such complete selfless love and genuine affection as what is felt and seen and known in this group. I can only think that this particular group dynamic works so well for one reason and one reason alone. We are four distinctly unique individuals who share a deep love of God and a deep commitment to our individual talents and abilities. Never do we try to cross into one another’s territory, but we, instead, are one another’s biggest and loudest cheerleaders EVER.
The Planner is the woMAN with the plan. You want to throw a party? You wanna go on a trip? You want to figure out how to wear a different outfit to church for three months straight using only 6 pieces of clothing? NOT a problem. All you need is a good plan, and she can be counted on for that.
The Initiator is the go-to gal once that plan has been established. Affectionately dubbed Cheguyver by the group, she can quite possibly create, fix, or alter – anything – with just a piece of gum, a hair pin, and some double-sided tape. Her quiet nature belies the hilarious comedy that ensues as she calls out for tools she needs and we scramble to dig them up and pass them off to her. The Plan would be nothing without The Initiator.
The Encourager is the gentle force that keeps the entire group moving forward. She is, both, quiet and ferocious, loyal and biased, sensitive and headstrong. She defies labels. She is the first to cry and the first to laugh. She is the supplier of All Things Chocolate and the official Bringer of Kleenex to girl’s night in. She thinks The Planner is the bomb and that The Initiator is the original Superwoman. We think she is irreplaceable.
The Entertainer is our rejuvenator when spirits are tired and energy is low. She is a slow, quiet force that catches you unaware and then delights you with a humor that is all encompassing and infectious. She’s the one who prays away the calories from our food before it ever passes our lips and she is the first to break up an overly solemn moment with slapstick humor. She is our laughter, even on days when we don’t feel much like laughing. Our lives are merrier because she’s in them.
Each of these women are strong and independent and whole on their own. Together, they are women warriors. The results of this phenomenal friendship ripples over into the lives of the men they love, the children they raise, the work they do, and the roles they play.
They never stand alone. Behind each one is…
A plan.
An implementation.
Encouragement.
Laughter.
The four together?
They are the sounds of friendship.
July 29, 2007 @ 4:09 pm | Filed under: Friends
"Hm."
Mike cut his eyes in my direction as I took out my newly purchased black sunglasses from Charlotte Russe and slid them into place as we backed out of our driveway.
"What?" I feigned innocence, even though I know this man well enough to know just exactly where his thoughts were headed. The new sunglasses were not, um..a hit.
"All I can say is that you better not be wearing those and start making any sudden buzzing sounds. I may have to swat you with a damp dishtowel!"
Now to truly understand and even appreciate this feeble attempt at making fun of my oversized sunglasses, you’d have to live in North Texas and be experiencing the "summer of the flies", as it’s come to be called around our house. They are everywhere this year and seem to have a much longer life expectancy than those of my childhood. Mike gave up on traditional fly swatters and has been having much better luck with swinging his damp dishtowel. More than one poor fly has been caught unaware, and now I, myself, had just been put on notice.
So I did the only thing a girl can do in such a situation. I placed the blame elsewhere. "Well! Dawn made me buy them!"
But I have to admit, I was laughing by this time and even had to agree. I did look a bit like a fly. I had stood, just hours before, in the store with Dawn as we tried on pair after pair after pair of these sunglasses.
"I don’t know." I was dubious, at best. "I just don’t think I can bring myself to wear these – they’re HUGE!"
"That’s the style! Everybody’s wearing them." Never mind the fact that Dawn looks like a rock star in hers while I resemble…well, a FLY!
"I know, I know. But look – they take up half my face!"
"Just think of it as me giving you a hug every time you wear them."
Since Dawn is one of my best friends and since we live hundreds of miles apart and since these shopping days are few and far between…
I bought TWO pair – one in black and one in brown. A girl’s gotta match, you know…
July 24, 2007 @ 8:18 am | Filed under: Friends
was…this!
Yeah, baby!
Okay, she really brought back way more than this fabulous DC for me, but – as you can imagine – I’m tickled pink by this! Thanks, Rochelle! I love ya! Click here to read all about Ro’s amazing trip.
