Kindred Spirits

I'm sure all of us remember our first encounter with the firey red head, Miss Anne of Green Gables or Anne spelled with an "e". I remember being forced to watch it at a sleepover at my friend, Kristen Curtis' house when I was in the 6th grade. I thought it was going to be a hideous movie and of course ended up loving it. This week, I've been blessed to be able to enjoy some much needed girl time with some great friends. Many of which I would consider to be of kindred spirit with myself and whom after I leave from spending time with them, I feel refreshed.
Tuesday night, some former coworkers from ESA had a small gathering for our friend Natalie who also used to work with us there. She left ESA a few months before I did and had just recently started seeing this guy she met at a wedding. Well -- things kept progressing and before long we were hearing stories of her planning to move to NC (where he's from) and getting a new job and getting a house, etc. etc. And then this past weekend he officially proposed! Her ring is beautiful -- princess cut solitare! Her story is precious too -- the shortened version -- after dinner at her fave resturant, they took a walk through Reedy River Park and he proposed on the swing past the Shakespeare stage! Too precious!!
We had a great time reminiscing about old ESA memories and who all is left working there and how things are currently going, then we moved on to stories about Natalie and Joe and wedding plans etc. It was just 7 of us sitting around enjoying finger foods and fun fellowship, but it was such a relaxed time and much needed. We've all planned to road trip to NC for the wedding in March. On Thursday night, I made plans to drive to Greenville to pick up my preserved wedding bouquet which was finally ready after a year! My wonderful and faithful friend, Casey, took my wedding bouquet that night and safely delivered to this lady who owns "Lasting Memories" in Greenville. She dries flowers in such a way that the colors and shapes are preserved beautifully and then mounted for a keepsake. I was a little unsure about how this would turn out and whether or not it would be tacky but was intriqued by the process and being a sentimental pack rat was fond of the idea of preserving whatever I could from that perfect day. So I met with the lady a few months ago to decide what kind of "case" I wanted. She offered not only the framed editions, but also the glass cube possibility. I immediately fell in love with that idea and paid my down payment. I paid the down payment some time last fall! I had almost forgotten about it when she called last week to tell me it was ready. When I walked in her home, I saw it on the table (among others -- but was still able to pick out my flowers after a full year) and my heart leeped at the sight. I distinctly remembered the same feeling I had when I rounded the corner at the church and saw the florist holding them for me on my wedding day. And now, each time I walk past them in our home, I can remember that feeling. I'm so thankful that I did this. As a side note to make this an even more special treasure, is the type of flowers I had chosen. I always knew I wanted calla lillies but then further into the planning, my mom mentioned that Grandpa Edmonds always gave Grandma Tulips for special accosions becuase he just loved that flower. So I added tulips to my bouquet in honor of him. We were so glad that he had the strength to attend the wedding. He died a few months later in August. Having him there was very special and now having his favorite flower preserved in my home is also special.
Whenver I go to Greenville, I try to make it a dual purpose trip -- I learned that from my husband who used to think of dual purposes to come to Greenville when he would visit me there while we dated. With gas at $4.00 a gallon -- you need all the dual purpose trips you can gather. I had made plans to visit with my good friend Tracy and her sister, Julie. I had a coupon for Cold Stone Creamery (our favorite place to visit when we hang out in Gville). So I drove to their apartment to meet them and to leave my newly preserved flower in a dry cool place while we went out. These girls and I do share kindred spirits and when we get together, the conversations just flow and I'm so caught up in the excitement of all the different stories and events that I usually forget things. So....we load up in Julie's car and drive to Cold Stone and as soon as we arrive -- I realize that once again I had forgotten the coupon!! After all that planning and all that dreaming of getting cold stone for free -- and trying to find a dual purpose to come to Greenville and use the coupon...and I forget it. Even made extra effort and care to put it in my purse at work after printing it so I wouldn't leave it at work!! And then I left it in my car's cupholder -- because I had written directions to the bouquet lady's house and so after I looked at it for that instead of putting it back in the purse -- I put it safely in the cup holder! ugh!
Oh well -- Ice cream still tasted yummy even though it wasn't free. LOL. After ice cream, we walked over to Swoozies. This is my all time most favorite store ever to just get lost in! It's a stationary/monogram type store with all kinds of precious (extremely EXPENSIVE) gifts and paper and party products. However -- they were having their summer tent sale!!! So we found some really cute stuff for 70% off. And of course I dreamed over the other things not on sale -- like the adorable baby shirt that said "I Party Naked" on it, and the ice cream bowls that came with four long spoons with ice cream on the ends of the spoon. And the pocket size pink organizer that reads on the front: "The Organized Mom". Tracy has already committed to buying that for me if I ever get pregnant! Yay, Tracy!! She is my kindred spirit who totally understands me! We were in that store for hours, just walking around going "AHHH, oooohhhhh,"
When I arrived back home, William's friend, Jeff was there. I'm glad that we understand the importance of having time with our friends still. I walked in and smelled this sweet aroma but couldn't figure out what it was -- they were making a peach pie (Homemade)! William's parents and one of his co-workers had given us 2 bags of peaches so we had more peaches than we knew what to do with. And as anyone of you know -- I do not eat fruit of any kind unless it's in a pie loaded with sugar and a nice sweet crust and as you also know -- I don't do any kind of pie baking -- we were up a creek as to how to use these peaches before they went bad. Jeff comes to the rescue tonight with a wonderful recipe for peach cobbler. I didn't eat but a bite to sample it since I was full from ice cream but he did an excellent job.

I'm so thankful the Lord has given us such wonderful friends and for the memories we are able to make with them.