Monday, January 28, 2008

Old Friends

I had the chance to see an old friend last week - one that I hadn't seen in at least 13 years. Chris's quintet had a concert at a small university in central Arkansas in the same town where my friend Debbie lives. As soon as I found out about the concert, I started making plans to go with Chris so that I could see Debbie. We had a great time talking and laughing and catching up with one another.

Debbie and I met at library school at UCA in 1992, and we immediately became fast friends. We couldn't believe it had been 13 years since we had seen each other; it felt more like just a few months. We picked up right where we left off and we talked and talked for a couple of hours. Her sweet husband hung in there with us most of the night. We talked about our schools and our libraries and about our families and our grandchildren.

It's amazing how our lives have taken almost parallel paths. We're both school librarians, and we're both finishing our administration certification. There are pages on her library website that are almost mirror images of some of my pages. She has more grandchildren than I do, but we both enjoy the wonder of havinging those little ones in our lives.

I hope it's not another 13 years before we see each other again. We had a great visit which left me wishing we lived closer. Chris and I didn't get home until 2:30 that night, but it was certainly worth it.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Welcome to 2008

Happy New Year! I hope that your 2008 is everything you want it to be. We're thankful to have another year together. Chris and I will celebrate a milestone this year - our 30th anniversary. WOW...amazing, huh?

We rang in the New Year in a pretty boring way. We were awake at midnight watching TV, but that's about all we did. Natalie and Melissa joined the youth group to watch TV and shoot fireworks. Again, nothing special for any of us. We slept in pretty late on New Year's Day and got up just in time to watch the Cotton Bowl Parade, the pre-game, and then the game. Unfortunately, the Razorbacks didn't show up for the game. Bummer.

Natalie went back to school on the 2nd to help get the dorm ready for the semester. One dorm has been closed, so a lot of girls will be moving into her dorm. She'll have a few more girls to be responsible for this semester. There are times that I wish I could be a fly on the wall to watch her in action. She's so mature and so responsible but I don't think she realizes how well she does at things like this. I say that but then I'm reminded of how scatter-brained she can be at times. She called not long after she got back to Marshall and told us that she left several things at home - all of her hanging clothes and her make-up mirror. We met her in Mt. Pleasant last night to make the delivery and have dinner. It's always fun to see her. I miss her when she's not here.

I saw the dr again on Wednesday for my final post-op visit. Everything seems to be healing fine...although kind of slowly. The biggest piece of advice he gave me was no lifting. I'll probably never lift anything over 10 pounds or so. I told my dr. that I really like him, but that I don't want him to have to repair this stuff again. Recovery has been so much slower than I expected, but I've learned the hard way that I have to take better care of myself.

Speaking of which, the new diet starts tomorrow. Today I'm cleaning out the pantry and buying groceries. I've got to start cooking breakfast and healthier meals for dinner. Lunch is mainly salads and chicken or tuna. Yum Yum! And, the exercising starts next week as well. I'm planning to go to a class after school two days a week for an aerobic workout, and I'm going to walk and practice yoga on the other days. See I've put it in writing, so I have to do it! I hope you guys will help keep me accountable! I need to do this for myself as well as to get myself ready for the wedding.

Thanks for stopping by.