{looking back}

Over the last month or so, I have been trying to reconnect with friends and family members who I have neglected! It started with Mary sending me an email with links to blogs for some of our college buddies! It was amazing to see how their lives had changed so much. They are all married and have families. Then some of my college roommates found each other and it has been so much fun to see what they have been doing with their lives. Some are married with lots of children, some are married with one child or no children yet. Some aren't married yet at all. I joined Facebook and have been able to find and reconnect with even more friends, even from highschool! I ran into one of my good friends from highschool the other day in the produce section of the grocery store! Did I mention that I went to highschool 2000+ miles from here. I got in touch with another friend from highschool the other day who put me in touch with several other friends. I have had such a great time reminiscing about the good times that I had with these girls. Some times weren't so great, but it's so nice to know that I can email these girls, after almost 10 years, and they are still happy to hear from me.

I am trying to finish up some scrapbooking challenges at SweetShoppeDesigns right now. One of the challenge is to talk about your favorite birth year. I would have to say that looking back, the birth year I would choose as my BEST age so far, I wouldn't have chosen FOR anything while I was going through it. 16. That was a big year for me. We moved to Maryland from Florida. I was so angry with my parents for making me move. Once we got settled in Maryland, I was so grateful. I went from having a few good church friends in Florida, a couple of which it turns out weren't actually friends at all, to having a HUGE support group. I instantly walked into a well-established friendly youth group. This group supported each other through everything. That's not to say that there weren't fights and disagreements, but they were minor occurances. This group taught me that it was okay to be different. It was okay to be yourself. They showed by example how to include other people. I am extremely grateful for the friends I was able to make that year and how they shaped my life for good. And I am so excited to reunite with some of these friends in a few weeks!

ps - If you are one of the Olney ward girls, send me a message or leave me a comment and I'll make sure to let you know when/where once I figure that stuff out!