It's FRIDAY!!!!!!

 Whew.  I've done the Biolife thing today as well as a bunch of worky work stuff.  

I'm taking a break with you!

I'm looking forward to a cookie making extravaganza that Maddy is planning at her house tomorrow!  I'll get all my supplies together and Meri will too and we'll cook til we drop. :)

Last night, one of my oldest friends, that lives around here, invited me out to eat.  She is quite zany.  She's the one that Robb and I did all those pranks on!  If you want to read about those, type in pranks into the search engine.  They were doozies!

Anyway, since Robb passed, she has been a true friend that I can count on.  She's called and checked up on me a few times a week and we either go out to eat once a week or have dinner and a movie at her apartment.  She's divorced and her youngest child just moved away to college in North Carolina.  She plans to move close to that college and her other children and grandkids next spring.

I tell you what...  It will be a LOT quieter around here with her not around.

She, another young mother and myself used to push our children around town in strollers early in the mornings.  We were the baby brigade.  

When Robb and I were looking to buy a bigger house, and granted, I was pregnant with Maddy at the time, she told me that if I moved out of town, she'd never talk to me again.  Well, I cried, Robb got upset with her and we didn't move right away.  Maddy was two when we finally did buy a different house and yes, it was in town.  

Then she and her husband built a house in the next town, 6 miles away. REALLY?!!!!  There were long periods of time when we didn't talk but when we did, it was fun again.  She went through a very dark time for a while and came out of it stronger and single.

She took me out to lunch two days after Robb passed and has been one of my closest friends ever since.  God gives her a nudge a few times a week to call me because she senses I'm feeling down.  I am 90% of the time, so the odds are good.  But when she did call me, it was when the taxes suddenly went UP or the furnace was having problems or I was having a very stressful day.

Because of our laughter, we may not be welcome back at Pizza Ranch.

She can always make me laugh.  AND Meri is no better.  Meri and I visited with Robb's mom yesterday and she replied to J's texts for me.  NEVER have your kid be your secretary! She picked up on the excessive !!!! from "My treat!" and went with it.

!!!!!?!

God gives me nudges too.  Like when I clean up the house and company drops in unannounced.

Ryan felt the urge to clean their entire basement area on Monday, his day off.  It looks great!  and I felt the urge to clean out that furnace room.  Hadn't done it yet, but felt like I should soon.  And lo and behold, we needed the furnace guy to get in there!  and it's all clean now.  Whew!  He used to get after my mother-in-law because of all the stuff she had shoved in there.  NOT this time!

Anyway I've rambled enough and had enough of a break.  Back to the old grind.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!