It's Her Birthday

Warning:  this blog post contains poor-quality pictures from the late 90s and early 2000s of girls with sad style (both hair and clothing). 

Viewer discretion is advised. 

It's my best friend's birthday today. 

I have known her since 6th grade. 

This girl knows me, and I know her. I know how she'll respond to a text before I even send it. She knows how to set me straight when I'm being moody. We share a love of good books and fun window-shopping trips. We can talk for hours about nothing and everything.  We kinda rock this friendship thing. 

We have been BBFs (best buds forever, duh!) for over 20 years. Geez, when did we get old?!

What follows is a brief recounting of a few memories brought to life in horrible quality pictures of pictures. 

You're welcome. 

I went upstairs last night to page through my old photo albums--those things we used before we had a camera in our phone with 1000s of pictures saved to it--and found some real gems.  

Instead of folding this giant pile of clothes, I paged through 5 different albums and ate a bowl of ice cream. 

1997

Be. Jealous. 

I have no other words. 

1998

This was taken on a church youth group trip to Disney World (Hi, Jennifer and Tammy! You both look tall and lovely!). The hat? Anything was better than my hair. My home-dyed-blond-but-looked-orange hair that stayed frizzy 99% of the time. Hats, bandanas, braids. Anything to contain that mess. The Bestie, on the other hand, has great hair, and I've always been jealous. Anywho, this trip was awesome, except for the fact that we liked the same boy, not awesome, and she got him, even less awesome. I mean, come on! What attractive teenaged male could resist that hat action?

2001

Prom. Her dress is freaking gorgeous!  Mine has a cross-shoulder purse. Geez. 

We were friends but not quite as close. She had gotten married and was doing the whole married-gal thing, and I was a senior in high school doing the lonely, begrudgingly-single thing. I didn't rock that part of our friendship. I kinda sucked. 

These next three were taken in Hawaii (2002 or 2003?). She and her husband had moved there after we graduated from high school, and two of my friends and I planned a trip to go visit her. We stayed with them for almost a week, and that was such an amazing vacation. She was a fantastic hostess and showed us all the great spots on the island. She was such a great tour guide that she drove her car until it over-heated and died. Right next to a field (group? patch? plot?) of pineapple plants. In the horrid heat. Hawaii's only ever that hot when we visit apparently. 

I was so white at the start of that trip. 

And so white at the end. 

And so very red in the middle. Check out that forehead action. H-ot. 

I remember one night being in such sunburn agony. I knocked gingerly on her door and begged for help. She put ice on my back for what seemed like hours until I could finally rest--Her nursing skills put to good use before she was ever a nurse :)

2011

Seriously. Look at her fantastic hair!

2011

She was there on my wedding day. She was also pregnant and tired and we barely squeezed her into her dress. 

2012

She was there when I lost and delivered Hadley. 

2013

She was there for the birth of Jack. 

Without her (and The Husband) by my side, I don't know that I could have managed. She took this first photo of our new family. 

This girl has been my rock and held my hand (physically and metaphorically) way too many times to count . Simply put --

she's pretty darn amazing. 

Happy birthday, Bestie!  

You are the BEST friend any girl could ever hope for, and my wish for your girls and my Ella is that they are lucky enough to find and hold onto that same kind of friendship because it, like you, is priceless. 

P.S. I know you'll forgive me for sharing those horrible pictures of us. I figured that we are now far enough removed from them that we can laugh and laugh instead of weep and cringe :)