Friends

So I almost don’t even know how to begin this.

I’m not really a crier, but I always get a little misty-eyed when I write stuff like this.

Our first IRL meet-up, June 2009 Steph and Rach already knew each other, and Alyssa and I had met in February at a Dave Ramsey seminar. We look like babies! <3

For almost six years, I have been incredibly blessed to have these three “internet” friends. I have many more now, but these three were my first. Thanks to Twitter – the fact that all of us began blogging at some point in 2008 – we connected in various ways. Add to it the word “blog” wasn’t near as well-known as it is now. Back then, people looked at me as if I’d grown two heads when I said I was a blogger. The look intensified when I told them I had other blogging friends that I met up with. I had a few people give me the Stranger Danger talk! Ha!

We quickly moved from chatting on Twitter to spending time online via Skype. Skype is an incredible blessing and tool that connects me on personal level with many of my dear friends who are scattered across the United States. I am so thankful for it!

There were a few events in-between, but for the most part, these were it. Tiny Prints, November 2011. The lighting is horrible. Photo courtesy of my iPhone 3G. I was hot stuff with that sucker, let me tell you.

These girls went from being Amy’s friends on the computer to IRL (in real life) friends, and their families have met my own. Our children are friends; our husbands have been able to spend time together and shake their heads at their crazy wives. {wink}

A lot has changed in six years. We’ve gone from four bloggers to three, and have all turned into crazy oilers. We don’t talk every day, or even every week. One of us has moved from the DFW area (I am still the resident Okie), and we are all incredibly busy, but our connection remains.

Three years later – almost to the day since the last time – at an Oily Families event in Southlake.

I am grateful for the time – however fleeting it is – that we get to spend with each other and reconnect.

Photo cred bottom picture: Rachel M.