new best friend!

so i have a new best friend. this is not to say that my old best friend is going to be replaced but it is to say that i have someone to talk to and do things with here in longmont. i'm so excited. it all started when tatum wanted to say hi to a beagle when we were on one of our walks. turns out buster, the beagle, and tatum are soul mates. they love each other. and when we are out and another dog is out then buster comes out tatum wants nothing to do with the other dogs. she only has eyes for buster. i think it's a bit of a crush. good thing she's been spayed so we don't have to deal with the teenage pregnancy years. anyway-i'm getting sidetracked. busters mom is josie and me and her really clicked. she reminds me of judy hanks, for those of you from champaign. but not in a mentor way, in a she's-fun-and-i-want-to-hang-out-with-her way. and then last night they called to see if we'd want to come over for drinks. hello! yes! so we went over there and we got to talking and she told me she's recently lost over 50 pounds on weight watchers. i had no idea because to me, she's always been this small. then later-this is when i knew it was meant to be-she said "would you ever have any interest in hiking longs peak this summer?" YES! so august 10th-ish we are going to go do that. i guess you have to start at 4am so we're taking the tent and sleeping bags and we're gonna sleep at the base and then hike up that morning, see the sunrise, and then hike back down. i am so excited.
so she's my longmont best friend.
my jacksonville best friend, it's a tie. i have three. they are each my best friend but in different ways. sort of like how heff has holly bridget and kendra. i love them each but they fit different compartments of my life.
i have andrea, who sadly, i don't have any pictures with (my time was way too short.) she fits the compartment where i just need someone my age that understands and i can let my hair down and she relates to me on a christian level. we have the same beliefs and that's so important. with out that little part it's hard to truly connect. but she's there for me. she lets me have a bad day and knows that i'm still a christian. i don't have to be careful around her and i love her for that.
then there's debbie. she is not a church-goer, but to say she's not a christian is kinda hard for me to say. i'm hoping some day she'll find herself back in church but she has a lot of hang ups about it and rightfully so. but i'm of the belief that just because you go to church doesn't make you a christian, and vise versa, just because you don't go to church doesn't mean you're not a christian. she's been let down by alot of people. i hope i'm never one of those people. she is the best person to sit on the front porch and have a glass of wine with. oh i loved days when we did that.
and then there's voncile. we connected deep down inside my heart. she has a beautiful garden. it was such a retreat, an oasis in the neighborhood. she helped me make my yard go from this to this:

I only have a couple pictures of Voncile but this is the only one of us together. She was so much fun. We would go out in the yard and giggle and giggle until we were too hot or tired to lift another shovel. see, i can't help but use capitalization when i talk about Voncile. she really got me into gardening and i really needed that outlet when i was going through the miscarriage. i would see beautiful plants and flowers and although i couldn't create human life, i could garden. it gave me something to give life to. it was very theraputic.

she taught me all kinds of things about southern hospitality and the unwritten rules of the south. things like, you should never EVER say thank you for flowers. but it is acceptable to say "i appreciate the flowers." she was relentless with that rule. and if you hear a neighbor is sick you should always have some homemade soup in the freezer that you can warm up and take over there. i will always have some form of food in my freezer now after living across the street from Voncile. i miss her more than she'll ever know.