Girls' Weekend!

This weekend, my friends Maria (Braham Fam), Krista (Ruddology), and Jenn (I Barely Have Time for Facebook, So Blogging is Out) all came to visit! Krista and I have been friends since 1997 (wow!) and Maria, Jenn and I met the following year. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, but when we get together, we always have a great time.

The girls arrived at about 7 on Friday, and we spent a lot of time lounging in our pjs, eating, talking, laughing, crying, and basically being girls. We stayed up talking all night on Friday and slept in on saturdya morning, a rare treat for all of us, for very different reasons. Krista is used to getting up with her two adorable boys, Lucas and Tyler; Jenn is usually on the road or running errands on Saturdays; Maria spends every other weekend with Craig's kids, Ethan and Julia; and I don't really have an excuse for not sleeping in except we have very rotten dogs. Regardless, it was bliss to sleep in and then wake up to muffins Shonn made for us. (He's amazing.)

We sat around and talked until about noon on Saturday, and then got enough energy to go shopping in Tuscola. (Krista's promise of a 20% off coupon at the Coach Outlet might have been the motivation we needed.) We had success at Coach and also loved the Bath and Body Works Outlet (for up to 75% off every day!) as well as Old Navy and Gap. The shopping trip was a resounding success, but the stop for caffeine at the Tuscola McDonald's was, well....confusing. It took about 6 times of ordering and passing items back and forth through the drive-thru window (as pictured in the collage) before we got our surely spit-in coffees.

Although we had ambitious plans to doll ourselves up and go out to Jibby's, slowly the idea of ordering in Monical's Pizza became increasingly appealing. (Apparently, Doug Wilson was not enough motivation in order to get us out in the cold.) Instead, the call of Monical's red dressing won out and we ordered pizza, salad, and had wine. (The girls brought pleeeennnn-ty.)

We ended up crawling back into our pjs, which were the standard uniform of the weekend, watching Confessions of a Shopaholic AND the original Footloose. (Kevin Bacon = adorable.) (I need to give a shout-out to Shonn for walking me through the using-Netflix step-by-step guide, which allowed us to have this enjoyable movie-watching experience. This might also be an opportune time for an additional shout out for his overall patience and interest in fishing or all things out-of-the-house this weekend.)

The weekend went by too quickly, and before we knew it, we were headed back into our own very unique, very different lives. Maria took the train back to Chicago and her husband, Krista headed south on I-70 to Edwardsville and her family, and Jenn returned to the suburbs and her busy life with family, friends, and work. This weekend was a great deep breath from our too-busy lives - a chance to remember how we became friends and a reminder of why we choose to stay friends. These three women are very special and important to me. And even though we come from and return to different places and different lives, I know we will always remain close.

xoxox