Reunited....after all this time!!!

A while back I did I did a post about a dear friend of mine Julie.

I told you all about our friendship/history and then announced that she was expecting her first child!

Well, last weekend I found out that she was coming to Sacramento to visit her parents (which live there now). 

We weren't sure if it was going to work because their visit would be short but we wanted to try to see each other.

Well.....I GOT TO SEE HER!!!!! 

It was the first time I have seen her in 3 1/2 years!!! It was SO good!! 

Ok, that last time I saw her was on her wedding day! I can't believe how we still look so much alike!!

I remember the night of her rehearsal I was standing talking to some people and her Dad came up behind me and put his arm around me and said "Hey Jewels, Do you...." I turned as he was talking and he said..."Oh, you aren't Julie!" :) 

We always did look like sisters and I think we still do! :) 

It was so nice that our husbands FINALLY got to meet!!!! 

It's so funny because we are so much a like and our husbands are so much alike! It didn't dawn on me till today. Julie and I will talk and talk and talk...non stop!! Our husbands, just sit and listen! haha! 

I guess that is a good thing! If the husband and wife both talk a lot...there would be some issues! :)

Oh, and I got to see her with her baby belly!!!! :) I was so excited about that! I have always loved baby bellies but since she is the first "close" friend to have one....well, let me just say...I would never ask anyone other than a close friend to touch their baby belly! I kept telling her, after I found out I would see her, I CAN'T WAIT to touch your belly!!! haha, It was only fair to give her warning!! :)

So, here is a pic with the belly!!! :) 

I love Julie's face...she has the opposite feeling about her belly! :) 

Plans are being made to make a trip to Oregon to see Jason and Julie again!

I'm so excited about that!

They are expecting their baby GIRL to arrive the first week of June!!! 

Her name will be....Alayna Joy Gardner! :) So sweet! 

I am hoping to go spend a few days with her a few weeks after the baby comes!!

Friendship...a wonderful part of life!

It's so crazy to think how fast time flies....

How many changes that you go through....

One of the best parts about life is having real, true, lifelong friends that go through these changes with you.

I have been blessed with so many of these kinds of friends!

But today I would like to dedicate this post to one in particular.

In the fall of my 8th grade year I met her. Our church held an Youth Conference every fall and it was a time when many different youth groups from across the country came to attend.

I do not remember actually meeting Julie Bowersock but I know that it was my 8th grade year.

I remember having fun with her and other girls from her church. Her father was the Pastor of a church in Baltimore, MD. We parted ways at the end of that week and if I remember correctly we didn't talk again until the next fall. We had a lot of things in common and when she came back again we picked up our friendship right where it left off. After that year, we promised to stay in contact. Of course, that was in the days before high schooler's had their own cell phones, facebooks, or even email! ...so we did the "old fashion" thing! We wrote letters!

Our friendship grew and grew.....

As we reached our older high school years we began calling more often. We made traditions. We sent each other Christmas and Birthday gifts. We knew all about each other's lives and friends and all the high school drama that each of us had! :) She stopped coming to the conferences after her sophomore year. Her church was small and as the few highschoolers that they did have got older...they eventually began to drift and soon there wasn't much of a group of teens to bring to the conference.

I still remember the last time she came. Her senior year her Dad brought her for a day and a half of the conference. He was on his way to a meeting in MI so he dropped her off on the way. Our goodbye was very tearful. We weren't sure when we would see each other again.

She was going off to a Christian college in California and I still had a year of high school to finish and then would be attending college in Indiana.

We promised to stay friends and we actually DID! :)

We shared our first date stories and eventually our first dates with the guys we would both marry....we shared everything. She has always been a friend that I could go to about anything.

By now, you might be thinking...why are you telling us all this...just wait its coming...:)

Even though we are only a week apart in age...she really beat me to it when it comes to getting married! At the end of her freshman year she met her "one." He was a senior. They dated long distance during her sophomore year and were engaged in the spring of that year.

The next fall, September 29, 2007, at the ripe young age of 19!!! (I still can't believe that)

She was married! I traveled out to Baltimore and stood as a bridesmaid in her wedding.

That was the last time we saw each other!

She was supposed to stand in my wedding as well...which is something that we both had always joked about. When we would say bye on the phone after talking....b/c we never knew when we would see each other next....I remember we would say...alright..."See you at your wedding." haha.... we said that way back in high school till a couple of months before my wedding...

Anyhow, it's a long story...but the company she works for told her that she could not have the days she asked for off to come to my wedding. They don't let people off on holidays...it's their busiest time and well we got married on a holiday weekend...so that was that....

We were both crushed....but life isn't always fair is it? :) It still makes me sad that she wasn't able to come!

Julie and her husband Jason live in Oregon which actually is only 5 hours from where we live!!

After all this time and distance...and her parents actually live in Sacramento which is only 1 hour and a half from us...which is even better!!!

Well....all that to announce to you....

Thursday she called to announce to me that they will be having a BABY!!!!!!

How amazing is that??!?!?

I know, you are probably not as excited as I am.....

but as we were talking I kept thinking...wow...we always dreamed and talked about our weddings and husbands....but we are past that and look at us now....

BABIES!!!

haha..no one get any ideas....not for me...yet... :)

The awesome part is....since we live so close I will be able to go to the baby shower and we will be able to share this stage too!!!!

This is Jason and Julie!

I am still trying to wrap my head around the whole baby thing! I guess before you get married it seems so far off. This the first of my friends my age to be having a baby! What a fun and exciting things we still have to look forward to!!!

I would like to say, once again, for those that may be a little over eager out there. (Trust me, we just had our five month anniversary and we have had plenty of "baby" comments already) Don't think that this post is me trying to say....our "baby" time is coming anytime soon!!! :)

What I am trying to say is....I am excited about what the future holds and I am thankful for the wonderful friends God has put into my life!!!