Friendship Award

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
Dinah Maria (Mulock) Craik (often attributed to George Eliot)

Laurel over at I'm Ghana Adopt gave me a friendship award on her blog. I love Laurel! I feel I have gotten to know Laurel better the last few months- and I wished she lived close by as I would love to hang out with her (especially now that I know she is a scrapper!:-))

I thought this was a fun award as it gives the opportunity to talk about friendship. I love and appreciate my friends so much. I couldn't get by without them. The instructions for this blogging award are to answer the following questions about friendship, before passing it along.

1. Do you have the same friends since childhood?
I still keep in touch with a handful of friends I have had over the years. I have remained in the same area which helps although several of those I keep in touch with have moved away. I got married much earlier than my closest friends (like at least a decade earlier) so we were always at different points in our lives. That made it fun though to live a little through them and their experiences and adventures! Some I don't talk to as often as I would like but once we connect again, it is like time never passed- which is one of the greatest gifts of a wonderful friendship.

2. What do you value most about your friends?
I value most my friends that share the same views of what friendship is and isn't. Some of my most hurtful experience over the years were things said to me or about me by people I considered close friends. While hard at the time, these experiences really helped me to understand women better and help me determine the kind of friend I want to have and be.
I think that is when I truely learned that a good friend is not necessarily someone that I am most compatible with but is someone that is the kind of friend I am most compatible with. If you view friendship very similarly, even though you may be different, there are less conflicts because you understand each other and treat each other the way you want to be treated.
It is interesting as I have many friends that are very different from me, that others can't understand how we can be friends. In reality, I really enjoy my friendships with these women as I appreciate our differences and love hearing their perspective on life.

3. Are your friends your sounding boards?
Definitely. I love the quote above as it is so true to me. Sometimes you just need someone to talk to and it is so comforting to have a friend who you can just talk to and know they will listen and gleam the most important parts. I talk a lot so statistically I have a high chance of saying something that can be taken the wrong way- my best friends know to just take the gyst of what I am saying! LOL

4. What is your favorite activity to share with your friends?
Hanging out no matter what we do. With how busy our lives our nothing is better than time with just the girls. I will do whatever to get that. It was such a big perk of doing the 3 Day Walk for the past two years. Just the girls and I got to have a slumber party for two evenings and as we liked to say, "We only had to walk 20 miles that day to get it!".

Other favorite activities include a scrapbook or movie night, lunch to celebrate a birthday, pedicures or even the more simple spontaneous things like enjoying a margarita or glass of wine on the driveway as the kids play, running to a local sale together, meeting up for a coffee or a friend that will just take a drive on a long errand so you don't have to go alone (or alone with your kids!)

Now ... I get to pass the award along to some of my blogging friends. These are women that from what I know about them from chatting or reading their blogs, would be a fabulous friend...

Chalene- okay, I know Chalene super well and would not have made it through the past year nearly as well as I have without her!

And now other women who I have come to know and love...
Robin, Kristin Heather A and Ginny