Summer, 2009

Last summer sucked in a couple ways. My husband was gone on deployment, I was living in a house I hated.... I was MAD really mad.

But then, early in the year, my friends and I started hanging out on the weekends. We all have kids, so we would pack them up, shop for a weekends worth of food (and of course beer) and hang out all weekend. Most of the time, it was at my house. I had a split level, so we could throw the kids down in the family room with video games and movies and we would all hang out upstairs, or even better, in the backyard (aka the back 40). My backyard was huge. We joked that we could hide bodies and no one would know (me and my friends all have a list of people we would like to bury).

Now I know people are thinking "what could 4 women possibly do together all weekend?" I will tell you....NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. We sat in the backyard, drank our beer and talked. All night. And sometimes we sat there and we would look up, and all 4 of us were on our phones, texting. Sometimes even to each other. And we would do this starting Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. And it was great. Best time. I can't tell you how many times we would look up and say "this is awesome".

Then, there was the Best Day Ever.


It was the weekend of C's birthday. We had thrown her such a fun birthday, but she had a friend who was really pissed off about our girls' weekends. So, this friend decided to throw C her own party, but failed to invite M and I, well, until the last minute. Never to be an afterthought, M and I politely declined the invitation. So, starting Saturday evening, we hung out in the back 40. M and I made the kids hot dogs in the chimenea, plugged our cell phones, and the laptop up outside, and sat, in the same chairs ALL NIGHT LONG. And, then got up the next morning and sat again.... had our coffee out there, and sat. And sat.And sat. It was incredible! Probably one of the most relaxing weekends I have ever had.

TO this day, we still talk about the best day ever.

And honestly, these are the kinds of friends I have. We can sit and talk and talk and talk, and have the best conversations. Or we can sit and say nothing, and it's still the best.

Summer of 2009 was bittersweet. As much as I loved it, I know it will never happen again. Girls are moving away. I've moved out of that house I hated. We all have so much going on. I will treasure those weekends forever.