Thoughts on 2013

Growing up I had a hard time saying goodbye.  

I remember crying big sloppy tears at the end of fourth grade because there would never be a teacher as great as Mrs. Roof.  I remember sobbing when a girl in my class moved away because she was my friend and was leaving a desk next to me empty.   I vividly remember my last sleep in my apartment in Clemson when I realized things were about to get real and 

I would never sleep under the same roof as my girls again.  

I spent a lot of energy looking behind me instead of being fully present and looking ahead.  I didn't care that my life would evolve and increase…I just wanted it to stay the same because I felt things were so perfectly perfect that they could never get better.    

I am not that same person. 

I have lived long enough for grief and regret to find me.  

I've had friends move and hold me up and love me.   

I have learned that babies don't keep…

and neither do two year old, or three year olds, or six year olds.  

I have lived long enough to know that it's ok to look back with fondness as long as I keep my eyes fixed on the goodness that will inevitably find me again.  

These pictures reflect the goodness that 2013 brought to my life.  

Happy NewYear

{7 year olds}

{easter}

{mother's day}

{baseball}

{bryson city}

{end of 1st grade}

{60th birthday}

{baseball camp}

{vbs}

{time with friends}

{edisto}

{fripp island}

{2nd birthday}

{NYC and CHICAGO}

{2nd grade}

{tailgates}

{disney}

{halloween}

{more baseball}

{tree picking}

{thanksgiving}

{holiday market}

{christmas}

I was right about a few things…there was never another teacher like Mrs. Roof.  

That girl that moved?  We are Facebook friends now.

And those college girls?  Well. I spent a glorious fall weekend with them 

and we slept under the same roof.   

So here's to family and friends and birthdays and goodness.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

You can't make old friends

 Oh no!  I've done it again…I've let the blog slide so I'm jumping right in!

The last weekend in September, Lee and I headed north to Clemson University for Homecoming.  We met and fell in love {just a few years ago} in this beautiful place so it holds a special place in my heart…and only my heart because any one who knows my husband well knows he is not a tiger fan.    

It's always funny to me to go back to my "old" places. 

 They always seem so small.  What I have come to know is that the 

lens that I am looking through now is just larger. 

We walked to my freshman dorm and past Tillman Hall {where most of my education classes were held}, and then back to main street to meet up with our friends.  

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Gena and Nathan hosted all of us in their beautiful new lake home on Keowee.  I know that we will make more wonderful memories together in that perfect slice of heaven. 

The details of the weekend are really not what's important.  

What is important is that since we left that campus we have all married and stayed married.

We've had 11 children.

We've all moved on from our first homes, our first jobs, and our "plans" of how our lives would go. 

We have lost friends and loved ones, kept secrets, and we are changed.

What's important is that we are still us, even though everything is different.  

You can't make old friends, but you can keep them. 

Love my "Golden Girls"