F is for...

F is for Friends.

I have truly wonderful friends. Both long distance and people here. Today I am concentrating on the people here in this state. I love them with all of my heart. I do not go out often because I am a self admitted homebody/hermit. I like being in my house, I am comfortable here. I like my friends houses, and I love my friends, but I am such a homebody. I feel out of my element if I am not at home. I occupy myself by cleaning my house/doing random tasks. I do not like to just sit down and talk because I feel awkward. It has nothing to do with my friends, I am just an awkward sort of person who worries about everything. I worry about talking to much, not talking enough. Saying the wrong thing, inadvertently offending someone and then losing them as a friend. Call me silly, but it goes through my mind with ever conversation I have. Even with family. I like to make people happy, I like to make people feel at ease but I am very insecure in this area. I feel like I can be a good friend sometimes but other times I feel like maybe I do not text my friends enough or I do not tell them enough details about me, or I want to gossip too much about something else. I am crazy.

With all of that being said, I see three people up here regularly. Two women surprisingly since before the only people I would hang out with were men because they were less drama. I have been blessed to find such wonderful people up here to keep me sane, push me to be social and help me get out and push myself. I have my friend A. I will not be putting names because I think it is a little rude to put their names out there when I have not asked them how they would feel about being on such a public website where anyone can read it. Anywho A is wonderful. I love her so much. She is one of my best friends. I say that a lot but because I do not have many friends, I think of a few of them as my best friends in some aspects. A and I are so alike and I just can not pinpoint just one thing I love about her. We go out for girl talk, lunch dates, movies or she just spends time at the house with me and the kids. My kids absolutely love her, especially Monster. Munchkin loves her too, I think she is the only female other than myself he lets hold him or touch him for longer than five seconds. She makes me laugh and she is very much like me, but different enough to have an impact on me. I honestly think if she were not my friend I would still be sitting at home going insane. Before I met her, I never went out with anyone, I never left the house. I was paranoid that should I leave the children with anyone (yes, even my husband) for more than 20 minutes, something would go terribly wrong. It is not that I do not trust my husband, it is just that I am that kind of paranoid that he will forget to put the Munchkin's blanket on him just the way he likes it, or that he will not cut the Monster's sandwich in 4 triangles like he prefers. Before A, I really was losing my mind. I had not left my kids alone for more than an hour at a time before we became friends. She is the reason I go out. I cannot say enough good things about her!



Friend B is alsoawesome. She is more different from me though. Our parenting styles are different, our religious beliefs are different but I still love her (see, people can be friends with different religious beliefs!)
 She actually made me cook from scratch today. I was not even aware I could do that. Surprisingly, I did not poison anyone by cooking either! She has three kids, her two oldest boys are the perfect ages for my Monster and Munchkin to get along with great. Well, Munchkin just does his own thing, but he does that with everyone. She is a very sweet loving person. She comes over with her husband and children and we have a great time all night. Her husband gets along great with my husband. I get along great with her, and our boys love each other. Can you get more compatible family wise than that? She helps me remember that kids are kids and they will make messes. She encourages the kids to make noise and build castles NOT according to the box. Something that quite frankly, I suck at doing.

 Friend C is male. He is actually more of my husbands friend and I think of him as family. He is our Monster and Munchkins godfather, and one of the few people I trust with the kids. He gives the kids their dosage of rough play and wrestling which they can not get from daddy because of daddy's back and shoulder injuries. We spend our weekends with him just hanging out and our summers with him camping and sitting around bonfires. If something goes wrong and I need to talk, he can tell and he will sit me down and talk it out with me. I often call him husband number two, or my husbands second wife, depending on what they are doing. I view him as my brother in law, though he is not technically, he is closer to my husband than my husband is to his brothers.
Without these people I am sure I would be a mess, hiding in my house and hating this state even more than I would think could be possible. They make life fun and make me and my family happy. What more can you ask for in a friend than that?