UPDATE....

Pictures from our fabulous dinner last night!!!! I laughed and cried and made a wonderful new memory to add to "our story".

Desirae Duncan Johnson, Me, Robyn Loertscher Moody, & Darci Simmons Branich

Darci, Desirae, Me, & Robyn

Love, Love, Love these girls!!!

Old Friends (Not to say they're old)

I have this dinner coming up with three long lost friends; I'm so excited about I just have to share. And so the story begins.......

Once upon a time there was a girl named Brandy. When Brandy was a wee one around the age of 5 she would often visit her Grandparents; but while there would become bored and whiney, driving her Grandparents absolutely crazy. Her Grandma decided to find her a friend, luckily a few house down lived another wee one named Robyn. So when Brandy would visit she now had a wonderful friend to keep her busy. The two rambunctious children soon became great friends. A couple of years went by when Brandy was enrolled in Robyn’s school and the two were now reunited in 2nd grade. What fun they had with their days learning, playing at recess, walking home from school together, but tragically, after that magical year together the two were split apart!

They both continued on their journey through 3rd and 4th grade when as fate would have it, Robyn was enrolled at the school Brandy was now attending. It was such a reunion! During that year, they brought several other girls into their friendship, most fell away, but they found a special bond with Desirae, and the two became three, three girls who shared the next two years doing what most “tweens” do; learning, laughing, fighting, making up, sharing, finding boys, and such. They made great memories during those years.

Just when the world seemed right, the three girls were headed for impending doom. They were, despite their best efforts to fight it, being sent to Middle School. It was a scary time, very scary indeed. How would they navigate through that huge school? What if they got lost? What if they got bullied? But worst of all, what if they got separated? It was a horrible thought! But there was no way out of it; they had to face this journey, hopefully together.

For the most part the three were split into different classes and lunches, but luckily they found a way to manage to remain together, the three of them, walking to and from school together, sharing what had transpired during their days apart. During this time they learned to lean on each other and were so lucky to have their special friendship to hold them up during that difficult transition. But what they didn't realize was that something was still missing from this group of three, or was it someone.

During that first year of middle school they made several new friends, but one fit perfectly, her name was Darci. Darci was a perfect addition to this friendship. With her bubbly personality and her optimistic outlook, she helped these three navigate through all these changes and taught them to let others in.And so it was, the three became four; Brandy, Robyn, Desirae and Darci, conquering middle school, awkward preteen years, sleepovers, toilet papering, and oh yes...boys, together. Those are some of my fondest memories growing up, the four of us, with our trips on the bus to the mall, riding the sky coaster at Lagoon looking for cute boys, scaring ourselves so bad with scary movies sleepovers ended up having little to do with sleep and more to do with keeping each other awake; but most important learning who we were and who we weren't.
After we started high school I went to a different school, and sort of lost touch, I can only blame myself for the loss of such great friendships. I hope they remember our friendship as fondly as I do.
Robyn, Darci and I have managed to get together about a year ago with our kids to catch up, but we were missing Desirae.

She had moved away and we weren't able to find her at the time. But that darn Facebook has a way of helping pull people out of the woodwork. Desirae has been found, and lucky for us, although she is living over 2,000 miles away, she is here visiting family for the holidays. We are planning to get together tomorrow night to catch up, look at pictures, and most importantly to rekindle our friendship.