Flashback Friday: My Best Friend

I am participating in another Flashback Friday post - if you would like to participate in this awesome weekly event or check out the equally awesome host, then go on over to Christopher and Tia. :)

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The theme for this week was "Best Friend" - which was an easy theme for me.  I am very blessed when it comes to friends.  My husband and myself both belonged to the same close group of friends (guys & girls) in high school and we all are still best friends five years later, even though we are all spread out across the U.S.  We make a point of seeing each other when we are back in our hometown visiting for holidays or catching up with each other when we can throughout the year.  We all keep in touch over the phone and internet too, and we all are still very much involved in each others day-to-day lives.  It is pretty remarkable, actually.  I consider all of them my "best friends".  I have a good assortment of very close friends from college, church, and other moms I have befriended as well since high school.  In addition to the many close friends I have, I am also blessed with an amazing family whom I am very close with.  Obviously if I had to pick one person in the entire world to call my "best friend", it would be John.  He is my husband and he knows me better than anybody else in the world and I know him better than anyone else.  We talk about anything and everything and we actually enjoy spending time together over going out with others.  I am very blessed to have married my best friend. :)

However, I am fairly certain that this week's theme was meant more for non-family best friends, or at the very least non-husband best friends.  My best friend then is most definitely Katherine.   She has been my best friend since the fourth grade.  I can't pin-point the exact moment that we became best friends, but I think it occurred around the time we worked on a project together - building a car out of vegetables and fruit (our base was made out of an eggplant) which we then raced down a ramp (so they had to be functional).  Ours came in first. :)  We went through the usual girl drama and some bickering fights too when we were in the sixth grade, but it was never anything that threatened our friendship.  As the school years went by, we only became closer and closer.  

By high school, we had our close group of friends that included guys, but our main group was a foursome of girls: Katherine, me, Bre, and Jess (there are pics of them later on too).  I will say that I also consider both Bre and Jess to be my best friends as well, but our foursome naturally paired off into two sets of closer best friends: Bre & Jess, and then Katherine & me.  It was mainly due to personality types, I think.  Bre and Jess were a lot alike and naturally were in sync, and the same goes for Katherine and me.  Katherine and I had also grown up together too, whereas Bre and Jess came along into our lives in middle school.  You can't erase history in a bond.  Katherine and I survived break ups, school, clubs, sports, boys, medical issues, family issues, and everything else together.  We talked about everything together and I trusted her more than anybody, and I still do.  

After high school, we ended up going to colleges a couple hundred miles apart, but we still talked all the time and saw each other as much as we could.  When I got engaged during my freshman year of college, she was one of the first I called.  She was the maid of honor at my wedding.  When I found out I was pregnant three months after my wedding, she was one of the first people I called.  She is our son's godmother - a fantastic one at that! :)  We still talk all the time and every time we see each other, it is as if no time has gone by.  Other than John, she is the only one I can share pretty much anything I am feeling with, and I know she trusts me enough to let me know how she is feeling too.  Even though she lives a couple thousand miles away from me now (off being amazing in a Carnegie Fellowship and teaching math in DC), we still see each other frequently, talk frequently, and are best friends.  

Katherine is one of the most amazing people I know.  She is beautiful, intelligent, witty, funny, compassionate, strong, courageous, wise, spiritual, adventurous, and so many other things!  The way she lives her life and the type of person she is makes me strive to be a better person.  The best sort of friends are those that make your life better and encourage you to be the best version of yourself, and I have that person in Katherine.  We have been book fanatics together since the fourth grade - we recommend books to each other, share books, discuss books, and overall just understand each other so intensely that we could pick out books for each other. :) She is a terrific godmother as well and is so loving and involved with my son that I know his life will be enriched immensely because of her influence.  Not to mention she always gets him some pretty awesome books too and is all about teaching him to be great at math (the one subject I hate). :)  I love Katherine as a sister and as a friend.  I consider her and her family part of mine.  And I know my family considers her part of our family as well.  I know that we are going to have a lifelong friendship filled with lots of laughter, adventures, and love.  I am so thankful to God for giving me a friend like Katherine.  I love you Katherine! :)

Now for some pictures - there are lots of pictures, but I honestly narrowed it down to just my favorites throughout the years since my wedding.  I have pictures of us when we were younger too, but I have to find them and scan them onto my computer - those are better left to a future post of old pics of high school friends anyway. :)  Trust me, these pictures will give you an insight into just how beautiful she is - inside and out. 

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My wedding - July 15, 2006

(She is on the right)  

 

Katherine holding Johnny the night he was born - July 30, 2007

(In the NICU - she was the 2nd person to hold him that wasn't John or myself)

  

Katherine and Johnny at Starbucks/Barnes & Noble - Aug/Sep 2007

 

 Me & Katherine in Seattle - October 2007

(Johnny's first vacation - we drove to visit Katherine at PLU)

 

Johnny's Baptism - November 2007

(Katherine is Johnny's godmother)

 

  

Katherine and Johnny being silly - July 2008

  

Katherine & my other good friend Bre with Johnny

(July 2008)

* Just a note - Bre was also there the night Johnny was born, which meant a lot to me. :) 

 

Me & Katherine Boating on a Lake - August 2008

(I am always paler than her!)

Katherine and Johnny - May/June 2009

(He had just been beating her up with a box - she's such a good sport)

 

(They made up! They love each other. )

 

(She makes this face when she doesn't know why you are taking her picture)

 

Johnny & Katherine at park - May/June 2009

(Back when Johnny carried his plastic lion around everywhere)

 

Trip Home - Christmas 2009/New Years 2010

(Reading the newspaper together at Thomas Hammer coffee)

 

(Katherine & Johnny were dancing in the rain)

 

(Johnny has a foot fetish - it is usually gross except when he acts silly with people about it)

 

(The most recent picture of our foursome together - Bre, me, Katherine, & Jess.  I love them all!)