Side by Side

There we are, side by side, ready for another birthday adventure. Lucky for me, one of my best friends, Teri, has a birthday today, less than two weeks after mine, and we like to make sure we have big fun together at some point between the two. Yesterday was the day. We went to T-town for a day of shopping, gabbing, and indulging in chocolate. By the way, those activities are not listed in order of importance :)

We got silly before we ever left Teri’s house. I knew I would want a picture of us for the blog so we decided to try taking one on our own. Our daughters are experts at this — holding cameras at arm’s length and snapping shots of themselves with friends and family. I don’t know what made us think we could do it as well. The picture above represents at least 30 minutes of trying with two different cameras :) Chalk that up to the first nonsense of the day :)

Other highlights? Catching up on all our news and finding ourselves still talking as we pulled into Teri’s drive a little after 10 p.m., lunch at Mimi’s (home of the best muffins ever!), examining and discussing nearly every item at The Savory Chef, a couple of sweet shopping victories for each of us, and the icing on our birthday cake?? Dessert at Cheesecake Factory, of course. And yes, we got two different desserts. It was ridiculous :) I came out of there feeling like I had chocolate smeared all over my mouth :) Okay, I don’t want to totally mislead you — neither one of us could eat “the whole thing”. We gave up and walked away with take-home containers.

You know besides all these fun things, another thing that’s so great about celebrating our birthdays together is that we both turn the same age in the same month. Yep, we’re growing older side by side. And I’ve discovered having a friend to do this with sure makes it less painful. In fact, having Teri by my side has made a lot of things less painful over the years.

One of the first acts of friendship Teri extended to me was bringing a meal to us after Kelli was born. That was 25 years ago this month. And where would I have been if she had not led me by the hand into Hobby Lobby and helped me prepare for Kristin’s wedding? Those of you who know me well know that I’m craft challenged. Without Teri, I would never have had the courage to walk into a Hobby Lobby store. Now I’m hooked — who knew they had all that other great stuff! :)

Everyone needs a side-by-side friend like Teri. If you’re lucky like me, you’ll have more than one. If you don’t have this kind of friend, I encourage you to ask God to provide you with one. Be prepared to befriend someone you seem to hit it off with and then invest little by little in the friendship. Before you know it, 25 years will have gone by, and you’ll have a side-by-side friend — a friend for life. One of God’s greatest blessings.

“…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24b

Comments

  1. Cheryl, Thanks for such a great day!! and for 25 years of a wonderful friendship. You’ve made it so fun & kept me in laughter all the way. By the way,
    Cheryl has been a trusted mentor to me in so many ways. I thank the dear Lord for her every day.
    I do love the fact that Cheryl is older than me :) If only 11 days- it still counts! We can grow older together- She just gets to go first!!!
    I’m so photographically challenged- deleted 95% of the pics I took- oops, one bad pic after another. You definitely got the best picture, Cheryl.
    Cheryl, thanks so much for all your support & love- you’ve helped me through tough times.
    One thing about a best friend-
    you never run out of things to talk about…. :).

  2. Cheryl, so glad you and Teri had such a fun time.

  3. Sorry, Cheryl. Just wanted to let you know that was me (MCP Team). That’s a blog I go to sometimes for our church plant and it pops up and I don’t notice it when I go to comment.

  4. Teri, thanks for your sweet words and especially your friendship. We are definitely blessed to have such a dear friend in each other. And I don’t mind getting older first as long as you’re right on my heels — and we get to celebrate together! :)

    Debbie (alias MCP team!), thanks for clearing that up. You’re right — I was wondering who MCP team was :)

  5. What a fun day! Thanks for sharing it with us!

    Can’t wait to meet you face-to-face at the conference, Cheryl!

  6. Cheryl, you can definitely tell, with all the similarities of you and Teri, that God put you two on this earth to be friends. You are blessed to have such a great relationship!

    It sounds like you all had a great time doing the birthday celebration thing!!!!! Especially if chocolate is involved.

    I’ve known my best friend since kindergarten. It is definitely a blessing to have such a great friend.

  7. Renae, I’m really excited about getting to meet you soon, too. This will be my first writers conference so if you’re looking for me, I’ll be the one who looking like I don’t know what I’m doing :)

    Lisa, you’re right — there’s nothing like those long-term friendships. You’re right about another thing, too — bonding over chocolate can’t be beat :)

  8. Oh, Cheryl! This will only be my third. At my first, I was almost scared speechless! But everyone was very friendly, and willing to offer advice and help where they could. And this particular conference is very newbie-friendly, too. Get ready to learn a lot and meet some great people!

  9. Thanks for the reassurance, Renae! I’m really excited about going and am traveling down with one of my best friends who is also a writer. We’re gonna have fun, huh?!! :)

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