Whenever someone throws a party and invites people from different areas of their lives, it’s customary to introduce them to each other.  That was the case for  me at a St. Patrick’s day part on Friday night.  It was thrown by one of the church staff and involved a lot of folks from church, but there were also his wife’s coworkers and family, which made for some necessary introductions.

So that’s what I thought I would do today.  Last week I talked about the difficulty I have in making friends.  Well, obviously I don’t lack for friends since some of you are here.  And I thought now would be a good time to introduce you to each other.  My criteria for introductions is simple – if you’ve posted a comment and I know you from some other area of my life, I will introduce you.  Otherwise, if I only know you through online stuff (LEA, or you just wandered onto this blog), you will have to introduce yourself through a comment.  And if you’re a friend and have just been lurking but haven’t commented, I can’t introduce you because I don’t know you’re here.  Got it?  Here we go:

First off, I have to start with my best friend, my husband, the love of my life, Travis.  We have been married for more than seven years now.  You know from this blog that we have our ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade our life together for anything.  We met in college and started dating in my sophomore year.  Despite some time broken up, we got married six months after I graduated, during his last year at the seminary, and have now had five homes together (I can’t believe we’ve lived that many places in only seven years, but it’s true!).

That’s a perfect segue way to Bethany, whom I have known since I was 16 and I am sure has moved more in her married life than I have (husband’s in the military).  She was the counselor at Camp Luther who supervised CIT’s (Counselors-In-Training) and JS’s (Junior Servants, which I was at the time).  I was also assigned to stay in her cabin for the two weeks I stayed.  In a lot of ways, she was the closest thing I had to a big sister when I was in college, being that I would ask her advice on things that I was going through.  We wrote letters, then emails, and have only seen each other once since that summer, when I was passing through Omaha to see my parents in western Nebraska and she was home visiting her parents who live there.  She’s a great cheerleader, encourager, and crafter, and sent the best care packages I ever got!

Speaking of college, I already mentioned Becky in my last post.  Becky and I were roommates for a few years in college, and had to live together to become friends (we didn’t get along very well before that).  We’ve watched many a crappy chick flick together, probably why they continue to be a guilty pleasure of mine.  She’s the first person I call or email when I head to Minnesota and would have been maid of honor at my wedding if I wasn’t so close to my sister.

Jim is another school friend, but in a much different capacity.  He and I went through an online master’s degree program several years ago, meeting once a week for chat sessions plus continued back-and-forth bulletin board and email discussions.  While he is older than I am (I won’t say how much older, but enough that my husband need not worry about this friendship), I cherish our discussions and the way he can challenge me to think about things from another angle.

Jaime and her husband Jason (though I don’t know if he reads this blog) are a couple that I got to know briefly in the Buffalo area.  Jason is a DCE, and Jaime is a new mom (sorry, Jaime, I can’t remember if you work or not or what it is that you do!). Had we lived closer to each other, I think we would have spent more time together, but I think it’s harder to get together with friends just for fun when you get busy with the stuff of life.  College was much easier to just hang out with people.  But they are both really cool and their daughter is super cute!

Finally, two new people in my life who have commented are Sheri and Kathleen.  I’m still getting to know them but they have both been incredible about sharing themselves with me since we’ve landed in our new church home.  They are both members and sweet as can be.  Sheri is in ChristCare training with me, and we’ve had some great conversations, including a bit of a teasing fest over teaching VBS, which I have decided I will do with her (let’s see if she still reads this to know my answer!).  Kathleen took me to lunch one day and we talked about books quite a bit, and now I have a pile that she has lent to me – between her and the libraries around here I won’t have to spend any money on Amazon (which will thrill my husband)!

Anyway, this was a long post, but I hope all of you have had a chance to get to know the people in my life that are here on this blog.  Speak up if I didn’t mention you!  I hope you all have a wonderful day.