Make Time for Friends

Hi there.  Happy 4th of July!  If you are participating in the Blog Hop, you should have just left iStampScrap&Craft's blog.  Welcome.  :)

Lately, with some of the medical issues that have been plaguing family and friends, it has had me thinking a lot about wellness.  To me, a huge part of wellness includes reducing stress and enjoying life.  And what better way to do that then to make time for friends.  I used to work with a woman who was so totally strict about her diet, and she got a lot of exercise, and lived a "good" life.  But she was a completely miserable person.  She still wasn't "healthy" and was not a pleasant person to be around.  I think that a huge part of her problem was that she focused so much on limiting things in her life, that she forgot to have fun and to laugh.  According to Caloriecount.About.com...

"researchers at Vanderbilt University found adults burn an average of 1.3 calories per minute while laughing with their friends.  That’s about the same number of calories you burn while taking notes in a classroom or standing and talking on the phone.  But laughter has other benefits besides burning calories, including relief of emotional stress and a  workout for the muscles of the diaphragm, abdomen, back, and shoulders." 

Last week, I think I burned a lot of calories.  My good friend, Stephanie, came over for lunch.  We have been friends since we were  9 or 10... so just over 30 years.  It is amazing.  We've been through nearly everything together, but we don't actually get together very often these days.  During our visit, we reminisced about all of the crazy things we did over the years and marveled over the fact that we didn't get ourselves into inescapable trouble with some of our shenanigans.  It was such a great visit.  By the time she left, my face actually hurt from all of the laughing/smiling we were doing.  It was a great day.  She sent me an email later saying that it was crazy we didn't get together more often considering we only live about a half an hour's drive from each other.  But it is hard to find the time with all that each of us has going on in our lives.  She has six kids, a husband, and she is going to school.  I'm just finishing school and have Kennedy to take care of (which doesn't make for a lot of flexibility in schedules), but we decided that we definitely need to make more time to get together because it is so important and makes us happy.

Do you have a good friend who is so close to you that they feel more like family?  One of those friends where, you can go weeks or months without talking to, but as soon as you start talking, it feels like no time has elapsed? Someone you can laugh with over stupid and embarrassing things, but is your total go-to person if you really need to share something?

Before Steph left for home, I made Jessica snap a quick picture of the two of us.  I only have a couple of pictures of us together (one at my wedding, and then a couple from school days), but I wish we had more.

Credits: Meghan Mullens/Misty Cato - Life is Sweet

This is a last minute layout I did for the CT I was on.  When I have more time, I would like to scan some old pics of us and then do a Now & Then layout.

If you are lucky enough to have a good friend like mine, be sure to give them a call, send them a card or shoot them an email to tell them how thankful you are for their friendship.

Leave a comment to tell about a special friendship you have.

To enter the giveaway from Scrapworthy Lives, be sure to comment below! You can earn one entry per blog. So that means if you visit everyone’s blog and comment on each of their blogs, you can get 9 entries! All entries must be posted by Friday, July 8 at midnight Central Standard Time (Chicago, IL, USA). She will ship anywhere in the world. The winner will be announced on Sunday, July 10 on Scrapworthy Lives.

The next stop on your blog hop is Take a Picture and Remember This.  If you get lost along the way or you just started here, the list of participating blogs is below.

Scrapworthy Lives
Scrapping Mojo
Pie for Breakfast
iStampScrap&Craft
Scraps & Sass
Take a Picture and Remember This
1200 Some Miles
Slife of Life
Our Life with Spiky Potatoes

Thanks for stopping by.  Have fun and enjoy the 4th of July (if you are in the US).

Blogger Blues

It is hard to keep up with this blog these days. I have to maintain another blog for school, so I'm afraid this one gets neglected. Between work, school, homework, blogging for school, doing household chores, seeing friends/family, and the writing group, I'm barely keeping myself sane… much less focusing on my poor lil' neglected bloggy. :(

Yesterday, I felt really guilty. I spent a lot of time doing things that I really wanted to do. Not things that necessarily needed to be done (like the housework or schoolwork) but it was something that I needed for myself.

I spent a couple of hours in my studio. It was thrilling. I am deep in the planning stages of a "stamp camp" to be held at my house at the end of March, so I needed to get out and see what I had as far as supplies and other assorted goodies. I came up with some design ideas, but then I realized that I don't have very many stamp sets from the new catalog, so I need to go back through and figure out some sketches based on what I have. Anyway, I got some things sorted and my thought process is a little more organized now. That is a very good thing.

And speaking of "it's a good thing"… I went to Artco (in Tacoma) yesterday. I was grossed out by the store (all dingy/dirty) but they did have a line of Martha Stewart crafts! There was a lot of eye candy in that aisle. Almost enough to give you a cavity. The nice thing about it is that it isn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be. For instance, I looked at bone folders over in the regular section. They wanted like $8.00-10.00 for them. It seemed really steep. So then I looked over at MS and happened to see some for $5.00. I was pleasantly surprised. They also have punches that are reasonable.

We went to Stephanie & Casey's for dinner last night. It was soooooo good to see them. It seems like time is just going too fast. I think the last time we got together was before I started working at Davita (which was at the end of last May). Geez! But it is always so good to get a chance to hang out with her. It is like time hasn't passed. Last night, we got on the subject of someone we went to school with, so Steph whipped out her yearbooks from junior high. It totally cracked me up. In 7th grade, I wrote some run-on sentences that were repetitive and lame. By 9th grade, there was an entire page that had "RESERVED FOR KIM" on the top. I filled it too. My writing started out all nice and neat, but then got all wild and crazy. I had written about things that we swore we'd never forget. Most of them we remembered, but there were a couple of less-prominent ones that escaped us now. It was a good evening though. Like being with family… only better because you realize that you've remained close over the years not because you had to and were obligated to like you do with some family… but because you have that bond and you want to remain close. It is a special kind of friendship when you can think about it that way and realize that you've been friends since you were nine… almost thirty years.