Imaginary Friends

Did you ever have an imaginary friend when you were small? Someone you talked to but never really saw in person?

With the advent of the internet, many of us started having more and more "imaginary" friends. You know, people we would chat with online either via Yahoo Groups (before Facebook) or via Messenger.

Back around probably 2002, I entered the online world. Yes, for those of you young folks out there, there was life before the internet. It wasn't until my second child was born that I joined the online world...via dial-up! Keeping it real here. Keeping it real.

It was at this time in my life that I went from a full-time working mom to a stay-at-home-mom with two young children. I needed some adult conversation. I craved talking with people other than my infant and four year old, who was speech delayed so didn't really talk much at that point! My poor hubby was all for it as he was talked out by the time he arrived home each day from work.

This is when I discovered Yahoo Groups. Think Facebook Groups but via email. We would sometimes have live chats though. They were based on likes and dislikes, hobbies, everything and anything you could imagine, you could find a group for it.

One of the first ones I joined was called Christian Scrapbooking Friends. Hey, this was the early 2000s when scrapbooking was huge and I had jumped in with both feet when my oldest was only 18 months old. I have the albums and supplies still to prove it.

I enjoyed that little group immensely and I made some lifelong friends through it - women I still keep in touch with, now on Facebook mostly. I exchange Christmas cards with some every year. I chat online with them, but most of them I have never, ever met in person.

Earlier this year one such friend contacted me. I met Kay through that little scrapbooking group years ago, before my youngest was born and before her (I think) four youngest were born. The chances of Kay and I meeting had always been pretty slim since I lived here in Maine and she lived way out in the mid-west in Minnesota. However, she was going to be in New Hamsphire and Maine for about a week while her husband was at a work conference. Could we meet?

That's when I looked at my calendar and realized I had one day I could see her as she was arriving the week we were going to be gone on vacation. And I would need to drive to New Hampshire to do it. A three hour drive versus a cross-country drive is a no-brainer in my book and we began to plan our visit.

Kay and her family were staying at a cute little cottage on a lake in New Hampshire. We spent quite an enjoyable afternoon chatting and visiting in real life for the first time ever. I'm hoping at some point we can do it again, but who knows. I was so great to not only get to see her but to also meet her children and her husband.

Sometimes imaginary friends are the best ones.

Friendship

Since before my youngest son was born (almost 12 years ago), I've been getting together just about monthly with my sister and our friend, Tammy. We used to get together and scrapbook. We did that for a number of years. Now we usually get together and work on our computers, watch movies, and just enjoy visiting. 

Today was our get together for January. We also decided to exchange Christmas gifts today. It was so fun to see the themes that emerged from each gift exchanged with each person. 

Tammy loves the move Frozen. Actually, Tammy loves Disney. Beth gave the gifts she bought for Tammy first. She got her a talking Olaf doll. 

He gives warm hugs. 

Olaf socks

An Olaf bank.

And they all came in an Olaf bag.

And, unbeknownst to me, I had purchased some Olaf duct tape for her as well!

I gave my sister a painting of a lighthouse that I purchased locally. She has a lighthouse theme in her bathroom and we both really enjoy them. We once had our own little business selling photos of lighthouses. We spent quite some time traveling to various lighthouses all over the state to photograph them. It was a lot of fun. 

Okay, just to clarify - my sister is sniffing tissue paper, yes. However, a scented candle was wrapped up in it. 

I gave both Tammy & my sister a zipper pouch from Thirty-One. I really like this pattern.

My sister arrived with a new bag. I remarked that I really liked it. Then I opened my gift. 

My sister also gave me a set of doTerra essential oils. I've been getting in to using oils more and more. I'm pretty sure the ones I've been using on my ankle are definitely helping it to heal faster. 

Coloring books seemed to be my theme this year. My mother-in-law gifted me with one, my husband did as well (well, I picked it out and he wrapped it), another friend, and my sister. I have plenty to keep me busy for a bit.

Tammy gave me this great candle. The name meant I had to have it - Lush Berries. 

Beth gave Tammy and I and Tammy gave Beth and I (did  you follow that) gift certificates to a local spa. We've been doing that for a number of years - each of us taking turns to purchase. Then we plan a long weekend away to the hotel where the spa is located and enjoy a weekend of pampering. I can't wait until we get to use this year's gift certificates!

I'm blessed with good friends and it was a great way to start off 2016!

Visiting with Friends From Afar

I was going to title this post "visiting with old friends" but I didn't like the connotation. Debbie and I first met through a Flat Stanley project shortly after I decided to start homeschooling my oldest son. He was five years old at the time. He just turned 18 so I'll let you do the math to figure out how long we've known each other. Let's just say I only had two kids and so did Debbie when we first met.

We began to email each other and found common interests (namely scrapbooking and homeschooling). We soon met up while Debbie and her family were in Maine vacationing. Since then we've had the pleasure of meeting up every few years. The last time was about three years ago when we visited while exploring Fort Knox. We reprised that visit just last week.

Fort Knox is an old fort that is a great place to take kids to explore. You can go all over (bring a flashlight!) and they have slowly been working on restoring sections of it over the years. And why yes, I counted this as a field trip!

Alix & Berry kids September 2014 (minus Bess)

Alix and Berry kids August 2011

We only had a few hours to spend together since I needed to get back for evening activities for the boys. We did manage to see the majority of the fort though. I think the kids enjoyed spending some time together. Debbie's girls thought my little two-year-old charge absolutely adorable.

I'm glad we had a chance to visit in person. Last year we were derailed by a very sick child - mine. The year prior to that the Alix family didn't come to Maine for their camping trip. So it has been three years since we last met in person. Hopefully it won't be another three years until we can visit again. 

Casting Crowns

Way back in early December I may have mentioned that I was going to be able to see Casting Crowns (CC) in concert. I was psyched since they are one of my absolutely favorite CCM bands (that’s contemporary Christian music).  Miss H’s mom had gifted us two tickets to the concert as part of her Christmas gift to us. I was blown away. Not just because she bought us tickets, but she bought us VIP tickets. She even bought them without fully realizing what VIP would get us. We soon found out and we were able to experience it this post Sunday. It was so worth it.

After some miscommunication by various volunteers we finally made our way to the “VIP” area. Remember when my hubby and I saw Newboys back in November? We had “gold member” tickets then that allowed for a “meet and greet.” We were allowed in early, ushered to a holding room, and then taken through another room to meet with the band. We were even each given a CD that the band could sign.

Jen and Robin waiting to backstage. 
Yes, I know it’s out of focus. Hubby is leaning out of the photo but my camera picked up on his jacket to focus on. 
It’s the only photo I had of the two of them so here it is.

CC had the same deal for their VIP - kind of. We finally found our way  literally backstage and were ushered into a section of seating that was behind the stage. We had a bit of a wait. Then CC’s road manager came out to talk for a bit. The poor gal. She’s actually Mark Hall’s wife (lead singer of CC). She first told us she was their road manager – minor applause for her. Then she mentioned how she was married to Mark – wild applause.


Shortly after this Mark Hall himself came out. What a great guy. Seriously. He’s a youth pastor and he’s very personable. He had us laughing and just seemed to really be enjoying himself.



Kutlass was also singing. They came out first as a group to chat with us as well. They all shared a bit about themselves with us and just welcomed us to the concert. They seemed very down to earth.


I do apologize for the quality of some of these photos. I was so far up behind the stage and it was so dark that it was difficult to get good photos. I was using a “night” setting on the camera so I do catch “ghosts” of movement.

Then the whole CC band came out. Again, they each talked to us and told us who they were, what they played, and what they do at home. I found it interesting that they typically only travel Thursday through Saturday. This allows them to be home for Sundays since all of them play for the worship at their own church – including CC! They did make mention about how unusual it was for them to be gone on a Sunday.

This shows how far back I was – this was taken without any zoom. 

This really didn’t last very long – maybe 10-15 minutes tops. By this time the concert was getting ready to start so we made our way to our seats. Oh, did I mention that the tickets – that Robin bought before the local radio stations even started advertising the concert – gave us front row center seats! They were seriously the best seats I have ever had for a concert. Thanks once more, Robin!

The opening band was called “Caleb.” I had stumbled on a blog a month or so ago and found out that “Caleb” is none other than Steven Curtis Chapman’s sons – Caleb and Will Chapman! And that blog...it was Mary Chapman's.

It was neat to see them in concert and to see CC giving them a chance to get established in the music industry. This is actually the second time hubby and I have seen CC in concert. The very first time was about six years ago when they were the first act of a concert with Chris Tomlin and Steven Curtis Chapman! It’s come full circle now I think.

Caleb did have the words of his songs projected up on screens if folks wanted to sing along. He talked about one song he wrote for some friends who were hurting after the loss of a loved one. Then he mentioned about their family tragedy and the loss of his sister – Maria Sue. This family has certainly gone through quite a bit with loosing her.

The next act was Kutlass. All I can say is – WOW! I have heard some of their songs before so I knew their sound. Of course, it is always far more powerful live. And this song - amazing - this is what they opened their set with and it was an amazing song to hear them sing.

I thought I had taken more photos of them while they performed. Apparently I was too busy singing. I had a few others but they were too blurry to use. I’ll mention here – I took 72 photos at the concert. I deleted the really bad ones and still had about 60 to pick from. Most were of CC. So I'll start with photos of all the band members....

Mark Hall – lead singer of Casting Crowns
  Megan Garrett – piano and vocals
  Brian Scoggin – drums

Juan DeVevo – guitar and vocals

Be sure to read his blog post. He mentions something really neat that happened in Portland. I remember the two men he was talking about. They were just a few spots down from where we were sitting.

Chris Huffman – bass and vocals

Hector Cervantes – lead guitar and vocals

  Melodee DeVevo – vocals and violin

Anyone local...be sure to ask Jen about the hand thing. ;-) Well, okay, I’ll share it here since this is getting really long anyway!

After the show was all over, we ended up getting in line for autographs. We first went through a line for Kutlass. Then we did the line for CC. The CC group was amazing – not that Kutlass wasn’t – but everyone in the CC band reached out to shake our hand, ask our name, greeted us personally. It was very nice. Jen was two people back from me. While riding home we were, of course, chatting about the concert and Jen mentioned how “the violin player” wouldn’t shake her hand. She told, "I'm sorry. I can't shake hands." However, I was pretty sure I had shaken her hand. Jen sent a text to another friend who had been in line behind us. Sure enough, she had shaken Melodee’s hand as well. We still aren’t quite sure why she wouldn’t shake Jen’s, but we all thought it hilarious. We also used copious amounts of hand sanitizer - just in case.

Overall we had a fantastic time. Here are a few more photos of the night.

I took this while Mark was singing “East to West.”

My friend Jen and I. She took the photo!
  Hubby and I. 
Yup – we’re old now and wear ear plugs during concerts. 
I think it actually makes them sound better as it cuts out a lot of the extra noise.

We had a fantastic night. The only downer…it was a Sunday night concert and we never got home until 1am. That made for a very early Monday morning!

B13 was also here. This is probably the first concert he remembers going to.  Hubby and I did take N8 and B13 to a concert to see Chris Rice but they were young. I think B13 was only about eight or so at the time. It was a short concert by Chris Rice followed by a Portland Pirates ice hockey game. They enjoyed the game immensely - the concert? Not so much. I have no photos of B13 since he went with the youth group. Maybe he'll talk about it on his blog. If so, I'll link it up later.

Catching Up

The Saturday before Christmas I went to my sister's house for the day. Typically we (as in my sister, our friend, Tammy, and I) spend the day scrapbooking. However, Beth needed to do some shopping so out we went. Not that we complained at all. ;-) We hit a few stores & then went to Longhorn's for lunch. Can I just say, "Yummy!" I indulged in a steak. Oh so good.

I really was all done shopping but I found myself picking up more things. After all I had a great coupon for Michael's & another for A.C. Moore so of course I had to use them. One of the last stops we made before lunch was at Eastern Mountain Sports. I bought two Camelback water bottles. My MIL has one & I've wanted one for a while so I bought one for me & one for hubby. Perfect. Then I put them in my truck along with my purse. There - no more impulse buying for me!

Once we were all done, we headed back to my sisters for a quick supper. Then we let her son stay up to watch us open the gifts we had for each other. Each year we exchange gifts & always have a lot of fun with it. Usually we don't scrap or have a whole day together in December so this is generally done at a restaurant during dinner. This was a nice change.

My sister opened gifts from me first. We kept laughing at her son. The camera he is holding is his mom's old one. It had stopped working for a while & she ended up buying a new one. As it typically happens it started working again out the blue so he's been using it. We called him the "paparazzi" as he was RIGHT there taking photos of his mom the whole time. ;-)

Hmmm, an 'r' & a 'd'....is this suppose to spell something?

Yup..."friend." I made one set for each of them - in their favorite colors.

Tammy is holding the little Willow Tree box Beth bought for her. The funny thing - she & Beth both bought one for me as well. I now have two & they even did different ones. I love Willow Tree stuff & these are actually my first ones.

Another funny story...I bought each of them these neat little bookmarks. I found them at the Christian book store while we were shopping on Black Friday. Tammy is laughing because SHE bought me one as well so we all have them. I love using mine. It's perfect.

Tammy with her "friend" blocks. They were so easy to make. Most of the gifts I did this year were homemade. I also gave them some of my goodies.

I always have a great time with Tammy & Beth. I look forward to our get togethers every month. It's my "girl time." It's when I recharge. I get the day off from my boys & I'm a better mom for it. This year I'm really hoping to get a lot more scrapbooking done. I'm also planning to jump in to more digital scrapbooking if I can sneak the laptop away with me from time to time.

Thanks girls - you guys are awesome!

I'm Thankful For...

...my friend, Deb.

I know I've blogged about my friendship with Deb before, but I thought I'd post a very quick recap.

We met through a homeschool project shortly after I began homeschooling B six years ago. It was called Flat Travelers & was based on the book Flat Stanley. You made paper dolls & sent them off to visit with friends. The dolls visits were documented & then sent back to you. A fun project. Deb was one of the first we did an exchange with. She was just starting to get in to scrapbooking and I was just getting in to homeschooling. We began e-mailing each other & a friendship was born. We've even managed to meet IRL a few times - typically yearly. Sometimes I go out to visit her & her family in New York or they come to Maine for a visit.

But Deb & I also chat in Yahoo Messenger a lot. In fact, we used to have a standing chat time - every Wednesday night at 8pm. Then life got busy. Deb & Brian adopted some more kiddos & life got busy here with extra children and activities.

However, through it all, Deb has been a great friend. Even though a five hour drive separates us, I know that she is there for me any time I need her. Thanks, Deb. Be sure to check out her blog over at Following the Narrow Path.