Choose Happy by Enjoying Friendship

Happy Friday & Welcome to my 1st week of the #ETHANproject! 

  

This week's challenge is called ENJOY FRIENDSHIP.  Friendship is such an important part of my life and my families life. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends in our lives that we have met in all different phases of our life!  

This friendship post is not about an activity that happened with friends this week, last week or even a few weeks ago. This friendship post is about creating lasting friendships in a way I once thought was not even possible. About 8 years ago this coming October, I met a group of women on a MSN pregnancy forum. I was trying to get pregnant with our first child and found this group of women to be very helpful. Most of the women on this page were all trying to have children or were pregnant at the time. I became very close with a group of women that were all due with babies in June. Throughout that year, we discussed some of the women's miscarriages, spotting, preclampsia, pre-term labor, swelling, you name it...we talked about it. I never in a million years thought I would become such close friends with a group of women on the internet! After our children were born, we were still just as close discussing breastfeeding, night time waking, health issues, bowel movements and more. I learned so much from these women, I can't even fathom at this point where I would be without all of their wisdom and going through this phase together with babies the same age. As our children, got a bit older, we split off a bit a large group of us from all of the due date boards transferred over to Facebook as the boards were going away on MSN. But a few of us stayed very close. 2 of my best friends in the whole world are from these boards. The first time I went to see them I took my husband & son with. 

Our first visit was July 2009 to Chicago. We went to Navy Pier, had dinner & then girls only time at the Melting Pot. It was an awesome time and they weren't serial killers! haha

My second visit was just a few short months later in Milwaukee, WI. Girls only! We ate, drank and ate and drank some more! Great memories! We look so young in these photos!

I seem to be missing photos from our visits in 2010 & 2011.... 

We had a great time visiting Michigan on A's home turf to celebrate N's upcoming wedding and once again, Girls Weekend!

One of our most memorable visits, was in April 2013 for N's wedding. This was also one of the hardest visits we have ever had. Her dad had passed away from cancer 1 week before her wedding. Being there for her was my number one priority at this point. 'A' & I decorated the hall, made desserts, ran errands and tried to keep upbeat as much as we could despite everything that had just happened. I can't imagine not being there to support my best friend on her special day and holding her hand all the way.

Birthday's are also a huge milestone! We celebrated N's 30th Birthday in January 2014 in Milwaukee with our annual Sobelman's bloody mary's & my very 1st tattoo!!  You may not think this is a huge deal, but it is for me. I said most of my life that I NEVER wanted a tattoo and wouldn't get one until I found something that I would want on my body forever. Well we found something....we all got the Celtic friendship symbols on our foots to symbolize our forever friendship!

8 years later, I am so blessed to have found this amazing group of friends in a place I would NEVER have thought possible. Sometimes, you will find friends in places you don't plan on. Be kind,  be willing to share yourself and be open to make NEW friends! 

"True friendship doesn't mean being inseparable; it means being apart & nothing changes!"

 

Share your #ETHANproject stories on your social media page & make sure to tag me and use the hashtag #ETHANproject !!I would love to see how you are making friends this week or spending time with old friends!

We will all benefit from sharing the #ETHANproject with other bloggers. The more women we have participating and promoting the project, the larger our combined sphere of influence becomes!

Are you interested in becoming an #ETHANproject Blogger? Click Here for more information!