FIRST Flashback Friday!

I mentioned in a previous post that I had some new post ideas that I would be starting. Well, here's the first! Every Friday I will do a flashback into the past...sometimes the recent past, sometimes the very distant pass...we'll see what kind of pictures I run across. I can't take credit for this idea, I have seen it on several other blogs that I have been checking lately. So check back weekly (if not daily) for "Flashback Fridays", and we'll see if I actually keep up with it EVERY week or not.

So this first flashback is to July 4th weekend, 2005. One of my dearest and best friends from high school, Onnie got married! This picture is of the 2 of us, and Jessie, my other dearest and best friend from HS (but I'll save her for another flashback!). The reason I chose to dedicate this flashback to Onnie is because I have been thinking about her LOTS lately! She and Curt just had a baby girl almost a month ago already and I am just so excited for her! Baby Anna is absolutely gorgeous and we were SO excited to get to surprise them in the hospital (through careful planning with her sister) the weekend she was born. Let me take you WAY back to when Onnie and I met. It was preschool. We went to Rainbow Christian Preschool and we LOVED playing dolls and house at recess. There was a pillow and a blanket that we always fought over who would get to play with. I STILL have a note that Onnie wrote me in preschool, I will have to find it and scan it in for another flashback! I do remember briefly what it said though...."You are nice. I love you. You are a good student." (or something along those lines). How nice is she? Here's our class...can you find us?
After kindergarten, we went to different schools again until 6th grade. At the 6th grade center, Onnie and I were in the same "pod" or "team" or whatever you call it. She had Mr. Hammer (I THINK!) and I had Mr. Fell, but we started to become better friends as we began seeing more of each other in classes and 6th grade activities. Of course, we went through what most girls go through during those middle school years....friends one day, not the next. Our friendship was many times dependent on who else we were friends with at the time.

It wasn't until high school (junior year?) when we FINALLY "stuck"! We had always been friends, but it seems like that was the time in our lives when we finally just found the friends we fit with the best and stuck with them...no more flip-flopping around! I have so many memories of Onnie always being such a "goof ball"! She always made me laugh with her sense of "nieveness" (sp?) and care-free attitude! We had so much fun our senior year trying to be "rebels" but yet still remain the "good girls" as well! Kind of challenging to be both! This is us our senior year of highschool.Here are just a few of the crazy and random memories that I have: singing in Walnut Valley Youth Choir, sitting out at night on the roof of her new house, looking for trash can lids in alleys, crazy face painting for football games, singing to Dixie Chicks "Goodbye Earl" at the top of our lungs in her car, throwing bottles in the back of her sister's bf's truck b/c he was being "mean" to her, new years eve in her basement, practicing for hours to learn the dance to Britney Spears "Crazy", dealing with "mean" girls in HS, being the first to change the trend of what was worn to homecomings, BOAS and crazy outfits, late nights in Newkirk, OK, bluegrass BIRTHDAYS, taking freshman to homecoming our Sr. year, tears over many different things, graduating at the top of the class together and walking together at graduation, planning to be roommates together at KSU (which never happened), visiting her at Rockhurst and in Washington D.C when she was there one summer, being at my side as a bridesmaid the day I married Dave, and always loving to hear her voice on the other end of the phone as our lives took us in different directions.

Onnie is seriously one of the smartest friends I've ever had! She KILLED me in Calc AP (I quit half way through)! She graduated from Rockhurst University where she met Curt (her husband) and went on to KU Medical School. Every time I talked to her, she and Curt were always at the top of their class!! I was always so proud of her! She just amazes me that she has been so dedicated to school and her career to endure the long and challenging years of med school.

So here we are today....from sharing a pillow and blanket during indoor recess at preschool, to sharing experiences of motherhood together. This is the true definition of a "lifelong" friend! I wish you all could know her!

Onnie, I love you! You are such an inspiration to me and I am so blessed to have had you as a friend for over 20 years! (I was going to say almost 30 years, but I won't go there YET!). You are the cutest mom ever....I only wish our little ones could start preschool together too! I am so proud of everything you have done in your life. I can't wait to add more memories to our list...even if they only come few and far between now. LOVE YOU!