And throughout fifth grade, I took in all the new things of being in middle school. I realized I was bottom of the totem pole. I loved Language Arts with Mrs. D. and my social studies (and homeroom) teacher is still one of my most favorite teachers to recall. I carried around my 40lb L.L. Bean book bag (that might be just a slight exaggeration) and remember getting my first solo in chorus - Hero by Mariah Carey.
And of course I had to make new friends. It was the first time we combined schools. The "valley" kids who went to Old Farmers Road School (like I did) and the "mountain" kids who went to Flocktown joined to go to Long Valley Middle School. And there was a moment (don't remember the exact one) where I met Jess. She was a mountain kid. We became fast friends. And our friendship continued throughout middle school. We hung out after school. Had sleepovers. Then high school came. We went to football games. We went trick-or-treating together. We ate a lot of ice cream and went to see Yankees games in NYC. And then we went to college. And continued to remain friends. We visited each other at college, and would meet up at home over breaks.
Now here we are entering our 30s, and she is still one of my most dear friends. She got married to Scott - her high school sweetheart - in 2006. They have a dog Bean. They moved into her childhood home a few months ago. And last year they had their first baby - a girl, Danielle - who is just the love of their lives. And it's been absolutely wonderful to be back home for this past year and spend time with Jess while she's been on maternity leave. I've loved watching Dani grow and become this sweet little girl; I've mentioned to Jess numerous times that I love her big eyes and her sweet demeanor.
A few weeks ago, I called Scott and told him I wanted to come take some pictures of Dani when Jess wasn't around, so I could give Jess a pic of Dani for her 30th birthday (which was last week). Last night I was able to go spend some time with Jess and give her the pictures.
I am so grateful for Jess and Scott. She has been such a consistent friend and our friendship has been so easy-going. I know there have been times in our friendship where we've not talked as often - simply because of what we had going on in our lives, but she - even then - continued to remain someone I knew would ALWAYS be there for me.
(and to give explanation to the subject...Jess and I took Spanish in high school. We held onto a few phrases and words that we used casually over the years. When Jess traveled to Spain, she brought me back a fairytale in Spanish. It's been a running joke between us for years.)
Abrazos y besos, my friend. You and your family are so special to me. I am so incredibly blessed to have you as one of my friends.
And since every post is more fun with pictures, here are some of the pics I took of Dani... Isn't she just the cutest??
No comments:
Post a Comment