My dear friend..

This is not going to be a sad post! Even though I miss my dear friend Jackie more than usual at this time of year, I decided to post these fun pics from my scrapbook because I want to remember the great memories we made together. Not many people are blessed enough to have the kind of friendship in their life that brings them laughter, joy and makes them a better person- and I had that for 13 years with her. God gave me the gift of her friendship and I am thankful for that.

So... here are the pics from (left to right)

Pic 1: Wiener Wagon! Yes, that's right we BOTH worked at the South Elgin Wiener Wagon. I remember the day we walked down there for applications- 15 years old. Jackie lasted there much longer than I did though (she always had a better work ethic than me.I think I quit or was fired after 3 days :) She was the Wiener of the Month!

 Pic 2: Halloween at U of I! See... I always loved Halloween and dressing up. Jackie and I spent most of our weekends at ECC driving down to OTHER colleges to visit our friends.Road trips- singing to our mix tapes. So much fun.

Pics 3 and 4: Living together in our first apartment in Chicago. That was our dream! To move downtown and go to school and be real life "city girls". Only it turned out that I was actually just a lame "suburban" girl at heart and couldn't wait to move back to be near my Target and away from public transportation. Jackie was actually a successful city girl. She wasn't even afraid to ride the subway by herself at night :)

Pic 5: The day I was leaving for my summer trip abroad to England. Jackie came to see me off and we wrote emails and letters to keep up. Seriously she was like a boyfriend! We couldn't be apart that long :)

Pic 6: Just a fun girl's night. We had a lot of these. What more do you need? A glass (or three) of wine, good conversation and lots of laughs.

So.... even though five years have passed since I last talked to my dear friend- and a LOT has happened in my life- I know that one day we will meet again. Thank you God for allowing me to be a part of Jackie's life and thank you for the beautiful blessing she was in mine.