Catching Up with the Browns

Yesterday my childhood friend Michelle came to visit and we had a wonderful time catching up with each other. Michelle lived up the street from me when we were kids and we went to the same church and the same high school (although she was three grades ahead of me). She was actually my older sister Kristin's good friend and I was the little sister/sidekick/tagalong! But now that we're all grown up we all feel like we're the same age. (Isn't it funny that when you're young an age difference of just a few years seems like decades?!)

Anyway, it was great to visit with Michelle and her family, especially since my sister Sharon and her kids are in town visiting, too. We were reminiscing about the last time we'd all seen each other, and we figured out that the last time Michelle and I had seen each other was in December 2003 when I was in the ICU after my accident. Michelle and Sharon hadn't seen each other since my sister Kristin got married in 2002. Sharon only had one child at that time, and Michelle didn't have any yet. They've both had five kids since then, for a total of 11 kids between the two of them! Michelle's family also spent several years living abroad in England and a few more years living in Australia before relocating to Texas a few years ago. SO, a lot had changed in all of our lives since we'd last seen each other!

It was so amazing getting to meet Michelle's kids. Even though I've never met any of them in person, I feel like I know them from reading Michelle's blog and seeing pictures of them on Facebook (blogs and Facebook are two of the many reasons why I love the Internet, because I'm able to stay in touch with friends that I probably would've lost touch with otherwise!). I'm glad that Sharon and Michelle's kids could entertain each other while the adults visited.

I think one of the marks of a good friendship is when you feel so comfortable with each other that you can just pick back up like no time's gone by, even though it's been years and years. They stayed for four hours, and we definitely could've gone on visiting for a few hours longer, but they had other people to visit.

Michelle and Chris and their adorable kids: Myah, Camryn, Hailey, Aaron and Miles.

Some of the kids (a couple of the little ones were tired and not cooperating, but we got most of the kids smiling):

 What a fun visit; I'm so glad we were able to reconnect!