Girlies Gone but Not Fogotten

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that two of my very best friends from my Arkansas roots have been visiting in our home since Thursday.  I just got back from "leading them out of town" to George Bush Turnpike.  As I headed back home, I began to experience the "dip in emotions" that I always feel when someone leaves.  This always happens when my kids leave after being home or when I have to leave them.  It usually lasts about thirty minutes because by then I get myself focused back on things I need to do.  At this time, I have chosen to stop at one of my Starbucks offices and recall our good times.  Oh, my friends do have names:  Kay Allen and Sandra Garrett.  I am not going to even try to explain our history.  It is too long but just know, I love them dearly.

They arrived around 4 p.m. On Thursday.  I met them at the Highland Village train station parking lot so I would not have to confuse them with the directions of plowing through the construction to get to our

house.  We quickly changed clothes to get back on the road to Plano so we could have a celebratory birthday dinner for Kay at Papadeux's before Ron's concert. (Yes, they got to experience the fun of 5 o'clock traffic on George Bush.) Everything was so good and we had a lot of fun.  Afterwards, we traveled to Colin College to attend a wonderful concert where Ron played his clarinet in the orchestra that accompanied a fabulous pianist. Once we arrived back at home, we pretty much headed to bed because it had been a long day for all of us.

On Friday morning we had a long coffee conversation and Sandra was feeling a little queezy.  She had a slight stomach bug which tried to ruin our day.  However, for those of you reading this who know Sandra Garrett, you know she managed to fight it off.  We went to the Arboretum and she just took it easy as we all enjoyed the beauty of that fabulous place.

After the Aroboretum I took them to Highland Park so we could drive up and down the streets to look at the beautiful homes around Beverly Drive and Turtle Creek.  Sandra had not seen SMU so we made a quick trek through the campus.  By this time, it was time to head to Prestonwood Baptist Church where the Bill Gaither Homcoming of southern gospel music would be taking place at 7. We were on the second row but eventually moved back because we were seated right in front of the speaker and it was extremely loud.  The music was great and we had a lot of fun.

On Saturday morning we left the house mid-morning and I drove them around Highland Village, Flower Mound and showed them some of my favorite places.  We eventually made it back to the Carrollton area where I was able to show them where my mother lived before she died in 2006.  Both of these ladies loved my mother very much.  It was a special time to share.

The second concert started at 3 p.m.  We were able to see Mike and Betty Goff beforehand and enjoy a short time together in the parking lot!  Mike is also from our hometown and it is always a treat to see him and Betty. This time Kay waved our second row seats in the air and got someone further back to trade with us.  Seemingly, the loudness didn't bother them because they didn't come looking for us to trade back.  Needless to say, a great time was had by all...AND Sandra was feeling like her old self again and that made us very, very happy.

After the concert, we pretty well closed our weekend down by a great dinner.  We were the last ones to leave the restaurant.  It was always hard to know when to "cut off" the conversation in order to move to the next place.

We had a final meal together this morning at Egg and I before they left.  If you haven't noticed, there was no cooking being done the entire week-end! :)

So now my girlfriends are traveling back to Arkansas.  We were reminded again of the importance of friendships and staying in touch.  Can't wait to do it again!