If I Were a Tree it Would Be a Maple Cause I'm Full of Sapp

As I was laying in bed last night I was thinking about all my friends and how thankful I am to have them. We all have a lot in common. We have good guys we're married to, we each have 4 kids that drive us crazy, and we all have a wicked fashion sense.


Friendships like this is something I haven't always had though. After I started homeschooling as a kid I got a few phone calls from girls at school when I wasn't there on the first day. Never heard from them again. Except there was this one girl I was friends with and she did keep in touch. Her name was Julie. We kept in contact for quite some time. Later on we attended a church that had a good sized youth group with a lot of girls in it, but because I didn't grow up in that church like they did I was shunned. I wasn't part of their click. A couple years after that we moved to the Wellsboro area and eventually met a girl there who ended up being psycho. To explain further on that one would be another blog post altogether.

It's actually only been these last couple of years that I've finally had what you'd describe as real friends. I've struggled sometimes with feeling like a second rate friend though. The friend you only do stuff with when everyone else is busy and such. I think that stems back to a time I had a friend over to swim in our swimming hole out back. While she was over she got a phone call from a snobby friend, who I don't think liked me very much, and wanted her to go do something with her. My "friend" ran upstairs before we even had a chance to go swimming and changed back into her clothes and then left. My feelings weren't just hurt - I was pissed. Who does that? So rude! I think that lack of acceptance by the girls in the youth group and the other girl getting a better offer from her other friend has stuck with me. My friends now haven't done anything to make me feel like a second rate friend - it's just the way I've viewed myself. I've often wondered because they have other friends from their past if my friendship means as much to them as theirs does to me. I suppose wondering that is my own pride wanting to feel important and special. Bad Becky, bad. (I'm slapping my wrist right now)

If anything, not ever having friends like this before has made me value, appreciate, and hopefully reciprocate that friendship. I was just explaining the meaning of palaver to my one friend who's never heard that term before. To anyone else who's not familiar with it it basically means fake and shallow. Fake, shallow, and insincere concern or attention of any kind. I've received that through many other "friendships" in the past which is why I value the ones I now have. The friendships I have now are real and genuine. My one friend every time I see her she gives me a hug and kiss on the cheek. She's a very thoughtful and sweet person and I appreciate her.

I value and love each one of my friends equally and hope I make them all feel that way.

Now I know this has been a little on the sappy side but you have to let it come out every now and again. I can't just be weird and funny all the time even though I'm good at it, especially the weird part. I guess the weird part is just the Baldwin coming out in me. My name may be be Andrus now but I still have Baldwin blood flowing through my veins. Maybe I should change it to Rebekah Baldwin-Andrus.

Back to my friends, I can just see us all sitting around together as old ladies. I wonder which one of us is going to get the first set of falsies, go senile , break a hip, use a walker, or get a handicap sticker for our car. How about becoming a Grandmother first? Oooooooh, I'm going to leave that one alone.

It isn't the coffee that makes our get togethers good, it's the time spent together that makes the coffee extra good. Good idea, I think I'll go make some now.