I am truly a blessed individual. I have really nice husband, two fantastic kids, a great family and a lot of really wonderful friends. Friendships have always been very important to me. I have learned so much from my friends. They have taught me how to have fun, how to laugh at myself and the world. They have taught me how to down hill ski, cross country ski, cycle, cook, play volleyball, and in-line hockey. But mostly they have taught me how to love.

I have always considered many friends to be part of my extended family. Every holiday consists of my entire family of 18 and then our adopties, which usually includes Matthew, Debbie and Marie, but really anyone is welcome. We have the kind of house that there always people coming and going. The smart ones always come around meal time, because they know there’s always enough food for one more person. We have 4 or 5 regulars that come a couple of times a week, my Mother, our friends Marie, Matthew and Debbie. We have several families that we get together with on a regular basis. My kids adore these people. Pretty much every day my Daughter says, ‘Mommy, who’s coming over tonight?’, if I say ‘Nobody’ she puts on the big pouty face. Because of all the interaction my kids get they are not shy, they are articulate, they have many interests and they always feel comfortable in groups of people. My friends have been such a positive influence on my children.

My friend Matthew calls our large group of friends ‘a freak of friends’. He says, ‘you have your gaggle of geese, your prided of lions, your herd of cows and in our case we have a freak of friends’. I love that saying, because it is so true! Each one of us have are own little unique freaky side. We all have very strong personalities, are very opinionated and of course each of us thinks we are always right in our opinions. The great thing about my friends is that we can sit around and talk about hot topics and have really heated conversations over these hot topics and get really worked up and irritated at one another and then the subject can completely change into something warm and fuzzy and we’re all laughing and hugging. I love that we can all be different, yet appreciate the differences.

Let me close by saying ‘Thank you!’ to all my friends. You keep me honest, joyful, spiritual and happy!