Good Friends and a Surprise.

 I have been blessed with a handful of really, really good friends. It's often hard for me to make real friendships. I don't have a lot of time to spend hanging out with other adult women (especially when my children aren't there) and although I have a lot of happy acquaintance level friendships, I am especially grateful for the women who are friends to me even through my awkwardness and weaknesses. 

Amy Perkins and Karli Shields - two of the best out there. We used to try to go out for lunch for each of our birthdays but Karli moved and I can't really do lunch anymore because of homeschool, so we opted for one combined dinner/girls night for the year. Amy's birthday is in January. Karli's is in June. Mine in September. We are finally getting together in October. It was a great evening with good friends. 

And speaking of the best of the best, Ali Middleton's 30th Birthday is the first week of November. After a brief conversation about how she was going to be out of town on her birthday (she loves birthdays as much as I do) my wheels started turning and I knew that I really wanted to throw her a surprise birthday party for her milestone 30th birthday. I tend to have big ideas, but always need someone else to jump with support for the idea and help with the planning in order for it to happen. Our mutual friend, Tara Gotfredson happens to be an amazing floral arranger/lover and she volunteered to host a wreath-making class if I could manage the dinner. Ali is one of the most creative people that I know and a wreath making class was perfect for her. 

I was able to secretly find a guest list by going through old text messages for other creative adventures Ali has invited me to, finalize a night and plan of surprise by texting Mike, her husband, and get her input on whether she liked silver, gold, or rose gold jewelry by pretending that I was having a debate with David about what was best. I'm a horrible liar, so I was proud of all of those things. It worked out just perfectly. 

Ali was surprised, the dinner was lovely (thanks to so many people pitching in to help), the wreath making was fun. The friends of Ali's coming together to surround her with love was tender because you can see the goodness of the person she is by the people that surround her. I'm just grateful to be counted in that number.