Grad Girls

There is a group of girls that I hold very dear to my heart - Betsy, Erin, Michelle, Crystal, Jennifer, Bridgett, and Nicole.  These precious ladies were all in my Master's program with me.  We quickly became friends, and after a late night or long day of class, we'd strike off to the nearest Mexican restaurant, Las Banderas, for what we dubbed Margarita Monday.  The funny thing is that it was never really about the margaritas - we rarely had one.  It was more about the friendship, the conversation shared around the table.  Our group changed through the semesters as graduations came and went.  Over the years, we've seen a wedding and three babies born… and there’s another bambino on the way!  Even though life's moving quickly and we're spread out across South Georgia, we've kept in touch and strive to get together over good food for good conversation and good laughs at least three or four times a year.  We've dubbed these gatherings "Grad Girls' Dinners," and they are always such a special time.  We "talk shop" about school, we giggle endlessly, we cry when we share our struggles, we love on babies, we talk about the craziest things, and we eat way too much!  It's really a neat friendship that we forged over stressful classes and outrageous assignments and life's ups and downs.  I think that's why we're so close... we didn't have any other choice!  Even so, I count these girls are some of my closest friends.  It's really neat that we can get together a couple times a year and pick up right where we left off!  I can’t imagine my life without these girls!  They are so precious to me!

A few weeks ago, my sweet friend Betsy had all of the "grad girls" over for dinner at her cute little house in Boston, Georgia!  We had such a great time catching up, eating good food, and laughing hysterically!  A few of our girls couldn’t make it.  We missed them, but we had such a great time.  It was rainy outside and absolutely perfect for a great night indoors!

I was running late (I drove in pouring rain alllll the way from Baxley!), so after I drove around the cotton field (how awesome is it that I can say that?!) and made it to the house, I walked in to the table being set and dinner ready!  I "borrowed" some pictures from Nicole to share with you!

Here’s Betsy in the kitchen… 

And here's the sweet table set with her fine china...

We had a wonderful dinner of salad, a fabulous chicken and rice dish, green beans that were positively to die for, and oven roasted potatoes.  For dessert, Jennifer brought her famous chocolate chip pound cake and Nicole brought Paula Deen's Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding.  Yummmmy!

While we were eating dessert and talking, the girls wanted to hear all about my trip to the Mart to meet John Wind.  I broke out my laptop and showed them pictures!  We had a little John Wind party around the dinner table! : )  Nicole insisted on taking a picture!  Haha!

After we finished up at the table, we cleaned up, and started snapping pictures left and right.  I'll spare y'all some of the crazy nonsense ones!  We did have SO much fun!  I will leave you with our Olan Mills style "family portrait." It's great!  We do love a self-timer on a camera!

We spent hours laughing... I still can't believe poor baby Claire slept through it all.  We got so caught up in talking and giggling that it was midnight before we left Betsy's!  Nicole and I trudged on to Thomasville, dodging downed limbs the whole way.  Boy did it storm while we safely tucked away in Betsy's house!  

We planned on falling into bed once we got to Matt and Nicole's because Nic and I were leaving the next morning to head to Birmingham, Alabama for Rebecca's Post-Bachelorette Bachelorette Party aka "Bex and the City!"  However, we got home and got to talking with Nicole's sweet husband, Matt.  Soon I was making chicken broth and noodle soup and we were sitting around the kitchen table talking and laughing some more. 

Good times with good friends.  My heart overflows.