Sunday, March 22, 2009

New Friends, Old Friends

This morning I got out of bed and my legs were surprisingly unscathed after the 14 mile run yesterday. The bottom of my feet and my calves are slightly sore, but nothing else really bothered me. The human body really is amazingly made! We met Jennifer and Shawn in front of Community Bible Church at 8:50 AM for the 9:00 AM service. Pastor Barry Minkow has an incredible life story and personal testimony there, so we thought we'd check it out. Besides, Jennifer's friend Ana invited them, and they invited us to "double-date" church with them. :) When Ana's husband took his seat beside her, I was delighted to find out that it was Tony, this guy who works at my company who sits not far from me! What a small world! I've had so many "coincidences" lately regarding meeting people who happen to go to my church. I don't think they're coincidences at all, obviously. I think it's been a huge Godly encouragement and blessing to me and Todd. The rockin' worship music was really good, and the sermon was animated and fun. This afternoon I drove down to Pacific Beach to meet with Sally and Lara for a girls outing. I've known them both since we met in middle school when we were 12 years old! I hang out with Sally a lot, but somehow haven't gotten together regularly with Lara since they moved back from Hawaii. I think of these two long-time friends as yet another way that God blesses me in my life. None of us are from San Diego... we went to middle school and high school in the San Francisco bay area. Yet, somehow we all ended up here. And even though I hadn't seen Lara in two years, we eased back into conversation and there was never any awkwardness. The three of us chatted on about our current lives, what's happening with our other high school friends, and reminisced about the great times we had. It really was awesome and it filled my heart with fondness. Lara's husband took a photo of us in their backyard before we headed off to the beach. Photobucket We found a really lucky parking space right by the beach. Then we walked and chatted on the boardwalk. It was a beautiful day at the beach. Photobucket Photobucket But don't let the bright sun and blue skies fool you. It was incredibly windy and blustery! You don't see us wearing bathing suits, do ya? Photobucket Photobucket Sally & Lara on the boardwalk: Photobucket A lifeguard station. Everytime I see one it reminds me of Baywatch... Photobucket Sally & Lara in front of a light green house: Photobucket After a while we got cold and hungry, so we drove up Garnet and went to dinner at World Curry. Photobucket Oh. My. They had Indian curry, Japanese curry, Thai curry, etc. Each meal came with a totally awesome salad. And I ordered a mango coconut banana lasse (basically an Indian smoothie): Photobucket Sally enjoying the salad: Photobucket So I made everyone wait to eat so I can take photos of the food when it arrived. Sally said, "now we know how Todd feels!" Photobucket Lara was so sweet! She baked us some lemon cookies that were SO delicious. And she put them in this super-cute butterfly bag. Photobucket We parted ways around 8:30 PM and vowed to make our get-togethers a regular thing. So back to last night's girls night out... Joanne picked me up at around 7:00 PM. Sandra had driven down to Joanne's to carpool, and the three of us headed downtown to Buca di Beppo. As luck would have it, we found a parking spot right in front of the restaurant because someone just left. I think I'm the parking good-luck charm. We waited for a while and finally everyone arrived and we ordered food. We sat at the Pope Table: Photobucket We had eggplant parmigiana, lemon chicken with capers, and linguini with clams, squid, and mussels (not pictured). The cake was free because FIVE of us have birthdays in March and we were celebrating all together. Photobucket The waiters singing happy birthday to us: Photobucket It was a really fun night. I sat between Erecca and Sandra and chatted with them quite a bit. I found out Sandra was involved with children's ministry at her church, so I asked her what church. Turns out she goes to my church too, and she's been going for years! Right, not a coincidence! As a small token birthday gift for the other March birthday girls, I made little labels for my homemade soap and packaged them up with a $5 Starbucks gift card and some Dove dark chocolate in little baggies. Photobucket Photobucket I had a really fun two nights of hanging with the girls. But now I'm ready to spend some quality time with Todd. :)

7 comments:

  1. Seems like you had a great night out on Saturday and a great Sunday too! It is wonderful to have friends like that!
    Those soaps are just too cute with the lables on. What a wonderful gift!

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  2. Love to see your shots. It seems you had a great weekend - and it must be wonderful to have friends like that!

    The lemon cookies and all other food looks so yummy!!

    You are varied talented - the soaps are looking great and they are a very special gift from you!!

    By the way you asked what the saw is for!? My son used it to cut branches of the bushes and small trees and he had much fun. Therefore he thinks he is as big as his father...

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  3. Oh, this is really a very nice Begnung! I find such long friendships beautiful, even if perhaps not every day you can see, but it is connected over the years.



    your pictures are so beautiful ... I love your beach pictures!

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  4. I love the soaps! What a great gift for friends (and it came with really yummy chocolate and coffee!) Girl time is so much fun..I was able to go out last week with one of my best friends, but was kicking myself because I forgot my camera, so no pictures of the food :(

    Have a great week!

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  5. I can't believe how much you were able to pack into one day! Wow girl! I guess all that running gives you all that energy!

    Gorgeous photos! It was cold here too.

    I've eaten at that World Curry restaurant and that Bucca di Beppo. We were down there a lot when my brother lived there.

    It looks like it was an amazing day!!

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  6. cool pics! looks like you had a great day!

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  7. These are gorgeous! I love the vignetting you used in the lifeguard station shot. Very Baywatch indeed. :)

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