.ten years.

this summer marks ten years.

- ten years since i graduated high school (scary!)
- ten years since i moved 8 hours from home to go to college
- ten years since i met my best friend from college




and here alisha and i sit, 10 years later in boston, celebrating our friendship.

she and her husband are living here for the better part of 2 years and i decided i needed to come check out new england this week. as we sat talking over guacamole & chardonnay, we discovered that it has indeed been ten years since we met.

we met in colby hall at tcu. we lived 4 doors down and we were both dutch. we had both lived in california. our families were weirdly connected (which happens when you're dutch) and our lives became intertwined on day one at tcu in the freshman dorms. i was 17, she was 18 and in our naivety, we had no idea what the next 10 years of our lives would bring.

COLLEGE - freshman dorms, fraternities & sororities, meeting ronnee (our 3rd muskateer) psychotic roommates, boyfriend break-ups, studying abroad in spain (another blog!), a great church, alisha meeting her husband (ryan) at a tcu/army football game, living with the volleyball girls in sweet community.

THE NEXT 4 YEARS - both of us moving back to california, planning alisha's wedding and move to hawaii, ryan being deployed to afghanistan, my first years of teaching spanish and a very broken relationship, alisha going to grad school in new york city, alisha & ryan moving to washington dc following ryan's deployment, my career change into ministry.

THE PAST FEW YEARS - tough first years of marriage for many of our dear friends, tough first years in ministry for me, ryan's acceptance into business school and a move to boston for them, my decision to quit young life staff and finish grad school in pasadena.

so here we are - all caught up, 10 years later. no longer 17 and 18 year old girls, but 27 and 28 year old women with ten years of laughter, tears, heartache, joy, pain, hope and promise as our credentials. we are together this weekend in boston - never dreaming either of us would be here, legitimately amazed by God's good grace in our lives and wondering at how He truly does hold us in the palm of His hand. i literally sit here and type this in awe of how He's carried us from those girls to these women, carefully molding and shaping us each step of the way.

so tonight i raise a toast to alisha,



to our sisterhood, to the next ten years that will, God-willing, find us both living in california with husbands and babies, working in ministry and social work, still in awe of who He is and how He continues to shape us. thank you for your faithful friendship. my love for you is unwavering.

.small victories.

i love small victories.

things like the vitamin water being on sale the day you needed to replenish, or your passport being right where you found it after years of dormancy, or your orchids and tulips blooming the day of the party at your house.

i love small victories.

today there were a few and i'm grateful...

small victory #1 - the plumber came and did a 5 minute fix on our shower that's been out of commission for 4 days (don't worry, we showered somewhere else!)

small victory #2 - i had no food for dinner and refused to buy some before going out of town, so i made up a recipe for biscuits and sweet diddle, it worked!

small victory #3 - i frantically researched the weather in boston, praying it'd be cooler than the 94-98 degree temps they've been having and the day i get there, it cools down about 20 degrees, thank you God!

small victory #4 - my dear friend's little girl, anna, hung out with me all morning without getting injured, without tears and without missing her mama. auntie bree scored major points this morning, and she even blew me kisses!



small victory #5 - (and today's biggest so far) - i started and completed a 10 page paper for grad school that's due on wednesday - i'm 48 hours early! productivity is bliss!

not-so-small victory #6 - will be in about 2 hours when my city league volleyball team takes the league championship for this season!!!! we're a bunch of misfits, but we love to play and we play hard and it is OUR TURN TO WIN. so tonight, with 5 victories under my belt for the day, i WILL accomplish a sixth (fingers crossed)!

wish me luck!

p.s. - we won!!! we are the champions.

victory is awfully sweet...

.dishwasher hum.

tonight, before i headed to bed, i started the dishwasher. i looked around the kitchen, made sure everything was put away, turned out all the remaining traces of light in the living areas of the house and walked down the hall. as i walked, i heard the hum of the dishwasher in the background.

i was brushing my teeth and stopped myself mid-brush... to listen again. and then i heard it. it was my mom.




the hum of the dishwasher brought flashbacks of my mom. that sound seems to be something from my childhood that was comforting, somewhat affirming to me. when the dishwasher was on at bedtime, it meant that all was well in the household. it meant that my dad, my brothers and i were fed, the dishes were loaded, the lights turned off and everyone was on their way to a good night's rest. it was my mom who loaded that dishwasher and turned it on night after night and it was my mom who was the source of consistency in my childhood.

and tonight, as i loaded the dishwasher (that runs once a week) in my house full of mid-20's roommates, i said a prayer that someday, hopefully someday soon, i will be the consistent-dishwasher-hum-mom for some little sleeping babies and a big sleeping husband. i prayed that every night i will take pride in my household enough to not go to bed until my dishes are loaded and my countertops wiped. i am ready for a full dishwasher.