Mama Time With Ms. Meeghan

My friend, Ms. Meeghan came for a visit recently. It was so much fun!!! I met Meeghan the year we graduated from college and joined a volunteer corp (Chi Rho) where we were roomies. We lived in a community and worked together in an elementary school. The students called us Ms. Carrie and Ms. Meeghan and it stuck. So 13 years later we still call each other by our "teacher names." There are endless funny stories from the Chi Rho days including themes like: Stolen Devil Dogs, The Blue Booty Wagon, The Mysterious Toilet Clogger, kitchens with shag carpeting that smelled like mildew, students knocking things off my desk in a violent rage, the same student later referring to me EVILLLLLL!!!!, an incident that included certain volunteer teachers being cut off by a rude driver and then certain volunteers blowing the horn and yelling out the window at the driver without realizing it was the school secretary. Yeah, stories like that. Also stories of what it's like to live with 7 strangers in a run down apartment building that looked like a haunted hotel. Our community formed with very little direction from the "director" and we made due with a grocery budget of $100 for 7 people. That always made for fun times! And somewhere in the middle of it all we foster parented a newborn that weighed 4 pounds. But, that's another story. In the end when it was all said and done we did figure out how to be a community and how to live together and put our Faith into Action. We each were baptized Roman Catholic but we had 7 different interpretations of how to live that Faith. It was interesting, at times frustrating and in the end profoundly life changing. I am grateful for my time at Chi Rho and very thankful for the gift of Ms. Meeghan's friendship.

Ms. Meeghan is unique. She is one of the most vibrant, live out loud people I know. Her favorite color is Orange and that sums her up in so many ways. Her soul is the warmest, brightest and most alive of just about anyone I have met. She has endless creative ideas and inspirations and love for God, her family and life.

Over the years as we have moved on from Chi Rho, pursued careers, found our wonderful husbands and have been blessed with our growing families, we have managed to stay in touch as often as possible despite living in different states. Phone calls, letters, emails, and now even facebook have helped us stay connected and current with the ongoings of each others lives. We also try to get together once or twice a year on our own or with our families. And thankfully we have both been blessed with husbands who not only understand how much our friendship means to us, but have also become friends over the years. They have been so supportive in helping us stay in touch and get together when possible. Even though it means a lot of coordinating with all the kids. It is always so much fun to spend time with a Kindred Spirit!

So a few weeks ago when Ms Meeghan traveled to visit us with her son I was overjoyed. Especially since her baby boy is my Godson!! He is a beautiful little guy and I loved being able to spend time with him. He is just a few weeks younger than my Princess and they are definitely Soul Mates! They were so cute together!

Hubby and my parents took turns entertaining my boys so I could have Mama Time with Ms. Meeghan. We took the Princess and my Godson with us shopping and out to lunch. And for 3 days we talked and talked and talked. In fact, we talked so much that Ms. Meeghan left with a hoarse voice. And I needed a 3 hour nap to recover from the visit!

It felt great to have time to talk about life from a faith perspective. From a Soul Perspective.

And we laughed and laughed and laughed!! And we ate. We ate so much comfort food we were sick. We blame it on the Doritos, but it may have been the Doritos combined with the Pizza, Belgium Waffles, Olive Garden bread sticks and salad, mousse cake, chicken parm, pasta, etc. And a GIANT raspberry chocolate heart that Ms. Meeghan brought as a gift and someone may have eaten without sharing with Hubby (just sayin'...)

We nourished our Souls with friendship, food and fun. It doesn't get better than that!!!