Here Comes The Bride

My best friend of 20 years got married over the weekend! Of course I'm stuck in Japan and couldn't attend, but thanks to technology, I was there.  

See...here I am with my totally awesome Momma!

And here is the Bride and her Daddy <3

It, of course, wasn't as good as actually being there.  Actually getting to take my Maid-of-Honor position like we had talked about when we were little girls, but I was able to see some of her wedding. 


I met Amanda when I was 6 years old. I was in Kindergarten and she was in 1st grade (Thanks parents for not conceiving me earlier!!), and our classes combined one afternoon for a movie.  She was sitting in front of me and had the longest, darkest hair I'd ever seen in my long 6 years of life. So naturally I started playing with this strange kids hair because lets face it, small children can make friends in the weirdest ways. Anyway...BOOM! Friendship started.  


Normally this is where I'd do a photo journey of our youth, but she'd probably kill me and I'm not too keen on showing some of those pictures myself.  I mean...we were just too beautiful for words.  With our...*Gulp*...bangs and lanky legs.  Simply. Stunning.  At least our parents told us so.  


Fast forward to high school.  I only do this because I think we'll still be friends if I show these.  With high school came petty spats, gossiping about "those girls" and drooling over some of the male specimens we went to school with.  We had similar tastes in boys so sometimes this is would lead to an argument that sounded something like this:


Amanda: "Haley...you knew I liked *insert random name here* and I saw you talking to him in Senior Hall."


Me: "Yeah, well I saw *Some dude* buying you a coke out the machine earlier and you were all smiles then."  

Tacky Day 2003 - of course she looks awesome.

Ahhhh...high school.  Somehow, we made it through with friendship still in tact.  Now I could go in to every little fight we had, and believe me there were plenty, but I'd rather focus on the good stuff.   There were more sleep overs than I can remember. Our parents could've claimed us on their taxes, respectively.  Girls Night Outs.  Parties down at the cabin.  Sneaking out of her house.  I mean...that had to have been..."those girls"...not us.  


After she graduated, we headed down to Panama City Beach. Now THAT was something I'll NEVER forget.  Without going in to detail:  Jager+Funnel+Amanda=hilariousness we can laugh about now. 

PANAMA CITY!!!

This was another trip to PCB, but we look super cute in it, so I'm sharing it.  It's a girl thing.

That was in May of 2003, I followed suit in 2004 and just a few short months later, I met my husband and moved away from home.  






Still, through the years we've remained friends.  Even though she hated Kendall when she first met him. Even though I lived 750 miles from her and then moved to Japan.  Even though I missed the birth of my honorary niece, Isabel.  She still wubs me!! 

At my "Going Away. Again." party - 2011

I can't say enough how much her friendship means to me.  Outside of my family that I was born in to, she's been the only constant in my life and I in hers.  That's because our coolness bounces off one another.  We can't help it.  

Christine, Me and Amanda - 2010

As always when we hang out, hilarity ensues.  The night usually ends with Amanda giving a speech about how much she loves everyone.  Every picture has us with our tongues hanging out. I haven't quite figured out why we do that. Wether we are sitting around in PJ's, going shopping, drinking - moderately of course, or talking on the phone, we have a great time.  We spend more time laughing than we do talking sometimes. 

Her calming me before my wedding...see the looks of stress on our faces?  I can.

And some time after this picture,  she met Brandon.  Well...re-met him??  We've known him almost all our lives.  We went to church with him and Christine (2 photos up from here) is his sister, we went to school with her.  Most of the girls in our church would drool over Brandon.  Sometimes quite literally, would drool.  I didn't call this person out to Amanda's attention that day, so she has no clue what I'm referring to there.  But I do and I can't stop laughing at the memory.  Anyway...They bring out the very best in each other, although I know sometimes they can't see that.  Brandon and my husband could be long-lost brothers in the attitude department, so Amanda will understand my previous sentence.  Sometimes we just want to throw a rock at their faces.  But we still love them.  And what's better, Kendall and Brandon actually LIKE each other.  Kendall hated Amanda's last boyfriend with the undying passion of a thousand suns, and because he and Brandon are so much alike, we were worried about them meeting.  Luckily, the boys hit it off almost immediately which left us PLENTY of time to do what we do best;  Drink margaritas and have girl talk. 

Us in my parents awesome garage

Okay, so she wasn't drinking Margarita's in the above picture, since she was pregnant with Izzy...but this was the only picture I have of the 4 of us where we weren't acting incredibly stupid.  Don't forget I'm trying to post pictures that she'd approve of.  


But - now she is a married woman. This won't change anything in our friendship department.  Most people worry that being married will change things, but that was never a worry for us.  I'm just upset I couldn't be there.  Another reason why I'm ready to leave Japan in our dust. Seeing pictures from their special day and hearing the stories, I know it was a beautiful ceremony and I can see the joy in their faces.  I wish them all the love in the world and many, many more years to come.  

The Bride and Groom with their beautiful little Isabel

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:7