The Power of Four

Four girls.  Four days.  Four years since they had seen each other.  Such was my much-needed girls' weekend in Colorado!

Liberated women drinking some libations

I grew up in a teeny-tiny town in the Texas Panhandle. Spearman, to be exact...ever heard of it?  Nope?  You're not alone. It's rumored that there are more cows than people in the whole county.  What was cool about growing up in such a small place was that most of the classmates I started Kindergarten with ended up in my graduating class of 1992.

Blink and you'll miss it

Four of us from that class of fifty-something were able to meet up this past weekend.  It's always amazing to see my friends, Leslie, Suzanne, and Jessica.  Since they've known all my business since birth, they are friends like no other.  It's impossible for any of us to be anything other than ourselves when we get together.  I can't hide the fact that I was in the band, wore huge glasses until the 8th grade, cried my entire 5th grade year because of my parents' divorce, or my somewhat amusing dating history.  The same goes for my friends, but I won't expose the skeletons in their closets! 

Our four days together were proof positive that laughter is indeed the best medicine.  We laughed until we cried during our "Yoga for Dummies" class.  Like Suzanne said, it was just like we were back in the Methodist Church in 1988, giggling until one of our moms or dads would come sit beside us to get us to behave.  Our poor yoga instructor was trying to get us to center our "chakras", and all we were doing was trying not to laugh.

We also howled at all the new words we learned:

• Yurt, I learned, is some sort of tent set up in remote areas for hikers to rest and recover.  After Jessica explained the term, we would get a kick out of using "yurt" in a sentence.  

Excuse me while I go center my chakras in the yurt!

• Speakeasy, Leslie learned, was a termed used during prohibition for a secret bar.  I thought everyone knew that, but I guess I was wrong.  Leslie doesn't get out much (ha!).    So, we went to "Wednesday's Pie", where the hostess asked if we were there for "pie".  I guess we made the cut, because she took us to the back, where the decor was total throw-back 1920's.  

Warning!  That silver door leads to the world's dandiest bar!

• Namaste, a common term used at the end of a yoga class, meaning "God is great" or "What comes around, goes around" or "May the force be with you".  Hell, we were all laughing too hard to get what the teacher said, but "Namaste" did make for good laughs as we all murdered its pronunciation with our Texas twang--na-MAST-ay was more like it!

What's great about this group is that I am a few years behind them in the child-bearing business.  Their kids are all older than mine, so they had lots of valuable advice for this newbie.  In one of my very first blog posts,  they contributed to the list of rules Bryon and I had for parenting.  Here are the new rules they inspired me to try:

1.  Pull-up diapers at night might be the reason Shelby has so many accidents during the day.  No more Pull-ups!
2.  NEVER compare the kids in front of them.  For example, don't say, "Shelby sat quietly for 30 minutes.  Why can't you do the same, Haley?"
3.  Make breakfast mandatory.  Every morning, have a routine, and the day will go more smoothly.
4.  Have "couch time" to get the kids to stay in bed at night.  One reason they might be coming into our bedroom at night is to see mommy and daddy together.  A way to curb this is to set aside about 5 minutes of each day as "couch time".  Mom and Dad sit out the couch and talk, while the kids can do whatever they want except talk.

There is NO way the weekend could have happened without our incredible significant others. A HUGE thank-you goes out to Dennis, Bryon, Luke, Larry, and Coy.  We owe you guys one!