I can't believe that I didn't...

put this in my post below regarding where I would go if I had time to myself...

If I had a free weekend, I would most definitely fly down to LA
and spend the weekend with Jessie!

Jessie is one of those amazing forever friends. We met on ParentsPlace.com, the predecessor to iVillage, when our ten year olds were newborns. At first we were just online friends, but shortly before our girls' first birthdays (they're 12 days apart), we arranged an actual family-to-family visit. Husbands immediately entered Geekville and stayed there for the entire visit while Jess and I got to know each other better. An fantastic friendship formed between us all!

She and her family then lived about an hour and a half northeast us, so we didn't see them as often as we would have liked. But Jess and I did talk on the phone practically every day during the years our daughters were two, three and four. And we always drove the distance for birthday parties, baby showers and other extra-special events.

They moved and we moved. Then they moved and we moved again. We ended up exactly three hours apart until my family and I up and moved to Chicago. Thank goodness for email because the two hour time difference was a killer! I'm back on the West Coast again, this time 1000 miles and 15 hours of drive time away.

So the further distance and crazy schedules currently prevent us from catching up as often as we'd like, but occasionally we'll catch up with an hour long call. No matter how long it's been since we've last talked, though, it's like we just talked the day before.

We've gotten each other through loneliness, financial crises, miscarriages, hospital stays, family drama, relocations, deaths, sick children and frustrating husbands. We've celebrated with each other through births, promotions, moves, job offers, amazing husbands and our children's milestones.

How blessed are we to have such a friendship?! I miss you, Jess!