My First Friend

Alice and Jenny 1975

That face I'm making reminds me of someone...

My cousin Jenny is coming for a visit--these days she goes by Jen but I don't always call her that.  It has been a long time since we've been together and I can't wait to see her.

Jenny and I are opposites in some ways.  The obvious ones being our height and our talents- she's an engineer, I'm a language person.  But in the important ways, we are the same.  We both love our family and think our grandparents were amazing.  We are both mothers--good ones I think--and we're both dedicated to our Catholic faith.

Jenny was truly my first friend.  We grew up together, enjoying fun times at our grandparents' pool, shared beach vacations, family retreats, camping trips and school breaks where David and I would go to her house or she and Marty would come to ours.  We played too many board games to count, stayed up all night playing spades, colored several of those huge intricate coloring posters and had adventures with whatever toys we were into at the moment- Strawberry Shortcake comes to mind.

We were Maid of Honor at each others' weddings and spent a lot of time getting our families together before Chris and I moved south.  Jenny taught me to sew.  She introduced me to Longaberger baskets (I bought one for each of my kids as their Easter basket) and she gave me the privilege of being Godmother to her sweet daughter Maggie.

Now that we live so far away, we don't see each other often.  In fact, I think the last time was when Grace was a baby.  I'm eager to introduce her to my other girls and am looking forward to a fun weekend of catching up with my friend.

Playing statue--one of my favorite things to do as a tourist!  We went to NYC in 2000 to visit Jen's sister, my cousin Caryn.  (On a side note- Caryn is one cool chick.  She moved to New York to be with some friends and lived in what was basically a hallway in a small apartment without a bathroom- there was a toilet in an outer hallway.  She made it all work. I was impressed.)

July 20, 2000 at our rehearsal dinner

Jenny, Alice, Maggie and Madeleine (stay tuned for more about Maggie!)

Jen, Tim and crew 1997

Abby, Maggie, Jeffrey and Stephen

At David's wedding.  Jenny is Madeleine's Godmommy

My first sewing project, Madeleine's Mulan costume.  Jenny translated the pattern for me.  In case you've never read a pattern, it's like reading a foreign language (not the one I know!)