Missing a friend

I've been thinking about one of my very best friends a lot over the past couple of days--I really miss her. We met about 17 years ago, the summer before we began college. Since then, we've been through a lot together: weddings, funerals, the birth of our children, and everything in between.

Here we are in college:

Every time we get together, my sides ache from laughing so hard with her. We've weathered crazy diets, cried through silly boy troubles, experimented with the rainbow of hair colors, held each other up when loved ones have passed away, helped each other with our dresses on our wedding days, and were together when our children were born.

She was there with us during every hour of my crazy 32 hour labor and was one of the first faces my son saw when he was born (eight years ago--gasp!). A year and a half later, she was in my room minutes after my daughter arrived, and I was lucky enough to be with her when she came out of the delivery room with her beautiful son & daughter last year.
Here we are last year with our daughters.

She has been there for me during some of the most wonderful and horrible times in my life. No matter how much distance is between us (sometimes cities, sometimes states), she is always there at the other end of the phone, whenever I need her. I hope that when she reads this (I know she will, she is the one who got me started doing it), she will know how much she is missed. I also hope she will smile (and not kill me for the college pic), and give me a call so we can laugh until our sides hurt!!!!