Why am I still awake?

Seriously. It is late, or early for that matter, and I should have been in bed asleep two hours ago. Mike and I have gotten into a very bad habit of staying up too late at night. I've always been more of a night-owl and love, love, lurve to sleep in. Having a young child doesn't really help with the sleeping in part, not to mention that we are going to start over with all the crazy sleeping patterns this fall. I look forward to the days when the kids can get up on their own, fix an easy breakfast, and watch some shows in the morning all on their own! That will be glorious :) Tonight I was at music practice for a while and that was fun. We worked out a cool song for the opener. It took a little while for the instrumentals to come together, but once they did it sounded great. After practice was done I went over to a friend, Moree's, house to hang out with some of the Haiti Ladies. The group of women I went to Haiti with get together every so often and tonight was one of those times. We were supposed to have a book discussion about, "Half the Sky", but when I got there at 9:30 they had already been hanging out for two hours and hadn't really started talking about the book :) I left at 11:00 and we hadn't so much started talking about the book. I don't mind that at all b/c I'm not done reading it yet and look forward to a good discussion with the ladies. Driving home I was thinking that I am very thankful to have really good girl friends in my life. Tomorrow I am spending the evening with my two best friends, Andie and Mandy. I've known Mandy since third grade and Andie since eighth grade. We don't get to spend a whole lot of time together just the three of us, so when we do it is precious. We are going to The Melting Pot, which will be divine in itself, and then have a hotel on the Plaza for the night. I am REALLY looking forward to time with my besties :) tomorrow. I also really appreciate and love the newer friendships I've grown with the Haiti ladies and other women from Lakeland. Having good friend support is so important and vital. I remember in St. Louis I would get really sad that I didn't have any of my friends around. I made good friends through teaching and church in time, but there was something missing in the first few years of living there and that was good girl friends. Spending time with my mom and sister the other night also made me really grateful and thankful that I am great friends with them. We are very close and have been for a long time. I am blessed with good, strong, supportive friends who help me be who I am. I hope that Anna has good girl friends when she grows older. Ones that she can count on for anything and will help through whatever comes her way. When many people look back on high school with disdain and distaste I am thankful I can remember those years with a smile. I know that is because I had a really good group of friends. So tonight the thought and feeling I have is one of thankfulness for the friends in my life...ones that have been there for a long time and ones that have just come along side for the journey.