Friendship

I have been thinking about the subject of friendship for a while now. I think the subject came up in my mind about the time I saw Sex and the City (the movie) and was talking with someone about why that movie is so popular & why we love it so much. Today I watched The Sisterhood of Traveling pants 2. I never cry watching movies, or shall I say very seldom do I, but today I did. I know it sounds lame to cry during a movie such as that (don't call me sappy, I am not!) but parts of it touched me. I got up from watching the movie & was just moved by the friendships the girls portrayed in it had. I think for me there is a certain longing that comes up when watching such movies as I long for a group to be a part of like in the movie.... where if there is sadness I can go to them, decision making help needed, joyous times to share with them. I had a group that was very similar once & while the four of us our still friends, life has changed & the closeness & contact with eachother is not there. Then I had a close friend that I did everything with for about a year & some of the elements came back again of having a group of friends like that. I may be rambling, but I think so much of why girls love movies & shows such as the two mentioned, Lipstick Jungle, The City, The Hills, etc. is for the closeness of friendships portrayed. The knowledge that someone going through the same things is there and just a phone call away. Someone that you can share it all with, without worry of judgement but knowing that they will give you sound advice. The day to day life they share with eachother, the separate lives they have but that they talk about weekly over coffee. In The Hills there have been rifts in close friendships, in my life as well there have been rifts. But even though the rifts happen, in the show they eventually try to move past them.... something that I also try to do in my life.

I think though in part why all these shows are so popular is because it portrays things we are longing for in our lives. Close friends. All of this to say, hold on to the friendships that you make! Try to mend differences, hurt feelings & move closer together. Friends are an integeral part of our lives. Try to open up & let close friendship develop, even if like me you have been burned by them in the past. Maybe once again we can find the close friendships we've been missing.

A little about being a Mennonite:

When I was 3 my parents joined a Mennonite church, Beachy Amish Mennonite that is. We were members of the church until I was 12 or so. I just was thinking about it the other day when the subject of church background came up in our church. I found a description of some of the beliefs of the church online as follows:

The Beachy Amish Mennonites are an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian group with an Anabaptist heritage and a conservative practice. Some distinctive beliefs include:
-Baptism only upon confession of Jesus Christ by a person who has reached an age of accountability.
-Nonresistance, that is, returning good for evil and not resisting a persecutor. This includes non-involvement in combat, though alternative service is acceptable.
-Emphasis on the essential role of church community as a supporting organism for individual spiritual growth and fellowship.
-An extent of practical everyday separation from mainstream society, especially in areas of social and recreational activities, personal adornment, amusement, speech, gender roles, and schooling.
-A covering for women in obedience to 1 Cor. 11:1-16.

There were a lot of rules; No pants for women, long hair worn up with a headcovering at a young age, no make-up, no ankle socks, no printed fabrics, caped dresses, strings on headcoverings that also have x amount of pleats. Men must wear plain clothes as well, no prints, no graphic tee shirts, hair must be parted in the center, no shaved faces.

In church acapella music only, separate seating for men & women, two cups for communion (one for men, one for women).

But amist all the rules there were really good things about growing up Mennonite. We spent a lot of time together as a family, involved in church & Bible studies. We grew up listening well in church & sunday school. I felt like I got a good knowledge of the Bible & Christian life through the services. We weren't confused as to right & wrong by tv, radio or secular media. My parents chose to homeschool us but if you did go to school it was to the private Mennonite school. Most graduated at 8th grade, some did go on through 12th.

This is just a little bit that I thought I would put on my blog for anyone who is interested.

I realize I am a horrible blogger and to anyone who may actually read my blog, I am sorry! Life has been rather insane the past few months & I am still trying to make sense of things, unwind & figure out what updates to put on here. I was working for a periodontal office, where for whatever reason the office manager started to have it out for me. She would make promises to me about which offices (they had 3) I would work in, what days I would travel to other offices, what days I would have off etc. But she was forever regenging on the promises she was making. When I started to see a pattern of that I started asking for agreements we made in writing. She was the kind of manager to never want things in writing or a paper trail of what she was doing. She would always tell me how I had no experience in dental (kind of as if I didn't have a right to the same treatment as others) and that it was an ever changing practice. Well the last straw for me was when she last minute tried to schedule me to help out on my day off in another office and when I said I had a doctors appt & couldn't she fired me. Needless to say this all caused a ton of stress & my last day there my blood pressure spiked to 170/100 and I ended up in the emergency room. This has been the first I can even write all of this without it wanting to go up! I have been now trying to get un-employment but the office seems to be fighting that too so we have a hearing over the phone Jan 23rd. It is all been so stressful but God is bringing us through! It is crazy to me but the firing happened a few weeks after I felt God strongly calling me to join Paul in prayer daily to pray about getting out of our debt.
It is harder to do now with only one income & it doesn't make sense but I know God's plans are bigger then ours. I will be starting to waitress soon at a bbq type restaurant & that is a blessing & answer to prayers.


Christmas was fantastic & a great blessing to go back to Ohio and spend time with friends & family! We got into Berlin on the 20th & spent till the 24th at Jake & Ivy's B&B. We were about 7 miles from my parents & spent those days with them & Hannah (my sister) who came in from NYC. We had a great time, spent time with family, saw some friends & went to several local places that I hadn't been to in a long time.... Natures Food Market, Lehman Hardware, Kauffman Bakery & Heini's Cheese. I felt like the tourist I used to make fun of! Enjoying the quiet, the snow & even seeing buggies on the road.
I felt like a lot of my friends have had babies this past year & I got to hold Leah's baby boy Taylor & Monica's daugher Lara which was fun!
On the 24th we headed up to my in-law's and spent the 24-28th with the Janssens. We had Christmas eve at Grandpa & Grandma Janssen's, which was fun. Christmas day was a relaxed day around the Janssen house. Day after Chuck, Shelley, Paul & I headed up to Middleburg Heights to see a long time friend of my families, Sam Bender. He was one of the first baseball chaplains. He & Paul got to know eachother at our wedding as did Chuck & Shelley. Paul was able to produce the first story to ever honor Sam this summer with CBN.


We had a great time with Sam. On Saturday I put on a birthday party for Paul's 30th at Max Doogan's in Chardon, OH & about 20 some people came out which was very nice.
We decided to squeeze in one more day and stayed through Sunday. All in all it was a wonderful trip & Christmas time!

Life back in VA has been busy with me trying to get a job, etc. But good. I have been having some really long days at home alone but am thankful for the time to relax & get back to normal. I have finally been sleeping really well which is fantastic.
I hope all of my friends & family have had a wonderful Christmas & New Years as well.