Sister Wives

When I was a research clinician, I had a colleague who kept me sane. When I was a research monitor, I had a clinical team mate whom I met for lunch on a weekly basis and we laughed at the ridiculousness of FDA rules until we didn't feel so overwhelmed by them. Now that I am a stay at home mom, I am so grateful to have Brandi as my friend and (oh happy happy day!) right-across-the-street-neighbor. She is my co-worker, if you can have a co-worker as a stay at home mom. She's like my mentor since she has a 5 year old and a 17 month old; whatever I'm going through, she's been there and done that. 

Our little ones are on different nap schedules, so when her baby sleeps, William and I walk hand-in-hand (very, very slowly) across the street to Brandi's house, and William gets free reign over his little friend's toys while we talk and confide in and encourage each other. Brandi has a 100-year-old live oak in her front yard with a wooden swing. When William is having a hard time settling down before a nap, I rock him in this swing. One week, the two of us spent a lot of time in Brandi's front yard. An older retired woman on our street asked Brandi if everything was okay at my house since I'd been spending so much time at Brandi's. We joke that the observant neighbors on our street probably think we're sister wives.

See the heart on her drink lid? She was jokingly blowing kisses when I took a picture of her, and the teenager taking orders thought she was blowing kisses at him. Ha!

Here's my sister wife on an evening Sonic run. For me, the true test of a friendship is whether I can do Sonic runs for diet cherry limeades with the person. Sure, there are lots of people who want to meet for drinks during happy hour or for double date dinners. But a run to Sonic in pjs? That's a true friend.