"You jealous, jealous butt!!!"

 

I know, I know...such a crude title for such a precious picture! But, it would be funny to you if you knew that I was about this age when I would scream, "You're just a jealous butt!" to Mallie following one of our many fights that resulted in her taking her toys, racing out the back door of my house, over the fence, and into her house. Why a jealous butt? Well, I just don't know. I knew at the ripe old age of FOUR that it wasn't nice to be jealous, and I definitely knew that we weren't supposed to say BUTT...so, the two together had to be bad!!
As stated above, this is a picture of one of my dearest, best, and yes...oldest friends (not in age, but in length of friendship). The picture above was taken at one of Mallie's many creative themed Birthday parties. This particular year, we were told to dress up like our Mommies. Well, according to this picture, Mallie's mom was a lady of the night and my mom was a southern belle! Actually, if you look closer, you can see that Mallie is dressed quite appropriately as her Mom in the college years (she went to school in Hawaii). Mal has a pretty flower in her hair and her Hawaiian top on! We're still not sure WHAT I was wearing.
 
Now this picture was taken a bit more recently (last weekend) at Mallie's BABY SHOWER...
What? Mallie is having a baby? How is this possible? After all, wasn't it just yesterday that we were....
1. writing notes to each other signed in our code Spanish names, Josefina and Mercedes?
2. stealing my sister's cigs and smoking down in the creek behind our homes? (By the way...that was funny...we smoked and then came racing home to take a bath...because that didn't look mysterious AT ALL...two 11 year olds running for the tub in middle of the day!)
3. knocking on neighbors' doors and then running away?
4. selling the dreaded Girl Scout cookies to every person in our neighborhood? (Why we tried so hard is beyond me...we always knew that we were never going to win the stupid T-shirt, or whatever prize they were pushing to the highest seller!)
5. on our way to Wimbish Warrior cheerleading tryouts (No, we did not go to Wimbish...we went to Duff...but Duff had no cheerleaders at the time) with me trying to convince Mallie to try out? She changed her mind about 14 times on the way there. But, she ended up doing it!!
6. dying Easter eggs on the back porch?
7. playing "Marco Polo" and "Sharks and Minnows" in her pool...or our other favorite, the Owings' pool?
8. trick-or-treating in one of our MANY fabulous costumes? (We were flappers, genies, pumpkins, cows, valley girls, witches...and on and on and on. (By the way, I think Mallie still trick-or-treats at 31 years of age!
Well, you get the idea. Mal and I have been making memories together since about 1980. We've been in each other's weddings and now, she's ready for the next big leap...MOTHERHOOD!! I can't tell you how proud I am of my sweet friend. She will be such an incredible Mom!! Gates Elizabeth may not know it yet, but she's getting one of the best Mommies EVER!! Congratulations, sweet Mallie.