Girlfriends...

Thank God for them!

They are such an important piece of my life!  I have many girlfriends from many areas of my life and I swear that is a big factor of what has helped me through the most difficult times in my life.

Take for example yesterday... a group of us were going to get together to celebrate five girlfriends birthdays.  We thought it fitting with everyone's lives being so busy and since Debbie and Brenda drive  in from Michigan. Needless to say the evening had been planned for a couple months.

Flash backwards to Sunday night where I began breaking out in what I think are hives.  Now I don't know for sure, but I'm heading into a VERY stressful Monday, so the hives only make sense to be fitting with it.  As Monday wears on my hives get worse and soon my face and arms are covered and by the evening I cannot sleep and spend the night miserably scratching to awake in the morning on Tuesday with my face and arms swollen with welts all over.  Trying to read up on the Internet I thought sure they would run their course and be over with... wrong...

Wednesday morning the first thing I had to do was call the doctor for help. After two days with this I was miserable, it hurt, burned and itched, plus just looked horrible and now began spreading to my legs and stomach.

By 3pm I had left the doctors office with a steroid shot, prescription and a promise that I would begin feeling better within 3 hours.  Surely I wasn't going to dinner feeling or looking like this? 

However as the evening drew near I began feeling better, though my looks...not so good!  I decided to go, figuring I could hide in the dark shadows of the restaurant... wrong again!

They seat us outside in the bright light where I know I can't hide my swollen face.  A face that I joked with my sister reminded me of the elephant man...  but as my girlfriends begin arriving they are more concerned with how I feel than with how I look, what measures I had gone through to take care of myself and they assured me that they would have come hunt me down at my house had I not shown up.

After the restaurant we headed back to Kim's house for dessert and opening gifts. Besides all the laughter and stories we shared and all the wonderful gifts I was given for my birthday, the girls made up these adorable treat bags for us all.  Which included a "girls just want to have fun" sign, a frame about friends, a candle, soap and an herb.  So cute and so sweet.

So here I am the next morning having slept a bit better than the previous two nights and even though the swelling has gone done I'm still covered in red blotches. Yet I sit here smiling from the memories made with girlfriends the night before.

And while the doctor cannot confirm whether the hives came from the stress in my life or that there was something I came in contact with while working in the yard, its good to know your friends are there no matter what...