Here's to Good Friends, Tonight is kinda special

A sad thing happened about 20 years ago, we lost touch with these two very dear friends.  There is no good reason for this, just life got busy and this friendship was put on the back burner. 

Then, last July, out of the clear blue sky, we reconnected.

What a blessing to have found each other again and even after all these years, it is as if we never had that 20 year hiatus.

Our first meeting was last September in Mishawaka, Indiana, a middle meeting point for us.

It was a magical, wonderful reunion with much catching up, beer drinking, and memory making.

On the night that we got the news that Natnael had died, I meant to call Paul, but by mistake hit Patti and I, to this day, believe that God had his hand in that mistake.  It was so comforting to hear her voice on the other end of the call.  At that instant, I have never been so thankful that we had reconnected and could once again share our lives, the good and the bad.

Well, we just had another fun filled weekend in Mishawaka with Patti andTom.

Tom is able to get some really good deals on hotel rooms, so we were able to spend two nights in a Fairfield Inn for $35.00 a night.  What a deal!

The weekend was filled with good food,

good drinks,

and good laughs. 

This is Patti in the middle of one of her funny stories which usually involve something that Tom has done.  I think this one may have been about his dream or maybe it was about La-a, not sure.

There were so many good laughs!

We enjoyed breakfasts at Bob Evans.

More yummy food and fun conversation.

Tom and Patti drive this pick up truck, HA and they have not been to Europe.  (I threw that in for you, Patti)

We took a tour of the Notre Dame campus which is very beautiful, by the way.

Here Patti and I are heading into the massive book store.

John and Tom make quite a pair.

 We tried on a few items in the book store.  We were being very typical tourists.

Patti and I with our new friend.

This is touchdown Jesus located on the Notre Dame campus.

 Here we are in front of our hotel.

We thought rule number one was a bit crazy.  I mean who actually admits to having diarreah in the past two weeks and who, exactly do you report that little tidbit to anyway?  This may not seem funny to some of you, but I know Patti will get a kick out of it.

The weekend just flew by.  I had been looking forward to it all summer and in the blink of an eye, it was over.  That is how those greatly anticipated things usually go.  Here and gone before we know it.

One thing we know is that we will get together again in about six months or so and we will keep in touch on a regular basis.

We aren't always given a second chance at things in life, but we are so grateful that we had that second chance for this friendship.

So, "Here's to good friends, Tonight is kind of special."

See you soon, Patti and Tom, hopefully with Alli and Tizita in tow.