23 Years of Friendship.
I have a best friend. Her name is Jilliann and we’ve been the best of friends for 23 years. For the last 10 years, we’ve been 1000 miles apart, but our friendship has only gotten stronger. Ironically, we’re at very different stages of our lives…I’m happily married with two kidlets and she’s footloose and fancy-free. Yet, that doesn’t drive us apart, but I think makes us stronger. I give her the inside scoop on domestic bliss and she allows me to be footloose and fancy-free with her…even if it’s just for a few days :)
I miss her terribly. She lives in the great Pacific Northwest where we were both born and raised. We visit each other at least once a year, and we talk via email, text, phone and FaceBook constantly.
I’ve always said my hubby was the calm to my storm. And he is. But, Jilliann is the calm to my storm on a friend level. She really gets me and I get her, and we never get sick of each other. I believe people can have non-intimate soul mates in friends, and Jilliann is mine.
I thought it would be nice to list all the reasons why I love Jilliann, why I love our friendship, and why I’m thankful she is in my life and will always be considered family.
I love you, and miss you, and think of you everyday. This last visit was bittersweet…it was so awesome to hang out with you and let Penelope really get to know you, but it just reminds me how hard it is to be so far away (You been in the sun, and I been in the rain. You’re so away from me.)
·23 years! I still remember your first day of school at Barnes Elementary in the 4th grade! You had the coolest clothes and I was so jealous that you got to wear lip-gloss!
·You were shy, timid and fragile. I knew I’d always have to be the bully and have your back. Many countless times I’d have to line someone out when they were being mean to you J. You can handle your own now, but I’d still be the bully if you needed me to be.
·We were in band together when none of our other friends were. I bet we could still rock the sax and clarinet if we tried!
·You were a cheerleader snob and I was sports geek…our friendship thinned in junior high, but we were still always there.
·I saw you through 8 years of Cory. That’s all I’m going to say ;)
·Our many inside jokes.
·I still have your letters you wrote to me while I was in the Army.
·You get my family and I get yours. Nuff said ;)
·First roommates. We rented an apartment from a complex her grandparents owned. It was cheap rent, but it was so much fun and we had crazy times there with our friends!
·8 o’clock crazies (For years, especially when we lived together, we would go into the crazy fits of delirious laughter, and coincidentally it is always at 8 o’clock at night or very close to)
·Heat coma. When we lived together before we turned 21 and go out to the bars, we would watch Dateline and turn up the heat in our apartment. It was put us into “Heat Coma”. Go ahead try it…it’s bizarre.
·Lucy LaVaughn.
·She just gets me. I don’t even have to say anything…one look, one gesture and she knows exactly what I am thinking. I do the same with her.
·She’s a music guru and sends me awesome cd’s of good music that I know nothing about since AZ music sucks royally.
·She brings me Bruno's Pizza in her suitcase when she visits :)
·She tries to teach me about wine, even though she knows I'm really a beer girl at heart.
·She was my Maid of Honor.
·She threw me my first baby shower.
·She loves my hubby and my kids. They love her.
·I know if I really needed her, she would be on the first plane to me.
·She is most simply. My very best friend.
So here’s to 23 years of friendship and many more to come.
Love,
Liverbutt
Penelope and Aunty Jill on the carousel at the zoo.
Cheese!
She loves her Aunty Jill :) 
Joking around with Aunty Jill.
Us visiting Seattle. Pike Place Brewery.
Hanging around Portland.
My dearest friend.
Jilliann with her sister Molly. Love this picture!
