Being Your Best Friends' Best Friend...

Does that title even make sense?  Hummm... This is a total diary entry...

All my life I've been blessed with having great friends.  Amazingly blessed.  And not just a great friend, but lots of them.  I grew up with a big family, and my sister and I have always been super tight, but there have always been loads of friends at our houses too. Girls who had keys to my parents house and a bed in my study. Girls who knew my closet better than I did, and who knew where I kept all my huge sunglasses. Girls who had guys drop them off at my house on Sunday morning after a night out and did the walk of shame across my front porch and into my parents' living room. Where my parents applauded them.  (True story.)

We'd stay up late and talk. We'd have nights with themes like "High heels, low morals." We had summer make out contests (I always lost). Sometimes we'd just buy an ice cream cake, a bottle of wine and sit on a dock on Banks Channel. We'd sleep three across on a futon or two in a twin bed in dorm rooms.

We called ourselves the Usuals, because we were all usually together.  (You can laugh, it's cool.) But the Usuals were my first loves.

In fact, I loved all my high school friends so incredibly much, I didn't focus much on making college friends - I would much rather spend my weekends and summers with the girls from Wilmington.

But then college ended, and within a year I met Mr. Business. And life changed. Definitely for the better, but it changed. Quickly, he became my best friend. And I still loved (and do love) my best friends, but nights of "high heels and low morals" ended. And so did spending most of my free time in Wilmington.

So while my relationship with Mr. Business strengthened, my best friends' relationships with each other did too. And my relationships with them got pushed to the back burner.

I know that's what is supposed to happen. I'm so fortunate to have the great little family we've created over the last year. I wouldn't change what I have for anything.

But my best friends are all still best friends with each other, and I feel like an afterthought. I miss being my best friends' best friend. I miss the phone calls when something important or not important happens in their lives. And I miss feeling like I have someone to call when something big - or trivial - happens in my life.

I don't know what all this means...I feel like this is normal to go through. What do y'all think? In order to grow up, do we have to grow apart? Even a little? And what have you done to keep old relationships strong?

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're not big on Valentine's Day here at the Business household. We don't really do presents - instead we try to do sweet things for one another. So Small Biz, TC, DT and I have a busy day planned.  Small Biz will probably hopefully (!!!) sleep a lot, I will clean and TC and DT will follow me around suspiciously. Mr. Business probably won't notice that the house has been cleaned - that's more of a present for myself!

So, to do something sweet for Mr. Business, I'm going to try to bake. Ha! My baking disaster task last week was less than perfect. I tried to make sweet potato muffins, and while they looked beautiful (which is really the important part, right Katie?), they tasted horrible.

Anyhow, Mr. Biz and I watched Cupcake Wars a week or two ago, and we both loved the beautiful cupcakes they made. Which gave me the idea to try to make yummy cupcakes! Like this...

 Except there's no way I can make anything as pretty as those (obviously the Cookie Monster cupcake is the one I'd try first). So, I'm going to try a basic cupcake, but I'm going to spruce it up with a filling! Like this:

 

Yikes!

I'm pretty nervous. I haven't broken out our Kitchenaid yet, but I think I'll try with these! 

Have y'all made cool cupcakes before? What fillings should I try? And what special things do you do for your spouse, boyfriend, friends and family for Valentine's Day?

Spicy Mustard - Who Knew???

Y'all - all my life I have hated HATED mustard. Like, can't even describe the disdain it to you. I could smell it on food from a distance. When I turned 16, I wouldn't let anyone eat fast food in my car because I didn't want to risk my Blazer smelling like mustard. True story.

But I loved ketchup. I won't say I put it on everything, but I sure put it on a lot of stuff. Roast beef sandwiches, grilled cheese, hot dogs, did I mention grilled cheese?

One day last year I was starving, and Mr. Business had made a sandwich.  He gave me a bite, and before I even noticed, I had eaten mustard.  But this wasn't ordinary nasty yellow mustard.  This was SPICY mustard.

And ohmygoodness it was delicious. Well, I had forgotten about the gloriousness that is spicy mustard...until last week when we went on a lunchtime sandwich diet. Mr. Biz was coming home for a quick lunch, and I was trying to be all wife-y, so I made his sandwich before he got here (BIG points for me!).

Anyhow, the point of all this -- I was putting away the spicy mustard, and happened to look at the nutritional facts. Did you know spicy mustard has no fat AND no calories??? What? Seriously, who knew? Oh, everyone? Hum. Anyhow, this $hit is the nectar of the Gods.

I hate to disappoint Ronald Reagan and his "ketchup should be a vegetable" motto, but I'm on the spicy mustard train now!

I don't care if Monday's blue...

I love starting the week with Miscellany Monday!  Maybe one day I'll be creative enough to start the week of with great substance, but for now, this is an ideal way to get weekend thoughts out and remember what's upcoming!  Thanks to lowercase letters via Becky at Keep on the Sunny Side!

 

1.  I've been getting in a weird funk on Sunday afternoons.  I hate when the weekend ends, and right now it's really hard because it means a whole week of being at home with limited adult interaction.
2. I am also super tired of everyone being sick!  I had a lunch date and a FroYo date today, and both were canceled because everyone has winter bugs!
3. Speaking of FroYo - if you're in Raleigh (or anywhere in the Triangle), you HAVE to check out The Skinny Dip. This place is amazing!  They have 10 different yogurts on tap, and a gazillion (yes really, a gazillion) toppings available.  And it's self-serve!  To.Die.For.
4. I miss being my best friends' best friend.  Confusing?  I'll explain in a blog post later this week.
5. I also miss sundresses.
6. We're going to see The Temptations Wednesday night!
7. ...with Mr. Business' parents.
8. They're coming in tomorrow, so I get to spend all day Wednesday with them!  Alone (with the baby)! I'm sure there will be lots of judging, eye rolls, bless your hearting we'll have a great time and really bond.
9. I've been trying to be more "adventurous in the kitchen" (also another great blog story), so today I made sweet potato biscuits. It was a massive failure. They came out the right color!
10. Small Biz slept through the night for the past four nights!
11. Has anyone been to a show at the D-PAC?  What's a girl to wear???

Thanks for reading through my ramblings!