Happy Birthday Ash!!!

At her wedding May 2009

Today another one of my friends turns the big 2-9...how did I get so lucky to have all these younger friends??? :) 

Ashley was my best friend in Charlotte for the past 4 years! We met the 2nd weekend I was there in a interesting way. I had no friends and no plans, so I decided to go on the High School Beach Trip with their group (I was the middle school girls leader at the time), so I ended up driving my car out to the beach, since I had to drive back to Charlotte for church on Sunday. There wasn't enough room in the vans for all the leaders, so one of them volunteered to ride with me the 5 hour drive to the beach. Her name was Ashley Cannaday...a girl my age from Wichita Falls, Tx who had just started working with the 9th grade girls! (Side Note - Ashley stayed with her girls all the way til their graduation which was this past May, they were my last graduating class at Forest Hill.) So, after 5 hours in the car together, we had become fast friends....I knew then, she was going to be someone I would want to become better friends, especially since she had the same love of Pat Green and his music that I did!!! 

Over the years, we got to go on a lot of trips together, especially after I started working with high school. We went on beach trips, a trip to the "hollers" of West Virginia, and Brazil with students. Not to mention all of our "friend trips" to Atlanta for concerts, Hilton Head, Columbia, SC for USC games, NYC for the US Open, and we are still planning our ski vacation together! 

Brazil 2008

US Open Trip to NYC 2008

In four years, we have been there for all the boy drama in each of our lives, as well as the good times...I was at the Halloween party where Ashley met John Trotter for the first time, as well as the birthday dinner where they first started talking! Getting to watch her fall in love with John and then get married to him was one of the best things about living in Charlotte!

She has been like a sister to me since I have known her and we always called our little group of friends (Texans living in NC) our Charlotte Family, and when I left, it did really feel like I was leaving a family! 

Ashley, I love you and am so thankful that God brought us into each other's lives during this season of our lives! Even though we live far apart now, I know our friendship will continue!!! 

Happy Birthday Ash!!!