Spotlight Saturdays: Christie

Spotlight Saturdays Sunday:  Christie 

In case you missed it, what's {Spotlight Saturday} ?

Meet my beautiful friend, Christie

Christie is probably known by more people as Christiana, but old habits die hard and although I think Christiana is a beautiful name, she's always been Christie to me!  We've known each other since I was sixteen.  We met at Turkey Hill Ranch Bible Camp, where we were both staffing during the summer.  The moment we bonded was actually pretty typical of our entire friendship.  We were attempting to rearrange the bed configuration in her staff cabin by converting the bottom bunk from a twin to a double.  Somehow that involved crawling under the bed.  I don't know if you're familiar with camp bunks, but they often had this webbing of springs and wire on the bottom side.  So, I'm under the side of the bed and she's crawled under the foot of the bed and the next thing I know, my hair (and worse yet!) favorite giant sunflower hair barrette get caught in the metal.  In an attempt to get out and help me, Christie gets her ribs stuck under the low bar at the foot of the bed.  We were quite the sorry pair!  We promptly started giggling at the thought of someone walking in and finding us in such a predicament with just our rear ends sticking out opposite sides of the bed.  We laughed for quite a while and I have no recollection of how we actually got out.   I do remember the casualty of the prized sunflower hair clip (it was so in style!), but more importantly the birth of a lifelong friendship.

One of the ways Christie inspires me is in how she loves to laugh.  We have a great time when we're together!  Not only does she have a great sense of humor, she knows how to laugh at herself.  I really admire that.  It's easy to take myself too seriously and to beat myself up over my blunders and stumbles.  But the fact of the matter is that I'm human and messing up happens.  It's best to be like Christie and take a candid look at myself and move on from there.

Christie is also a very self-disciplined person.  When she sets a goal, she goes after it!  I've seen her make awesome grades in college.  I've seen her commit herself to exercise and eating right.  She's decided on many occasions that she has a savings or financial goal, and she will meet it time and time again.  She earned her teaching certificate while working full-time.  I think one of the keys to discipline I've seen her implement is knowing how much she can take on and when she needs to say no in order to reach her goals with balance in her life.

She's a very real person and I already feel like she has really impacted me in that area.  I went through a long period of my life when I felt like I couldn't be real with anyone.  It took some pretty difficult things to walk through for that to change in me.  Christie was right there with me, allowing me to freely speak my mind and showing me that she loved me.  Good, bad, and ugly.  I'm getting teary just thinking about how much that meant to me at the time and how thankful I am for her example to me and her complete acceptance of me.  She's a real friend.

There's something to be said for a friend that you just go through life with...

Fall pics in college.  Jeremy took this one.

Causing trouble in college.  Enough said.

Spring Banquet-right after Jeremy and I got engaged.
She was in my wedding.

Christie moved here after college and we worked together.

She came to the hospital when Justus was born.



At my first house.  Her house was around the corner.  Ready for a Ladies' Dinner with church.

She came when Lexi was born.

We bought houses in a new neighborhood... just down the street from each other.

 

at church...



Countless trips!





Aeros game

Taylor Swift @ Rodeo

 

Shoe shopping for ballroom dancing class shoes.  Cause who doesn't pose like this in DSW?



another concert

We've celebrated so many holidays, birthdays, milestones.  One of my fav's was when we threw each other the "kid birthday parties" we never had one year.  I got a princess party; she got a skating party.



How can you capture so many experiences in a few paragraphs?  It seems impossible!

The post would not be complete without mentioning how Christie has inspired me in fashion and jewelry.  I attribute a hefty portion of my love of bling and bigger-is-better jewelry to Christie's influence.  The girl loves fun in all it's forms and I love that in her!

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