Happy Belated Birthday Bethany!

Bethany Coe Simmons turned 34 On April 17 (yeah, there are two Beth's out there and yeah, I had to say your age). As has become tradition, I took her out to lunch, this year on the Friday before. She was brave enough to be the first one besides Todd to go to a restaurant with the A-team (though Tammy did volunteer :) and it went pretty well.

We headed over to the Ruby Tuesday in town and Abbey slept the whole time through. I got her "The Last Lecture", the same book Pam bought me for Christmas (no, I didn't give her my copy) which I had read in the all the time I spent in the doctor's waiting room and loved the lesson.

On my birthday, Tammy gave me one of the best presents I ever got. She talked about how great I was :). Seriously, it made me feel so good when she reminisced about us and what I meant to her, that I thought I'd take this chance in the spirit of that to talk a little about Bethany.

Bethany is one of the truly nicest people I know. She genuinely cares about other people and is always thinking of ways to help others. When Chris left, she was one of you that really helped hold me together and move forward...one of you that never tired of my tears and fears.

Bethany lived across the street from me when we moved into our home on Calkins Road when I was 11. I had met her before that through the church my mother had us attending at the time...and when we moved in to our very first house there she was...a ready made summer "buddy". We had our adolescent ups and downs, but somehow she managed to look past all the arguing going on in our home and all the anger and tears that was ever present and still wanted to hang out. She was my pool buddy, my bike buddy, my walk the mile to the gas station and buy a soda buddy. She was with me the first time I stole wine from an old bottle my parents had (yeah, we mixed it with Pepsi!!) and the first (and only) time I egged a house. The first time I was allowed to wear earrings "off my ear" (yeah, mom was strict) was a set of teeny tiny colorful hoops we split from Woolworth's. On one of our exciting ride our bikes to town excursions! We helped hang each other's laundry and make our siblings lunch. We shared a love of cats and Precious Moments. She was much thinner than me, but hey we even managed to co-own a pair of patterned footless tights! We even spent a year fighting over some snob to be our best friend...haha we have laughed at ourselves since!

We had some of our own friends in school, with some overlapping. As we got older, she was involved with her men and me with mine....(OK, she introduced me to Chris but I forgive her hahahahaha), even giving me and my senior dinner dance date a ride when no one else would (Martin, the oh-so-cute German exchange student who was madly in love with me and I totally took him when Chris refused to go). She even lent me the high heels to wear since I didn't have the money to get any!

We both eventually transferred to SUNY Oswego, where she let me drive (her and Tammy I have to thank for FINALLY getting my license when I was 21!) That was when I first really saw how thoughtful she was.

Right before Bethany got married in January 2000, I took her up to the mall to celebrate as she was having a small private ceremony...out for a drink to Ruby Tuesday and some lingerie from Sears (yeah, I'm a BIG spender). Devin was 7 months old and poor kid...didn't feel well and threw up on the way home. She felt bad, but it didn't bother me at all. Hey, I had had a brother and sister!

Since then, I feel as adults, our friendship has only grown. She has participated in every major milestone of my life and I cannot picture her not being a part of things. (Tammy and Pam remember she was the one after my surprise party that ran across the street to see if the porn shop was open???) She is such a great mom and loves being one....she will graduate next year with her Bachelor's degree in elementary education after many years of hard work. Bethany's major fault it's that she juggles so much and takes care of so many people, she forgets to take care of herself!

Happy Belated Birthday Beth-n-bee (my sister Sarah called her that when she just a pre-schooler and it stuck a little :)

XXOO