Latte with my buddy

Top - must be from a canoe trip to Van Buren County. Bottom - this fall ISU vs. Utah football (damn - we look better today, don't we??)

Just back from a two hour latte break with Deb. I needed my Debbie fix. Last weekend we were both out of town. I spoke to her on the phone for a few minutes to get caught up, but it's just not the same as being with her.

The first time I recall ever seeing Debra Imming Peterson she was hugely pregnant with Keith - so it was 23 years ago. She came into the bank - FNB when I was working there. I may have just found out I was preggers with Jud and was in awe of her rotund pregnant belly!

Then we took a parenting class together - Keith was an infant and Brett and Amy were 3ish. The two youngsters would be with "teachers" while the parents got parenting tips from Jill Glantzman and Mary Faber? (then McCann). We learned about things like how to use "timeout" instead of spanking. They were correct that most of us have no idea how to parent. So we imitate our parents - even if their styles sucked! I think McFees were in the class too.

One of my fave things about the class was to hear the other parents tell about problems they'd had with their kids during the past weeks. I thought most of their stories made Amy seem like a little angel in comparison! We were either lucky or Amy was being parented really well...prolly a combo.

After Jud was born, Mary Faber offered to get some boy sleepers from a friend whose son had outgrown them. Yep, it was Deb. Then they moved to Mason City, so I thought we'd never see each other again. No so fast - when Jud was around 3 they moved back! (boomerang movers!) Neither of us was working full time, so Deb ended up coming over for coffee (sound familiar?) so the boys could play - Brett and Amy must have been at school. I found out she was really nice - and was on my way to finding a BFF. (though I didn't yet know it...)

Through the years, with our children in the same St. M grades we spent a lot of time hanging out due to kid activities. But we found out we had lots in common! Three sisters (though she's the over-achiever eldest, and I'm the well-adjusted third child). We grew up together as we went through stages of our lives.

We canoed, and then got smart and bought kayaks! That gave us a great venue to spend time together. We've taken some cool trips and have shared history, dreams, angst, fears, sadness, joy and laughed until we cried. We've talked about our childhoods, families, children, husbands, sex lives (Deb is kind of an expert, since she's the Planned Parenthood Manager). We always hopes our voices didn't carry over the water when we talked about that stuff... We discussed health, mental states, careers, and parents' health and deaths.

When we're not kayaking, we make time to take walks together, have her over for some wine (Pablo likes to hang out with her too cuz she's so easy to talk to), or like Saturday - go for latte. We also hang out in a larger group though I'm sad that due to my DSM job I can no longer participate in the exercise group. But I still get to do Monday breakfasts!

Besides my husband, Deb knows me better than anyone. Our political persuasions are very similar - perhaps because the fact that we've grown up together. Deb too grew up in a conservative family - so I don't know how the two of us grew to be socially liberal. So that's another thing we can commiserate about.

Every gal should have a Deb in her life! I'm a lucky girl. I have a Pool Boy and a Debbie.