Friends

I have included quite a bit about some of the guys in my life that have made a difference in who and where I am today but there are so many more friends that have "put up with me" through the years.  The first one I think of is Jill Hutcheson Loyd...She was my first friend in kindergarten and we stayed friends through jr. high, high school, and now our boys are really good friends!  One of the best things about our friendship was how close we lived to each other...we lived on the same road so our mom's would let us walk halfway to meet each other.  One of my favorite years in school would be our ninth grade year when we did the yearbook together.  The group of girls that made up our staff had no clue what we were doing but we did have a lot of fun!  Jill was not like me...although she was beautiful, she did not feel the need to "have a guy" all the time.  The very best part about our friendship was the 3 years we worked together at Opryland.  She & I had both had connections so we were able to get jobs that you usually have to be 18 for...we worked in the admissions center and sold everything from season passes to grand old opry tickets.  Because we rode in together, we almost always got the same schedule.  We even worked in the winter for a few hours a week when the General Jackson had cruises... These times were definitely some of my favorite from high school!  It was during our junior year that I had world history with Ben Loyd...funny, me, him & Jill were all in the same kindergarten class and had been in school together all the way through... But that year, Ben asked me to "fix him up" with Jill.  I did and as they say, the rest is history!  Jill went to Tennessee Tech and Ben did too for a while...it was a few years before she finished nursing school and then they were married.  It's funny how so many things change and yet they don't...  I would never have thought that I would have a child going over to Jill & Ben Loyd's house for sleepovers but I wouldn't trade anything for it!!  They have Zach, who is a few months older than my Cole and I LOVE that they have been in school together since kindergarten and they have played ball together... It doesn't get much sweeter than that.