A Random Act of Kindess & CatchingUp!

Today after I got home from church, my cellphone rang and it was my sweet blog friend, Valerie from Oklahoma. Valerie was just calling to say hello and catch up on how things were going in my life. Don' t you just love those "Random Acts of Kindness" from friends, when they call for no reason just to say hello and let you know that you were on their mind?

For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that I went in October 2009 to meet Valerie in Virginia. She had flown there for a long weekend with her sister Pam to visit her niece, Kelli who goes to college in Virginia. Valerie and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get to meet each other. I drove 2 hours to meet Valerie, Pam and Kelli and we had such a wonderful time. It was a weird feeling meeting someone for the first time that I knew so much about, but had never met before. We immediately hit it off and never stopped talking! We had the best day being together!!!
Here is a picture of Valerie, her niece Kelli and Valerie's precious sister Pam!! I took presents for everyone and it was just like Christmas.
Here is a view of a shopping area we went to while we were there. This city has 2 J Crew clearance stores, so we had fun looking for good buys at both stores. You all know me and my thrifty shopping!

We ate at the cutest place for lunch called the Farmbasket. Since it was the fall, the garden area looked so pretty. There is also a nice gift shop inside, but I did not include pictures from there.

Isn't this the cutest little garden area outside the restaurant/gift shop?
Valerie sent me this same picture from her camera along with a beautiful frame and I have it on my computer desk to remind me of the great day we shared together.
Valerie and I had to laugh... She said that her friends/family were cautious about her meeting me (a complete stranger) and getting in the car with me to go shopping, out to lunch, etc. Like I was going to kidnap her or something. We got a real kick out of that!!! They don't know us ladies in the blog world and how much we love our blog friends and feel like they are our true friends, even though most of us have never met each other.
It was just icing on the cake for me to get to meet Valerie and spend the day with her and to meet her sister and niece.

Valerie and I want to meet up again with each other sometime. We have a mutual blog friend, Joyce, that we would love to get together with in New York City someday. Wouldn't that be fun? None of us would get a word in edgewise, would we?
Oh, the joys of the blog world!!! I so enjoy meeting new friends and getting to know all of you better as we journey through each other's blogs. You ladies are a special part of my life!
For those of you who are new to my blog, you may be wondering why I am so slow in posting these pictures. Well, you see, I lost my camera cord that I use to upload my pictures. I searched until just recently and never could find it, so I ordered a new cord. I still wanted to post about my fun day with Valerie, so after she called today, I decided that there was no better time than the present. Besides, I didn't want to clean house today after all. In fact, right now I am putting on my walking shoes and heading over to the park to take advantage of this gorgeous spring day.

Thanks Valerie for your call today! I enjoyed so much talking to you in person and catching up on the things in your life. Oh, guess what? Valerie is going to be a Grandmother for the first time in October. I told her that last October we were meeting for the first time and this October she was going to welcome her grandchild into the world. How exciting!!! Her Grandma name will be Lolly. That is so cute!

Valerie, your call was such a bright spot in my day!! To those of you reading this, why don't you pick up your phone and call someone that you love and see how they are doing. I'm sure it will brighten their day too!!!!

Love & blessings to all,
Melinda