All friends are valuable, so I'm talking about a value above and beyond the norm. Like if you were a die-hard football fan and your best friend played on your favorite team therefore had free season tickets for you. That would be a valuable friend. I am not friends with any football players, but I am friends with a chef. And that is priceless.
First, Stef changed my opinion of military spouses. That in itself was priceless. Thanks to my brother and Austin's many, many warnings about typical army wives, I have always been weary of getting too involved in any army business. The wives that I had met seemed to fit the stereotype pretty well, too, so that just furthered my distance. Actually, one of the first times I met Stef she was hanging out with one of the other wives whom I had met before, and that other wife was bad mouthing who I thought was her best friend. If you close your eyes, you may have memories of high school here. That's exactly how it was. This particular wife talked bad about whoever was not in her immediate presence, and I've known too many girls to believe that I would be any different. So, I kept my distance from her. I'm sure she still talked about me, but I certainly didn't want to fuel that fire any more. Unfortunately, since she and Stef had become inseparable that meant I kept my distance from Stef too.
The winds slowly started to change, though, when Stef became the FRG leader and we spent more time together (as I am the treasurer). I realized that she did not fit the stereotype at all, and I really liked her. Being a little quiet with new people and not as much of a social butterfly as I was in my earlier days, the friendship didn't take off right away. But ever since the first time she came to our house after William was born we've been getting to know each other more and more - and I'm pretty glad I didn't hold her to my typical "army wife" opinion. She had offered to come cook dinner for us after William was born to give us a break. What she didn't know was that I love to cook and love to learn new ways to cook (plus I was deep into my food network addiction at this point) She made pan seared pork chops, pan fried/cooked (??) diced peppers with corn, and the most delicious grits I have ever tasted. I think I've actually made the grits about 20 times. :)
Since then we've had a few cooking excursions. We've made lasagna, brajouille (i completely made up how to spell that word, but its basically meat stuffed with meat...and my meat loving husband thinks there's nothing better in the world) homemade salad dressings, hand stuffed bratwursts, white chocolate chip scones, apple pie, homemade pasta with an awesome zucchini based sauce...and the latest: salad with lemon caper dressing, chicken and shrimp (yes, i tasted one!) paella (pi-a-uh) and a simple pastry dessert. She had been wanting to cook paella for awhile, so she and her husband Steve came over Friday night to have dinner with us while my mom and Alfredo were in town. I use the word "we" liberally here - some nights I'm more involved than others - but we've had a lot of fun cooking over the past few months and I've certainly learned a lot.
Her birthday was Sept 14, as was my good friend Jonathan's and a few other people that I know, and I failed to include them in my blogging-birthday tributes. I'll use work as my excuse, but really- shame on me. I'm so glad that Stef was able to change my opinion of military spouses and open my narrow-minded eyes to see that just because most are one way doesn't mean they all are. I mean, I can't be the ONLY good one right? (hahahahahaahahahahahaha) I'm also pretty thankful to be friends with someone with such valuable knowledge. I can ask her anything about cooking and she always has the answer! More than both of those, though, I'm just glad that circumstances worked out how they did so that she and I were able to become friends. Shy as I may seem sometimes, or as little as I talk when we're in a group of army people - I really like her and I'm glad to have such a good friend. So - better late than never - happy 2 week late birthday Stef!
I better get a list together of the things i need to learn to cook over the next 10 months, though, because in June she and Steve are headed to Maryland for the next phase of their Army life :(
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