friends & family (and big news!)

Isn't it fun when people fall into both the friends and family categories? I have many cousins on both sides of the family and Paul and I fall into the oldest group both times. On the Stout side of the family there are five of us older grandchildren and then there is a big gap and then a barrage of small children (who I guess aren't so small now since Laney and Pete-Ray both graduated from high school in May – geez – how did that happen??).

But I digress. Among these five older grandkids there are three boys and two girls. JonAnne is about two years (ish) older than me and a year younger than Paul. We've never lived geographically close (unless you consider 4 hours close) so we saw each other only several times a year growing up. I'd say about when I was in high school I started realizing how cool she was (I mean she is two whole years older and wiser than me) and started hanging on her every word. Unless your memory is better than mine JonAnne, I'd say probably about then is when we started becoming friends rather than just cousins and holiday playmates. I remember sitting in her new car outside of Papa & Grandmothers house and listening to Fiona Apple's first cd. Now I was never in the cool or hip music crowd growing up (couldn't have anything to do with the fact that my mom and I listened to Christmas music and musicals on records or that our family regularly had sing-alongs to barbershop quartets on road trips, could it?) but I knew JonAnne was much cooler than me and the cd sounded cool. So when I got home I bought the cd and loved it. To this day I'm a huge fan of Fiona (first album was the best though) and I'd like to say that I've converted a couple of my friends as well.

Digressed again. JonAnne and I kept in touch off and on through those next college years and she did come all the way up to Stillwater from Norman for a cousin weekend – a fun weekend that I'll always remember. Then a couple of things happened pretty fast: she met her would-be-future-husband, Papa passed away, I moved to Spain, she got married, and she moved away, I got back graduated and also moved away. Needless to say life happened and we haven't been the best about keeping in touch. It's hard and then once you haven't spoken for a long time it's hard to remember what that person does/doesn't know about your life or how much detail you should go into or if they even still care and therefore convince yourself of lots of reasons not to write or call.

It was so sweet to talk with her yesterday (email is a wonderful thing) and know that she's doing well. Family is so strange, huh? You're forced into this group of people who you may or may not have anything in common with other than blood and they expect relationships to just happen. However, it is fun with family can also be friends. I think I've been pretty blessed in this department and JonAnne is just one of those stories. So go call or write someone you've lost touch with, especially since it is around the holidays.

JonAnne – we're going to do better this time, I swear. And I'm going to come visit you in the great, cold, north. We'll run together, take pictures, talk while drinking hot chocolate, and laugh a lot. I can't wait to catch up more! Love you!

 

OK – I also have big news: I'm officially a CPA!! It's weird, but somehow I'm more excited about the paperwork going through and everything being final than I was when I found out that I passed the final part of the exam. This has been a 2 year and 4 month process and now I have a license and certificate number to be a CPA in the state of Texas! Yesssss!! Rachel got her paperwork finalized about a month ago and she's been waiting for me to get mine done to celebrate. We did have a celebratory glass of wine last night and plan to celebrate more this weekend for sure! Feel free to refer to me as Melissa Allen, CPA if you'd like. Although I'm not practicing accounting anymore (and honestly never plan to do it again) I am very excited to have worked so very hard for something and finally be able to see the fruits of that labor. And no matter what direction my career takes me it will always be an impressive part of my resume since the difficulty of the CPA exam is known far and wide. I didn't study for 17 months total for nothing!!