{"id":911,"date":"2010-05-07T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-07T15:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2010\/05\/from-the-woman-with-the-white-minivan.html"},"modified":"2014-08-22T15:52:42","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:52:42","slug":"from-the-woman-with-the-white-minivan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2010\/05\/from-the-woman-with-the-white-minivan.html","title":{"rendered":"From the Woman with the White Minivan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Okay, I am said woman w\/minivan, and while I laugh\/cry\/write, I want to clear up a few things:
I never gave her a GTH look; it was more of a look of:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I move while I hold my baby (that I never put down) her apnea monitor alarm will pierce my eardrum\u2026again. And I think Halloween costumes<\/span> for babies are stupid. And that woman at my door is way too friendly\u2026\u201d The last bit, by the way, always makes a Yankee skittish\u2026<\/p>\n

That day \u201cI emerged\u201d I also wore pants. And there was no getting around that large group of clucking neighborhood hens. They blocked the entire sidewalk, and I knew I was being inspected. Hence, I was fully clothed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true, Baby A. is gorgeous, and has outgrown all health issues.<\/p>\n

Her knees didn\u2019t appear to be knocking, but her legs contributed to the perpetual mystery of why short women have slammin\u2019 legs. And that was before she took up marathons.<\/p>\n

She wasn\u2019t bossy; it was a firm invitation. Polite but direct, the latter quality I always admire, and still do\u2026.<\/p>\n

I was surprised, but only because as a military wife, you have to go and seek out your friends. I had never had an angel descend upon my doorstep and politely foist food and friendship on me, seemingly out of the blue. I was oblivious that the lone vehicle garnered any attention at all. I guess that\u2019s what happens when you live in a neighborhood for more than a year.<\/p>\n

It was the best 4 hours of conversation. The only other best thing she said that spring was when she showed me how to edge my lawn while my husband was away. She said, \u201cSo you went to prep school.\u201d (wheewhee sound of the weed whacker here) \u201cSo you learned to row.\u201d (wheewhee) \u201cYou went to X school.\u201d (wheewhee) \u201cDidja ever learn anything useful?\u201d Oh, that still makes me laugh. That was when I knew she was a friend for life<\/span>. And that she\u2019d turn up in my someday novel.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know that milk and sugar is the \u201cBritish way\u201d, so much as the way I\u2019d request it \u201ccreamy and sweet\u201d to torment my tutor. St. Augustine was young once, too.<\/p>\n

She is not my best friend, she is more like a sister. She is the reason my baby finally tried solid foods, she is the reason I can mow my lawn and I know useful things. She is why I eventually took ownership of being Catholic, and why I survived the subsequent years of deployments. She is who I cried w\/over infertility and the trauma and drama of war. She is who I know will laugh at the same things I do. She is a living example of what it means to be real and set the standard of friendship\/family at the same time. Anyone would be lucky to have her as a neighbor, friend, sister, daughter, mom, aunt, etc. You get the idea. And don\u2019t even get me started on all those great kids\u2026.. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, I am said woman w\/minivan, and while I laugh\/cry\/write, I want to clear up a few things:I never gave her a GTH look; it was more of a look of: \u201cIf I move while I hold my baby (that I never put down) her apnea monitor alarm will pierce my eardrum\u2026again. And I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Woman with the White Minivan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Okay, I am said woman w\/minivan, and while I laugh\/cry\/write, I want to clear up a few things:I never gave her a GTH look; it was more of a look of:"If I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2010\/05\/from-the-woman-with-the-white-minivan.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Woman with the White Minivan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Okay, I am said woman w\/minivan, and while I laugh\/cry\/write, I want to clear up a few things:I never gave her a GTH look; 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