A Grand Day in Grandbury!

I have been blogging for about two years now and in that time I have been blessed to meet some of the most wonderful people through my blog.  Many have encouraged me and prayed for me -laughed with me and cried with me through many things.  I have had sweet cards and presents, wonderful
e-mails with encouraging words and prayers that have gotten me through times here those prayers and love and words of encouragement reminded me of the love of our Savior for me.

So about a year now one of my fellow blogger friends and I have been trying to find a time to meet since we only live about 3 hours away from each other. :)
She has been such a blessing to me from barely even knowing me but finding out I was pulling our oldest daughter from public school to home school because she was struggling so much.  She was my cheerleader and even though I was scared to death encouraged me through her wonderful comments on my blog, prayers and e-mails and when her husband was coming to Abilene on business sent him to my house with a box full of books and homeschooling goodies to get us started.  I was overwhelmed by her kindness and sweet words of encouragement.  And although meeting her husband was a wonderful experience I so wanted for us to be able to meet one day too -so I could hug the neck a wonderful friend I had come to love and appreciate so much over our blogs.

Yes, she is beautiful both inside and out!

Well, I know you are all wondering who I am talking about-I know that if you haven't already been to her blog you will want to go and be blessed-because I can tell you she is even more wonderful in person.  God blessed me with the opportunity this Saturday to finally meet my dear friend Janette from Janette's Sage.

We had e-mailed back and forth the last few weeks trying to set up a time when she could be free and I could be free at the same time to meet some where for the first time.  She told me about a quaint little town called Grandbury, TX it was about 2 hours for both of us to drive there so we decided to meet there. It was my first time there (since I am not a native Texan) and I loved it.  Lots of cute stores to shop in and a great little old town to walk around and get to talk and know each other better.

Main street across from the courthouse-it is a wonderful place.

The ClockTower on the top of the Courthouse in the center of town.  We met here.

A statue of Mr. Grandbury

Parts of downtown built in a square around the courthouse.

More of downtown-just looks like a horse and cowboy should come riding down the side walk any moment now. :)

Inside one of the stores from the second floor.

My first Janette sighting. :)

I got there just a few minutes before we were supposed to meet because I had left early since I didn't know where I was going and didn't want to be late it case I got lost. :)  I sent her a text and she was just a few minutes behind me.  When she got there she text me and said she was there and in jeans and a pink shirt.  Well the funny thing is she parked around one side of the courthouse and I had parked on another and so when we got out to walk around we were missing each other. ha!  I finally told her that I was near where they were acting out some scene for years gone by and shooting off guns and I text her and said I am by the gun fire-at the same time she was on her way to her car to get her camera to take photos of them shooting.  So I spotted her before she saw me and I got this photo.


I had such a wonderful time.  It was such a blessing to finally meet one of my blogging friends from these last two years.  I told my husband I was a little nervous.  Kind of like a blind date ha!   You never really know what the other person may be like in person-people can be so different in person than on paper (or computer) but I can tell you she is just as sweet, kind, loving, genuine and such a lovely godly women in person-all that I thought she would be from getting to know her through her blog and comments and e-mails the last two years.  She even loves to laugh just like me.  I love to laugh-I laugh a lot and cry a lot too which Janette caused me to do both on Saturday;)  God knew I so needed to have a day that I could let loose and do both.  She made me laugh till I cried and cry because she encouraged me not to be discouraged about having to but Alyssa in a special school in the fall and that HS didn't work for us and the guilt I was carrying around I needed to get rid of.   We had so much in common even down to something as simple as the same little cell phone  charger in the same color pink for both our Toyotas(we both had Toyotas too:) )

I will share these last few photos because I refused to have a first meeting and not have a photo from our meeting together (especially when you will blog about it and need photos for the post. ) So not knowing anyone to take our photo we found a spot to set up my camera and put on the timer.  Since poor Janette doesn't know what a crazed picture taker I am I set the timer for 4 photos cause surely 1 out of 4 would turn out- right?! :0  Well, I didn't tell Janette I had set the timer for 4 pictures so this is what happened- I will treasure these always-they make me smile just looking at them.

First shot not bad-Janette thought we were done. :)

Second shot-opps she didn't know I was still taking photos. ha!

Third shot-I am trying to tell her to keep looking put we are laughing too hard to get that across.

Still cracking up.  Some poor couple came by and felt sorry for us and offered to take a picture for us.  But he took two and the first one was fuzzy and the second one he caught Janette in mid-blink.  So this set was better and much more fun.!! :0

Thank you Janette for such a special day.  Thank you for blessing my heart so much that day.  It was so great to finely meet you in person.  We must do it again soon!!  Love you sweet friend.  God amazes me daily at how much He cares about even the friends He places in our lives to touch our hearts.

You are a blessing that I am truly thankful for.

Such a blessed day before Mother's Day-which I now need to blog about but I have been fighting a sore throat since last night and so I am getting ready to hit the hay soon.  So that will be tomorrow's post.  

On this Pathway-

Jill