Share Our Lives: Part Two: How I Met My Best Friend

So yesterday with the "Share Our Lives" link up, I wrote about how Dave and I met and ended up together. You can read that post here. Another option was to share how we met our best friend and I wanted to tell that story today, as my friendship with Janice is very important to me.

Janice and I in Virginia, August 2003

 

In November 2001, I was looking for a job and a couple from church asked me to nanny for their two kids. Their kids were 10 months and 2 1/2 years at that point. It was a short-term position, and at the same time, I was looking for a care group (small group) to be a part of at church. It turned out that the people I was nannying for were starting a care group with one other couple and their 10 month old daughter, and they asked if I wanted to join it. At the time I was a single, young adult but I loved hanging out with other people's kids! Since I wanted to stay connected with the family I was nannying for, I said, "sure." And we started meeting with a pancake brunch in January 2002 and got together about once a month after that.

Sesame Place, Pennsylvania, August 2005

 

Well, it turned out that the couple with the young daughter were Tim, Janice, and Tessa. We got to know each other better over the next year or so and I started babysitting for Tessa. She adored me and the feeling was mutual. So Tim, Janice, Tessa, and I spent a lot of time together. My nieces and nephew lived in Saskatchewan and Tim and Janice's siblings lived in British Columbia and Virginia so I became an honorary aunt to Tessa.

 

Tim's family lived in Virginia, and Janice had many relatives there, so in August 2003, I travelled to Virginia with Tim, Janice, and Tessa and spent a week with them visiting their families and seeing the sights. When Willem was born, I took care of Tessa for three days while Tim, Janice, and Willem were in the hospital. And that summer, I travelled with them to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania for a few days.

 

Dave was added to our crew when he and I started dating and we lived at Tim & Janice's off and on for a few months the summer before we moved to Edmonton. We also stayed with them on many an Ontario visit while we lived in Alberta, including the week before our wedding!

 

Janice and I having tea together in Vienna, May 2010

 

Janice's dad was a music professor and he put together a "music and culture in Vienna" course. Janice and Tim went on this tour many times and, a few years after I got to know them, they invited me to join them. For various reasons I wasn't able to make it work. I was especially honoured that I was invited to join them on the special "extended family only" tour, even though I ended up not being able to go. In May 2010, Dave, Sam, and I were able to travel to Vienna with Tim, Janice, Tessa, Willem, Janice's parents, and others on this tour. You can read about our travels starting here. Tim and Janice had taken both Willem and Tessa on this trip when they were quite young and it gave Dave and I the confidence that we could handle it with fourteen month old Sam.

All of us (except for Rachel), Vienna, May 2010

Sam, Rachel, Willem, and Tessa really are like cousins and we've celebrated lots of holidays, birthdays, and other occasions with all of them. We even travelled with them to Virginia and South Carolina one March Break.

Left: Almost all of us (Sam opted to sit in the car for some reason) in Virginia; Right: all of us holding animals in South Carolina, March 2015

 

Janice was my honourary matron of honour at our wedding, and this relationship has just been such a gift to me. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you've seen pictures of this family before!

A special mother-daughter day at Universal Studios, March 2023

 

I definitely look forward to many more good times together. Janice and I both love to drink tea, read books, go for walks together, and she taught me how to find unique and special things to do as a family. She always has the best ideas of things to do! And we love to travel together, when we're able. I'm so thankful for my best friend!

Janice and I at a special tea time this past weekend.

 

If you want to read more about our adventures with Tim, Janice, Tessa, & Willem, they have their own hashtag on the blog! You can see them under "T&J&T&W." Linking up with the Share Our Lives bloggers: Sarah, Dara, Joanne, Adrienne, and Jen. (Click on each name to go their blogs.)