Every so often on a Friday, I’ll see the larger friends grouping that facebook has spilled out and there will be a collection of people that I want to tell you about. Today is one of those days.

Here they are:

First comes my friend Janice, or J as I like to refer to her. I love this woman. She is our neighbor in Bartlesville. I’d say that J knows me just about as well as anyone on earth. We spent a couple of years walking around the neighborhood every morning, getting exercise, picking up garbage and talking. We called ourselves the Old Bat Patrol and we even had t-shirts. In addition to being so amazing and grounded, J’s married and her husband Keith, is an equally fabulous person. With a great beer fridge. 🙂

Dan Gordon and I became friends on twitter and have become friends in real life. He’s a great guy and is the owner of Samuel Gordon Jewelers in Oklahoma City. Dan was very supportive of the pageant while I was running it and allowed us to shoot an end of the year video in his store when the weather turned bad outside. He let the girls try on hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry which they loved! Dan’s got a great family and one of my favorite things to see on facebook are photos of his little girl, Hadley, who looks from every photo to have such an amazing personality. I hope to meet her some day.

I have known Debbi Raffalli for a long time. Back in the day we were both Pampered Chef consultants. In fact, I even WAS Debbi when I crashed a Pampered Chef convention in Washington, DC. She had two nametags. All went well until we were at dinner one night and a girl at our table said, “Oh I know you! We email together!”. Oops. 😉 Debbi gets me and I wish she was my next door neighbor. Although we might get into a lot of trouble. 😉

Mariam Kobras is another of my twitter friends who will become a real life friend as soon as we are on the same continent. Mariam is an author and lives in Germany. The next time she’s here, I’m going to throw her a book signing party so prepare to save the date. 🙂 Mariam is another person that I wish lived right next door and she is another person who gets me even though we have never met in real life. To consider Debbi and Mariam and I as neighbors? Hmmmmm… BIG FUN! Mariam’s first book is The Distant Shore, and her second Under the Same Sun are both available to purchase and she’s writing the third!

Laura Webster. You know she was named after me, right? 😉 Laura is my cousin Cindy’s oldest daughter and I adore her. She makes me laugh and you know how I love to laugh! Laura is on the way to her first big gig as deputy director of Leg Up India. I’m excited for Laura’s new adventure and I know she’ll do a great job. Laura is almost an exact replica in looks to Cindy. Especially in this photo below!

Tiny little Alisha Loper is another twitter friend who’s become a friend in real life. She is so tiny and cute! She’s a new mom and looking at photos of her little boy make my heart happy. He looks like a mini-me of her husband and it’s awesome to watch her be a good mom. Alisha is a talented designer and I love when she shares her work so I can admire it. 🙂

I’m trying to remember how I met Dawn Allen. I think it was through the Real Housewives of Oklahoma of which she is one. Dawn is terrific. Fun and kind and she clearly knows the importance of a good tiara. 🙂

LeAnn is my daughter-in-love Nikki’s Aunt Lee. I think she may have been one of the first relatives of Nikki’s that I met and she welcomed me like I was a direct member of the family. Lee is so nice and friendly and makes me believe that “in-law” can be “in-love” as I like to call it. She has a cute little granddaughter, Brighton, and I love seeing photos of them together.

So that is how facebook shook it out today. I am again reminded how blessed I am to have these people in my life. Makes it FABU! 🙂