Today I am honored to stand next to one of my very best friends while she says “I do” to the man of her dreams.  I’ve known Barbie since preschool.  She was nicknamed Barbie back then, and the name stuck… Until she went to college, but since it’s been 20-plus years of Barbie, she’s Barbie to me!  We went through our entire elementary, middle, and high school years together.  While we parted ways for college, our friendship remained as strong as ever.  Most recently, Barbie graduated from Stanford Law – talk about an accomplishment!

Barbie is the one, actually, who got me started with running.  I was incredibly homesick throughout the beginning years of college, and during one of our phone conversations, Barbie suggested we sign up to run a half-marathon together.  We’d train separately, keep each other up to date on our progress, and meet back in St. Louis for the race.  I had never run a race at that point.  I remember calling Barbie after I did my first two miles, and she was so encouraging that I kept going.  During our race, I tuckered out after mile 6 and needed to walk/run the remainder of the race, but instead of judging, being disappointed, or leaving me, Barbie stuck by my side until we crossed the finish line.  Since then, the St. Louis half-marathon has become a tradition for the two of us, and one that I hope will continue as long as possible.

Me & Barbie at my bachelorette party – July 2010

This weekend has been filled with all the typical pre-wedding bridal party fun: girl talk, manicures, pedicures, hair, and make-up.  I’ll give you a full update after the excitement is over.  For now, I’m off to enjoy this amazing weekend.  But first, let’s talk Foodie Pen Pals.

This month, I sent a package full of goodies to JayMOO to JayME.  If the name sounds familiar, it’s because you may remember her from this High Five Friday post when I gave Jaimi a high-five for reaching the 100 pound mark in her weight loss journey!  Check out Jaimi’s blog to see what I sent her.  Maren from Maren’s Morsels sent me my goodie box this month.  The first portion was from Lake Tahoe.

Ultimate Malted Milk Balls – dug into those immediately, so good!  A Lake Tahoe bottle of water, post card, and sticker of Cali.  The homemade croutons look really good, especially since they contain only a few ingredients.  Maren also sent me a bunch of snacks.

Chocolate Agave Slow-Burn Energy sounds really good, and I’m excited to try!  Maybe I’ll just have to go on a longer run in order to put this to good use.  The crispy rice bar is thrown in my purse to use as an emergency snack.  The Clif bar Cool Mint Chocolate sounds tasty; it contains caffeine which I’ve never had a bar with caffeine, but it seems like it will be a nice little pick me up.   Larabar - can’t ever go wrong there!  A couple packs of Annie’s organic bunny fruit snacks, too.  Yum!  All in all, I made out pretty well!  Thanks, Maren!

If YOU want to get involved in Foodie Pen Pals (and you should), click over to Lindsay’s blog The Lean Green Bean and fill out the short, simple form here.

Happy weekend!  What’s your favorite bar or snack to throw in your purse?