FaceTime Calls, Voice Notes & Lifelong Friendship

Today I’m joined by one of my best friends, April, who is visiting from Nova Scotia. We’ve been friends since university, and our friendship has grown through long distance, raising kids, and doing life together through both the fun and hard seasons.

We’re talking all about what friendship looks like in this stage of life — from voice notes and FaceTimes to praying each other through difficult moments.

If you’ve ever wondered how to stay connected to friends in a busy season of motherhood, this episode will encourage you 🤍

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Oh ready.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Hey, I'm Kate, mom of seven, coffee lover, and believer in finding joy in every season of motherhood. This is Praise, Prayer, and Protein, where we talk faith, family, frugal living, and the real life mom hacks that make it all work. Let's dive in. Hey guys, and welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited about today's episode because this is a special one. I have convinced my friend April, who is visiting me from Nova Scotia, to sit down with me and be on the podcast. And I am so excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

And I am so excited.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Control myself. April and I met back when I was in university through a mutual friend. And somehow, all these years later, we are still doing life together, even long distance. Our families are close. Our kids love each other so much. And honestly, she is probably, she actually is the only friend I FaceTime on a consistent basis. That's so nice. I can't believe that. Nobody else has seen my face looking so many different angles than April. We have laughed together, cried together, danced in the kitchens together, prayed together, and today we're just gonna sit and get a little glimpse into what our friendship actually looks like. So, April, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Thank you, Katie Peterson. I'm just so happy to be here. Recording in Jalen's room. It took absolutely no convincing.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Just a little. Just a little, yeah. But I'm so happy you're here. So before we get into it, we are going to do a really fast, quick this is or this or that. I was gonna say this is us. Okay, you didn't tell me about this. Surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise. This is no deep thinking, just fast, get to know us. Coffee or tea? Coffee with hot chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

With I was gonna say, you like it with hot chocolate. I'm a coffee coffee. And use iced coffee and then bring it on. You love iced coffee. Yes, which is weird because I can drink it with cream and sugar in an iced coffee, but I cannot in a hot coffee. Yeah, you like a black. That's disgusting.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

I know your coffee order.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Shopping or a lazy day at home?

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Oh my gosh. That's not a good question for me. Depends on the mood. I don't like being lazy at home. Yeah, you don't. You're very but sometimes I have to be in the mood to shop, so I can't even answer that. I'm sorry. Considering we're both sitting here in our uh lazy outfit. And I have no intentions of getting dressed today, just so everybody at home knows. Or we're going to Costco. So if you see them in Costco. I don't care. It's not pajamas, it's comfy clothes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Sweet treats or salty treats?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Both, but but probably sweet, because I'm all both the chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

You are mini eggs and uh MM peanut butter recently. Summer or winter? Well, summer, but I do like winter, but summer. Summer, definitely. Voice notes or FaceTime?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Voice notes. You can go on with a voice note for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

You sure can. I love it. Early mornings or late night chat. Early mornings. You can catch me up with the sun. And you can catch her in bed at 9 p.m. I'm getting better. I'm getting better. Okay, this is gonna be a tough one. Brandon Lake or Forrest Frank?

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Brandon Lake. Sorry, guys. I like Forest Frank, but Man O Man, for those who know me, know that I like Brandon Lake a lot. So you just went to a concert. Brandon Lake, I did. Third one. I know. Third one took your whole family. One time I went to one in Toronto and he basically touched my shoulder with his. Not that I care because I'm not like obsessed with Brandon Lake, but I love his music. It's not like Brandon Lake. He's a great person, but I love his worship. It's just so good. Love when he leads worship. I love all of his songs. That's so good. I I bet you didn't know that about me. I didn't. I did. It would probably be like I didn't. Of course you did. The whole world knows because I tell everybody, even at church, when I'm leading worship. Anyway, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

If I could look like Brandon Lake, I'd be leading this song right now. That's what you say at church when you're leading songs.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

No, I say that I love him so much that I just love him. Once I said I'm in love, Brandon Lake, if you're listening to this, uh I just want to be his friend. I want to be his friend and I want to be his wife, Britney's friend. That's all. They live on a farm, it's super cute. I would love that. You would get along. You love living on it.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Well, you love your chickens more than I do. I do love my chickens, yeah. Um, okay, let's go back for a second and talk about how we actually met and what our little first impression of each other was. I know. Yeah, I want you to be honest. You you start and I'll jump in where I think. No, I think you should start.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah, I'll go. Okay. Well, my childhood best friend was going to university, St. of X, and I did not go there, but I went to visit her quite often, and all of a sudden I met um our friend Diana's new best friend, and it wasn't me. Dun dun dun. I was the old best friend. Actually, um, our best friend has a lot of best friends, so it was fine. But yes, I got to met meet Katie and I liked you from the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

You did? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

We were a lot alike. We were a lot alike, so I wouldn't say that we like meshed immediately. I think it took some time. You also liked Dee a lot and maybe wanted her all to yourself. Yeah, only child. Only child syndrome. I don't have the only child syndrome, but I probably was a little jealous. And it took some time, I would say. You can't remember because it was over 20 years ago. Yeah. I don't ever not remember, like I don't remember not liking you because I would that wouldn't have been in my character. I wouldn't have not liked you. But I'm sure I was probably like, hmm, who is this girl? And we are both really crazy. We were really crazy and dressed similar.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

I feel like the very first time we got together, we dressed up and took all these crazy photos together. Right. That's what we've always done, and we still do it. So here we are. You're just one of those people that you can just be your authentic self with. You too. Yeah. Yeah. So then, yeah, we met there, and then how I can't even remember, like after we graduated, I obviously was still in touch with Didi because she's still one of our both of our very good friends. Um, and then you uh share a birthday with Dee like around the same time. So we came for some birthday parties, Mike and I did. Then we met Alex. That's my husband. Yeah, uh, when you guys were dating and you had a crazy sweater party for your birthdays. Yeah, we had Evan at the time, and then I feel like every time we came to church, we maybe stayed with you.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

You did. I was just thinking, we probably hosted you. Yeah. Because I'm not sure if our friend could do that at the time. I'm not sure, but even though your family was small at that point, yeah, I did have a host, so I think we just hosted you guys when you yeah, we came for a lot of weddings because or you'd stop by. Like obviously stop by point if you were traveling.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Yeah, into Nova Scotia because it was a good stop by point. Yes, yeah, and we just clicked. Our husbands clicked, we clicked, our kids that they've gotten older have clicked even more. They FaceTime a lot, they talk about it. We're all clicking, we're just clicking away. Our families click, click, clicked. So, what do you think has maintained our friendship over the years? Probably just that mutual friend plus our kids connecting.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Definitely our kids connecting, and obviously our relationships with the Lord. Yeah. Because a lot of the times when we do get to see each other, it's to come together to go to harvest. Yeah. You know, when harvest used to be here, then we would bring our entire family. So that was something we really looked forward to every year. The your husband would come to the men's conference. Come to the men's conference as we um have gone to Caton's Island once with. Did we go once or twice? Once with, once with we even went funny, like without the Petersons one year because we loved it so much and we wanted to come back. Went in June. It was freaky.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah, that date didn't work for us.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Um that date, yeah, it did not work for you. But yeah, so like we've definitely like connected for different events that were happening, like within the church, which has been super fun and encouraging, I think, for both of us or all of us, really. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Why do you think you're the only friend that I ever FaceTime? I have friends that are like, if you voice memo me, I will not listen to it. I hate voice memoing so much.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

I have friends that are like that. My gosh, a voice message is way easier than taking the time to read it. I know. And then you get to hear the expressions in people's voices, and you can ramble on and on and on, and that's why I love to do it. Uh, but what was the question? Why would I FaceTime? Why do we FaceTime?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Yeah, like some friendships, you know, I have some other long distance that you just don't FaceTime. But why do we? We don't care. We don't care what we look like.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

I was just thinking I actually don't care what I look like or what you catch me in because I'm not sure. Are you just a FaceTime person? Like you FaceTime multiple friends. I don't FaceTime multiple friends. Right. No, you like there's probably two people that I would FaceTime. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

That's isn't that so crazy? There's just something about FaceTiming.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

I know.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Like obviously I FaceTime Mike when he travels all the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

And then you maybe you like my face. That's so it's just like one of those you don't care. You're just, oh, I'm gonna talk to April for a long time. Um, what are some things we have done probably to keep our friendship strong, even from a distance? Like there are weeks we go without talking. Like we don't talk daily. Yep. We definitely follow each other on social media, so we'll comment on things we're we're doing there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Um but but yeah, we just we just do. We just do. I just think it's natural. I I don't know. If something were to happen in my life that was important, I'd want you to know. And if I was struggling with something, like I've messaged you and asked you and Micah to pray for us, like if we were just going through a season of difficult times. Yeah. Um I think we just know that we can just rely on each other and that we have each other's backs because we click. We get gangster. Good job, but we're so gangster, Katie and I.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

All right, here's a little chaotic fun about us. Are you ready? The backstory. Um, who is more likely to start the dance party out of nowhere?

unknown 10:16

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Probably you. Truly. But I'm right there behind you, typically.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

I mean, my kids often will say, I'm funner and sillier when we're when I'm with you. Yes, that's true. And they like when we go to your house. Like, because the last two summers we've come for like our vacation, actually, just at your place. And the kids just like who we are when we're together.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Do they though? In uh in our homes, not so much in public places.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah, no, they may not enjoy that in the public. But in the wild, we do like to have a good dance party together as we're cleaning up or doing whatever. Um, who is more emotional?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Katie Peterson. Just joking. I might be emotional sometimes. Who keeps us up way too late talking? Not me.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

No, you want to go to bed, and I'm always like, April, come on, don't go to bed so early.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

I know. I can't help it. My battery runs to zero. It drains. It drains my battery drains. It does.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Who is the most responsible one?

SPEAKER_01 11:19

You for sure. Oh, I don't think that. I think you're very responsible. I know, but I think if out of the both of us Okay, it's me.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

You could be the most responsible one. Um, what are we like when we're together versus when we're about? I think we're even sillier together. Yes. That's the fun part. We're fun. We're crazy. And why do you think I'm why do you think I am more fun when we're together?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

You're just letting loose. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

You're a pretty laid-back mom. And you are like it takes a lot to host a family of nine people. And I feel you're very laid back and you just sort of go with the flow. I appreciate that. And I like that. So I don't have to just be on my kids to like be on their best behavior. I know like you love them and you'll correct them if they do something wrong or whatever, but that we're not you're not uptight. I can't wait for my husband to hear this podcast. Well, you might be uptight with him, but you're not uptight when we come.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

No, no, of course. I love hosting you guys, it never faces me. And you guys are so easygoing because you don't have these certain expectations when you visit. You're not, you know, like kids sleep anywhere. We can eat meals at any time. They're not fussy eaters. We love cooking and doing new things when you guys come over and doing things on the Blackstone when that was like super cool and trendy when everybody before everybody had Blackstone and we were one of the first ones.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

The amount of Blackstone recipes I sent Alex the summer, two summers ago before we came to try. Yeah. Yeah, it was really cool. It's a lot, yeah. Yeah. Our families are really connected now. So, what do you think our kids see in our friendship?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

I think there is a difference truly between Christian relationships and friendships. So I really hope that they see that because it is different. I feel like Christian relationships can last longer than your non-Christian. Yeah. Don't you think? Yeah, I agree. Like, I mean, the friends that I'm still really close with and have been close with for years are all my friends that I'm connected with because of our relationships with the Lord. I think that He's just like been very intentional with certain friendships in my life. And I've walked through some pretty intense things with some of those Christian friends. And even though there's been seasons that have been really difficult, we still have stayed friends. Like we've worked through it, we've had healing, and you know, he's restored things. Um, so I hope that our kids can see that. Yeah. And that even though we do live, you know, we're not really far apart from each other, but we can't walk and do life together every day, but we're still doing life together. Yeah. It's something like they value, and they value the friendships that they have with one another. So I hope that they can see that um when you do life with other Christians, it's just different.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yeah, they have like a friendship outside of us, like our boys definitely do. Like when I wanted to keep it a surprise that you guys were coming, Abe's is like, oh, Aiden text me. Yeah. Oh shoot. So those types of things, they have those friendships. But also, I think our families uh have the same values. Yes. Like they can see that, you know, like if everyone in my class at school can't do something, it's like, oh, I know Abe also can't. You know, like we do have the same family values, and often if we're visiting, we would all sit down and all have a snag and all watch a family movie together. You know what I mean? Like because we value that time together as our family, or we've done things like playing games together, or you know, we have a lot of those same values that your family would have. So it's like bringing two families together that have the same value. And of course, we go to church together whenever we're together, our church or your guys' church, wherever we're at. So those are really, I would agree, important things. Our kids at youth group and seeing each other at the same youth conference and and things like that are definitely important.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

And it's just so nice to to walk alongside of other families because you it's helpful to have discussions with other Christian parents about parenting. Like, for example, you guys, you know, uh our two older kids are very similar in their personalities, and um Evan's older than my oldest, Aiden. So, like it's nice for me to be able to chat with you about things, like with your oldest. Like, you need to kind of be in discussion with other parents because it's just helpful and you learn and you grow from that. So you're not doing it alone, like nobody can just be left out to parent all by themselves with no community. Like, you need community, and sometimes like our community was is within our church, but our ch it goes broader than that, right? So you guys are part of our community, like you're helping us to raise our children essentially. Like you're giving us so many great tips, and it's been so helpful to us, like you know, in raising our own kids. And there's things that we don't do the same, yeah, and that's okay. Like we can have our way to do things, you can have your way to do things, and we're learning, yeah, for sure. And we all learn. We know the first child, yeah, sorry, the second, and in your case, maybe the second, third, fourth, fifth.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Like you figure it out, right? But sorry, we messed you up.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah, we've walked through a lot of really fun times, and of course, whenever we're together, we have um way too much fun, way too much crazy fun. But we have walked through some really um difficult seasons together. Um I just remember that summer that you and Alex came that I was like in the hardest summer of my life, just crying that whole week you were here and I didn't know what was wrong. And you just like walking with me through that, just being like, you know, I remember Micah just being like, hey, maybe you're just or something about hosting, you know, like I was just so down, and I was like, no, I need them to be here, but it didn't feel like you're putting on a show. Like I actually was pretty raw and was like, Yeah, I'm not doing good, like I'm really not healthy and I don't know what's wrong. Yeah. And I remember laying on the spare room bed crying with you. I remember going for walks crying with you, like just like, you know, like you you have seen some really dark moments as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

It's not always like the Katie that everybody sees when she's greeting you at church in harvest because she's so bubbly. Yeah, actually, I do see that is the KD that I see most of the time. However, obviously there have been things that um because that's what friendship is, it's not supposed to be just all the highs, it's supposed to be the highs and the lows.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

So like just randomly crying because I'm so overwhelmed. I couldn't even think outside of myself. But yet, you guys are here and loving on our kids and just walking with me through that. It was it was really, really helpful. And of course, the Lord has um done great things um with that season and through our friendship. And you're right, I think that is a big reason why we're still friends and connect that way because it is easy in our busy lives to just let it go. Like to not make time for it, yeah, you know, to just forget or let months go by, you know. But it is like uh, oh no, April never here, or like March break is here. What are we doing for March break? You know, like it's a given.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, it's a given. When our kids do not have school, then there is gonna be some way that we're gonna make a summer, March break, Christmas holidays, like that kind of thing. No, I wish we could come for Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

I know it would be so fun. I would be fun. This this November when we came, though, that was really fun. You had your Christmas stuff already out. We snuggled and watched a Hallmark movie.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

We did watch Hallmark. I didn't like the one we watched very much, but it was my favorite movie. You love football so much. I did. It wasn't my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

It's the Bills one. If anybody has an opinion on that one and is a Hallmark lover like ourselves, it was just like I loved that one. And then I was like, no phones, April. Put your phone down and snuggle me. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

That's why we're so close then, maybe our pure love for Hallmark. Yeah. It's we could have added that to the list. That's all I'm saying. Is that we do love Hallmark movies. Now you love Gilmore girls, and I do too. And you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Yeah, I'm going through the Gilmore series with Jalen.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

I never did it as a young adult. I didn't either. Actually, the first time I I watched it, Abe was at our host for the whole week. Oh, yeah, because you were really sick. And I had COVID and I binge watched Gilmore Girls. Like, it's all I did.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Those shows, there are some like inappropriate ones where you're fast forwarding through, but it has been a really great conversation starter for Jalen and I. Like, because you know, the Rory character is in high school, just going through some things, you know. And so I have found it is really good to just pause for a second on some things we might be skipping over and just being like, hey, you know, this scene or this is why we're not gonna watch this one, or you know, what'd you think about that? Or that's why that crazy mom, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Well, I wouldn't compare you to her as a mother, but maybe you are a little bit crazy. So yeah, that's good, good crazy. But yeah, we can uh use those things as so many great teachable moments with our children because it's so nice when you can sit down and watch things because that show really it doesn't always line up with Christian morals, but in comparison to a lot of shows, it's actually pretty decent, right? It was a 2000 show, it was like it was on the Cusco, yeah. Um, but yeah, still it's I think it's great that you guys are watching that together because you can teach through it. Yeah, having a daughter.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Both April and I only have one daughter each. So April has three kids. We didn't even introduce her family. Goodness. She's married to Alex, who's a youth pastor, and has three kids, two boys and a girl. Yeah. And so yeah, we both have one girl and a bunch of boys. One girl. Well, I don't have a bunch. I have two. What's the I have five?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

I have five. A couple.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Six. Actually, I have six. Um, oh, this is a fun question. What's something you admire about me?

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Oh, that's a weird question. Who put that in there? Yeah, who made these questions? I'm just joking. I admire so much about you. I I admire your gift for hosting. Obviously, that is your gift. And you think you're a good host too.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Not everybody can even have nine people over for supper, let alone a week. Yes, April, we're coming to take our whole vacation at your house.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

I love it. You could come tomorrow and I'd I actually I just would want to know to clean my house because I do like a clean house. And it drives me nuts when it's not clean. But anyway. Um, but yeah, you your gifting is hosting, of course. You're bubbling, you can always get the party started, that's for sure. You're so inviting and loving. You love the Lord so much. You Okay, April. I love when you worship, you're just so like out there, whatever you feel like the Lord's calling you to do for worship. That is amazing. And you have a lot of close friends. You do. How does it feel to be one of them and on this podcast? Oh, just I am so thrilled to be on this podcast. It's probably the top 10 things of my life. I don't know if you guys can notice the sarcasm. Just joking. She just had to like maybe convince me a little bit, but it's still fun. It's still fun.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

I think when you're talking about me worshiping, one of my memories of you, April, is I mean, April loves to worship. She leads worship at her church. She's a very good singer. There's some funny jokes. There's a bad job. But she actually can sing. Was when she got married, she walked down the aisle and she sang herself. Like the music was playing, but she was also singing. So over top of like the words being played, you could hear you singing coming down the aisle. And that was just really special. You do have a heart to worship. You love leading people into worship. You and Alex are just the types of friends you can just totally be yourself around. Like they're just like you don't have to put on a show for you two. You're just so down-to-earth, natural. And we knew that right off the bat when we met Alex when you were dating. And then, of course, at your wedding, right before you guys kissed, he like sprayed his mouth with that mouth spray. Did he sell that mouth stuff anymore? I have no idea. And then you like were like, hey, and you stole it from him and like also sprayed your mouth. Like, you guys are just so fun and bubbly. And I feel we have a lot in common because you love doing women's ministry at your church, and you love connecting women too. So it's funny, usually, like friendships are like usually opposites attract, but I find we're like very similar to attract, and then that just makes us look like total fools when we're together.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Oh well, do you know what? My the thing that I'm really good at is actually looking like a fool. It happens to me all the time. Even that wedding kiss, you're just making me think of that wedding kiss. When I watch my wedding video back, I am so embarrassed.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

You uh did you see that kiss? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

My kids are like morphied. Like, we weren't messing around. We needed that spray and get it.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Just get it going.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

See, this is no that kiss. If I could sh no, nobody that's listening is actually allowed. So don't ask me for permission because it is just it was something.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

It was fun. Your wedding was so fun, your dance was so fun. I just had a ball.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Uh, you were just Alex was pulling me off the dance floor at 12 o'clock to try and get me out of there, and I did not want to stop dancing. It was so fun.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

I know, you definitely did not, but it was a dance party.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

And I don't live here, so I don't get to do all the fun things that Katie does, like the 90s dance parties and workout videos. Or not videos. I mean, it'd be we should do it. They just host a 90s workout.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Make a workout video. We should. You just told Isaiah you love doing that as a kid, so we could just go do one right now. We have a phone and we'll just whatever, do our thing. Oh my gosh. If you had one word to describe our friendship, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Maybe loyal. I think that's a good way to describe our friendship. I'm gonna say foolish. Foolish. Oh my. And fun. Like you stretch me. You stretch me. I mean, like, not like do you stretch. But you will, there's some times that I'm like, ugh, I don't want to do that. Like now. Exhibit A. Here I am.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Silly fine. Okay, that kind of stretching, because I thought for a second you meant like my personality or just me stretches your character of like building patience or whatever. And so I'm like, oh, okay. I stretch you that. No, I have to do that. I'm just like, just do the podcast. It's stupid and it doesn't matter. No bunch of silly things too. Who knows who are gonna listen? Your husband's gonna listen because he was so pumped about it being on there.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yeah. He might, he might not listen. No, he will.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

All right, as we wrap up, let's just do some fun things because that's what we're all about. What does the perfect girl's night look like for you? For me? Well, dancing.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

100% for sure.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

If I could find a place to go every weekend that I could just dance, I'm there.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

My gosh, I really wish. Like I live in a small town, so this would be a lot to ask, but I just wish we had Christian uh clubs, clubs and aerobics workouts. Bring out the step aerobics, get me there. Like I would love that. This girl loves a Zumba. Well, you guys here have like opportunities for that in your spin class. I have gone to spin with Katie when I've been visiting, and I actually hate spinning. Last March break. Hurts your butt so bad. And I'm sure, like, it just doesn't work. Right. But it was so fun.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

When you can be worshiping whilst like exercising and on spin bike, my gosh, that's so- I know there is something about the way when we move our bodies like that, or like are really working out and worshiping at the same time. Like, it's been crazy. Like, we've had the Holy Spirit really powerfully show up that none of us can even bike. Like, we had a I don't even remember when that was. It must have been January. Literally, the presence of the Lord was so heavy, nobody was biking. That's all. Everyone was just singing. We had to stop. Like, it was crazy. The Lord comes. Like, yeah, it is. We are very, very blessed to have a lady that has a heart for that and has put a group together of women who want to do that. And so amazing. I'm so thankful for that gift within the body because we don't all go to the same church. So it's so cool to just be like, oh, you guys go to a totally different church, you know, and here we are worshiping the same God.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

In a place that they just allow us to use their space.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

I would say the perfect night is also dancing.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

And I mean, you might as well throw some eating in there.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Yeah. Sometimes we have treats. I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes they do have cookies after spin.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

I mean, it seems kind of silly. You're working out and then you pig out, but it's just the balance of life.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

If you were to describe our friendship with a song.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Oh my gosh, I need some time to think about this. We have made some pretty funny songs.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

I'll I'll talk as you try to think. But with our Sora, or not Sora, what was it? It's an app we use, remember? I used it to make the song for the podcast. And then we wrote in how we met. We wrote in some lyrics, and then it came up with a really funny song about us.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

I died. I almost peed my pants. You did in the cafe.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

And we were in public.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah, and the ones we made with Jalen that night.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

Oh, yeah, those are also really funny to us.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Those were really good songs.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

I mean, they really should just We have a lot of funny songs that we sing when we're together that bring back memories. Every song. The change song, The Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. That has a really funny story.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

The night that I convinced Katie that it was actually okay to give her kids a bednight snack of popcorn because she was like, no, eating. The kitchen's closed. And I'm like, um, let's just let's have some popcorn. Listen, when you have that many kids, you have to have stricter restrictions on like the food budget. I do too. I I'm not like my kids aren't allowed to just grab whatever they want whenever they want. And I only have three, but that night's still running woman changed. And she in she felt it was necessary to make a video. Oh no, I recorded it. We we run off of each other, but yeah, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Yeah, uh Wilson Phillips, we love jamming out to that. We're cleaning up the kitchen. That was a fun jam-out session. Oh, just all kinds of fun songs we do at your house because you have the Google and we're just like, Google play this song. And we started clogging in the kitchen. Oh, the couple of things.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Because we both were cloggers back in the day. We were both cloggers, both cheerleaders. Yeah. We're like identical. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

We could have been twins.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Except for our physical appearance does not represent one's tall and slim and one is not. You pick one is not like the other. And one has long brown hair and one has blonde hair that she dyes because she's so gray.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Oh my word. I dye my hair too. If you have any hair dyers out there, holla. So, with a wrap-up, honestly, friendship like this doesn't just happen. We have to make it happen. We are intentional about it. We take time to show up, we take time to FaceTime each other no matter what we look like. Uh-huh. And I just feel really grateful that we get to do um life in this way. I feel really grateful for our kids that they have this friendship too. So if you are listening and you have a friend like this, why don't you text them today or FaceTime them if you have a long-distance friend? Tag them and tell them how much you love them. And if you don't right now, just know that those friendships are possible and they are worth investing in. April, I love you.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

I love you too.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Uh, and I'm so glad you're here. Uh, thank you guys so much for listening. I'll be back next week, but we're off to Costco.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

And I will not be back ever again.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Just joke. But you can find April on my uh Instagram because whenever we're together, we make funny videos.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

And I'm probably gonna make my own podcast now.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

I'll just come up with some fun name. We'll chat GPT well and we'll make a theme song, and here we go. It's true because when I had this idea, remember this summer you were at the lake and I was telling you all about it. You were encouraging. You said you should just do it. And here we are, praise, prayer, and protein. The first mic'ed up with a friend. So fun. Yeah, mic'd up with mom, but you're mic'd up with a friend. All right, let's go eat our face up with some samples at Costco. All right. Bye! Protein that carry me through.