Time to write about Jessica and Garrett. I started this yesterday but got on another track and wrote a different entry.

They are our new friends from our new church. Jessica is a bit older than me, I think maybe 36 like Stephen. They have a son (Jason) who will turn 3 in June and a newborn baby boy (Cole). So our kids are almost exactly the same age and distance apart.

Garrett is super into theology, just like Stephen. He runs a college theological/philosophical discussion group. Jessica is an unofficial photographer, like Stephen. Jessica and Garrett are both pretty outgoing. I connect easily with Garrett--he's just an easygoing kind of person. Jessica has been harder for me to connect with, but she has also been gone a lot, because Cole came 9 weeks early (just like Jason did) and she's been in NICU with him A LOT.

Jessica approached me a couple weeks ago because she knows we are interested in homeschooling, and we've agreed to try and do a home-preschool together for our boys. We may have one other family join us. Jessica was a teacher before she was a mom, so she's totally set in the academics part. She wants me to take the reins of the Bible teaching part. Which will be very, very interesting.

Jessica grew up in a liberal United Methodist church, so we have similar stories of our Christian journeys, I think. I am really excited to get to talk to her about that more sometime.

Jason and Micah get along fantastically. And they are so incredibly similar in development, it's really interesting. So we've definitely been pursuing them as friends and they pursuing us as friends. We haven't gotten a chance to connect much outside of church, but today Stephen took some family photos for them, and eventually (when baby brother comes along), Jessica will take family photos of us. Which is GREAT.

So anyway, after the photo shoot, we let the boys play at the playground we were at. Funny thing was, Micah and I had just been there this morning. :) We actually go to that park A LOT since it is so toddler-friendly and Micah loves it. It's mommies-friendly too. There's shade and bathrooms and picnic tables! Anyway, so I slipped right back into my usual "playtime at the red playground" mode and stood watching Micah from a distance to keep an eye on him and Jason while Garrett, Stephen, and Jessica talked.

Then Jessica called me over. "Stephanie, come sit!" she said. "Let the boys police themselves."

I was a little taken aback, mostly because I hadn't even realized I had slipped into that mode, LOL. But I knew I could see Micah from the bench too, so I went on over and sat down.

And then Jessica did her Jessica thing that I can't quite figure out yet. Which is basically asking me, "How are you?" in such a way that I feel like I MUST answer in a negative fashion or else she will ask me, "No, but really. How are you?"

It always totally takes me aback. It isn't exactly "inviting," it's more "demanding." Which is why I haven't quite figured it out yet. I can totally get behind someone gently inviting you to share deepest struggles, but demanding? So weird!

It doesn't offend me, I just can't figure it out. She's not trying to start a one-upping game of "how bad is your life compared to mine?" or anything like that. And she honestly doesn't strike me as a deeply emotional person who wants to bare her heart to the world (like, ahem, me). She just. Wants. To know. The truth. About your life. Now. No excuses.

Anyway, Stephen and I were talking about it in the car on the drive home, since this is really confounding me, and he lent some insight that helped. He thinks Jessica has got it in her head that we are destined to be soulmate friends, the four of us (and our kids). And so she wants to pow down any walls and smokescreens right this minute and get right to the heart of everything so we have no secrets from each other.

...Whoa. That's really it. Jessica hates secrets. I just figured it out.

Huh.

Well, now I'm super interested in how our next conversation will go. :)

Anyway. It will be interesting to see how Jessica and I get along. So far I have only discovered what challenges we might face. For example, she is a lot more Type A than I am. She reminds me of Elizabeth, back when we were in high school (Liz has actually mellowed a bit in her Type A tendencies since then :) ). I can already tell that I am going to have to have my boundaries in place whenever we meet. She's not a deliberate boundary-trampler, but she's just a strong personality.

It's weird how she keeps, like, implying that I should be worse off than I am saying I am. We're going to have to work on our communication in this realm.

...So I still can't finish this, apparently. Other more interesting blog topics keep popping up. So I'm just going to post this the way it is and then go on to the next one. :)

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