Stace Face

Although I've known her since we were babies, I remember really getting to know Stacey in 7th grade when all the elementary schools in town dumped into one of the two junior highs in Independence, Missouri. We were so excited to finally go to school together.

I'm convinced school is the best place to find a friend for life.

Junior high is when all the laughing began. All it took was a look, a glance. And then it would start...that uncontrollable laughing, sometimes even snorting! Stacey remembers a time when, in Mr. Martin's class, (she says) I made her laugh and she got sent out in the hall (this part is TRUE). I remember it a little differently. She was usually the instigator, the one who gave the funny look first.

There were nicknames. Stace-Face. Tracella. It's fuzzy, but I'm also thinking the Tracella went with Leona Lovelylegs. 

We were together all the time, hanging at the mall on Saturdays and spending the night with one another. My parents were crazy about Stacey and I think her parents felt the same about me, so we even went on family vacations with each other.

When I had to move to Oklahoma at the age of 16, Stacey and I were pretty devastated. People wrote letters back then, so that's what we did. Life went on. We finished high school, got married to V's...first me to Vaughn. Then her to Vance. She's a teacher, I'm a teacher. Both the misters have cabinet businesses and about a million other things in common. We both love our kids and dogs and church and home.

And we've continued being friends. The lifelong kind. We make a conscious effort to keep in touch, now by email more than snail mail, but we also meet at in-between places once and awhile, and sometimes visit in the others home. We still laugh and laugh and laugh. We like to shop together (but which girls don't?), especially flea markets lately. It doesn't take us a minute to fall back into "us". No awkward moments for Tracella and Stace Face. 

This is us last weekend, saying bye at the shopping center. Until next time.

It's all that history, all those giggles, and some tears too, that will forever keep us connected.