What does it take to make, maintain, cultivate and celebrate a friendship? Somehow, a group of 17 friends have done just that for more than 35 years. No one has been "voted off the island."...and probably never will. We explore the secrets behind this special group of GNOmies, who have made an impact on the lives of MANY they have encountered over the years.
What does it take to make, maintain, cultivate and celebrate a friendship? Somehow, a group of 17 friends have done just that for more than 35 years. No one has been "voted off the island."...and probably never will. We explore the secrets behind this special group of GNOmies, who have made an impact on the lives of MANY they have encountered over the years.
I didn't know anything about it, but they actually connected with Patrick he and I were navigating our divorce at the time, but they got. And planned and organized a dinner of all of us to celebrate my mom. And I don't remember what, I don't remember where people sat. I don't remember what people wore. I don't even remember what, what was said that day, but I do know that I was surrounded with love and support that I didn't even know. I need it All right, good evening. And welcome to the kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota. Nice. That it desperately needs. I have a very special opportunity here tonight. My wife is hosting what she calls gallon times day, which is, you know, sappy and quite lovely at the same time. And, at the party tonight, we have, uh, 13 of the 17. Is that about right? Maybe 12 of the 17 gals that have been friends since college, none of them have been voted off the island. And tonight I would like to get to the bottom of that. We have Kerry Reichenbach who, uh, did not go to St. Thomas, but she's a put the mic closer to your mouth when you're making hand gestures, because those are good on, on podcasts. Carrie was wondering why we weren't videotaping this because she looks so cute tonight. And then we've got, Jill Petkoff. Also known as Joel Pelkey. And then we have Melissa Yeomans, used to be, Missy Larson, welcome ladies. Welcome to the clubhouse. Don't you can't do claps. You have to talk. We talk into the mic now, the mic, it works better when the mic is near your mouth. Very nice pretend. It's a. Oh, I have that, right? Yeah. The ladies have their drinks. So as I mentioned, this is a group that has been together for many, many years through thick and thin. And I just would like to find out what the magic is with this group of friends that you guys have. What's the secret sauce? What is the secret sauce? For starters, this group really kind of originated. So there are little pockets of you that came from different high schools. Correct. Like Missy, weren't you with a, there were a couple of Burnsville gals that were, that were eight. You and Amy are part of the original group. Okay. And how's with wonder, you were with wonder. Okay. And what high school was at rose smile. Smile. I don't know. And then chill. You were part of the, uh, the, the, the, the tough ass crew from the Northeast Minneapolis? Uh, yes, indeed. What was the name of that school? Columbia Heights Heights, baby. The group of you all got together, uh, in your college years and Missy as the, the loan representative of, uh, St. Thomas. The only one whose parents loved her enough to send her to St. Thomas, tell us about, how this group form a lot of it started freshman year on our lovely voice freshman year on our floor. There was a bunch of us that lived on second north Dowling, second north. So Patty and Karen lived next door to me. And then on the other side of me was legs and. Unbelievable. So that is kind of how that got started. I think it really is remarkable how residence life can have such an influence on your lifelong relationships. What was interesting was on our floor. Most people came with a friend from high school. Okay. So we all were paired up as twos, but then we all got to be really good friends and the twos multiplied the sort of two by two sort of like Noah's Ark. And then it was just friend to friend who do you know, how do you, and then, but I think most of this really started almost at the end of college when we all really came together. And you mentioned that you're wonder, who is our friend who lives down in the Tampa area? Who's not with us, she's with us, but she's not here tonight. She's always with us in spirit and in and in mind. But, so where did you go to school? I went to Rosemont, but we even went to middle school together, I went to Mankato first and then the U of M. And it was when I was visiting her one weekend that I actually met Tom Ray, come back. Well, Tom Rankin buck, nobody even knows that his name is Tom. He's known mostly as Wally. That's my main connection, I think too, between Beth and when Wiley and I started dating. I think our junior year of college. Okay. So that's on, right? Oh, well I think even earlier while we used to hang out on our floor all the time, I would say sophomore year, wasn't it. Holly? I don't remember. We're real romantic that way. So it's nice because we're super good friends with her husband too, which was an added bonus. Why we even like carry more? Yeah. And Wally and Brian Yeomans are a couple of silver Fox. Yeah, it's silver foxes, but, um, yeah, one of the byproducts of this group of 17 friends is I actually have friends, by virtue of those, uh, those relationships. I didn't have to work very hard for them. They were just friends that just happened to come about now, Jill, um, you feel like as we're sitting here in the podcast studio, who, who does, what does this remind you of. Peach sweaty. Schweddy balls. Thank you. How did you get sucked into this group? I mean, how did you get welcomed into this group? Well, I was fortunate enough to go to high school with several of the gals that eventually went to St. Thomas. And when I would come home from Mankato, um, the first year, my freshman year, someone had a party down. Kevin. I don't know. And you weren't going to miss that? Oh no. So Chrissy hooked me up and we probably heard there were going to be boys there. Oh, for sure. Yeah. No, my freshman year when I was 18, I met them. And so yeah, it was, I think there was a game of like hide and go seek. I bet there was in a house at St. Thomas and Chrissy's house. So post college, how does this group work? Cause you guys seem to meet an awful lot. So early on there were rules and that's good. So friendships have rules call. If you didn't come to a girls' weekend and you weren't pregnant within three months, or there had just had a baby with him. You weren't supposed to be able to come back the next year, take a year off. It was very early on if I recall this, but I don't think anyone was strict. I think it was just, we have really good planners in this group. Definitely. I think there's a lot of them. And because of that, people like you get a little peer pressured at the beginning, you know, like if you're not going to make it for some reason, well, why not? What do you have on it going on? You know? And it helped throughout the years, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. So we're, we're officially past the boring part of this interview. Let's talk about the people in the group. You mentioned that you have planners. Yeah. Who, who comes to top of mind? I have my ideas as to who the planners are like, you're married, you're married. She's she's she's so extra Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy, and Becky. Uh, I mean, I think everybody has their, everyone had their events early on with how it worked. Like everybody was in charge of something throughout the. And that's how everyone brings a little, contribute our own thing to the group. Right? What you say you bring to the group? Carry charm. Good luck. Sweetest thing ever. She is the sweetest, the cutest clothes. So can I tell you, I have come up with Nomi names for all you cows. Oh, that's here. You know how like the seven dwarfs, you know, we have sleepy. Um, oh boy, I have, I'm a little nervous that that's okay. You'll be fine. Um, yeah. I have a Carrie, I have cutie. She's the cutest thing. Cute as can be. That's so sweet. I've got. Jill as Blinky. Yes she is. And in fact for Jill's 40th birthday party. So that's another thing which you'll probably bring up tonight, themes, all the activity, all the themes, um, for Jill's party, it was all about being pretty in the hall. It was the, um, the nail salon, Hollywood, Hollywood night, Hollywood walk, Missy, your Gabby. Oh, totally. I couldn't think of something that has anything to do with, um, a gossip. You really have that written down or did you have to change it to something nice now was the columnist that you were, we would see. Yes. So I'm going to, I'm going to say a name and I want you to guess who they are, whose salty. Linda dang. Dang. Who's crafty. Karen who's sporty. And she still wears her. Let check. We get some secrets forties in the group though. Two different events whose chatty well she's Gabby. Is chatty who's chefy Becky who's busy. Trissy okay. We'll get to the rest of these later. So, so far so good. I think I've got you all figured out for sure. Good observations. is there an initiation that goes west for me, but I fell for it. It was fake. Karen sent me out, oh, this will be edited. But the first girls' weekend I went on. She said you have, you have to lift your shirt and press your chest against the sliding door. Right. Eggs and sausage. I was all in court. It looks a lot better. I didn't care. I wouldn't do it now. It seems like a good Galentine's day. That was at 22 though. Mind you? Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. Things were different back then. Yeah, indeed. They were. I think I would never fall for it to keep drinking. Jill, I would say another big thing about this group is nobody's sweats, the small stuff. Like it just, it never seemed to be grudging new floats off you and for how many different personalities and interests and. Yeah, it is. It's just a great group. It really is. It's like this great stew and you all bring something different to the stew. And I said to Becky, the other day we were driving home and I said something about, I can't remember what it was, but she said, oh no, that would not. And I'm like, well, who's the most likely to do that. And she's like, no one would do that because they just know that it wouldn't fly. There's no drama. There's, you know, it's a balance of commitment and maybe rules, like you said, because it is so easy just to blow stuff off and not show up. But this group. Has this accountability I was thinking the same thing need to be together. And all I really understanding too, like, I mean, everybody has lives outside of this, but they still make this a priority to make the time. Let me ask. The you have, you all live in different communities, you all have different friend groups outside of this friend group. how have these friendships impacted the friendships that you have with others? Do you feel like you are able to make these same level of friendships or I'll tell you one thing, um, and maybe you'll have to edit part of this out, but. When the whole COVID thing hit and, you know, we were all stuck at home for awhile. Um, and then once we came to the point where we could maybe get out and see people again, there were some people that I did not want to see. It was none of these girls, like for sure. They were at the top of my list. Well, that's love and others too, but I'm just saying, you know, how you sort of. Kind of work your way through, like that's a true test, the friends. Yes. The test. There we go. The test of, and I'm not saying I lost friendships or it was nothing like that at all, but it's like, Hey, if I can only go out with certain people or I can only go out, you know, because we need to be careful in case we were able to see our parents later on, or you don't. I mean, back in the day, And I say that, and it was like two years ago, but I mean, I feel like we're all still sort of living in the early days of, of, of like we had to be very careful. And the first few weeks we were able to see people. I wanted it to be good people, you know? So I was always choosy about who I saw sharing with my other friends, how this group such a successful group of women and equally as hard as they work. Fun. I mean, there's such a great balance between that. Definitely not too much of either one play hard mentality and I'm fortunate enough to not ha you know, I mean, not that anyone has to work, but I'm fortunate enough to, I haven't, since my son was since my son was born, I haven't taught, I was, I'm a teacher by trade and I, I have subbed and whatnot, but I just always am. So. Impressed with this group of women and how hard they work and how. Important it is to make time for fun as well with this groups specifically, because it's not easy. I mean, that is busy. That's one thing that Becky talks about, not a single gal in this group really was born with a silver spoon and every one of them is a hard work and, and there's no pretentions among the group. You know, I did notice the Burberry bag downstairs when we. Whoever's caring that she worked hard for it and she deserves it for her husband. Did someone did or actually check the stitch? That's very true. Everybody works hard. I mean, and I think that's cool. That's really cool. And everybody has different, different careers, which is cool, too great talent talented group from cooking to. Well, I have always said to Becky, I said, if you group a 17, decided to get together and do some kind of business venture, you guys would kill it because you've got finance people. You've got salespeople, you've got communications people. I mean, you've got everything that you would need to run a successful business. There's a lot of CEO level people. So if I was stranded on an island to make it out alive, it would be bad. Oh, well, you agree or disagree? Well, we'll have to talk about that one later. Somebody like if you want to think of Becky though, she's very resourceful. I mean, she is resourceful. I agree. She puts me to work all the time. You wouldn't believe what it took for me to get this party together today. So yeah. Great CEO that would roll her. She does roll our sleeves up, but she does expect those around her. Okay. Me to roll my sleeves up. See, and I would help on the island. Whereas you wouldn't. So that's how we see this different way. Very good point. So, um, one last question before, I'll let you guys get back and identify three new, uh, candidates for the, uh, for the torture chamber here. Have you ever wanted to vote one of them off the island? Maybe for like 10 minutes. Okay. That's it. They get a time out and then everyone was, if anything ever happened to one of these, it would just be the worst. We've been so lucky. Knock on wood. And I mean, you say, oh, maybe for 10 minutes, but just nothing permanent. So it's more of a timeout because it's just, you know, people go through life and maybe someone makes a decision or goes down a path or. Says something or whatever it might be that maybe, you know, I might not agree with, but we're all friends, we're all people. And I always say, I always say in good times and bad, I mean, like, you gotta be free. If your friends mess up, you gotta be there for them. Yeah. And I mean, that's, what's cool about this group is it's and it's, and it's very genuine. And the thing that I love about you guys is like, The shit hits the fan. You guys rally like nobody's business. Brenda's father's funeral. I mean, the number of people, I mean, everybody's got things that they have to do in the number of people that were able to make it to that. And you know, we're at a time in our lives where we're going to start losing people. And to know that you've got a group of friends, like you guys is just it's gold and you're very fortunate, very fortunate. We've gone through some divorce. We've gone through some, oh, we've had plenty of divorce through all of that. Yeah. Everybody's come out better. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all look good. I can tell you that. I wish we had the sun and camera, but we'll, uh, we'll take a picture of y'all and posted on the, uh, on the website. So you can be your Spotify picture. It could be ours. Yes, exactly. Well, thank you ladies. You guys go identify three new subjects and send them up here and off we go. Kevin. Do you love your family? I do. You love your children very much. I would imagine then you've got some life insurance. I do you know where you could get some life insurance? I do. Where do you think prion? Yeoman's our good friend. Brian Yeomans is a state farm agent. Yes, he does wear khaki pants. That's right. It Brian yeomans.com. B R I a N Y O U M a N s.com. if you're looking for a to get that life insurance. If you're looking for a place to perhaps, protect your family, your home from, you know, fire, water damage, or whatever the hell it is that, insurance companies cover. You want some, what are you can trust? You want a solid human. You want Brian Yeomans And we are back with three more victims members of the loveliest crew of friends that friends could ever have. Uh, we're here with Chris Hoss also known as Chris Reese, Krissy Bailey. Who's always been Krissy Bailey, and let's see it's Jenny Madox once Jenny Hoten. And that's it. Right? Just those two names, as far as you know, and now you have a special friend named John Torinus, will there ever be a Mrs. Terena sir? You know, she seen, why would I ask that question on, on a podcast? We'll get back. We'll get back. Thank you. I expect that you would. The first gals that we visited with, we, we had a little origin story to kind of find out where. Connected originally. Um, why don't you tell us if their story was true? What's your recollection, Chris, of, of the, the early days of connecting with this group of women? In the dorms and that St. Thomas, I just remembered that this group has you kind of evolved over the years, you became more and more known as kind of a group. And it was like lots of really hot girls in the group. And that was always fun for guys like me still are still are. Oh, absolutely. I was never present tense, but we were, well, let me go back. Do you remember freshman year? We got that book, the dog, the dog book, and you know, I have. Put in the dog book that I was pre-med. Cause I figured it'd be good for marketing purposes. Good bait. It turned out that I was a marketing major. So see how that all kind of came full circle. Um, but still have that. Wouldn't that be fun to go back and look at it. I need to dig through my you'll probably have it on hand. Yeah. When I was doing 10 bins and those were the good old days, probably hasn't filed away in a bin called dog buck, dog book. Is she in storage area to her storage area for, yeah. Then it's probably been thrown away. Just don't tell her that we haven't had that, that one got thrown away years ago. Um, so you recall it now, were you guys on the same. We were not, jenny, what are you doing here? How did you do you're still in high school when this all started? Burnsville brave. Right. Okay. That's not what they're called anymore. God's country, as I recalled Chrissy, your special friend is a member of a class of 1985. Right? Barely brings it up. Yeah, it was in his shadow there. I followed him around a lot. He was a couple years older than me. Yeah. I met Kevin in a class. Yeah. And we went to a play together. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Not like a date. I think it was more for the class. We had to go see this play was that the you'll have to ask Kevin first class in college was with him. Can you imagine the talking involved? I mean, it was epic. I, and I was a do-gooder. I was like, you two need to shut it up to listen to the teacher. Yes. Yeah. He didn't, he didn't want to get in any trouble, but Jenny, so you were in high school. How did this happen? St Thomas. So is that why you ended up at St. Thomas, you started partying there when you were in high school? No, I actually never set foot on St. Thomas until I started really. And who, how did this all work out for you? Um, worked out great. Yes. Uh, but how I met these girls, uh, first night of my freshman year, um, right off the bat, uh, Instant friend of Jenny ganja. Now Jenny killed Kelly. She was on my floor and we were the Jens on the floor. And I went to high school with Jenny. Yes, you did. Christine. Didn't like bill as did Matt mclenehan. Okay. So we decided to skip out of all of the RA fun or We heard the agenda and, uh, get it. And then yes, we were lifted off campus to, uh, where Steve Treichel live. Steve trickle and Matt McClanahan. Oh, good for you. So I said, well, we know a couple gals there. Amy Missy Larson at the time. So we hiked over there off of campus. And that's where I met all these vitals. And I went to high school with Matt and Amy went to high school, Steve, and that's how I met Amy really the first day of college. Wow. We might have to put together. Yeah, I called the, how the CDC puts together. Who was patient zero. How did this person get that person? Um, now we, we talked about the origin story that was with that group. You take a lot of trips together. Tell us about some of the travel fun that you've had as a group. Well, recently three of us will speak into the mic. Chris recently, the three of us along with Becky and Terry. I went skiing out in Tahoe and you guys have a tough life. Yeah, we do. It's really tough to keep up with all of it. My husband said, I want to live your life. Yeah. I actually, I kind of like when you guys go away, because then I can lay on the couch and not feel guilty about laying on the couch. Everybody wins, everybody wins. I called Kevin and I'm like, Hey, how's your day going? He goes fantastic. Both of you like to complain you to travel somewhere, you never complain about anything. So tell hotel about some other trips that you've been on. We have the annual trips with the summer. It be a lot of annual annual goals are compounding a little challenging. Probably the summer annual was the originator though. And that started way back when everybody was getting married. And so we would do stay gets in the summer. We, I think it was the first Lisa We started ISA. I think we did that a couple years. Then we went to Brainerd and did grand view. And Craig, I don't think we ever did. We did breeze and breezy. And so, and that's just evolved and now we've shot off and we've gone to Memphis and we've gone to new Buffalo, Buffalo several times, which is fantastic. Kenny's cabin. Didn't you go up to Jenny's cabin, which is what is that officially in Birchwood, long leg Serona Birchwood. We did a 40 at Palm Springs was in that 40 little 40 was Mexico. 40 was Mexico. Sorry. 50 50 was 10 was Palm Springs. He was Palm Springs. What, what are we doing? You know, Becky said, we're going to start doing them on the fives. Yeah, we have to. Cause we might start kicking it yet. Oh, what was her heart? We did come up with one idea that we should. On document to document that when we were in Tahoe, we said, w we need to tell our spouses and significant others that when we die, A lot of us, if you get, we get cremated that the girls get some of the ashes so we can take those ashes on the next trip. And that person we can propose the person who has passed away gets to propose where they get to go on the trip. That is a thoroughly morbid thought. Celebratory celebratory idea of people turning into hash where we're all headed Jones. I'm starting to feel sweaty. And now we're going to have 16 trips. I mean, winning the greatest place ever. And then the last one, last one. Oh, maybe the great last one or maybe you'll all go down in the same boat. Bermuda triangle. Could it be worse? I'm speechless. I don't know where to go with that, but it's a lovely thought. It is now Chrissy. You, um, the last group described you as probably the most ambitious, as far as organizing and getting things together. Um, where does that energy come from? We'd all like to, to, to figure out, maybe in the early years I was ambitious with that. I'm an organizer. No one has ever been like, uh, banished from the island. No. Anyone ever gotten close to being banished? We run a ship a lot more like we're boys than girls. It's no explained drama. John. There's no drama. There really isn't there's no drama. Um, I think we were all must have all been raised like boys. Yeah. I agree with you. You don't hear about it, you know, through the three of ours, aren't talking about somebody else, right. If right. If Chrissy had an issue with somebody, she would just go talk to that person. If I had an issue, I'd go talk to them. Yeah, it's kind of like when Becky has an issue come straight to me because I am the person. She has no problem sounding board, right. Group to stir up drama. So is, is that the, the, the magic of this group? Is it the fact that there is no drama? There's no factions. Yeah. I agree. There really. Aren't it's really drama. I think it's the no drama. Um, and people are good at snuffing it out. Like I don't you feel like even if it starts to shim? Yeah, I agree. It gets shut down. It gets ignored by the rest of, one of the things that we talked about the last group is that, you know, this group of 17 women, none of them really came with the silver spoon in their mouth. Everybody valid point, everybody is a hard worker and, you know, has had great success in their careers or whatever it is that they, and, and it's just because of the hard work that you guys put in. I have said, and I said to the last group, and I wish somebody would do it that the 17 of you got together and put together a business plan. You guys could have a very successful business. Seriously. You've got salespeople, you've got marketing people. You've got finance people. if there was one word to describe this crew, what would be the word that you would, uh, that you would apply to them? Supportive? I agree. Love love. No, one's going to even say dynamic. I agree. I would say loyal. And as this is Galentine's day, which apparently is a new thing. Yes. There's a lot of love theme going on the first day times. And why wouldn't you, because let's see, let's go through them real quick. You have. Your Christmas get together. It's about once or twice a month. Isn't it. As often as we can get by with it. And now there's a lot of empty nesters and near empty-nesters. So I think there's a lot more time on our hands to be hit. We had plenty of it when the kids were still in the, oh, I know. I know. In fact, I noticed that there was a lot of times when we went out and just left the husbands at home with the children, you know, the baby's hungry. Is somebody going to come home and feed the baby? Oh, she'll be fine. Someone left some milk around and there's yeah. Yeah. And Denise, none of our children are want for anything that is true. They're very fortunate. And that is the one thing that my wife always talks about is, we have been fortunate because we have been able to surround our children with people who really care about them. And you guys as friends, the concern and care that you show for each other's children really is quite remarkable from Maddie. Dorgan on the way over here. I mean, seriously, it's just there, it's just such a classy group. So I just want to thank you guys for being such good friends to Becky getting her out of my hair from time to time. It used to be, I used to have more asked about it because. You know, but now that the kids are gone, it's almost like a vacation. In fact, my brother-in-law Chad, Chad, I know you're listening. Hi Chad. Yeah. When the wheels are up, Chad calls me and he says, happy vacation. How many naps do you have planned for today, John? Thank you for being a good friend. Thank you for being so surprised. I think other than Kevin. Am I the only male? Oh no, Wally's the St. Thomas Guy, but Carrie's not right, but I think me and Kevin and I guess Wally, or the only, Tommy's interesting, Becky and I married. I'm the only married one. Yeah. Well, you know, call us all Spanish. All right. Well, thank you very much. I'd like you to identify the next three. Uh, the next three folks, and off we go. And we're back with a little bit of what we call a kindness Chronicles after dark with Jenny Maddox, Jenny, um, you have a special story that you wanted to share. Yeah. I think you hear so much from this group of girls, about the positive times, the fun times, the party times, the friendship times of celebrations of positive events. And I have one of. Most fondest memories of this group is a totally different type of event. Um, and it goes back if I think about the details of it, I don't remember a lot of it. Um, not because it was about 15 years ago, but because of what I was going through at that time, um, it was a year where my mom's health was rapidly declining. Um, as was my marriage at the same time. Um, so I was in a tough spot that year. And, um, as my mom was passing away, um, one of her, she grew up. But her faith was waning and, and she made me promise her that we wouldn't do any celebration, no service, nothing. And as an only child with that, um, I didn't have anyone else to lean on to say, we should do this. We shouldn't do that. What should. And, uh, so I honored her wishes and said, don't okay, no service. We did like a park bench in Como park and still go by and see that. And we spread her ashes up in Bemidji, you know, so we did a few things like that, but no official celebration in this group. I didn't know anything about it, but they actually connected with Patrick with whom he and I were navigating our divorce at the time, but they got. And planned and organized a dinner of all of us to celebrate my mom. And I don't remember what, I don't remember where people sat. I don't remember what people wore. I don't even remember what, what was said that day, but I do know that I was surrounded with love and support that I didn't even know. I need it so well, that's lovely. No, it's not a sad, so beautiful story. And, and, but, you know, I have seen that as you've described. it truly is like a family truly. And you're so fortunate. And those of us that have married into the group are fortunate to have that kind of support available for our spouse. because I would imagine I'm just imagining this, that there are times, for example, Chrissy, when you're running with Becky, that she might mention things. About me, that a rockstar. What a rockstar I am. Yes. You snuggle up to the mic so we can at least hear you talk about where the rockstar I am. I really do think it's just, you go to a funeral and it's never just one of you at the funeral. It's like six or seven or eight or nine of you. And, you know, we all have lives and we all can't be at everything. But you can just count on that group being available and being there. I don't know of another group of people that is quite like this, like I'll show pictures of your group to other friends of mine and they're just in awe. And then I'll go back and I'll show them the same group was together 25 years ago. And nobody's been kicked off the island. Nobody's been welcomed onto the islands, but it's a tough entry into this group, but you guys do all have different groups of friends and they've become friends of friends and, you know, and I just, I I'm telling you, it's a thank you for sharing. It's a beautiful community. Yeah. I remember. Two years ago. Um, my sister and her husband and my mom and stepdad were going on a cruise and I was telling, and I especially remember you Chrissy somewhere at a group that they were going on this cruise. And we were, of course invited my husband and I, I was like, well, we can't go. Who's going to watch Matthew, our oldest son who at that time was 20. Right. But he has down syndrome. You can't just leave him alone. And my go-tos would be my mom or my sister if they're going on the cruise, but they were going on her. Right. And it was like, well, you're going on that cruise. We will watch him. You know, and everybody was like, well, I'll take them off. Take him, I'll take him. And we did go on the cruise and it turned out. I found re you know, a good network. By where we live, but I would have used that network had I needed, but in my eyes I was like, well, I can't do that. It was, you know, I had my blinders on, but this group said, of course, you're going go on the cruise, go, you know, go and yourselves. But we hadn't gone on vacation. Just the two of us in like 20 years. And Chris, you've done such an amazing job with Matthew. You should be. Yeah, he's a good dude. Matthew's amazing. Yeah. So, well, that's lovely. And uh, I think we're all just very fortunate to have each other. Yeah. All right. Now you're going to go downstairs and find some more. They're going to see the Charles tearing up and they're going to go, what did he do to you up there? Right.