My Friends

One of the things in my life that I am most thankful for is my friends. I love all of my friends- my old friends and my new friends and friends who I haven't seen in ages and friends who I see every day. I think I have some of the best and most loyal friends in the whole world. Some of my friends flew across the country to come to my wedding- Lisa, Candice, Jan, Heide! Some of my friends made huge sacrifices to be with me right after my baby was born- Hilary and Jan! Hilary flew from Vermont just to be with me and help me take care of Taylor. When I was 39 weeks pregnant and found out that Taylor was breech and that I might have to have a C-section before my mom was scheduled to fly out my friend Candice- who is pregnant herself- offered to leave her 2 young girls, drive from Utah and stay with me. (Side note- I didn't have to have a C-section- Taylor turned on her own before I went into labor.) My friend Amy offered to drive from Utah and come stay with me to help me with Taylor too. Friends from church brought me meals and showed such kindness to me after Taylor was born. I love all of you!

I was just looking through some pictures of me and my 2 oldest and best friends, Hilary and Jan. We have known each other since the 7th grade and they were my 2 bride's maids at my wedding. This picture is of Jan, Hilary and me in February of last year when Hilary flew to Colorado from Vermont to visit me and Jan. Whenever we are together, it's like we have never been apart. After high school Jan and I lost contact for about 5 years. When I moved to Colorado for my job, Jan had been living in Denver for 4 years and Hilary said, "You guys need to get back in touch!" Finally we did, and we both wondered how we had ever lived without each other! I never laugh as hard as I do when I am with these 2 girls. We are just silly and weird and we love it. We do the stupidest things when we're together and we are amused. For example, at my work Christmas party the supervisors gave all of us pee-ons these really HIDEOUS mugs filled with candy. The mugs looked like they came from the dollar store. They were really, really, UGLY. When Hilary was visiting, she and I decided that the mug had to be destroyed as nothing so ugly should ever be kept. Jan's apartment in Denver was on the 3rd floor, so we decided to drop the mug from her balcony to watch it smash. I know to anyone but us this seems so infantile and strange. We wrapped the mug up in a Whole Foods bag and dropped it. We even recorded the whole incident. Well, when the mug dropped, it didn't just smash, it exploded right through the bag. We were all laughing so hard, I thought I was going to pee my pants. We amuse ourselves just sitting around talking. I think the three of us could talk for 3 days straight and never tire of each other's company. We would probably be exhausted from laughing so hard though! In high school, we didn't do the things that most of the kids in our class did like drink and smoke and party. Instead, we pranked our teachers and drove up to gas stations and asked for 25 cents worth of gas among other silly things.

There's a song by Dar Williams called "My Friends" and I think she sums up my feelings about my friends pretty well when she said, "I have a friend in a bright and distant town- she's found a common balance where you do your work, and you do your love and they pay you, and praise your many talents. Well I'm passing through, and we know we won't sleep. She laughs, puts up the tea, she says, "You know I think you remember every part of me."And the water starts to boil, and if I had a camera showing all the light we give and showing where the light extends I'd give it to my friends."