30 Days of Thanks #6

I AM THANKFUL FOR MY CHRISTINE.

My dear sweet Christine. My amazing friend of ten years now? Sheesh. This girl is amazing. Do you know her? Well you should.

Good grief! Look how young!

We've been the best of friends since college. What a time that was! She invited me to live with her our second year and I said yes, even though I didn't know her that well. There was a big mix up involving my then roommate and, well, that's another story altogether and it didn't end well. Anyway, we got to know each other, perhaps two weeks before school started. She came to stay with me in my apartment off campus. Again, another long story is involved. Don't worry. You shall all know the details when my book comes out.



ANYWAY, have you ever had a friend that you felt like you knew before? I mean, we'd met a long time before, but hadn't really gotten to know one another. So we start talking and we were very similar and had a lot in common and laughed and giggled and I am positive I knew this girl in heaven.



We had an amazing year and it's hard to believe that we only lived together for 9 months. For real! All, well, most of our crazy memories are from one school year. That's all it took, really. We had so so so much fun. And we had bad times and hard times and sad times and downright weird times.


We hosted a Thanksgiving for all our friends and somehow managed to squeeze like 20 people into our tiny living room. We went on insane road trips and met some out of this world people. We dressed up and had girls nights. We sat around and did nothing. We made fun of people and had our inside jokes. We annoyed each other, I'm sure. But not enough to remember. We talked about boys and cried about boys and laughed about boys and gave each other pep talks about boys. We were girly and hormonal and crazy and it was one of the best times of my life.



Poor girl put up with a lot living with me. Once we were getting ready to go to a dance and I got out of the shower and got dressed and out of pure hormonal rage declared that we were NOT going because I was too fat. (we ended up going) She had to put up with Thom and my lovey-dovey making out and hugging and blah blah. (we lived four hours apart and he came to see me every two weeks er so. what do you expect?) She lived with my grumpy PMS-y sad self. And I'm pretty sure I can embarrass her like no one can. She makes me happy.

Me, Christine, and Stephanie, who is a pretty amazing girl herself!

We've basically grown up together. Not through the necessarily awkward stages, thank goodness, but through all the good stuff, you know? College, weddings, baby showers, moving, deaths, missionaries, haircuts, gay ex-boyfriends. You name it, we've been through it together.

There's that cute Stephanie again!

So in my life I have had a lot of friends. Good friends, you know? But I move or they and we grow apart and we still know each other, but don't keep in touch very well. Such is not the case with my dear Bikini. (my little pet name for her. You know she loves it!) She is my sister I never had. She is my bestest friend in the whole entire world. She knows me better than almost anyone. She is awesome.

She is currently in Denver. She had her baby, Kaeleigh, 7 weeks early. Kaeleigh is in the NICU and Christine and her wonderful, phenomenal hubby Mike, are living temporarily nearby. She is going through SO much and I want to help her with all my heart. I will be traveling to see her soon...as soon as the plague leaves my home. (no not H1N1, just crappy nasty boogies and coughs)

She puts up with my boy too!

She has been there for me so many times and I am just so grateful for her. She is fabulous and smart and funny and beautiful and has been my dearest friend when I needed one. I don't know what I would have done with out her all these years. I hope she knows how much I loves her. Because it's lots. And lots.

You see! I told you she was beautiful!

PS Her hubby is also one of my good friends and I am SO glad they are together. He takes such good care of her and they make each other so happy. And he is awesome. I love them both. I am thankful for them.

Mike and Izacc. They both had plaid shirts on. There is a pretty funny story that goes along with this picture. It involes Izacc tipping over and Mike not exactly knowing how to handle the situation. Let's just say it was priceless.