Feeling a Little Verklempt

Ugh. Sometimes having all of these womanly hormones and excess of emotions is exhausting. The tears welling up, the lump in the throat, the goosebumps you get when you read somebody’s personal thoughts and expressions of love for you. Sometimes, it feels overwhelming and like I just can’t take it. But that’s the best kind of feeling, ya know? The feeling of having a heart so full it could actually, physically burst. So thank you, for all of your wonderful and fun memories of our lives together. I have known some of you longer than others, but each of you has touched me and my life forever and I am grateful for that. You are all some amazing women, and I am a lucky girl to have you in my life.

So in light of that, here are my fun (and sappy) memories of you in return:
(I’ll give a quick low-down on who this person is after their name for those of you who don’t know each other.)

Memory for Amy:
(My SIL…Jeff’s wife. They have 4 kids and live in Michigan, and her and my family kinda grew up together.)
-I remember when your family moved to the Livonia Ward, and I instantly fell in love with your cute younger brother!!
-I remember testimony meetings in Young Women’s and looking up to you and Sydney as the cool, mature Laurels…wishing to be just like you!
-I remember you and Jeff on your wedding day. How beautiful you looked and how happy and in love the two of you were. It gave me something to hope for.
-When you lived in their basement, I remember calling your Grammy and Pop-Pop “Grammy and Pop-Pop” and feeling like they were an extension of my own family…your whole family for that matter.
-I also remember begging to share the bed with you instead of Ryan on our trip to Portland for Thanksgiving. Ha ha!

Memory for Melanie:
(My sister, 3 years younger. She lives in Arizona, with her 3 kids and hilarious husband.)
-I remember when the mirror fell on you and Erin in the big bathroom. That was one of the scariest moments in our family, I think. I remember feeling so guilty because I was supposed to have been looking after you two, but was watching TV in Mom & Dad’s room instead. When they opened the door to all that glass and you standing there with a huge shard stuck in your leg, I started to scream and I had this moment of panic at the thought of anything really terrible happening to you and how awful it would be. Luckily the wounds healed and things turned out okay, but I remember feeling like I needed to be nicer to you and appreciate my family more after that.
-On a happier note, I remember rooming with you at Royal Crest after the mish, all our roomies, and having so much fun dressing up for Preference and going on marathon dates with you and Jeff.
-I remember having dinner with you and Jeff in Logan at your tiny little newlywed apartment and house (that was really small too) and introducing you to Mark for the first time.
-I remember being pregnant at the same time with Hallie and Avery.
-I remember having a blast visiting you in Mesa in February. Must do it again!

Memory for Shalee:
(SIL on the Brown side, married to Dan. Lives in Rigby, has a darling baby boy named Hadley.)
I left it on your blog, but here it is just in case…
-I remember before you and Dan got married, you came over to play games with the family. I desperately wanted to protect you from the teasing that might occur if you said something as silly as "double-fat" like somebody (ahem, okay, me) said when they were auditioning for the family. Luckily I didn't need to protect you from anything, you held your own just fine!! (And continue to do so with amazing wit and charm.)
-I remember how cute the two of you were at Dan's Homecoming. By the end of the day, you were all cuddled up on the couch, and it was a done deal. We were all secretly giggling upstairs.
-Also, I remember going to the I.F. Temple and out to lunch shortly after you and Dan were married. That was a fun afternoon, and I was so glad to have you as a SIL...still am!

Memory for Carley:
(One of the only girls I (care to) keep in touch with from Stevenson High school. She lives in Denver with her gorgeous veterinarian surgeon husband. No, he did not do surgery on Buddy, I already asked!)
I loved your memory, I had totally forgotten about that! Matt Boos is probably fat and bald by now. HA!

-I remember when you got me my first Carpenter’s tape for Christmas one year. You came over to my house to drop it off and I listened to it the entire way cross-country to go to my Grandpa’s funeral.
-I remember taking you to my church dances with Erin Stuart.
-I remember New Year's Eve with my little sister Erin and her friend Aitu Pham.
-I remember the summer we played and hung out with Lori Amey. Those were fun times. Was that between senior year and going to college? We all wore Birkenstocks, listened to lots of Indigo Girls, and went to Ann Arbor and Royal Oak a lot.

Memory for Erin:
(My sister, 5 years younger. She lives in Michigan right down the freeway from me, with 2 cute boys, and her hubby Ben.)
-Having to pry you from the door when Mom would leave…for anything.
-Aitu, Rowan, and your many other multi-ethnic friends
-Making you eat a raw mushroom
-Steven Michael Black
-Bumping into you on Temple Square that one day…perfect, cosmic timing.
-Making you a tuna-fish sandwich while you nursed Braeden after you came home from the hospital.
-Plymouth Woods Apartments and Date Nights with you…saved my life!!

Memory for Jennifer:
(Friend in my Ward. Mark is her hometeacher now too. She has 5 kids (with her 6th on the way), and lives in Plymouth with her hubby Chris.)
Left on your blog, but just in case:

My memory of you (all 2 years of kind of knowing you) is this:

One of my first Sundays in RS, you were teaching a lesson about death and you claimed yourself "the death expert". I came to find out during the course of your lesson that you'd lost both of your parents and my heart immediately went out to you. You rocked that lesson, and you continued to rock every other lesson after that. You are such a good teacher. I also love your blog and have since found out so much more about you that makes me think you are one very cool lady who I'm glad to know.

Thanks Jen!

Memory for Diane:
(Freshman year roommate, and mission companion. She lives in Utah with her 3 kids (just had #3, a baby girl in June), and her hubby Kyle.)
Ohmygosh Diane, I had totally forgotten about the stink, the Vaseline, and about midnight mass! I almost passed out in that church because it was so crowded and hot. I do remember the popsicles…and/or chocolate after every discussion we taught. And I totally remember meeting Kyle at the Olive Garden, and how (sappily) in love you were!
I also remember:
-Meeting you for the first time, being in love with Harry Connick Jr., and you telling me how you threw up in Little America…all the way down that red-carpeted hallway.
-Folk-dancing partners…too many girls in the class, so we had to dance together…I was the man, you were the girl.
-Trips to Cerveny Kostelec by train, teaching Popelka, and having some of the most spiritual moments on my mission with you.
-Our Friday night ritual of slathering peanut butter on puffed rice chocolate bars and doing facials…wondering if we’d do this kind of stuff with our husbands some day.
-Sharing the "marriage bed" in Hradec Kralove, and telling you that I loved you right after our companionship prayers before we climbed in. The whole thing was just really, really wrong.
-Realizing there’s a reason we keep popping up in each other’s lives the way we do.
-Being grateful to have a true life-long friend.