Mail Happenings

It's always a good day when this shows up in your mailbox.




That's right. A full-size rubber chicken. Jealous?

There are three great things about this chicken.

First, it's a CHICKEN.
Second, it's from a friend who obviously knows my taste and cares enough to send the very best.
Third, I don't know who sent it.

Why is it a good thing I don't know who sent it? Think about it. If you get a rubber chicken in the mail and don't know exactly who sent it, that means you have more than one friend capable of pulling off such hilarity. Your life is rich, indeed.

I wasn't the only one getting goodies in the mail. Zack got his prize from Marie.




It arrived intact with no meltage whatsoever. (However, if, by chance, your chocolate that you ordered online arrives melted, you just put it in the fridge and it hardens up, plus you get the chocolate for freeeee and also get coupons to buy more chocolate. But I digress...) Suffice it to say, mailing chocolate in the fall is much better than mailing it in the summer.

Thanks Marie! You're our favorite first cousin once removed living in California!

And I do have my suspicions as to who lovingly placed the chicken in my mailbox. You know who you are.

The Pot Runneth Over

I glanced at my class today as I was walking out of the lunchroom. They were all sitting at a table together, eating their lunch, talking and laughing. I flashed back to my own grade school lunch experience. I'm one of those kids lucky enough to have lots of good memories of grade school and very little bad ones. At lunch I used to sit by my friend, Kim. We'd talk and laugh just like my students do now. The lunchroom was where we declared that when we grew up we were going to college at BYU and we were going to be cheerleaders. I didn't really know what that meant, but if my friend was going to do it, then I was going to do it, too. The cheerleading part never really panned out (thank HEAVENS), but the BYU part did.

I've been reflecting on friends lately. (It might have something to do with all the incredibly nice, supportive, and loving comments I've been reading.) I've been lucky with friends. I've never had to look for them. They were just always there.

Like friends from my neighborhood that are still friends to this day. I don't know what a sister feels like, but I imagine it feels like one of those girls. I still think about them, wonder what they're doing, and hope that they're happy.

My junior high friends were so good that they turned into high school friends. And they multiplied in high school. I realize now that I basically became friends with those kids that were in my classes. Sharlene and Emily who sat in front of me in science class, Leigh, Dan, Neils, and Derek who happened to play instruments and were in the same band class as I was. RaeAnn, Shannon, Crystal, Heather and all those others who were my friends basically, if I trace it far enough, because my big brother was friends with RaeAnn's big brother.
Angie, who just so happened to be my next door neighbor my first year at BYU and was convinced that Kim's boyfriend was a vampire and who wasn't afraid to come in and talk to some girl she hardly knew. (She must have known good things were to come of this relationship...) Her friend, Heidi, became my friend because that was just the way it was supposed to be.

Becca and Angie, friends from work, that are still friends even when we don't get to work together anymore. We still have a connection that lets us share our thoughts without reservation. I like friends like that.

And then there's my family of friends. I consider myself one of the luckiest people alive to have had friends BORN into my family. If you didn't grow up with cousins, all I can say is, you. missed. out. We were so close that even though some of them lived thousands of miles away we still picked up like it had only been a week since we'd seen each other. And some cousins, who were too young or too old at the time, are now becoming better friends.

I haven't even mentioned ward friends, friends from Zack's work, and friends from old single's wards.

I guess the point I'm trying to make (to myself as much to anyone else), is that the friends pot never gets emptied out. If you were my friend 25 years ago, you are my friend now. Friends are added every year, but never subtracted.
My hope is that it continues like this forever.

So When I see my students talking to each other and becoming friends it's easy to think, "They're only friends because they happen to go to the same school and are both in my class." It's easy to think it won't last. But then I remember my past and friendships that started because we lived 2 houses away or were in the same class at school. And I believe I'm watching something great happen. I hope theirs lasts a lifetime, too.

To all our friends who are supporting us and praying for us, I just don't know what to say. I guess all I can say is, Thanks for being our friends.

Fun-due. Ha ha! Get it? FUN due?!! Because it's really Fon-due and I called it FUN due...you know, because it's fun........nevermind.

I'm in love with you fondue, even though you made my tummy hurt. A lot.



This is the table before we ate. Thanks to Jodie (and others) for the cute table decorations. Doesn't it look soooo good?










And this is the table after. It doesn't do justice to the amount of food we ate. I think D'Nell is sad because the fundue had to come to an end. I felt the sadness too, but you can't see it because you know, I'm taking the picture and stuff.

Memory Tag

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Fancy Cow

This post has been a long time coming. Uh, sorry about that, D'Nell!
But I finally finished my apron! D'Nell came over and taught me the sneaky last part that wasn't actually too hard if you could read the kryptic instructions that came with the pattern. Seriosly, did the Japanese write them?
D'Nell's apron is so cute and I can finally be a "fancy cow" when I'm cooking.
Woo hoo!

Extra-Ordinary Things

Once in a while you find yourself being aware of extraordinary moments taking place in very ordinary settings.

Take tonight, for instance.

Zack and I were at Men's Warehouse so Zack could be fitted for a tux for our friend's wedding. We are both really really excited for this wedding. This is a good friend that we've both had for almost a decade. In fact, he's the one who inadvertantly introduced us. He's getting married next month to an amazing girl that is the only girl who could make him truly happy. And he deserves to be truly happy. So, like I said, we are really excited for this wedding. And we're just really happy for him.

Back to Men's Warehouse. As I'm sitting there, watching the lady measure various sizes of my hubby's body, (I believe at one point she asked, "Where is your belly button?" Whaaa...?) , all at once I see the whole picture. Someone is getting married. And in our belief system, this is for eternity. This will be, perhaps, one of the single-most important events in his entire lifetime and for the rest of eternity. If you look at the big picture, and I mean the BIG picture, there are only a few times you can label as significant events. And it's happening here. On this earth. And Zack's getting fitted for a tux so he can look his best to celebrate this moment. And I see the significance of it all. I see how important the tux is. It may be just a fancy black suit. But there's more than that. So much more.

And so, as I sit on a chair in the store, watching my husband prepare for this wedding and imagining all the preparations that have been and will take place before the big day, I see something extraordinary happening. And I'm excited for it.