Visit from home...

My sweet friend, Kari and her sister Stefani came down from Utah a couple of weeks ago to visit her sister Mandy in Upland and they invited us all down for Sunday dinner. It was so fun to see them and to catch up a little bit. Kari is one of those friends who is always there, no matter what, in good and bad....whatever. We grew up in the same neighborhood so we've known each other forever. She kept me sane ALOT and always stepped in whenever I needed a friend, a shoulder, chocolate, or all 3. All of our kids are the same ages and they would have been exactly except she had Olivia and I lost our baby that would have been her same age. We got Avery as a bonus but the other kids are so fun and cute together and Brittany and Bailey still email Lauren and Carter and when we go to Utah, they're always right up there on our list of "must-see now". We still talk as much as time will allow, which lately, hasn't been very good, but she lets me know what's going on in Tooele and some of the "dirt" and I keep her up on our lives here. Every time she tells me something that's not so good, she says, "But you can't use that as an excuse not to move back." I just love her and I miss hanging out with her. Our kids started in nursery in church, we started a playgroup for them, they went to preschool and then they all went to the same school. They were in dance, gymnastics, soccer, softball, you name it, we did it together. It made everything so much more fun to do it with friends. It's made me a little sad because Carson and Emma would have started the same way but I guess we'll just have to catch up in the summers.

When Avery was born, she asked me if I had any headbands for her because she knows how much I loved that with the girls. I had gotten rid of a lot of them and I couldn't find many here, so here comes a cute little box full of bows. When Cody's uncle passed away, they wanted the funeral in Tooele and didn't want the luncheon at a church so Cody and I volunteered to have it at our house. I wanted to spruce it up a little bit and Kari and her family are extremely talented and so creative, so Kari went shopping with me to buy some fun decorations for our house and she stayed at my house and helped me make window treatments and hang everything on the walls before the funeral. When I had Carson, she drove the kids to school and to preschool and home every day for 3 months so I didn't have to take him out in the winter. I can't even count the number of meals and cute gifts and when Cody was living here and I was in Utah, she brought stuff by all the time. She knew I was "losing it" a little one day and dropped by a basket full of fun stuff for the kids to do so I could have a break. I could go on and on....

This last year she has really inspired me and it's been amazing to watch her as she has battled breast cancer. She has 4 little kids and has managed to go through a grueling chemo regimen, a double mastectomy, radiation, now chemo again and she's going to have reconstruction in a couple of weeks. Every time I see the little pink ribbon, I think of her and it makes me grateful for what a true, wonderful friend I have in her and how that friendship stays strong no matter how many miles there are between us. After all she's been through, she stills calls to see how things are going with us.... she's amazing! It has been so hard to watch all of this long-distance and not be able to do anything to help. We have a Recipe Group back in Tooele who has taken her dinner twice a week for a year now and her family is almost all close by and have been there every step of the way, of course. I know she's been well taken care of, but it's kind of a helpless feeling and I would've loved to do more to help. I just hope she knows how much I love her and how grateful I am for her. I have been blessed with amazing friends and I'm thankful every day for the wonderful people around us. I don't know where we'd be without all of them. I'll just keep being grateful and hopefully try to be the kind of friend that I've found in others.