what makes a best friend?

thinking of my friends, I've realized they all have characteristics from the same small list.

they're funny.  I sure do love being friends with funny people.  it's like every interaction is just a real treat.  the other day, I caught myself reading through months of text message conversation that I'd had with weed.  it just reads better than a good book.  everything was making me smile and laugh out loud all over again.  we've been friends since birth (mine, since I'm younger) and she's still the funniest person I know.

they're candid.  I love a little tmi.  when I can sit down with someone and have a conversation where almost nothing is off limits, I naturally feel so comfortable.  we can talk about our less than glittery feelings, how rarely we actually do those less desirable chores, and any bodily function or weirdness that comes up without having to redirect the conversation.  my friend Sarah that's in my ward... this is 100% her.

they're loyal.  I have another friend from birth (hi Diana!) that I'm horribly crappy at keeping in touch with.  despite that, we are friends.  I feel confident that even if we talked for five minutes a year, for the next 20+ years, I would still consider her family and be totally fine asking for a huge last minute favor or crashing at her house if I was passing through her neck of the woods.

just these three characteristics hit most every person I consider to be a close friend.  still, there's just one more category that was hard for me to pin down.  and, as weird as it sounds, it's the people that I'm not truly good friends with... people that may not even consider me a friend.  one person in particular comes to mind... we were visiting teaching companions a few years ago and she's still in my ward.  I'm sure she thinks I'm fine and nice and just another person at church, but I have such huge respect for her as a person.  she is so kind and so hardworking and never feels sorry for herself and she's so satisfied with her life and her situation in a way that I just didn't even know was possible.  I look up to her so much and I know she has no idea.  despite this... I would be willing to make huge sacrifices for her.  so... not sure exactly how to sum up the last category.

they're just good people.  if I can watch them from near or far and see their overwhelming goodness, I can't help but love them and consider them a true friend, regardless of if they even have me on their radar.

so that's it.  this was my thought process a few weeks ago while I was driving home from the gym and thinking about why some people stand the test of time or why someone can go from stranger to best friend basically overnight.  I'll have to edit this is something changes, but basically this is it.  these four things are the best indicators of who I'll consider a friend... and if they've got multiple or all of the characteristics from the list, they're likely on the very top of my best friends list.

I'm so thankful for my friends and all of the great relationships I have in my life right now.

Brady/norah, Elizabeth/me, homemade pizza

Abigail's hair is like fine thread.  and while she sleeps, rumpelstiltskin, weaves it into this.

every morning, a new 3-D creation greets me.  it's like cotton candy gone bad.

we're in December! so we kept the December page and sent the rest of the calendar to the recycle bin.  but how cute it is that Brady crosses off each day.  he calls it his chart.  I basically turned 2017 into a to do list when I gave him this calendar.  that kid.

I went to the barbell class and then listened/read scriptures while I stretched afterward.

this is Sarah.  I'm a bad friend so I took this picture of her.  she organized a girls night for my birthday and bought me pizza and I just sit on a park bench and take pictures of her looking like a crazy person.  and then she took Brady to Costco with her and Norah and kept him until 4pm.  she is a good friend.

and so lovable.

Norah pushing Brady...

Brady pushing Norah...

while Sarah and I Marco polo'd Marissa.  it was a beautiful moment.

Elizabeth was SO SAD that Brady got to go to Costco with Norah and eat samples and she had to come home with me so I let her ride in Brady's carseat.  the whole way home she's all "so fun!!!"  ha.

I mean seriously, look at that face.  pure joy.

our neighbors have those blow up Christmas decorations on their lawn and they look so nice from 4pm-6am but then when the sun rises, it's like there was a massacre at the North Pole.

Abigail was at school, Brady at Costco with Sarah and Norah, and Andrew asleep in his carseat... so Elizabeth and I had so one on one time and it was AMAZING.  oh my gosh, she is such a funny kid.  she started saying "oh goodness!" out of the blue and only sometimes says it in the correct context so that was fun.  also, she loves acting like a grown up or like she always knows what's going on.  and she's a ham for the camera.  and she was thrilled that we shared a banana and Nutella (if you haven't already... microwave a little bowl of it and it's basically chocolate fondue) together at the start of our lunch.  when she's not driving me crazy, she is seriously the best ever.  so entertaining.

so then I put Elizabeth down for a nap around 1 and then Andrew woke up and then I semi put Andrew down for a nap and he fell asleep while I was in the shower at 1:45 and I spent some time prepping grapefruit for dinner and making pizza dough in my blender and blogging and then picked up Brady (and my mod pizza that I left in Sarah's car last night!) and then got Abigail from school.  we had a good after school time which typically doesn't happen.  the kids helped me make little pizzas.  we made four small pizzas... two cheese, two pepperoni and Elizabeth saying peppy-oni made me want to serve that for dinner every night.  she is getting so vocal with expressing what's on her mind.  during dinner, honey got a few calls/emails that wrapped him up with work and occupied him till 8:00.  and then left him in a rough mood for the rest of the night after that.  I don't want to sound ungrateful because he's got an amazing job, but man, it consumes him.  so then the kids all went crazy at 7 when I asked them to get ready for bed.  why does this happen?! they'd been so calm and listening to that point and they instantly got soooo hyper and silly.  I know I'm a terrible mother but I pretty much hate the sound of my kids' laughter.  It almost always is when they're supposed to be doing something like getting ready for bed but they're just messing around instead.  I really shouldn't care except that I told them to get ready at 7 so we could have plenty of time to read Christmas books before bed... but they messed around for 45 minutes and Abigail barely scraped by to get ready... we had 7 minutes and used that time for one picture book, prayers, and one scripture story... during that 7 minutes, Brady finally decided to clean his room and finished two seconds after I announced to Abigail that it was lights out.  then he went ballistic because he missed his chance and I thought to myself for the millionth time... "this is why I hate the sound of my kids' laughter.  it's just a precursor to THIS."  ugh... anyway.  eventually all the kids were asleep and my kitchen was semi cleaned and I gave myself a pat on the back for surviving one more day.

but seriously... that time with Elizabeth today was pure gold.

birthday pizza!

I literally just listened to this chapter yesterday on my phone at the gym and nothing really stuck out to me and then I opened to this chapter in my little book of mormon and these verses just stood out.  I'm such a visual person.  reading on paper makes all the difference.

I set Andrew on my bed to hang out while I ran upstairs to put Elizabeth down for nap and when I came back, he'd passed out.  ugh.  frustrating when you just need to be in two places at once.

Sarah is one of the most unclear texters I know.  I got this as I pulled in the garage after visiting teaching and was so confused.  even two hours later, I was still trying to figure out who was going to watch my kids, etc.  I wondered if maybe she'd ask Jane to come over but texted my honey and found out that he had plans to be home by 5 so I could go.  what a fun surprise!  I chose mod pizza as our spot and Sarah and Jill picked me up and Janel met us there.

wanna know what else was really fun about the day? Abigail has been talking about this girl, Fiona, that lives on our block (although I just found out which house she lives in) for a while and playing with her after school and we just realized that that's the same girl that we see walk home with her brother after school each day.  I finally told Fiona that I wanted to go over and meet her mom and when I did, I could instantly tell that I liked her.  we talked for only a few minutes before I mentioned that we go to the church on the other side of the neighborhood and she's all "the LDS church?!" yup... that one.  and then she excitedly tells me "my best friend is LDS!!!"  they just moved here from longmont and the LDS friend actually just moved from longmont to New York and I was just hearing all about it but it was seriously the most hilarious thing to me that it gave me such an instant connection with it.  she had so many questions about why there are so many mormons in Parker and why all of the ward buildings here look different than the ones in longmont and she was so excited to tell her kids that Abigail is mormon just like their best friends.  I'm excited to get to know this lady better.  also excited that Abigail's friend isn't part of a weird family where I have to make up excuses of why they can't play together.  ; )

no school!

the kids had no school because of Election Day so I had plans to take them to the library for story time.  but Sarah called and said one of our other friends, Sara, was in a huge bind and needed help.  so Sarah dropped off Alice and Norah at my house so she could run over to help Sara.  the kids all had a blast and even cleaned up the house after they trashed it.  ; )

at one point, I heard Andrew crying and so I was just finishing up what I was doing before going to help him.  then, mysteriously, the crying stopped. when I went to check it out, I found out why.  Norah and Elizabeth were being the sweetest little babysitters.

about a month ago, when we were in for Abigail's medication evaluation, the doctor said we'd need to come back in 3-4 weeks but that he didn't have any availability so he made a special note to let the receptionist schedule us in an "urgent" or "emergency" or something slot that they keep open.  the times were all inconveniently around 1-1:30 so I scheduled it but was stressing how I would find childcare during nap time and on a school day and when I wouldn't be back before other people needed to pick up kids from school and how would I get Brady to preschool when I needed to be taking Abigail to this appointment.  well, miracle of miracles... I had no clue (because Tuesday is RANDOM) but thank goodness for the kids to not have school.  Abigail didn't need to miss school, I didn't have to worry about getting Brady to preschool, and Elizabeth still got her nap because I was able to have Jane come over to watch her and Brady.  big win.

those doe eyes.

after we got home again, Brady asked if he could play outside.  ummm sure.  I thought for sure he wouldn't last because it was so cold and wet and rainy.  he lasted.  he played golf in his puffy coat in wet, 29* weather.

he seriously looked so pathetic retrieving his golf balls all alone in that miserable weather but I applauded the kid for getting some fresh air.  I'm a fair weather person myself.

I left Andrew on the rug in Elizabeth's room.  later, Abigail came to me, almost giddy, and asked me to guess where she'd put Andrew.  and then I ran to get him off of this chair.  I have never told my kids that they are allowed to hold or pick Andrew up without my help so why do they think it's totally fine?!

I decided that it had been long enough and my kids needed to learn about pomegranates.  so, we had an educational lesson at the kitchen table about what they are and what we eat/don't eat and how to open them and extract what we want, etc.  they all thought it was so cool.  the good/bad news is that they really like pomegranate seeds.  don't get me wrong, it's great that they almost always enjoy new foods they're introduced to, but sometimes it's nice to not have to share something five ways.

this makes me start humming "for the beauty of the earth" because, seriously, how amazing and creative is this!?

and snuggling before bedtime.

hillier breakfast, shopping, and RS broadcast

Steph was in town for a wedding so we all got together at the hillier's (currently mark and Anna's place of residence) for breakfast.  it was really fun but I did feel like we needed a cardboard cutout of Klaudette.  also entertaining that no one could find anything in the kitchen because it wasn't where it normally would be.  

after breakfast, Chris had Abigail and Brady in his car and I had Elizabeth and Andrew in mine and I had the bright idea to go shopping for workout clothes since I was so close to ross and old navy.  if I was even brighter, I would have thought to meet Chris at the bottom of the neighborhood and have him take ALL the kids home with him.  I shopped through several tortuous hours with Elizabeth and Andrew.  Elizabeth was horrific.  she is so feisty these days.  don't worry, she only managed to scream or yell or whine in every store we went in because heaven forbid should ross or old navy or target or Marshalls not experience her wrath.  4/4... she's such an over achiever.

so when we got home, I was SO overdosed on my kids that I told Christopher I was headed to the RS activity and broadcast and leaving all four at home with him.  of course when I got there they'd finished the service project early so I couldn't help with that and then dinner was a very light salad and roll and then we sat around for an hour waiting for the broadcast and it was just a waste of time and I was a little bitter about it.  so then just a little before 6, honey texts me that Andrew wasn't taking the bottle.  I know he can because he just took one 9 days ago according to my app and I've been giving him a bottle at least every week or two.  I would have had him keep trying for a while before I headed home but I wanted to try to get home before the broadcast if I was going to have to go home.  I'd rather watch the whole thing at home than drive home and miss part of the middle.  my phone was on silent and when I walked in the door, honey was all "did you get my texts?" nope... sure didn't.

so, oh well.  that was. waste of two hours at the stake center but I did love locking myself in my bedroom and enjoying the broadcast all cozied up in bed with my sweet baby.

and it wasn't a complete waste because I got to hang out with Sarah and Jane.  I'm not gonna explain how she got herself in this situation (I don't even fully understand the physics behind it because it happened so fast) but it made that trip to the take center totally worth it.

my first broncos game!

honey got tickets to the first broncos game of the year.  it was my first NFL game ever.  we invited the cottles and it was fun to have Sarah with me because she'd never been to a game either.  so we got to experience that first together.  the weather was amazing, the game was close at the end, and the broncos pulled off the win.  it was perfect.

on a funny side note... I found out our babysitter is even younger than I thought she was.  so I left my three children plus new baby at my house for six hours with just a ten year old babysitter.  HA!  don't worry.  Elizabeth and Andrew slept the entire time and Brady and Abigail were asleep within the hour.  but even if there'd been problems, I have full confidence, it all would have worked out just great.