This One's For Merri : )

So, I have a friend named Merri.  I've known her just a bit longer than I've been married, but got lucky enough to be called as her visiting teacher when I moved into her ward.  If you don't know what a visiting teacher is, it's basically having the excuse to be someone's friend b/c you get to visit each other on a monthly basis and watch over each other's needs.  You get a partner to visit teach with you, and then you get an assignment of another lady or two or three from church and you visit with them each month and take them a spiritual message.  And then if anything huge happens in their life, you're supposed to be there to help them if you can.  The Relief Society is such an amazing women's organization.

At any rate, I don't think I've ever visit taught anyone longer than I have visit taught Merri...it's almost been 3 years now, I think, and it's been so much fun FOR ME.  What's fun about it is that I'm positive I've learned more from her than she's ever learned from me--I feel like she's actually my visiting teacher, if that makes sense.

Well, my friend Merri is on bed-rest right now and she's really bored, so I'm updating my blog soley so she can read it. : )  Since my blog is such an interesting thing to read, LOL.

Okay, Merri, here goes...hope you have fun reading so you can kill some time...I'm just going to type whatever comes to my mind if that's okay...it might be a little random.  I'm going to start off by stealing a picture from you:

We had a get together the other night and it was really fun.  When I walked in and saw who was there I was immediately comfortable and I'm going to say why:

Starting from left to right-ish we have Ashley.  Ashley and I have children who are the exact same age and when we met we just clicked.  It used to bug me before I had kids when my friends who had kids immediately clicked with other people who had kids simply because they had kids.  It irritated me because I couldn't have kids at the time and didn't feel part of their "club".  But that just happens sometimes and you can't always help it--like with Ashley.  Ashley cracks me up because she's so forth-right somtimes--but in a good way.  She's also been my weight loss coach and says things that no one else would have guts to say.  She can yell at me (through a TEXT, no less) to put a cookie down and I'll listen.  In fact, I attribute the last 20 pounds I've lost since I've had Emmett to my help from Ashley, because she let me borrow a heart rate monitor and motivated me to run a 10K, and honestly those 2 things have made all the difference in my desire & ability to achieve results with exercise.

Next we have Katie.  I love Katie.  A couple times I sent out a group text to see if anyone could get together and it just so happened that only Katie could. It meant a lot to me that she would be my friend and ever since then my little Tyson has begged to go to Brinton's house whenever he got the chance because Brinton has cool legos and is so nice.  Not to mention Katie has adorable children, and she's a really good example of service.  She's always serving others and in fact has coordinated a lot of things for Merri.  Apparently she's only allowed me to sign up for a couple days to help while Merri's on bed rest--even though I reminded her that I should get extra dibs because I'm her visiting teacher, but apparently there've been so many people willing to help that I am only allowed to take my fair share.  I know for a fact however, that Katie has taken more than one shift in the sign ups, but thats okay.  I can still find other ways to serve Merri--even if it's something round-about like blogging.  Just kidding. I love Katie.

Then we have Elena.  I really like Elena.  She's a funny person and zealous and talented.  She is a geneology queen, has 4 children and taxi's them around everywhere, and still makes time to be apart of the lives of others.  She asked me to do a summer preschool class and it meant a lot to me that she wanted me to do one, and so we've been having a fun time with a little laid back craft group that's almost over.  I also like Elena because she put an earing in my ear for me the other day becuase I was having trouble...when she was done she told me that I was having a hard time putting it in my ear because I had something like lint in there.  LOL  How random, right?  but it's an experience we have together, so there you go.

Next we have Rachel.  There's no one in the world that I've ever met quite like Rachel.  You know how you meet someone sometime and you think, "oh, they remind me of _________".  Never once has Rachel reminded me of anyone else. She's so unique.  I like the way she laughs, and I like the insights she shares with me, and we can talk for hours on end about anything.  I am so lucky she's my friend and neighbor.  I never want to move because of her. We also have kids who are the same age and we've had some hilarious experiences.  The most recent experience was when I almost lost her son at the rec center because he decided to take an elevator ride while I was on the phone with her.  I saw him push the button and walk inside, even, but the light bulb didn't go on in my head until the doors closed and I couldn't stop them.  Then I ran upstairs with my baby in one arm and at the top of the stairs I had teenagers laughing at me because Ty was already riding the elevator down again.  And that's not even all there is to the story, but it was comical I'll say that much.  In a nutshell I was supposed to be taking care of our kids and I just couldn't that day and when she showed up she just laughed with me.

Next we have Amanda.  I really like her and feel like I could call her for something if I really needed to...I hope she could feel that way about me.  She also has sent her son to my preschool and he's so adorable.  Amanda used to teach Tyson in Nursery, and he had an absolute fit when he had to leave that class and go to Sunbeams because she & Allison T. did such a good job.  Tyson also loves Amanda's son Conner.  Conner is such a good little boy and he listens so well--I cannot tell you how good he is and the other kids totally love him.  He reminds me of Amanda.  She's the same way--just good and helpful and quiet sometimes and funny other times.  One memory of Amanda is of her laughing so hard she had to sit out of a game because she couldn't breathe.  Have you ever laughed so hard it triggered ashthma?  I didn't know that was possible until it happened to her.

And finally we have Merri (I'm sure you have your own stories about all these girls.  They're such fun people--of course they like you--you draw that kind of a crowd).  Merri is amazing.  She is one of the strongest people I have ever met.  She is determined and kind.  She serves in callings like it's no one else's business.  She magnifies it to a tee.  She loves her husband and children and takes care of them so well.  She has energetic and fun children.  I'm always amazed at her house-keeping skills and decor and lovely yard and "togetherness".  She's also a fantastic sister.  I have watched Merri sacrifice time and time again for the people she loves most in her life and her choices are a living testimony that having an eternal family is where our focus needs to rest.  I like Merri's name because it reminds me of being happy, and the spelling also reminds me of Merri in the Lord of the Rings books....  That was one of my favorite book series of all time.  Don't worry, friend, you DO NOT look like a hobbit, though. : )  Haha!  If I could tell Merri one thing it's that I hope we will always be friends.  I have learned so much from coming to your house and from being around you at church, and also from fun things like birthday parties and girl's nights.  But I'm sure all the other girls in the photo and people at church feel the same way.  Yes, we're in the same ward, but it's deeper than an assignment.  We all truly love you, we want to be like you, and just want to be your friends for always, and we're sorry you're on bed rest right now.  It totally stinks right now, but your baby is going to be so cute to boot, just like Ryan & Rylee. 

Hope you're having a great day, Merri!  Love ya!