Blessed Beyond Measure: Friend Edition

One of the service prompts for the Light the World initiative this year was to post on social media about an influential friend or friends. I'm not on social media very often, but it occurred to me recently that I could post here!

I wouldn't be able to pick just one friend to highlight. I am blessed to have many good friends, several of whom I've known since childhood. I intend to name a few (and hopefully I can keep it to just a few, or this post would go on forever!). :)

I'm grateful for Kiera, who's been one of my best friends since kindergarten. She was and continues to be a powerful spiritual influence on my life -- in addition to being a whole lot of fun! Kiera's example and observations were so influential in helping me start to recognize the voice of the Spirit. I'm grateful for her spiritual sensitivity and also for her bottomless well of forgiveness in the times I wasn't the greatest friend.

I'm grateful for Summer, who became a good friend the first year Kiera and I weren't in the same school class. We became a trio, and I so appreciate her kindness and love.

I'm grateful for Sara, K.T., and Mikayla, who are still some of my best friends! Elementary school wouldn't have been the same without them. I love their creativity, kindness, and genuine goodness. All three of them are the kind of people who just want to do the right thing, and the world is better for it.

I'm grateful for Andrea, Ana, Ashley, Lauren, Mandy, Bree, Jenny, Belle, Aubrey, Joe, Ryan, Connor, and all my other high school friends! We may not be in contact as often as we used to be, but they truly made my high school years happy ones, and I'm better for it. I'm also grateful for Kiera's sister Whitney, who I became much closer to during and after high school (once I started growing out of the "I'm older than you so we can't hang out" phase).

Thank goodness for Jill, Mara, Holly, Lynette, Kelly, Sketti, Ary, and Katelyn. Again, we're not in contact as often as we used to be, but they were the best roommates I could have asked for!

Jennifer deserves her own paragraph. Before Jennifer moved into our apartment, I was surviving on cereal, bagels, croutons, and rice. We bonded over food and Korean dramas and never looked back. To this day, she is my "best California friend"! One of the happiest days of my life was attending her wedding to a great, worthy man. She is such a caring, intelligent, thoughtful person and I'm blessed to know her.

I also have many friends whom I met outside of school. Mission friends, the Draper family in California, Francie, Provo Temple baptistry friends and the Yarwood family in Utah are some examples. I connected with the Drapers through music. I connected with Michelle through food and Primary teaching. I love both their families so much.

There are many other people who have touched my life, and I hope to make many more friends as the journey continues. Friends help make life grand. Especially when you're as lucky in your friendships as I am. I wish everyone could have even just one true friend.

In which K.T. gets married

K.T. got married today. :)

 I was so happy to wake up to a white world this morning. K.T. was hoping for snow.

How many people does it take to build a cake?

 Spencer places the second layer while Brian holds the third and Josh (left) and Garrett (far right) supervise.

 Garrett looks kind of seductive in this picture, but really I just caught him right before he hit the camera with a full glare. "How could you let Natasha dress me up in these itchy feather boas?"

Master Chef

It takes six people to build a wedding cake! Josh, Spencer, Garrett, Brian, Natasha and Kim

Being bridesmaids

I've been friends with K.T., Mikayla and Sara for 10 years now. I'm sure glad to have met them.

K.T. and Jamie asked several of their close friends to be bridesmaids and groomsmen. I was glad they made me feel included in their special day. :)

Bachelorette party for K.T.

Some people party it up at a bachelorette party. Sara, Natasha, Mikayla, K.T. and I went to the Provo LDS temple, then to get pizza and ice cream. Irony? There's a bit of a cultural difference.

Birthday dinner for K.T.

After we graduated from high school, Sara, Mikayla, K.T. and I started a new tradition that we would treat one another to a meal for our birthdays. This year, Sara, Mikayla and I wanted to celebrate K.T.'s birthday at an extra special place because we figured it could be the last time we were all together before K.T. gets married in December. So it was sort of a "happy birthday/congratulations on getting married" dinner. We went to Olive Garden, which was delicious.

Mikayla made dessert, but immediately after dinner none of us had room to eat it. So we took a quick walk up to the Provo Temple. The sun was starting to go down and it was beautiful.

We also had fun playing with our shadows.

My attempts at art... which I am proud of

Siberian Tiger

Digital version

Hard copy version (now the property of one Mikayla B.)

Hard copy version (prior to adding color)

aka White Siberian Tiger

Sara

I just realized I haven't used one of my older pictures yet. The picture is of Sara, so I decided, rather than write about a single event that happened a month ago, I would dedicate this post to a plethora of Sara-ness! (Sara, that word was for you.) I do this without asking Sara first, but I confess that won't stop me from highlighting one of my oldest friends.

I first met Sara in fifth grade at Sego Lily Elementary. I was new to the school and pretty nervous about going there. The very first person I remember seeing is K.T., whom I'd met through my new piano teacher only a week or two before. The very next person was Sara. She greeted me with a happy smile I desperately needed, and I stuck to her like glue for the rest of the day. (Or most of it; Sara was a morning student so I stayed a little longer than her in the afternoon.) I even walked next to her in the school lunch line (I didn't buy a lunch because I brought my lunch from home), though she was a little surprised when I asked if I could.

Although I developed other friendships at school (mainly with K.T. and Mikayla), I still loved talking to and hanging out with Sara and I count myself lucky to still be her friend today. She is (and this adjective is self-proclaimed) weird, quirky (I'm accountable for that one and all that follow), thoughtful and happy. She's also a great cook.

Sara laughs while holding a box of cooking ingredients, leftover pizza, a loaf of bread and her scriptures against the wall, figuring out how to carry it all back to her apartment. This was last month when Sara and K.T. used K.T.'s kitchen to cook up a delicious storm. We (me, K.T. and Jill) offered to help her carry stuff, but she refused. "I can manage."

Sara shows us prancing during one of her very hyper moods. We were actually kind of on a date at the time. :)

Sara poses for me as I attempt to document our trip to Temple Square last November. This is a typical Sara face.

Mis amigos

Space Center with Stina, Kenzie and Zach this morning.

"Tangled" with K.T., Mikayla and Sara this evening.

Everyday life with Mara and Jill.

It's been a good day.

Tengo mucho hambre

Dear Life.

Thanks to Jill and Mara for sharing their food so willingly.

Thanks for a tender mercy- the women's basketball game being last night instead of tonight.

Thanks to Dad for dropping off mail.

Thanks to Mara and Sara for the plans tomorrow night to see Joseph (Sara's brother)'s concert.

Thanks to Mikayla, Sara and KT for the plans Saturday night.

Amazing how much you can get done in 2 1/2 hours. And how much more there is still to do.

Love, Jess