Stacey, me, and Amy, posing for the camera.
This is what happens when I ask Peter to take pictures. He takes pics like this. I was hoping he'd get some good candid shots of us, but no. PETER!! (On a side note, you can see my arm, which has some fairly good shape to it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, see my previous post.)
Amy was one of my bridesmaids when I got married. She and I had a lot of fun in high school. When I think back on it I realize that we were the silliest girls sometimes. We did some really funny things. At least they were funny to us. A few examples:
- We were obsessed with the movie Titanic during our senior year and so we went to see it every week for at least a month while it was out in the theaters. One time I accidentally left my headlights on and so, three hours later, my car was totally dead when the movie got out. My Dad had to come and jump-start the battery.
- Amy was witness to some of the most embarrassing things ever to happen to me when we went on a disastrous (for me) ski trip together in New Hampshire in 11th grade. I haven't been skiing since and I don't think I'll ever do it again. It was that bad.
- We used to go cruising around in her mom's cool green minivan before either of us had our own car. Good times, good times.
- I went on a plane ride for the first time in my life with Amy. It was Spring Break of our junior year, and we went down to Florida, where we stayed with her sweet and amusing grandparents. We went to the beach a lot and of course, to Disney World. So much fun!
- We were just about the only girls at the prom who wore short dresses. Amy and I had good runner's legs, so we wanted to show them off. Everyone else wore long, elegant gowns, but not us.
- We both quit the track team our senior year within a week of each other. We had Physics class together and the teacher was the track coach. He didn't like us very much after that. It was awkward, but at least we had each other!
- And many, many more things that I could probably write an entertaining teenage novel about.
That's Amy in the middle of the picture, surrounded by my other bridesmaids: my sisters Elizabeth and Jennifer and my niece Hayley. I've always really liked this picture.
Stacey and I endured a truly horrible Chemistry class together in 11th grade. I have no idea how the teacher, Mrs. Bent, ever got hired by the school district. We left that class knowing next to nothing about Chemistry. This probably explains why I had such a tough time with it in college. Thanks a lot, Mrs. Bent! Stacey understands. She and I both married a guy with the last name of Carlson, so we're each "Mrs. Carlson" now. Also, when she got married almost two years ago, her wedding dress was one of the most gorgeous I've ever seen. She looked like a princess bride in it.
The beautiful bride in her beautiful gown...
Mr. and Mrs. Carlson. Now we're family!
Weekend Old Friend Incident #2. My mother came down later on Saturday because we were invited over to the Starr's house for a special lunch on Sunday afternoon. The Starrs are a family in our ward at church. Shortly after we moved here, Cathy Starr and I were chatting and discovered a cool, very surprising connection--she and my mother had known each other as teenagers in Massachusetts when my mother first joined the church. Cathy's family, particularly her parents, helped my mother out a lot during that time. Her mother, LaRae Lowry, was someone I grew up hearing about, and LaRae was visiting this weekend, so she and my mother got to see each other again after many, many years, and I got to meet her. It was really neat and we had such a nice time visiting over there.
So it was a great weekend with some special friends. It's really nice to maintain connections over the years with people who mean a lot to you. I hope these connections will last a lifetime, perhaps even longer. Next weekend I'll be getting together with some other friends from high school. One of the great things about summer is that it's the best time for reunions!
