Missed you!

Ooooh. We missed you if you weren't there on Tuesday night. Really missed you!

What a fun, exhausting, crazy, night! There were A LOT of people there to hear about our little adventure. Yikes! And I talked - A LOT. I am a chatter, as you know. I tried to talk as fast as I could to get it all in, but yeesh, there's a lot to say. So I went on for a hour and a half and have felt guilty since. Sorry to you lovlies who made it, hope you were able to glue your ears back on after I talked them all off.

I want to say thank you to many of you who made the trip to happy valley, just to see me! What FUN it was to see so many of my friends from so many different times in my life, all in one spot!

From my entire life, came my parents and two of my sisters. My mom and sister even helped in the little fashion show, thank you! Thank you for coming to support me and for being a strength in my life. My dear dad came and was the only man in a very big sea of women, thank you!

From college, came Tiff. What a dear friend to pack up her three kids and head down here for me. She is such a great support and help. She even manned the kitchen for my part of the food after the meeting, so I could chat! She helped me get all my junk together and set up as well. Thank you for sacrificing three days of your life for me, Tiff. I hope you know how much it means to me. AND, the day at Lagoon was awesome, too! Thank you!

From my newlywed years, came my dearest Johanson's! Two daughters (Tiffani and Holli), their mom Stephanie, and her mom, Marilyn. Well, you can guess how I cried and squeeled when I saw them. (we missed you Mandi!!!) They live in Texas now days and just happened to be here in Utah for the week. Thank you SO much for making the effort to come and see me. What fun! Let's get together SOON!

From the basement years, came Stacey (and her wonderful mom, Vicky). (that would be the time that we both lived in our parent's basements with little kids and babies) Recently returned from AZ back to happy valley, so very fun to have another dear friend attend. She wore the most awesome abaya/zebra print bathing suit in the fashion show section for me. That's because she's so dang skinny now, that it even looked cute on her! If that's possible for such a horrible outfit to look cute on any one. But it did on her; thank you!!

From the beginning of life in the Big Blue House, came Aimee (and her SIL Julie, too). From just across town, but they made the effort to come and support me. Aimee, I have written of before (like all of these people), she is a saint. I can't imagine life without her. As usual, while everyone else, especially me, was just chatting away, she was busy in the RS room cleaning and packing up all my stuff for me. Truly always thinking of others, thank you!

From life here, came so very many others! I think I listed all of the people from outside of my ward that came. If I forgot you, I'm sorry! Comment and tell me, and then I'll feel bad - and that will be good for me. :) The RS room was packed to the gills. We laughed, we cried, we oohed, awed, and tisked. (that's tisk, tisk tisk, - as in,' can you imagine?', kind of tisking) But many of you that read this crazy blog of mine can imagine, because you read along here the adventure with me. Thank you. And again, and huge thank you to everyone that came. I hope you went home with a little bit of a new perspective and gratitude for your life here. I know I did.

Thank you for amusing me. Thank you for commenting and lifting my spirits when it's hard to be in the Middle East. I hope you know how much I appreciate it. This blog has been a therapy for me, helping me sort out feelings, emotions, and experiences. For some reason, writing to a small audience makes it easier to keep recording and writing. Thank you.

If you didn't get to come, and wanted to, I'm sorry we missed you. If you live far away, and I come to see you (attention Seattle friends in particular) I'll give you a mini version if you'd like. Or some to see me, and I'll chat your ears off too! Can't promise my super awesome henna'd hand though, or the zebra swim suit, but we'll have a great time anyway. So until next time; I'm out. Masalama. (no idea how to spell that, but it means 'goodbye' in Arabic.)