Sisters in the Hood

"Make new friends keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." So true in my life...I'm thankful.

I've been married for almost 7 years now. Travis and I moved away to Utah 3 months after we got hitched.  It was bitter sweet at the time, to leave my family and friends, but a blessing in disguise. Travis and I had to 'grow up' pretty fast beings we were 20 and 23, Judas Priest. It's amazing, the paths you go down and the people you meet on your journey of life. One of the best things in my life are my friends. I don't have any sisters so, my life is full of a lot of friends better known to me as sisters. I've met so many life long sisters from the different places I've worked at along my journey. I've also 'ran' with the same group of women, seven to be exact, some since elementary school the others since middle and high school. Together we've become wives, mommies and aunts. We've had so many trials too, trying not to miss any(I'd be the friend with the worst memory ever btw) Infertilities, miscarriages, relocating from state to state.  Illnesses, surgeries, pregnancies and births :) Schooling, graduations, work and life in general we're there for each other through the ups and downs.

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All the friends in my life are amazing. It would be super if we could all just relocate into the same neighborhood and raise our satan spawn kids from hell together(friends that don't have any, yet, your days are numbered...) All of these women are the kind you don't have to talk to for months and you can shoot a text or pick up the phone, it's like you never missed a beat. I'm so grateful for my childhood friends and the new friends I've made from our little journey. Hello to my Utah gals, some not currently in Utah but you get that title too and you know who you are :D

Well, with this being said, I just said 'goodbye' to another 'new' friend I made 3 years ago. Man, what a rough couple of months it's been for me. I was an absentee wife/mother for the week she was fixing to leave. We tried to squeeze in every second we could to play together. Even if it was just spent packing her crap into boxes and drinking diet cokes :)

I started my job in May of 2009, we've been attached at the hip ever since. The first day we met, we just clicked. You know you have a great friendship when the week Crystal was done working my phone was going off with texts and messages asking if I was doing okay and if I needed a hug :) yes, yes I did need a hug. My bestie had left my workplace and was leaving Idaho for good.

 At work Crystal and I were known as Frick and Frak, Ying and Yang but most called us the 'two blondies' or the 'blonde girls' Crystal and I were asked weekly if we were sisters. Our answer was no for the first two years, by the end of year three we gave up and just started answering "yes."

We had a lot of firsts together. For me, the purchase of the first Henderson home, and my first baby. Together we ran our first half marathon we trained daily for...not. Most of the time we'd skip running and drive to get a snow cone or Costa Vida salad where we would close down the place and refill our diet cokes give or take one million times.

Crystal's firsts consisted of her falling in love with Andrew Smith, getting married and moving to California to be a beach bum. Just kidding she's already got a job and sees celebrites on a daily basis. Her other first in life is ending up being best friends to one of the craziest women she will have ever met (side note is I might be crazy but damn it I'm a fun person) well I think so anyways!!

Crystal is so selfless, loving, and beautiful inside and out. She has a very strong testimony and love for her heavenly father, I was her wild and she was my calm. We always dedicated songs to each other during our workday, just out loud for example I was always going to sing at her wedding a lovely piece from Milivanilli or Mariah Carey. Something really sick like that. When we would be at work together, we just knew what each other was thinking all the time, no words necessary. Before she found her now husband, I was always telling Travis that I'd be fine if she wanted to live with us and be a 'live in' for the rest of her life. She agreed to this if she hit 30 and wasn't hitched. Andy ruined it, thanks a lot Mr. Smith. I could have had a sister wife doing all the crap I didn't want to do, haha!! Offer's always on the table Crystal ;)

We can shop together and wander Target and TJMaxx for hours and I miss that. I wander aimlessly around these stores and take pictures of Maddox and I with obnoxious things on our heads or something we're eating with the words, "wish you were here" attached to the text.

She's been gone for almost 2 months now and I'm a mess. Ahhhh life, whata ride sometime huh? So I helped her pack her room before we parted ways, we hugged/sobbed/embraced before she left. Love you sister!! I love you two million Red Bulls. Three million Casa Mexico salsa and chips and four million Red Robin fry baskets!

Love you Serena ;D -that "R" is rolled heavy just for you...