A Special Birthday

Ian turned 12 on Saturday and was ordained a Decon in the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. We are SO grateful to friends and family members that traveled to be a part of his special day. I only wish I would have taken more pictures of our get-together after church on Sunday. I guess I was too busy visiting.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations to a very handsome young boy.

A long awaited face to face visit

Way back in the day, 1984 to be exact. I was 10 years old and in 4th grade. We were doing a unit in school on learning to write letters and how to address the outside of an envelope. My 4th grade class was paired up with another 4th grade class in Atlanta Georgia and we were given the assignment to write letters to our new pen-pals. My pen-pal was Wendy. We each wrote letters and this continued through the entire 4th grade. We continued to exchange letters through the rest of grade school, and on to Jr. High and even High School. We learned about each others likes and dislikes, we talked a little about boys, school, our families and I felt like she had become a close friend, but the only problem was that we had never officially met or even talked on the phone. I remember begging my mom to take me to Georgia to meet my new friend. After High school we lost touch, but when I got married I sent her a wedding announcement. We kept in touch through Christmas cards and later exchanged a couple of emails. We lost touch again and I never thought that I would be able to find her again.

When I joined Facebook and Wendy popped into my mind and that I should look for her, but she wasn't on facebook yet. I then looked for her again about a year later and low and behold, there she was. My pen-pal from 4th grade, some 27 years later. We exchanged a few messages to each other and once again became re-acquainted.

Two weeks ago Wendy sent me a private message on facebook telling me that she was going to be in Salt Lake City for Christmas, and asked if I was anywhere close to Salt Lake because she'd like to find a time to get together and meet. Last Thursday we met each other for breakfast for the very first time since becoming "friends/pen-pals". It was so fun to finally meet her face-to-face and have the opportunity to catch-up on each others lives. Unfortunately we were both so excited to meet each other that we forgot to take a picture even though we both had cameras on us. Ugh! Well, since her sister lives here she said she'd probably be back in a couple of years, so we'll for sure have to take a picture next time we meet.

I wish I could thank my 4th grade teacher for giving me the opportunity to pair me up with such an awesome person that has become a true friend. This was a long awaited visit that I had hoped for so many times throughout the years.