AnnMarie

My great friend, AnnMarie, has moved. I'm sad and lonely without them here so I thought I'd blog our story (ooh, sounds epic!) so she and everyone else knows just how much it sucks for me that she's gone. True to form, when I'm having fun I don't take pictures, so many important things to me don't get visual documentation unless someone else has a camera - you'll just have to imagine all this fun stuff.

We met when she and her husband, Logan, moved into our ward from across town two years ago and I was assigned to be her Visiting Teacher. We were both looking for a workout-partner and started meeting at the YMCA a few times a week. I wanted to lose about 30lbs and she wanted to lose about 3. Yes. 48oz. Fortunately for me, she loses weight slowly and has to work very hard while I shed weight like water through a sieve (or maybe yogurt through a sieve) once I actually start exercising, so we were moving along nicely. This time was also great because we both needed to vent about our husbands to someone who was sympathetic but knew we wanted to sort through our problems, not just complain. Plus, we often found ourselves thinking, "Hmm, I do that all the time..." when the other was complaining about their spouse and we realized that AnnMarie is the Clarence of her marriage and Logan is the Annie. It was great to give her some probable insight into where her husband is coming from and I was reminded that there is nothing wrong with Clarence (except that he's different from me). Despite it being a little surreal sometimes, I found being friends with the girl-version of my husband a lot of fun. It had the added benefit of reminding me that Clarence and I were really good friends first, and that was why we got married. Not that we're in a bad place, but it was a wonderful reminder.

The night before her son had a small surgery they came over for dinner (so she would neither have to cook or clean) and I wondered why her Visiting Teachers weren't helping her more. Something about that thought made me wonder when we'd met and after a few minutes (I know, I can be slow sometimes) it dawned on me that I was her Visiting Teacher and was glad I'd been there to help, even if I'd forgotten the responsibility! This was a great object lesson because Visiting Teaching is supposed to make friends of us and has been a big part of my renewed enjoyment in the calling.

Our kids loved it when the Curtis' came over. And even though I sometimes forgot her younger son has severe nut allergies until after he had the Honey Nut Cheerios in his mouth, I was always able to get the Benedryl into him before any major problems. (I did eventually stop feeding my kids peanut butter on days they were coming over) Her son, Levi, played a lot of house with Lillian, and her younger son, Isaac, played a lot of Kung Fu with James. They were perfectly suited and played exactly as you would expect kids of their ages to play (as in, Isaac and James threw a lot of punches and stole each other's toys and we watched Levi and Lillian to make sure they weren't kissing).

Then AnnMarie got pregnant and I, being the sympathetic friend that I am, decided to pretend I was pregnant, too. I got food cravings, took naps, and ate a lot of dessert. I actually began to wonder if I was pregnant We sat around most days working on our advent calendar, sewing aprons, making quiet books and alternately reporting good or complaining bad about the behavior of our husbands. I even gained weight along with her. Adding to the merging of our lives, her husband was stationed in North Carolina for his 6 year OMFS residency. Which means that along with friends in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, not to mention my brother in South Carolina, we have even more reasons for an extended vacation to the Carolina's, which is our favorite place in the States anyway. We've been pretty bummed at the prospect of her move this spring and three days after we made a commitment to lose those 10lbs we'd gained, there was a family emergency and they needed to move early. I got to see her at church for a bit (because James and Isaac ran off giggling while we were talking. Then we spent 10 minutes looking for them, only finding them by the sounds of crying and hitting coming from behind a closed door) and then they drove out of town and are somewhere between here and Utah. Now I not only have to find a babysitter for my pottery class today but I have to be my own workout motivation. Obviously that hasn't worked out well in the past.

Over the two years we knew each other we traded a lot of babysitting and shared a lot of dinners while our husbands (who are both dentist turned/turning oral surgeons) talked trauma, sutures and text books. We planted gardens, vacuumed vans, shared Costco trips, Holidays, sewing notions, park trips, ice cream, dogs, houseplants, garbage days, mail collection, toys, cleaning tips, recipes (and their accompanying ingredients), plants, cars, movies, laughs and of course a few tears (even though I'm not much of a crier. AnnMarie is though, plus she was pregnant so she couldn't help it). We've had a lot of fun and I will miss the closest thing to living near family I've had in many years until we are again living in the same town. Keep The Faith!