Sunday, February 22, 2009

Puck Ewe!

Sometimes I forget that I haven't known Tony and Melanie my entire life. We have shared our childhood stories so effortlessly, that I often feel like I was there when they rode the bus to school, when Melanie and Andria started showing sheep, and of course when Tony and Melanie fell in love. I just feel like I have been there the whole time, which is why yesterday - when Trevor and I got to go to The Maxwell's for the first time - everything came full circle. It's amazing how seeing and experiencing where your best friends grew up can make you understand why you love them so much. I got to hold a baby lamb and listen as its mother called for it to come back. I got to watch Tony and Melanie help Papa Ike milk a mama sheep and then tube feed its babies. I got to flip through a scrapbook of family photos while drinking a delicious cup of hot chocolate. It was wonderful, and I, for one, am going back to get myself a baby sheep.



We ended our evening by going to the hockey game with Alissa and Kelsey. Between the beer and the Huck-A-Puck, a good time was had by all. Who knew that men on skates could inspire such enthusiasm?



Thursday, February 5, 2009

Meet Ugly.

And no, I am not introducing myself this time. I actually mean, "Meet Ugly," this guy:

Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, in a land not too far away, there lived a pudgy little girl, whose brown hair was in the process of becoming a mullet, and whose number one goal in life was to own as many stuffed animals as possible. You see, these stuffed animals were very important as they acted as this little girl's students during hours and hours of playing school. So, when this little girl was given the dog you see above for her 9th birthday by her mother - who deeply understood this girl's plight to educate those stuffed minds - she embraced the dog, showed it to all of her adoring friends, and proudly named it Ugly. 

Fast-forward to 15 years later. The pudgy little girl had blossomed into a Goddess Of All That Is Aesthetically Pleasing Woman (i.e. no mullet), who now had REAL students all of her very own and no longer needed the dozens of stuffed toys that defined her childhood. It was then that Ugly was sent away to the land of Used-Up Toys, and this woman never gave it a second thought.

And then 7 more years passed and this happened...on Monday night, Trevor and I met up with Des and her girls at D.Q. to celebrate my 31st birthday. Des is my oldest friend, and by oldest I don't mean she is 81. I mean we have been friends since Ms. Wintzcak's 3rd grade class. She called me Pork Chop and I called her Steak. No, I'm not joking. We also spent hours playing "Life" so we could name our numerous children, we spent many a summer day swimming at the pool, we always played on the same basketball team ('cause her dad always picked me), and we spent hours chasing after geese on her parents' farm. We also spent our sophomore year not speaking to each other, for reasons I can no longer remember, and we spent our senior year sharing a locker. But the most important part of this story is that Des was at my 9th birthday party, and Des remembered Ugly.

So guess what Des showed up with on Monday night? Ugly! Freakin' Ugly! Des found Ugly in a bag of stuffed toys brought to her place of work, and Des grabbed Ugly and said to herself, "This is Sara's toy, and I am returning it to its rightful owner." When little Camryn held up Ugly and said "Here," I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Uuuuggggggggllllllllyyyyyyyy!!!" I had no idea my love for Ugly ran so deep, but Des did, and so here is the moral of this story: When you have a friend who has literally witnessed every part of your life since you were 8-years-old, you need to hold onto that friend for dear life because sometimes, this friend knows what you need - and what you miss - even before you do. 

Thank you, Des, for bringing Ugly home. And thank you for loving me, for supporting me, and mostly for just KNOWING me, then and now. You are my Desert Flea, and I love thee. :)