Roll Call - Part 1

I am kind of stealing this idea and making it my own.
Here are my reasons:
1. I know many of the people who read my blog also browse the links I have to my other friend's blogs.
2. Some of you haven't met each other and that might make you feel weird about posting on a "strangers" blog.
3. Heidi introduced a blog-friend who introduce their blog-friends as they enter the blog-world. That would take a lot of posts. I'm just going to do a couple, featuring several people at once. If anyone new is added via linkage, I will introduce them.
4. I am feeling pretty grateful for my lovely friends today and feel like sharing their awesomeness with others.

So, to begin:

L-Train and Friends.

Lauren.
This is my sister. My sissie. My best friend. She is married with 1.5 darling boys (Monkey and Peanut...who should be named James). I called her mommy till I was 3 years old. I used to sit for hours while she curled my incredibly long and thick hair with her totally rad 80's curling attachments (triangle curls, spiral curls, crimping, etc.). Everything she did was awesome. She tried (and eventually succeeded, although I don't think I cooperated as much as she probably would have liked) to teach me how to put on makeup and how to dress. She used to let me hang out in her bedroom while she was getting ready to go out in high school...Duran Duran or Madonna would be playing on the record player, lots of hairspray was involved. When she left to go to BYU I missed her. She left me home with two older brothers (i.e., two sources of endless ridicule and torment haha)...but I still thought she was the coolest person in the world. She always listened to what I am sure were silly problems or worries. She listened to the not so silly stuff as well. When she was home, she didn't care if I hung around. We wrote each other faithfully the entire time she was on her mission (a feat I have yet to accomplish with any other friend who has gone on a mission). Once she moved home and then while she was living in Virginia, she still always included me. She bought me things "just because," she let me hang out with her and her friends, she talked to me like an adult. We even had an amazing summer living in a very small basement apartment together. All of these things seem normal, but I think they are pretty rare for siblings with a 10 year age difference. Maybe I'm wrong. Oh well. All I know is my sister is and always has been great.

Heidi.
Heidi was one of Lauren's roommates/friends during her post-college/Virginia years. Again, she was someone who always treated me like I wasn't her roommate's 15-year-old little sister. She talked to me like an adult (this is a quality that I have always appreciated). She became part of our family - even called my parents Mom and Dad. I was so happy when she moved to Utah. We didn't always see each other that often, but I knew I had a place to stay and a family to turn to if I needed anything. And when I did need a place to stay, they gladly welcomed me into the family. She has two of the cutest, cuddliest kids ever. That fact alone makes her awesome.

AHP.
That would be Amy...or Amy Hale, but now she is married and Hale isn't her last name, it's just a hard habit to break. So AHP it now is. Amy worked with my sister in Virginia. She is hilarious and writes awesome poems. She used to let me escape to her house for the weekends when I was living with crazy people at BYU. She listened to me complain about the crazies and I helped her grade papers, I think I even went to church with her a couple of times. That's when she started dating her husband. I will always remember two things from that time. She went on a date to shoot at targets (with a bow and arrow). She came back with a giant, gross bruise covering the entire inside of her arm (from where the string on the bow hit her). Her now husband, then boyfriend would take her car to get cleaned. Inside and out. The seat belts were always rolled up neatly. Now she has two darling children (who I very excited to meet in 2 weeks). She is amazingness squared.



Stay tuned for more introductions...