For the one and only, Carrie Rave

Today is the birthday of one of my best friends and former roommates, Carrie. Between middle school, high school, and 3 1/2 years as roommates, we've been through a lot together. Today she is even going to spend her birthday evening driving to Clinton, MO, to pick me up so I can spend a fun-filled few days in KC with her and our other wonderful friend and former roommate, Candace.

It's hard to sum up a twelve year friendship in only a few words, and no one wants to read an overly verbose, mushy blog post so here are some pictures from our past:

This scary picture is from Girls Camp. We are wet because it was raining. (Sidenote--As we got older we liked to look at this picture as inspiration. "Look how far we've come...") Carrie taught me that it's okay to wear shirts with words and graphics on them.

This is on a charter bus headed to Nauvoo for Youth Conference. We started the night off with a dance--hence the shiny faces, messy hair and sweaty armpits--and then drove to Nauvoo through the night. We were really smart and packed our pillows underneath. Yeah, we didn't get much sleep that night and now I fully understand the integral role the pillow plays in getting a good nights sleep.

With Stephanie before a stake dance. Not sure why I thought my outfit was cute, but I think we had more fun getting ready and then hanging out afterwards than we ever did at the dances.

With our roommates Kathryn, Candace, and Melissa at Extreme Sports after an awesome ward activity.

One of my favorite things about Carrie is she is never afraid to experiment with her hair. Our sophomore year Melissa and I permed her hair in our kitchen. If you look closely at this picture you can see that my hands are brown. After a summer of hi-lights Carrie decided that she wanted her natural dark hair back. I agreed to help her dye her hair, acknowledging my inexperience. As I worked I was careful to not to get any of the dye on her face and neck. If only I had been so careful about my own skin! We spent the rest of the night trying to get the get the dye off my hands. We tried hand soap, lemon juice and salt, rubbing alcohol, gasoline, lighter fuel, and finally bleach. It was the bleach that finally got most of it off.

This is at my wedding open house. We still hang out as often as we can now that we are married and living in different states.

Happy Birthday, Carrie!

Thanks for picking me up tonight!