turns out not where but who you're with that really matters

 I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating. I have the greatest friends ever. Story:

A little over two years ago, I was apartment hunting with my best friend and roommate Jaime and our good friend Leah, who we met in the MTC. Our group started out as five but over time, it had come down to just the three of us, which was fine with me since I didn't know the other two girls anyway. We'd narrowed our options down to two and Leah came over one day so we could all go look at the two apartments and decide. She got to our house and said something along the lines of "Have either of you looked at the Omni? I just drove past it on my here and it looks nice." We hadn't thought about it or looked at it so we decided to go by and check it out before going to see the other two. It was a cold, rainy February day and as the three of us stepped into that first apartment at the Omni, we were sold. It was a nice place and we all just felt really, really good about it. We called the next day and snagged the last few open spots.

A couple of months later, Leah announced that she was engaged and getting married in August. We were supposed to move in in August. Read: she's not moving in. So it was back to just Jaime and me. By the end of the summer, Jaime had an opportunity to go play basketball at a college in Wyoming (pretty much her life dream....except not the Wyoming part) and she finally decided to go up there for the year. That left me. For whatever reason, Heavenly Father wanted me in this ward, in this apartment so badly that he gave all three of us a for sure yes to ensure that I'd be here. I always assumed it was because I'd meet me husband here. I was wrong. But I did meet these incredible, life-changing friends. I realized recently that this is the longest time that I've been actively friends with a group of people since high school. Did that sentence make sense? I mean, we've been friends now for almost two years and that hasn't happened to me in a long time. I usually move or things change somehow. But these girls have pulled me out of some pretty dark places without even realizing it and have made my life an absolute delight. I don't have a boyfriend, but I never feel unloved thanks to these ladies. I'm so grateful for a Heavenly Father who loved me enough to send me to a place where I would find some of the best friends I've ever had. And I'm grateful to the incredible women who rose to the challenge and continue to impress me every day.

This is what we do all the time.

This is what we do when Jason takes our picture.