Mrs. Stogsdill and the Blustery Day

I'm not sure how it can be 70 degrees one day and be a blizzard the next. But of one thing I am sure: Thursday's weather knew that Holly was getting married that day, so it told all the weather in the valley to be respectful and honor her on the happiest day of her life. And it did until about 5:30 p.m. when it became so blustery that we couldn't see straight for the hair flying everywhere. But that's okay.

A lot of things have been changing and ending this week - wards, classes, jobs - lots of things. But the biggest and most important change this week was Holly.

HOLLY GOT MARRIED.

It was the happiest day for her, and it was pretty dang happy for the rest of us, too. I'm having wedding day withdrawal right now; I would relive that day over and over again if I could. And that may be the girliest thing I've ever said, but I mean it.

There was a wedding dinner on Wednesday night, the night before the wedding. I got to give a toast because I've known Holly since we were barely old enough to blink, and we've been each others' best friend for nearly 22 years. So all week I've been thinking about Holly and all the things I love about her and all the memories that I have with her. And I discovered I have more memories with Holly in them than with her not in them.

There was a time when we were seniors in high school, and we skipped our art class to go skiing, and we thought we were being so sneaky, but our teacher and my mom and Holly's mom all knew what we'd done the moment we got home.

There's the summer after we'd graduated high school when we decided to pull out our 15-year-old roller blades and roller blade around Holly's neighborhood, and she went straight down a really steep hill, and I zigzagged down it.

There was one time in elementary school when we were playing in my bedroom and started jumping on the beds trying to catch the fruit flies that were flying all around my room by clapping them between our hands.

There was the time she came to Lake Powell and Jackson Hole and Lake Powell again and again and again with my family, and we ate tons and tons of chewy caramels and played Egyptian Rat Screw and Speed until our hands hurt.

There are all the seasons we played soccer together, her on offense, me on defense, and she would dominate even though she was so small because everyone underestimated her feistiness.

There's the time we were late for our history class, so we were running through the halls, and it was a snowy day, and the halls were really slippery and as we rounded a corner, Holly slipped, fell onto her knees and slid across the floor, all the while trying to grab the lockers for support, and we barely kept straight faces when we walked into class.

There was one time in the St. George temple waiting to do baptisms for the dead, something funny happened, and we laughed and laughed and couldn't stop laughing until I left to get some water, and the woman in charge came in and thanked us for being so reverent.

There were the times when we would go on choir tour, and Holly would lend me her hairspray because I always managed to forget mine.

There's the time we were in our art class and Holly was playing with a stapler, putting her finger right where the staples shoot out. Next thing I know she's jumping up and down holding her finger and I'm dying of laughter because she had stapled her finger.

There're all the times we went to Holly's house for lunch during high school, and she would make us cheese quesadillas while we ate dill pickles and drank chocolate milk.

There's the time that Stacy, Caroline, Holly and I played a piano quartet together and then went to Wendy's after we performed it.

There are all those times we would hang out with just each other or only a few others instead of going to parties because Holly never needed to be doing something extraordinary to feel extraordinary, and she never needed any validation from anyone because she is who she is and why would she ever change that or need someone else to substantiate that?

And there are all the phone calls, the lemonade sales, the excursions in the barbie cars, the bike rides, the rule-breaking, the tennis lessons, swimming at the Spa, eating watermelon, macaroni and cheese, pretending to be Nancy Drew detectives...I could go on and on.

I have gone on and on.

The best part about this whole thing is that Holly married Troy. Someone who will always appreciate Holly for who she is and never ask her to change because he knows doing that would go against everything he believes her to be and everything she believes him to be. And when they are old and wrinkled, the knowing looks they give each other now will be even deeper, their hugs even more natural, their "I love you's" even easier, their consideration even more sincere. They get to be together forever.

I can't wait for their life to happen.