My Lokey

My Lokey. :) 

Lokey and I met in 11th or 12th grade - honestly, I can't remember. But we bonded in Journalism class. Was that senior year? Seriously, chemo brain + mom brain = wow, there's a reason they tell you to keep a journal all your life.... 

Anyway, we are "besties", as they say. We don't say that, though. We say "lokey." She is my Lokey and I am hers. We call each other that because we both love and like each other. You know, because you can love someone without liking them. 

We also bonded over singing (badly) "The Reason" by Hoobastank. There's video evidence of that, but it's top secret. And, seriously, I am ashamed of us for not blasting that during this last trip. I forgive us. 

So she's my bud. And I had not seen her in something like almost 3 years, when I was pregnant with M and visited my bro and sis-in-law last. 

Well, Lokey was super so ever generous and loving and wonderful and amazing and my "bestie", my Lokey and offered to come out to good ol' Utah for a few days and help me with my cancered self. 

Seriously, she's amazing, right?!

So she came in June! She came on a healthy week, and I'm glad that she did. And we ended up playing a lot more than the organizing my house that we were planning, but it was wonderful and definitely healthy and helpful for me. :) 

She arrived on a Wednesday night and we chatted for a couple of hours. I love true, good friends who can just talk and pick up like no time has passed. Lokey and I are like this. We actually don't talk a lot on a regular basis, but when we do, we don't have to shoot the fat and bs our way through a conversation. And I LOVE that. 

The next day was Day 2 of my FACS conference that I attend every summer. Lokey came with me. :) It was fun having her there and I'm glad she came! She also met some of my other "besties", as they say, and it was good having so many "besties" all together. Ha ha. Enough awkwardness... 

We went to the pool twice with my kids. Bella was a demon child basically the whole time Lokey was in town. Hello, MAJOR birth control for just the price of a plane ticket to Utah! Seriously, what was my child on!?! I'm so sorry, Lokey. But anyway, it was fun to people watch at the pool. And we bought new swimsuits.... after both pool trips. 

We spent time just talking and hanging out, we went to Sweet Tooth Fairy and got cupcakes, we went to the mall and Target and wandered WITHOUT my children (Patrick had drill that weekend, so he didn't have his usual Thursday off, but he did get home around 5 on Saturday and Lokey and I basically took off right after that, for our sanity, especially hers.)

There are things I forgot to do with Lokey while she was here and there were things that we didn't do and were planning to (like organize my house - but, hey, we did clean the death trap of a couch... seriously, Lokey loves me A LOT), but I absolutely LOVED having one of my best friends in the world here for a few days. I cherish the time I get with my best friends - and it seems like they all live far away from me - and I love being able to pick up like no time has passed. We are both more grown-up and happier than the last time we saw each other. We are in great places in life. And we are us. We are each others' (each other's?? Lokey is a grammar Nazi too {more than me, even} and we get along GREAT - remember, we bonded in our journalism class... destroying our peers' articles :) ) ..... we are each other's Lokeys. No it's NOT Lokies. Not in this case. 

I love you, Lokey. Thank you SOOOOOO much for coming to visit me. You probably thought you weren't much help, but mentally and emotionally, it meant the world to me to have you here! I can hardly wait until the next time I get to see you! 

Now.... before someone who visits leaves, you always take pictures with them - duh. There are cell phone pictures somewhere on my computer, too, but I have no idea where they are. Patrick is a funny picture-taker when it comes to these photos. The first two he took were basically full body and I happened to be wearing a button-up shirt so you can see INTO it - yay! Thus the following two pictures occurred.... 

that's my sexy chemo fat face. I'm hot.

Lokey, we are the bomb dot com.

Buenisimo! with an accent on the first i. :)

Lokey has pretty hair. We both have awesome glasses. 

Lokey, I love you. You are ALWAYS welcome in our home. THANK YOU for not judging me because of the crazy we are currently living in. And thank you for helping find buried treasure in the couch. :)  I miss you mucho!