found an old friend...

after i posted my 200 things list, a few of you wanted to know who my "old friend" was that i found and added to my list. her name is marci mickelsen - now latimer and she was my BEST friend all through jr. high. i met her in my ward in virginia, we were in beehives and mia maids together and the best part was that our birthdays are only three days apart so we were never separated all during our YW years. i have such fond memories of marci, we really were attached at the hip, i can't even count how many sleep-overs we must have had. in order to gather a few oldie photos for this post, i had to dig through a box of fun memories that made me laugh out loud - like this one from a photo booth - remember those? thank the heavens for braces is all i have to say about this photo! sheesh! and this is us at youth conference right before a dance, do you like my plaid dress and scarf? what a dork! marci was always way cuter and more fashionable then me! which maybe explains why i was always borrowing her clothes. i like this photo of us at my fourteenth birthday party (notice all my cutie red-headed brothers!) because it shows how we had almost the same hair cut - super short because that's what cool skater girls did (even though neither of us actually skated!). what dorks! ok, so the story is that when we were fourteen her family moved to arizona and we wrote letters all the time. the summer after they moved my mom got me to go on the pioneer trek for youth conference by waving a plane ticket to arizona to visit marci in my face. it worked! it was a super fun-filled ten days hanging out with her and her cute family. some time after that trip, i don't know what happened but we started to lose touch, i can't believe we let this happen! it was something i had always regreted and tried several times to find her with no luck. so years later, when we were maybe 29 or so, my dad calls me up one day to tell me that an old friend of his ran into marci's parents at a grocery store in idaho! he had written down the name of their city and i was so excited, i literally left the kids in the tub to call information and find their number. i got marci's number from them - it turned out she was living in indiana - and we talked on the phone for about an hour getting caught up! rich had to get the kids out of the bath and to bed that night! luckily, her parents living in idaho means that she has had to drive right passed my house on the freeway whenever she visits them and so we have actually had a few opportunities to see each other since that phone call! the last time they were in town, we got her parents and mine and our husbands and kids together for dinner before they left town. it was so fun to get caught up and hang out like old times. and she has the cutest kids! her dad made me feel like i was a thirteen year old air head again, he is a major teaser. so that's the story of my long lost friend marci, i'm so glad we found each other after all these years! :) now if we could just locate our other friend from back then, laura lee andrew...anyone know where we can find her?