My Friend

Im happy to announce that my friend Lareina started a blog! I dont know how to do that cool tag type thing where someone can click on the word and it takes them to the blog... So I will just tell you her address, go on over and check it out. Its HuHaven.blogspot.com.

I need to tell you about my sweet friend. We met in Highschool. I was VERY shy, and didnt have very many friends. We moved to Hawaii a couple of years before but I just couldnt seem to make a true blue friend, that I could just hang out with and not have to search for things to talk about. I prayed all the time for that someone and God answered my prayers. My mom started teaching at a Christian school and my sister and I went the next year. Lareinas mom taught in the same department as my mom. I can still clearly remember the first time I met her. I thought she seemed like a friendly laughable person and wondered if I would get to know her. One thing I dont remember is how we started to hang out. I do remember that I had a terrible time remembering her name. One day she was going to stop by my moms classroom and I said to my mom "Ive asked her her name way to many times and we've been hanging out long enough that it would be rude to ask again. Ask her name when she comes in" so my mom did and I said her name to myself like 50 times so I wouldnt forget again! Anyway, I couldnt figure out why she wanted to hang out with me, everyone liked Lareina. She was just super friendly and funny, so everyone knew her. But she did befriend me and Im thankful for that to this day. Shes really the only person that I would have called a real friend at that school. I remember Algebra and sitting next to her and failing all my tests because I so didnt get it. She did well on them and I was green with envy. We would pass notes to each other during math, which I think I have stored away somewhere :o) She would always write this in her notes "w/" and I tried and tried to figure out what it was, but felt to stupid to ask. Finally I figured out it meant "with" and her notes made so much more sense after that. We went to Taco Bell a lot, and a place called the Town Center. We would go to movies, and the mall. We would spend the weekend at each others houses. What was neat is we didnt have to be DOING something we could just sit at the house and talk or watch TV and still have a good time. She had a great laugh, that I can still clearly recall. She made me feel like I was hilarious because she laughed at my "funnies" all the time. She was great in that she treated my sister like a friend and not just my little sister.
I went to a different school the next year but we still would get together some, and our schools actually played each other in basketball and volleyball in tournaments and things. Then my family moved back to the mainland the next year. Our friendship lasted through the different school and move. We wrote letters. Then the year after we moved my brother tragically died in a car accident, he was still living in Hawaii. My parents had to go back to tie up loose ends and they also had a memorial service for him there. So off to Hawaii we went. My dad said that Lareinas family was there to meet us when we got off the plane (I have zero memory of arriving in Hawaii). We spent a lot of time together the two weeks that we were there. And one thing Im so grateful for is she didnt treat me weird because of what happened to my brother. She was just my friend like she always had been.

The spring banquet. Im the front left and shes in the back right
As the years slipped by our letters became less frequent but we kept in touch. We would write whenever something big happened... Like getting married, and each time we had a baby. Then about two years ago she finally joined the Face Book world! I was thrilled because the older I get the worse I get at writing letters. I KNEW we would keep in touch better. Which we have! I love reading her status' and the comments that we write back and forth. We both are avid Biggest Loser watchers so every week we give our opinions on whose been booted off or which people are annoying... Then about a month ago I found out she read my blog. I was flattered and then got to thinking that she should start one too so that I could keep up better with her! Now she has :o)
I think that we have a true friendship that has lasted through moves, huge distances, and time. We live thousands of miles apart, and even have an ocean separating us. Its been about 12 years since Ive seen her but I still consider her a very good friend. I dont know when we'll ever see each other again but I do know that if we ever do we would pick up where we left off.
Thank you for befriending a lonely 15 year old girl Lareina, your a beautiful person.