Laura n' Me

 . . . and Hannah and Dawna, my sisters.

Laura is my friend.

I've known her since forever. And she is always better the more I know her. I loved her the very best the first time. But now I think I love her more.

We're both prairie girls.

We write stories.

We love to sing.

We eat the side dishes on our plates first, before diving into the main one.

We wear rubber gloves when we wash dishes.

Our favorite color is green. Our eyes are green. But sometimes hers look blue.

We have journals, and put off writing in them until we feel so guilty we write a huge, long entry and tuck it away again.

We like The Hunger Games.

We like WWII and

watching BBC movies.

We like names.

We love Jesus,

and going shooting.

But I like sunny-side up eggs and she likes them scrambled. :)

Oh, and she's blond and I'm brunette. Her hair is short, mine is long. But that doesn't seem to matter.

We like being together. Especially when she's only five hours away in Colorado and we cook up a plan for her to come stay a week! Well . . . six days. And it's too short. If we had been able to tack on another day it still would have been too short. I wish often she lived next door to me. But then again, it's what makes it special. Her being there, me so far away. Our time together we hold precious. It's something special. And we tell each other things. Things you just can't say from a keyboard. Like how nobody has ugly eyes. Nobody. And we talk about stories. It's easier to discuss things when we lounge on beds and air mattresses.

And I kept wondering why the colors seemed so much brighter this Easter. Why my cold seemed to diminish the next day when she was here. Why I loved sitting in church singing songs so much better, and ever after that. :)

The first thing we did, after all the hugging, and her giving me birthday baskets, and all the "I'm so glad you're here!" 's, and the unspoken things you say in your heart and you don't know it, we colored eggs. Well--really we went to see the horses with their colts, and then we colored eggs. :)

Laura's first egg coloring. An epoch in her life. She made fabulous eggs! Lovely colors! And our fingers got colored, too. But that is half the fun of it. :)

We tried something new. We cracked the shell and then died it. There were supposed to be really spectacular designs on the egg when you peeled it, but I don't think we looked for them. Laura was here.

Sunday morning--Easter morning, the morning every one dresses up in colors and pictures are taken, and the cross with a ring of thorns weighs heavy in your mind--after that morning, we went shooting! Laura requested it and I thought, "Ah! What a grand idea!" So we took the .22, William's .45 and Dad's .44 and went target practicing.

Laura did amazing! You should see her targets. Epic, m'darling. Epic. You are quite good.

I always loved that pistol. With it's holster and all it looked just like a gunslinger's. Aren't things daddies have the best?

Laura's first Peep. Another epoch! Afterwards she discovered they were just marshmallows with purple sugar sticking to them. :)

And THEN---we went Easter egg hunting! Mom wrote an "L" on twelve multi-colored eggs for Laura while the rest of us got our choice of color. Unfortunately this meant Laura had to pick up every single egg to see if it had and "L" on it!

And she found them all! Oh look! Her first basket of eggs! I had orange this year. They're easier to see when you have a mischievous daddy who likes to be creative in hiding things!

Later, we stood in the sunset rays, I don't even remember what we talked about, but it was fun. We pretended our eggs were real eggs and cracked them on the baskets, spilling their contents inside---like opening a tomb and finding a Savior inside. My Mama has probably been filling Easter eggs for a good twenty years, and she still does it. :)

Misty and Sarge loved our Jelly-Bean giveaway. We had a lovely Easter. That night we watched Robin Hood! The BBC TV show. We watched a few episodes every night. They are quite delightful. It was fun to share them together.

And the next morning, after a glorious breakfast of crepes with Nutella and strawberries and home-made whipped cream, we found Ann Voskamp's "Where I'm From" and made our own from the template she gave us.

Girls and pens and pencils and paper all piled unto Dawna's bed for a quiet, sunny morning of writing, dreaming, thinking. Everyone wrote such lovely things. I was amazed what a little hard thinking and being creative could do in such a short time!

Then we geared up for a messy, smelly, fun, hair treatment party from Shoshanna! It was so much gooey, slimey fun! Depending on which type of hair treatment you wanted, there are dark, red, and blond, you mixed the herb package in with egg, apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice. Cook it for about five minutes, let it cool, and let the fun begin! Hannah went first and poor girl had to get an egg slathered on her head because we didn't give her treatment enough lemon juice! Slimey and cold!

Laura wanted some red in her hair and took the red hair treatment. It turned out GORGEOUS! Then after the treatment was all in, you put a Wal-Mart sack over your head and wrapped a warm towel around it, letting it sit for a about 45 minutes. We did ours more like an hour and twenty minutes because with smoothies and our baskets of Easter candy we trooped down stairs to watch Tammy and the Bachelor. Cutest movie in all the world. A lovely, sweet one to watch with girls you love!

The next day, we loaded up into Laura's rockin' PT Cruiser and headed out to see The Hunger Games. And that was amazingly fun! We went out for Blizzards later and walked around the mall. I found a lovely headband, and read one of Laura's stories during the trip. We went shopping for a surprise meal we were making together and listened to Celtic music on the way home. I don't think I took one picture that day. I should have.

The next day was kind of a lazy one. Laura and I exchanged stories and lounged about in The Hobbit Hole(mine and Hannah's room) reading all day, with cups of tea and music in the background. But in the afternoon we borrowed William's bow and headed out to the shed for some target practice. We felt very Katniss-like. Oh, and there's a glimpse of how Laura's red hair treatment turned out. Lovely! Lovely!

We swung from the rope swing, flying through the air! There's something about swinging you just love. The rush of the wind on your face, being in the air with hardly anything to hold on to. It really is almost like flying. Much fun! If you drop by sometime we should go soaring together!


As evening approached we hurried inside to help prepare our special, surprise meal, which Hannah had already dutifully began! Thank you, Hannah!

1. Snicker Salad. We had never made that before, but it was most delicious! There was not a bit of it left by the end of the meal! :)

2. Lasagna Cups, from Pinterest. Most delightful little things, and they were a hit amongst my family! We'll probably be making them again soon!

3. Glazed Butternut Squash. Mmm. Delicious! So Cinnamony! And good! It was so much fun to cook with Laura and my sister. We whirled about the kitchen, washing up our mess while the food cooked. Well, I should say they whirled about the kitchen being useful. I stood about taking ten dozen pictures, capturing the moments. Many thanks to Hannah and Laura for the delicious dinner! It was perfect! I loved it! We should do it again!

And then---Laura had to leave. The next morning was windy, blowing in chill across the prairies. The night before we had just finished the second season of Robin Hood and were feeling the ache where Maid Marian should be. But it was more like an ache for what we knew was to come . . . but we went out on the prairie, amongst the old barns and tall grasses and had a photoshoot. Laura was most darling!

Red doors. I think almost photographers agree, there's just something about them. :) And Laura makes them so much prettier!

See her hair? She looks so good with red hair!

There was such pretty light inside the barn. And catch lights! I never think of catch lights and when I do, there aren't any! :)

Dreamy, girl. Dreamy.

I love laughing pictures.

Then we rounded up Hannah for some pictures together. We went to the abandoned house next to us and Hannah had so many happy ideas! I like this picture especially!

Windows. Artistic. Beautiful. Me n' Laura--happy. Thank you Hannah!

Pretty light inside the old house! We tried to do a serious one. "Laura is leaving. Me no like." Yes. Much no like. But we burst out laughing several times.

Sassy! "I'm sorry, darling, Kayla is being unreasonable! Laura stay here!" Yes. Please, please stay! My heart cried long before the good-byes began.

GASP! Kayla! I don't know what I said, but apparently I shocked someone. :)

Caught in the act! Hurry Laura! Hide! We'll keep you safe!

We went out onto the porch for the windows again. And here, that's when time was running too fast, closing a gap we didn't want closed. We wished it would all just stop, and when we looked at our watches things would have rewound a thousand moments to the first one.

"Oh, we should get one of our shoes!" I said before we left the little abandoned house, hoping for one extra second longer, when we could live the moment together and not have to leave yet. Hannah liked the broken glass.

"I want one with Laura at the windows, with our arms around each other."

Then it was ten o'clock. Time to leave. For the good-byes to begin. But we smiled, we laughed. I know I ached inside. 

And then there were tears and I wanted to say, "I don't want to let you go." But I couldn't for the tears, so I held her tight instead and wished it didn't have to end. That the miles weren't so long and the hours that dragged on and on would melt into sunbeams and I could cross over to her side of life, just whenever I wanted.

I watched until her car disappeared over the hill. I prayed for her. Asked God to bring her back to me someday. Soon. I cried spurts of tears all throughout the day. I hadn't ever missed her so much. We parted with plans for August. For hoping to help her move into her apartment when college starts, for visiting often. For seeing each other again.

And I thanked God, because that was all I could do, that He gave me a friend like Laura.

But I couldn't thank Him enough. I don't think I will ever be able to do that.

Thanks for coming to see me, Laura!

Thanks for being my friend.