This has been a rough week. Watching our dear friends of the past 20 years pack up and drive away with load after load of their lives here on Brucemont drive makes my heart ache.

They have been wonderful friends and neighbors. We have great memories of raising our families together...Nikki was K.C.'s first friend...even though she was a few years older, they always stayed close, Jamie and Camille were good friends all during junior high and high school, and Little Steve and Katie were very good friends too. (That's a whole other story) They are just the kind of family that is there for you, and will always go the extra mile to support you in whatever you are doing.

Sherrie and Steve have just been great friends to us. Kelley has been their home teacher for years. He has spent countless hours just sitting on their front porch talking about fishing and enjoying Steve's company. Kelley loves to share his salsa with them, and we have received many heavenly peach pie's from Sherry. It's been extra hard for Kelley to see them go. When he got home from church Sunday, I could tell he was feeling pretty down. I asked him what was wrong and he said it was Steve's last week in PEC and it had been pretty rough.

Anyway, they are about down to their last load...(how do you do that? After living in the same place for 20 years, how do you move all of your stuff? Kelley and I are real bad at saving things. His hut is the perfect evidence! (You just never know when you might need 10 extension cords!) He seriously has at least 25 screw drivers\ wrenches, 30 gas cans, thingamabobs...stuff he found at the junk yard, random things that he will never use...mostly because he can't find them because there is so much stuff out there! There is no way you could move all the stuff he has in there...we would just have to blow it up.)

Steve is a super tidy guy though, (have you seen his front lawn?) so they probably don't have as much junk as we do. He actually brought over some church books and things he had collected for us to give back to the different organizations. It was all in one little stack. I thought about the piles and piles of books, old manuals, folders, ward lists and handouts, camp books and certificates, primary things...flannel board pictures, posters,etc.... that I had just gone through as I de-junked just one room upstairs. (That is a whole other story...Last week we had this guy- Don Haslet come to a stake enrichment night and teach us about cleaning and de-junking...I was inspired!) I thought I was doing good to get rid of 3 extra copies of a old church video I had. I may need to rethink and re-de-junk.

When Steve handed me the little stack of things, and explained what they were, I couldn't help it, I just started to cry. Then he started to cry. Man this stinks.

Sherry and I said our goodbye's at church last Sunday...I was sitting by her in Sunday School and we were talking and laughing and trying to ignore the huge elephant in the room. Steve comes in and I go to move over a seat so he can sit by her. Then I realized this was the last time I would be sitting by her in Sunday School, so I just put my arm through hers and said, 'I would just like to sit here next to Sherrie for as long as I can if you don't mind.' then we both started bawling. There weren't really any words to say, so we just sat there holding on to each other with tears running down our faces.

So anyway, this is a painting that Steve did for us. He is an amazing artist. I will think about them and miss them every time I look at it.

These are some other friends I am saying goodbye to. Angie said her friend wanted some of these little animals for her kids for Christmas so I am going to box them up and send them on their way. Baby birds are latest addition. I just found the pattern and thought they were so cute, so I'm going to put them in with the other one's she wanted.