Video Games, Tea Party, Simply You/Eau Claire Family Photographer

We were eight. In the 2nd grade. My favorite game was girls chase boys. I had the biggest crush on this one boy named Victor. The sun was shining. It was the last recess for the day. I kissed him there on the playground. He claimed I gave him girl cooties and ran away.


flash forward two years.....


I met Denise in the 5th grade. She was always prim and proper and very assertive. We didn't click. We shared some classes together in middle school and it wasn't until the summer before high school did we become close friends. From then on our friendship was always constant through our high school career. We shared lockers, played Monopoly late into the wee hours of the morning, had countless sleepovers, talked about boys, ran out of gas once and had to push the car to the gas station (first and only time), we were on the same cheerleading squad...
....one fall night at a varsity football game he appeared. He was the cutest thing ever to her..."and look at his eyes." She had found Victor through the crowd. The boy with "girl cooties"! Soon after that game they were dating and she's been in love with Victor ever since.

We parted ways for a few years after high school only to find ourselves together again planning our weddings within a week of each other. Since then, it's always been just the four of us. Victor and Denise have been there every step of my adult life. Through wedding times, first house buying times, holiday times, we're pregnant times, baptism times, good times, bad times, and the dreaded....we're moving out of state time.

We've been gone for nine years now. I miss that our children aren't regular playmates. I miss the days where we can just ring each other and meet for lunch or dinner on a whim. To watch each other parent and figure this crazy life out together. I miss stopping over unannounced just because I can. Nowadays I cherish our talks on the phone and I look forward to my return every summer as we pick up right where we left off without missing a beat.

Today I'm missing them.

Everyone has a story.

What's yours?

~K