dear kari...

the other day i got a strange phone call. when i finished talking to the gentleman on the other end, i had a tear or two in my eye. that may sound nutso when you read what the call was about, but oh well, nutso is my middle name! i couldn't tell you the man's name, i forgot it as soon as he told me, but i can tell you that he was asking me for a character reference on one of my dearest friends, Mrs. Kari Denise Stevens Turley. i guess what made me tear up is the simple fact that Kari, one of my oldest friends, would choose me as a reference. i know it sounds silly, but that really made my week. here's the thing, Kari and i have known each other since way back in first grade...she moved in with her grandma and grandpa Stevens, and i quickly determined that she would be my new best friend. she'll tell you that 2 of the first things she remembers me saying are 1) "this is how i drink little cups!" and 2) "can i have a toffey?" i say toffey because apparently i asked for some taffy in a british accent... anyway, just as i predicted, Kari and i became best friends. we did crazy things together all through our growing up years, including burrying a treasure in the Park View lawn, swapping my rice for her potatoes on Thursday's at school lunch, going skating at the old bon-ton which led to having boyfriends in the 4th grade, running for class office in 5th grade, sharing girbaud jeans in 4th grade that got ruined when my science project spilled all over them, we formed a BOP club and had a few chants about JTT and TIN and Andrew Keegan, we watched movies, had sleep-overs, made movies, later in life we would hang in the back of Mar's prelude and sing at the top of our lungs as we drove around for hours with our big sisters. we found a small branch in the middle of the road and named him Wooden, we made countless drives past the scary house and the stinky house, memorized movie lines, went to the Backstreet boys concert, went to every band concert durring the summer, and had multi night sleep overs when my parents went out of town. we invented the Streaker movies, (Kari makes an excellent Captain Dan) made music videos (Kari is a SURVIROR!) we watched Sense and Sensibility, (He has his own Barouche!) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (it's the safest thing you'll have between your legs) Dirty Dancing (nobody puts Baby in a corner!) and the Pirate Movie (Mable! your goosebumps have grown!) over and over and over again. we made Los Hermanos "our" dinner stop almost every weekend. we took squirt guns draggin main in Spanish Fork, where we saw a dirty man bumm or two... we watched Days of Our Lives, we loved Doc and John and took several pictures of ourselves portraying those fine characters. we even dressed up asthem for Halloween Kari was Gretta, Angie was Stephano, Marilee was Princess Gina and I was Dr. Mike Horton. Kari and i also share a great love for Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman...Sully is my one true love...Ben is Kari's :) we have never in over 20 years of knowing each other, had a fight that either of us can remember. she really is like a sister to me. she can cheer me up when i'm feeling blue, make me laugh when i dont feel like laughing, she can make me cry without even meaning to. I love Kari. in tribute to her and the friendship we have i would like to use her name to make a small poem...

K is for Kari, kind, karing and kooky,

A is for awesome, amazing and Apples (cause she's a teacher...)

R is for rowdie, rambuncious and Rooky (cause it rhymes with kooky...)

I is for incredible, infamous and i love ya girlie!

Kari, thank you for always being my friend. Kari + Ben may = true love but Kari + Jennie= good times!