Happy Birthday Mel!

Happy Birthday to an amazing woman. My dear friend Melanie and I have been friends since January 2002. Wow I was quite the culture shock for her when she moved into the dorms! She had just joined the church and immediately I was impressed with her. She basically had left all that she ever knew and plunged herself right in the heart of mormondom.  But we became quick friends and have shared a zillion and one memories together ever since.  I tell her all the time that she should get a gold metal of friendship because I am terrible at keeping in contact with people ,but for years we have talked on the phone nearly every other day! 

Some of my favorite memories with her:

• Her thinking that I was a crazy nutter for being excited when a sick elderly friend of mine passed away. I  didn't really explain that the reason I was so happy was that she was no longer in pain and now would be with her husband who had died 20 years earlier. She just thought I was a sicko who liked it when people died. So funny!
  
• The DI dorm dance with us wearing ridiculous costumes!
  
• The Sadie Hawkins and the terrible video (that we should burn) of us asking boys in our ward to the dance. It is called, "The Crock-a-date hunters." wow! Then we all decided to go to the dance as the same famous couples. So all the boys in our group were Tarzan and we were Jane. We made the upstairs dorm lounge into a jungle paradise. We had tropical fruit, huge plants, waterfall, jungle music, a roasted pig (okay a ham that we carved into a pig shape soo funny)! We were nuts and I don't think that the boys even knew how much preparation and money we had spent. But hey, it was really fun! 
  
• We've had  a lot of crazy cooking catastrophes.
  
• Last summer she and I and our friend Andrea had a girlfriend weekend. It was sooo much fun. We swam late at night, watched movies and ate too much junk, went to a wedding, played at an arcade place, dressed up cute, cried, laughed, ate at a funky Ti food restaurant at 11:00 pm down town SLC, played with our favorite BYU-I mentor, Berg and simply had a blast.
  
• We've shared hilarious phone calls, mostly where instead of helping her find solutions we end of laughing at ourselves. 
  
• She sends the most creative gifts! She always finds these awesome trinkets from all of her moving adventures: alligator jerky, coconut monkey, and dozens more. She is so creative!
  
• We've shared lots of tears, laughs, tears and a lot more laughs. 
  

These are only a few of the fantastic things that make up the memories of my fab friend, Mel.

Melanie, is seriously one of the most amazing people that I have known. She is a modern day pioneer who has endured much and continues to remain faithful and strong. She holds to her convictions and faith in circumstances when many would crumble. She stays positive through hardships and looks forward to how she can make better for herself and situation. Truly, she is the most caring and devoted friend. She never forgets special occasions, is thoughtful about conversations and feelings of others. She is a true giver, she is only happy when she is serving and giving to others. She lives to give! Also a true patriot, I don't know anyone who is more supportive of our troops (possibly because she loves men in uniforms:)). She is also always willing and ready for some fun; no one likes a thrill better than her. And mostly I just love her, she is super-dee-duper-dee great. I am grateful that we are such good friends; she has helped me grow in ways that I never knew possible and she has helped me to find gratitude in every situations. She rocks! Happy Birthday, Malaneey Mcdoogal