and the winner is.....

Karen!
She was the first to correctly guess "My Turn on Earth" so I dedicate this blog to her:

Karen-
Once upon a time in 2004, Karen and I were EFY counselors at KU. To be honest, I don't really remember much about her that week, because I was too busy playing with my co-counselor (who happened to be one of my closest mission friends, Brad) and Brad and I stayed pretty much in our own little world called "The Wrath to Come."

3 years later, I had moved to Lawrence, Kansas. Either the first or second Sunday in the Lawrence University ward, Karen came and sat with me in Relief Society. She walked right up and said "I remember you from EFY. You sang "These are the Days." This was a true statement and I was flattered that she remembered it as a positive experience. We were pretty much fast friends from then on. I would say, however, the actual "bonding" happened on the ward's fall break trip to Nauvoo. Now that I think about it, I was TOTALLY the third wheel and I feel so stupid for pretty much crashing Adam & Karen's road trip together, but I was indeed lucky enough to get to ride with those two. They were blissfully engaged at the time and were also using the trip to Nauvoo as an opportunity to plan some wedding details.

The car ride was beyond fun! Adam was a total sport as we talked about boys (well I did..Karen just swooned over Adam) and they told me their whole story, and I was LOVING every detail of it. You can't beat falling in love with someone you've been friends with since you were 14 years old--classic and beautiful, if you ask me!!! That was only the beginning. It was a great year together in Lawrence, where we both wish we would have had more time to spend together. In fact, it wasn't until the month before I was leaving that we spent what started as just an evening assembling a shoe rack but ended up going well into the wee hours of the morning as we were catching up on stories. I guess even though now we're apart we'll have our "STORYTIME FOREVER!!!"
So this is my ode to Karen and only the top 10 things I love about her in no particular order:

#1 Karen has amazing shoes, and graciously let me borrow a pair for Kevin's wedding

#2 Karen is the BEST bargain shopper ever. We once hit up the JCPenny sales (or was it Sears?) and totally scored! We even got semi-matching skirts out of it

#3 Karen is not afraid to embrace her inner rock star...creating homemade music videos and dancing around merrily to pretty much anything she feels like. No fear when it comes to fun-that's my kind of girl!

#4 Karen, as a true friend, allowed me to make my own mistake regarding a stupid stupid dating situation (that never should have happened) and she never threw it in my face that she had been SPOT ON with her wise advice.

#5 Karen, although married for 10 months at that point, participated in the Young Single Adults' making of the movie "Institute musical," not even needing to practice the dance because she totally knew it already!

#6 Karen loves Nauvoo, and has amazing wedding pictures taken there!

#7 Karen loves Adam, and it's fun to watch them

#8 Karen understands what it means to be a real, true and unconditionally loving friend...she gets it. A lot of people don't, so that's a unique quality. I've watched her naturally reach out to so many people and it always warms my heart.

#9 Karen loved her mission (I'm pretty obsessed with Spain, but I would say her love of England is pretty up there as well). I think that says a lot about the kind of missionary she was/(is)

#10 Karen just makes me happy, anytime I'm around her. Whether we are sick, tired, stressed, heart broken, excited, hyper, worried, content, chill, giddy, or whatever...I know I can just be me around her and she's definitely just going to be herself and that comfort in itself is exactly what makes Karen an awesome friend!