my first thought tonight... is about friendship. how precious and valuable it is. there is nothing like a friend who asks you for help, or advice, or company. a friend that accepts those things has got to be the best. this isn't really a change of prior opinion, but the strength of that has become particularly profound to me. while a little cliche, true friendship really is hard to find. i have developed a checklist i am going to use from now on to put potential friends through a sort of qualifying process. this will, of course, be neatly listed below.

1. a good girlfriend should look different in every situation. sometimes they should cry with you, sometimes they should make you laugh until you pee just a little, and sometimes they might need to verbally slap you in the face. (this is always for your own good.)
   
2. a good friend should always pray with you when you need it, and absolutely offer treats of many kinds.
   

i realize now that the bullet points weren't necessary, because i really only had two points there. but, i don't think that's any of your business and i am weary of talking about the list. please stop bringing it up.

my second thought is that i have a really nice husband. he is kind, humble, thoughtful and very, very patient. he lives with me, so i think that also qualifies him as a saint. he spends time with and takes care of our kids because he wants to, he laughs at pretty much everything they (or i) say, and when we are all really annoying and most people would complain, he finds the grace to say our little peculiarities are "cute." i do not say any of this to brag, but i find myself appreciating him much more than i have before and so sorry to ever have taken him for granted. i know that love and marriage aren't easy, and ours certainly has not been... but, even when it gets super hard, thomas is still good. he is good.

alright. that's enough. i promise i will not write of love and friendship in the same blog ever again. it got pretty touchy-feely there for a minute. but, we're out now and i don't think it'll happen again.

i am off to read, and hopefully finish, emma. then i am going to see how long i can balance on my excercise ball without touching my feet down. i will add a link to my next blog that will lead you to my homemade petition to get excercise ball balancing an official olympic sport. there will also be a link to petition that we bypass the formality of creating an official sport, and just award me the golden medal because i assure you that nobody will ever beat me in excercise ball balancing. ever.