Top of my Lungs

Raise your hand if you have some regrets...

Sadly... we all do. 

But I am not here today to make myself look like a total loser. (Just a semi one)

So I will not be sharing the list with you today, just one little morsel.

When Gavin and I met in college, we were surrounded by friends.

New friends, acquaintances, buddies and friends that go waaaaay back.

Of course we'd find time to sneak away on our own... (We were in love!)

But we always seemed to be with our family away from family. 

Then we got married and were on a different page than all our single friends and didnt hang out as much.

Then everyone started graduating, finding love of their own and we all kinda did our own thang.

That is not what I regret. In fact, those are some of our fondest memories.

What I regret is not making NEW friends when we moved.

Understandably, our families were closer, so when we had free time, we (rightfully) spent time with them. But there were some nights where we sat in front of the tv watching a lame redbox and COULD have been having a ball with other couples our age.

Right before we moved out to Iowa, we made some awesome friends in our church ward.

Sadly, we only had a few months with them before we had to go our separate ways.

How tragic.

One of the reasons I really REALLY didnt want to come out to Iowa was because we had lived by family for so long and I didnt remember how to make friends anymore.

Talk about socially awkward...

"Hi we're the Gardners... No not GARDEN-ers... Just Gardners. Um... do you like to... eat food? Really?! Great!..."*Cricket Cricket* 

No joke. 

But then we moved out here and I was amazed how all those insecurities flew out the door, literally once we opened the door to our little apartment.

Pretty much all the men in the ward showed up to help us unload.

THEN all their wives came over and chatted with me like we were long lost friends. 

I had never felt more welcome by strangers anywhere in my life.

How wonderful are they to reach out to little old me and make me feel like I belonged?

I am so thankful to all the ladies in our branch.

 (Sadly, our branch is splitting and I wont have the opportunity to see them every week- 

we'll still be friends right?!)

I regret not making more friends earlier in our marriage. 

Maybe someone needed that friendship like I needed it here.

Maybe they had something they needed to teach me.

Maybe I needed to make myself a little uncomfortable to grow and become a better person.

I dont want to look back on opportunities to make someones day a little bit better,

I dont want to look back and miss out on an incredible friendship that would never happen otherwise.

I dont want to have regrets.

I want to live life at the top of my lungs...

(We had to ask if they would take a picture with us... I mean, come on! How could we not?)