"Wake up and read your scriptures, you lazy bums!"

Seven days a week, at 4:30 in the morning, this is what my friends Trudy and Frank wake up to, an alarm which is a recording of Frank's voice. Yes, you read that right: 4:30 a.m.! When they hear this alarm, "Wake up and read your scriptures, you lazy bums!" they wake up, pull out their tablets, and read the scriptures for 30 minutes. Then Frank promptly goes to back to sleep (it is the middle of the night, after all), and Trudy gets up, exercises, eats breakfast, showers, and prepares for work.

Not gonna lie. This sounds like a total nightmare life to me. I am the girl who needs nine hours of sleep each night. Do not disturb me between 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. But they are committed to this program, and I admire their dedication. It was so great to spend time with them this past weekend; Trudy and I resumed our walking regimen as though it had never ceased. Oh how I miss the benefit of a consistent walking partner.

In order to get up at 4:30 a.m., they go to bed super early, so after they retired for the night, Gerald and I headed out to visit my friends Teresa and Randy in their new house. If laughter is good for the soul, the four of us should have some pretty healthy souls right about now. We are all in the process of raising teenagers AND, at the same time, launching our older kids into adult life, and if that's not a laughable matter, I don't know what is. Thanks Marchant-Zachers for the fun evening!

"I have my list ready," texted Jay, in preparation for our lunch therapy session Saturday. "I have mine too," I replied. Jay and I have a bond; I don't know how better to describe it. We "get" each other, and it's a friendship that transcends time, space, demographics, everything. We sat at Applebee's, our regular therapy location, for over three hours. There weren't five seconds of silence. When you haven't seen your therapist in five years, well, there's lots to say.

All this was actually superfluous to our principal reason for being in Billings: Eli and Amanda's open house to celebrate their marriage. What a joyous event that was. I had worried not many people would attend. Would anyone attend? Five years is (as Eli would say) "a minute." My worries were unwarranted. Lots and lots of nice folks showed up to say hello and congratulate Eli and Amanda. We chatted. We reminisced. We ate cake and ice cream. We lamented how grown up all our kids have become. It was free and easy, just the way we like it. Perfect. Eli and Amanda were utterly exhausted from an unbelievably busy week, but they were troopers.

And there you have it. Our road trip to Billings, complete with snowy scenery, buffalo in the road, and joyous reunions with so many, many friends.

And if you're wondering what to do at 4:30 tomorrow morning, wake up and read your scriptures, you lazy bums.