My HOPE is in Heaven

Elizabeth's best friend Bethany Mulanax wrote a Facebook Note about all of her memories with Beth. At this 3 year anniversary, the stories she shared made my heart smile. Beth was very fun loving and enjoyed life and these stories reflected that. This also made me smile because I remembered Beth sharing many of these moments with me. She loved telling me things that happened in her life--the good and the bad. I wanted you to also get the chance to read about her and "remember" with me: Today is the 3rd year anniversary of my best friend, Elizabeth Hope Rose, being called home to Heaven. So, I wanted to share some of my memories I had with her. I know I will see her again, but until that time comes, I will honor her memory as best I can. Before you begin reading, I want to inform you that this is pretty long, but when sharing memories of a friend as great as Elizabeth was, there's no way it could be short. Enjoy and God bless! *"I want a phone" It was 7th grade. After school Beth and I went down to the football field where I waited for my dad to be done with track practice. Beth came with me because her ride wasn't there yet. We talked and walked around the track a few time. She asked me to hold her phone for a sec so she could do something. As I was holding it I started pretending I was texting and all that stuff that was just sooo cool in 7th grade. "Beth" I said "I want a phone. I feel cool holding yours and it comes in handy for reasons more than just texting and calling. Like when you stand by yourself waiting on someone you can play with the phone and not feel like a nerd." Elizabeth agreed with me. "I really want a phone." I said. I don't know why this memory is one of the first that comes to mind when I think of all the memories Beth and I shared. I think maybe it was because it was one of the first and in some way it helped grow our friendship. *High Jump Gone Wrong It was the summer before we would start 8th grade. My dad and the other track coach were given permission to allow some kids to come out to the track at school to practice. A few kids went including Beth and me. It was kind of like my dad and the other track coach were just supervising because we were allowed to work on whatever we wanted. Beth went over to the shot-put and I went over to the high-jump. After a while people started leaving. Eventually the few of us left started playing around on the high jump. We would try different ways to get over the bar, we'd slide under the bar or dive superman style over it. Beth had gone a few times before and it was her turn again. She decided to try it the correct way. As she jumped over somehow she caught her left leg with her track shoe that had spikes on it and cut the inner part of her thigh above her knee. We went into the weight room and I got my dad. My dad said it looked like she was going to need Butterfly stitches. So we called Mrs. Rose and she took Beth to the doctor. A few days later I went over to Beth's and she showed me her cut. She said she kept picking at her butterfly stitches because it was fun and we laughed. When her cut started healing she got a scar about an inch long. When she was showing me one day I realized it looked exactly like a scar that I have on my right thigh in the exact place (I got mine from my cat). We thought it was the coolest thing that we had the same scar. *Miley Cyrus Movie Disney Channel was showing the new Miley Cyrus Movie in 3D. Beth and I both wanted to watch it so we decided to watch it together. She came over to my house and we had pizza and sweet tea while we watched the movie. After the movie we played Guitar Hero (it was Beth's first time playing, but she was pretty good). This wasn't the first time Beth had come over to my house but it's the one time that I remember vividly. I remember laughing till I was crying and thinking "I have the coolest friend". *Beth's 14th Birthday party For Beth's 14th birthday she had a sleep over. I believe Chandler and Chelsea were there and we were later joined by a little girl that Beth knew. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, Beth, Chelsea, Chandler and I took goofy pictures. In one of them we all had big sunglasses on and stood back to back. Once the younger girl arrived we did some more stuff. We made little beaded crafts and listened to music. My favorite part of the entire party was when we all had a silly-string fight in the front yard. I remember trying to run away from people trying to spray me and just laughing my head off. It was one of the best times I had with Beth. *Pizza Delivery gone wrong One day at school Beth said her mom was going to bring us pizza for lunch. We all sat at our lunch table waiting for the pizza to get there. When Beth's mom called and said she was there, Beth and I went out to get it. The weather that day was cloudy, a bit chilly and WINDY. It was Wednesday, which meant we had to wear Chapel-dress (slacks and ties for the boys, skirts for the girls). When Beth and I were headed back inside with the pizza the wind picked up and Beth's skirt flew up. She quickly got control of her skirt and we went inside quickly. We were both dying laughing. Luckily it seemed as no one had seen what had happened besides Beth and me. This ended up being one of our favorite inside jokes. Even if we told other people about it, it wasn't nearly as funny to them as it was to us. *Nerd Day It was spirit week at OBA, so each day had a different theme. My favorite theme was Nerd Day. Everyone dressed up as nerds. I remember discussing costume ideas with Beth a lot. We finally decided what we would wear. I wore Bermuda shorts, a plaid shirt, white-tube socks, sneakers, my hair in pigtails and fake glasses with tape on the nose piece. Elizabeth wore Bermuda shorts, red-tube socks, sneakers, suspenders and also fake glasses with tape on the nose piece. We went to the school library and took a picture of Beth, Chelsea and myself ''reading'' books and looking nerdy. It was an extremely fun day. I think we even talked like nerds at one point :) *Math class I could talk about the memories I had with Beth in math class for hours and hours... Even though I didn’t like that subject, I loved that class because of Beth. We made so many inside jokes in that class. One time our teacher had an Alphala-cow-lick on the back of his head and it looked like a ducks tale and Beth and I busted up laughing. He did have some pretty good jokes sometimes though and we would chuckle at them. I remember one day our class had gotten him off topic and he was talking about his dogs. He was telling us about how one of his dogs was trying to catch a snake in the garden and he acted it out for the class. I remember sitting there as he tried to look like a dog getting ready to pounce and I cracked up laughing. I looked over at Beth and she was laughing hard. I had to look away from her because every time I looked at her and she looked at me, we just busted up laughing. We both were trying so hard not to laugh out loud. We covered up some of our bursts of laughter with pretending to cough. By the time we had both been able to calm down we were crying from laughing so hard. We talked about this many times and each time we just busted up laughing. Another funny thing that happened in math class was one day our teacher was talking about something with someone (I have no idea what) and then he laughed, but it wasn't his usual laugh. It sounded like a clown laugh and Beth cracked up which made me lose control of trying to contain my laugh. Another one of our favorites was when two of our friends were talking and one of them randomly threw a pencil at the other and it hit her on the head. It was really funny and Beth and I laughed for what seemed forever (and don't worry the girl wasn't hurt). Beth and I have probably a million more stories from that math class, but some of them you really just had to be there to understand. *Jaid's Parties I'll just tell the main points of this memory, since it would take too long to explain in complete detail. Jaid was a mutual friend of Beth and me. She invited us to have a sleep over at her house. Her house was enormous. Beth and I just adored the place. We decided to go outside when it was dark and jump on the trampoline. While on the trampoline we all got this idea to go towards the woods. We went around to the front of her house and started walking toward it. About 20-30 feet away from her house (not even close to the woods) we all freaked out and sprinted back to the house screaming and laughing as we went. It was just one of those scary moments that make you laugh every time you talk about it. As we were lying down to go to bed we were talking and laughing and someone said something extremely funny and we all busted up laughing. Beth got up and ran to the bathroom. She came out and said she peed herself from laughing so hard and was begging us not to tell anyone. We promised we wouldn't and we all kept cracking up. We were all so close to each other that we didn't even care about what had happened. The next party Jaid had was for her birthday and she invited us and a few other people. We played some games, watched movies and had a home-made facial. When we all were upstairs in Jaid's room playing games we were talking about memories and stuff. Beth then said "Hey you guys remember when I peed my pants" then she noticed what she'd said...she'd just told all these other people what she had begged us not too. But the amazing thing is she didn't get embarrassed (and if she did it only lasted about 5seconds) she just busted up laughing and we all joined in. I just admired her for not caring what anyone thought and just laughing about it. :) *Lizzy's Party Our friend Lizzy threw a sleep over for her birthday. Beth was the first one there and I was the second. While we waited for Jaid to get there, we went down to the park. Lizzy lived on the air force base, so they had a really nice park there and the base also had its own Bowling Alley and Swimming Pool. While we ran around on the playground like little kids, a little boy came up and asked if he could play with us and we said yes. He wanted to play house so we agreed. We were his pet animals. At one point in the game Lizzy, Beth and I were laughing because we thought it was funny that we were acting like cats and dogs. We then started to just talk to the little boy asking him what he liked to do and what his favorite show was. Then he started picking his nose and Beth started chuckling. I was gagging a bit and Lizzy also found it funny. Then he touched Beth's shirt and left. We were convinced that he'd wiped a booger on her shirt and all were dying laughing. We nicknamed the little boy Booger Boy and talked about this memory all the time and would chuckle each time we mentioned it. *Juan Plays Futbol Beth and I were in the library after school with some of our other friends. Beth and I were working on our English workbook and we had a sentence that said something about a guy named Juan playing futbol. We didn't know how to pronounce futbol so we googled it and we found out that in Spanish you pronounce the ‘U’ like ‘oo’ making the word sound like foooootbol. We thought it was hilarious and Beth said "Juan plays football” and we laughed so hard that we couldn't breathe. It's really something that you just had to be there to find funny and I'll never forget it. *17 Again Beth, Macie, and myself went and saw the movie 17 Again staring Zac Efron. The movie was hilarious and we loved it. One day at school we were talking about the movie and all of the sudden Beth and I starting quoting the same lines from the movie at the same time. It happened about 3 or 4 times. We couldn't believe that we kept saying the same thing at the exact same time. We thought it was great! *My 14th Birthday party For my 14th birthday party I invited a bunch of my friends over for a sleep over. We played games, ate pizza and cake, and watched movies. After I had opened all my gifts I had this idea of getting on the roof and scaring my dad when he got home from picking up the pizza. When we were all trying to get up I went first. I had stacked some travel coolers on top of each other and then pulled myself up onto the roof. About 8 other people came up and then Beth went last. When she was holding onto the roof she started laughing and so did I. I was trying to help pull her up and her shorts were starting to fall off. She eventually got up and we just laughed and laughed. When we all decided to go down from the roof, Beth and I were the last two on the roof. She went next and then it was my turn. But I had forgotten how afraid of heights I really am and I couldn't even jump six or so feet to the ground. I called for my oldest brother to come and help me down. Beth went and got him and he helped me down. Beth and I were laughing the whole time though. And now that I think of it we equaled each other out...she had a hard time getting on the roof and I had a hard time getting down. : *Relay for Life Relay for Life was an event where a bunch of people got together and would walk around a track or a town square from 7 at night till 7 in the morning to help raise money and awareness for breast cancer. My 8th grade class participated in the event. It was held in down town Enid. I was super excited because I got to spend all night with my friends. I remember just walking, talking, and laughing with Beth. At about 10pm one of our friends had to use the restroom, but the portable bathrooms were all full, so we three decided to walk across the street to a cafe and use the bathroom there. We weren't really sure if we were supposed to cross the street and go in so we were trying to be all secretive about it. We made it to the cafe restroom without anyone seeing. After we were done we looked out the bathroom door to make sure the coast was clear and to our horror the husband of our teacher (who was our chaperone at the event) was in the cafe buying a drink. We weren't sure whether to wait for him to leave or what. We decided on sneaking out. We slipped out of the bathroom and briskly walked out of the cafe. We made it back to the center square without ever being noticed. It was so much fun sneaking around and trying not to get caught. As morning came, our teacher bought donuts for breakfast. Beth and I sat at a table waiting for our rides while we ate our breakfast. I had finished off my drink and wanted just a sip to help rinse down the last of my donut. Beth offered me her drink and I said "I just want a swig of orange juice" and because of the way I said it and because we were both sleep deprived, we just found it hysterical and laughed until we couldn't breathe. *8th Grade trip to the Park The last week of school until summer break, our 8th grade class took a field trip to the park. We played and had lunch there. When we first arrived Beth, Chandler, Chelsea and I played on the playground. We got this idea of trying to climb up the inside of an enclosed slide. I went first and made it and then everyone else went. When Beth went up she kept slipping back down. I said I'd pull her up so I got on my stomach at the top of the slide and stretched my arm out to her. She climbed a bit up and grabbed my arm. We then started laughing because, well, that's who we are together. She couldn't climb up and I couldn't pull her due to the fact that we were laughing. I ended up falling down the slide with her. But we were determined that she was going to climb that slide, so I went back to the top and stretched my arm out to her again. Chelsea pulled my legs up and Chandler helped too. Beth got to the top and we were all excited that we accomplished the goal of Beth getting to the top no matter what. We then went and fed the geese in the lake and played on the swings. Beth had recorded the slide moment, but unfortunately, the video was lost when her camera crashed, but I still remember it as if I was there right now pulling her up the slide and laughing with her. I have probably a thousand more memories of Elizabeth. Some of them aren't as happy as others, but I wouldn't trade any of them for all the money in the world. I treasure each memory of Beth. I'd give anything to have her back with us all, but I know God's plan is greater than I can think it to be. He knows what he's doing and He knows best. I miss Beth so much. I have a picture in my room of her and me together and each time I look at it I realize how much I miss her. I miss having my friend with who I would just laugh and act goofy with. I miss talking to her and hearing her voice. There are times when all I want is to ask for her advice, but I can't. I ask God to tell her hello for me and to let her know I love her and miss her. I don't know how I would handle this if I didn't have God and know that she is with Him now. I sometimes wish to be in heaven, even for a moment, so that I can see her and walk with her & Jesus, but then I'm reminded that my time on earth isn’t entirely fulfilled yet like Elizabeth's has, so I'll have to wait just a little bit longer to see her smiling face again. :) Beth gave me a letter before her family and she moved to Washington. In the letter she told me she didn't know what the future would hold, only that we must trust the Lord with the present and future. I realize now that even though she didn't know what would happen later on, she was ready for it because she trusted God with all her heart.