January 31, 2012

• My Sister -- My Best Friend

  

  One of my many great blessings in life is my sister. I LOVE HER.

  She is 4 years older than me (currently 28, but she'll be turning 29 in March. Hard to believe).

  Growing up, we shared a room and a bed. When I was a toddler, and still sleeping in a crib, I would climb out and climb into bed with her. Then we shared a bed, later, and would argue over who stole the covers. It was still fun. Eventually, we got our own space, did more arguing than anything else and kinda grew apart. You know, it happens. I felt that, for a time, our 4 year age gap was more a big deal than one would think. The year I was going into high school, she was graduating.

  I remember one year us going to summer camp together. The one year we could go together. Anyway, I was sooooo looking forward to just spending time with HER and having her to have my back. For example, we had to take  a "swimming test" in order to swim in the lake. And we had to have a buddy. I just automatically assumed that she'd be my buddy. And considering I didn't know how to swim, I was petrified and needed her. Well, that day she was sick. I didn't find this out till we were down at the lake, getting instructions on what we needed to do. Once I heard she was sick and couldn't come, I broke down crying and had a panic attack, LOL. Then my camp counsellor and another friend, who couldn't swim, went with me up to do like crafts or something. Anyway, that was a fun year and once my sister found out how I reacted, she felt bad. And I think we spent more time together after that.

  The fun part came when she was in college. We would have sister days, whenver we needed them. Most of the time, this would entail a couple of different things. We either,

  A) Browsing Babies R Us. (Though, I was a teenager and shouldn't have been thinking about babies, she loved the idea of having babies and is a mega planner, so she had to have ideas. It was fun just looking around, anyway)

  B) Going to the mall, of course.

  C) Just driving around town

  She was in nursing school, at the time. She's now a pediatric nurse. I remember going with her to a class at the library that was about the heart or something. The lady started talking about plaque and how, naturally, it would build up over time and blah, blah, blah. To this day I CANNOT hear anything about the heart, lol. I ended up having to run out of the library and puked on the sidewalk. great fun. We had a good laugh at that. On  the way home, we just laughed at that. She thought my reaction was hilarious.  We had a lot of good times, together. Our last sister day, before I moved away, we drove up to Lexington, walked on the boardwalk, ate at A&W, got pictures and just enjoyed our time together.

  Then I got married and moved away. That was hard. I didn't appreciate her nearly enough until I had to go without her. She would miss me on days she wanted a sister day. Talking on the phone just didn't cut it.

  Then when I got pregnant, that was great fun. We came out to tell everyone in person (that's not why we came out, it just happened to coincide at the same time, ironically). She bought me a big diaper bag filled with baby stuff. That also happened to be my 21st birthday and we went to Dave and Busters and played games. That was SOOOO MUCH FUN.

  When Brianna was born 6 weeks early, due to my premature labor and her heart rate dipping, she and my mom quickly got a flight out and spent a week with me. Brianna was in the NICU, the whole time, and I was really overwhelmed. My sister just loves babies and kids, so having her there, having her support MEANT EVERYTHING. When we dropped them off at the airport, that was the first time I think we all.... really... cried that much with each other... in a while. She was telling me in my ear that I could do it, that I'd be a good mom and it was wonderful. We hugged and I cried. *sniff*.

  It was really hard being apart.

  That was one of the reasons I really wanted to move back here. And here we are. And now we're closer than ever.

  She married her long time boyfriend (high school sweethearts) back in 2009. They bought their first house. We all helped them get the place painted. Then we'd get ice cream from the ice cream truck that came down her street. She's a fantastic aunt. She's my HERO. She takes my daughter sometimes and I have time to myself, while they can bond. I'm so thankful that my daughter can have her for an Aunt. She's awesome.

  And I'm so thankful I have HER for a sister. I can't wait to see all the adventures we get to do together, all the fun times ahead for us in the future!

  

  • 10:33 am
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