The Winey Wife: The Thankful Project: Day 3

The Thankful Project: Day 3

So there’s this girl, and she and I are really….nothing alike. We have known each other FOREVER! Like almost 30 years. When we first met each other, things were generally cool. We loved being around each other, and we shared lots of common interests…Barbies, house, dress the dog up in any baby clothes that would fit. But as the years past, man…it was rough. We fought with the best of them. It was like Jerry Springer! We bent kitchen appliances (supposedly…I really do not recall this at all!), threw each other’s things out the window, smack talked til the cows came home (or mom), *shiver* it was crazy! But we could never get away from each other. She was always having crazy life experiences ahead of me. I would ridiculously correct her as if I had experienced them, and then flounder in my stupidity when I was wrong or wave my judgmental finger at her nose when I was right. I was quite the annoying little punk. Then all would resolve and we would find ourselves up late nights talking or trips to the mall or well…anything where she would take me along, really.

Then she decided to move out, towards Chicago. I am all about change, so I wished her good luck and farewell and promised to visit her. I thought our time apart would be good for us. But after about a month, I was miserable. My partner in crime was gone. I called her up to chat, we met half way and visited off and on. I realized very quickly without her there, I missed her. I missed our drama, our late night chats, our random trips to town, I missed it.

Life went one and all was the same with our visits and phone calls. I had moved away by then with no plans to return any time soon, when I called her one day. She had lost her job. She was moving home, or to what used to be our home. I was so excited for her! I thought this was going to be good for her…try something new around familiar people. Then all soon enough, what I thought were my future plans, ended up falling though and I too, headed back to familiar lands. And, after 7 years, she and I were together again.

Yes things were different, but we still bickered with the best of them. But the experiences we had lived through made our relationship something different. It was more than just a friendship…it was a sisterhood. And nothing biological. Something spiritual. Something both of us started to set at a high value, something unexplainable and totally natural at the same time. And yet still we were really nothing alike.

Crazy enough, we got married within 5 months of each other. We are raising our babies together now. She has one ahead of me so I marvel at her skill and pray that when it’s my turn, she will be a phone call away to tell me what to do.

I see only life in our future, but no change in the sisterly bond we share. All be it biological, but more a commitment to be there for each other through everything. The weepy phone calls, the last minute babysitting, Spoon River Drive weekends, the marital spats…EVERYHING.

Brittany, you are my partner in crime, my spiritual crutch. You have more strength than I can dream for myself. You are a wonderful and committed mother, though the battles press on for M and A. You preserver in the hard times, and rejoice in the good. You are my best friend, but more so, you are my big sister; I look up to you, I have and will continue to learn SO MUCH from you.

You wrote this on the front of my scrapbook you made me for my high school graduation:

She’s the only one who could make me laugh uncontrollably at the dinner table by making funny faces.

She teased me about my taste and my first boyfriend, and then comforted me when he broke it off.

She offered me her clothes and advise even when neither suited my style;

She knows instantly by the tone of my voice when something’s wrong even though she’s miles away…

She’s the love of my life; she’s my sister.

There is something the world will NEVER be able to take away from me, and that is my sister.

I love you, Sister!

Love, the little sister