Remember how I was going to write a blog entry every day from the end of July through now, and that was going to be your birthday present? Well, instead of that, I decided that we'd just buy a new house for you to come visit. I already have your first week planned out. Here's the tentative schedule of activities:
--have you paint a mural on the girls' upstairs walls
--have you talk us through putting tile in the girls' bathroom
--have you help us re-carpet the upstairs
--have you help us decide if we can feasibly open up the kitchen to the dining room
--have you help us take down ALL of the faux brick on the dining room wall and replace it with something from this century
--ditto for the faux barnyard shingles in Joshey's room's walls
--ditto for the additional faux barnyard shingles on the basement walls
--have you help us decide which, if not all, hollow-core doors we should replace with solid doors and perhaps execute said switch
--have you help us recarpet the basement
--have you help us decide what, if anything, to do with the ceiling tiles in the basement
--have you help us decide if we should conver the sunroom to another room in the basement
--have you help us make fairy homes for the wooded path in the back
--oh yes, and talk for hours and hours and hours
Aren't you excited?
I consider it one of the greatest strokes of good fortune in my entire life that I was born your little sister. Because of you, I ran cross-country and track and a marathon and gained the (at this point utterly mistaken) confidence that I can really run any distance I put my mind to. Because of you I asked out boys that I was interested in and gained the (at this point utterly unnecessary) hutzpah to act on my crushes, for better or for worse. Because of you I eventually stopped liking guys that were absolutely wrong for me. If I'd followed your advice sooner, I would have stopped liking them long before they wasted years of my life, but oh well--we all have to learn. Because of you, I know that I am an ENFJ, which actually makes me happy to know. Because of you, I gave my husband a chance, back when he was a wrinkled, nerdy Ph.D student writing funny e-mails to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Because of you, I have beautiful engagement and wedding photos which bring me joy every day as I see them on my walls. Because of you, I didn't put off having children, and I looked forward with eagerness and humility to the priceless experience of becoming a mother. Because of you, Polly Gabrielle is named Polly Gabrielle--and really, could Polly even possibly have any name other than Polly Gabrielle? Because of you, I've been to Florida. Because of you, I've been to Texas. Because of you, I have the purple backpack that I use every single day of my life (with small children). Because of you, because of you, because of you--the list could go on and on and on.
I bless your name, and I thank my God that me made me your sister. Happy Birthday, my beloved older sister.
Oh, Naomi, I love you too. Yes, Yes, YES! I want to come to your house!!! And I will talk you through every one of the points on your list. Nothing would make me happier. Except, I suppose actually *doing* those things with you. I think we would have made a great team. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou have taught me so much, too. One of the very best things you taught me was how to really and truly appreciate and admire and love someone very different from myself. And what a gift that has been. Someone with my innate personality can sometimes start to think their way is the only way (I know you can't *imagine* me ever thinking like that...). But you have proven to me over and over again that there are so many different right ways of doing things. Thank you for being one of the best friends I have ever, ever had.
Once we start working on those projects together, you'll remember again why you had such certainty that your way was the best way :).
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