Tag Archives: sisters

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Hey it's Mom.

I saw you two sitting  beside each other last night. Hallie, you were on the couch. And Rylie you were right beside her as you leaned over while the two of you looked at her phone whispering about something you both found comical.

I heard you laugh...together. Not one of you laughing at the other.

You girls even took a selfie...the both of you...without being asked.

The crazy part (as if this wasn't already crazy enough) is that one of you had company, so I know you weren't just interacting positively out of boredom.

I've watched you through the years doing normal sister things. I've observed, countless times, one of you hog the bathroom and then exit proudly, your towel piled on top of your head, while your junk remained; heaped on her side of the sink and spilling on to the floor. I've listened to the other of you beat self-righteously on the door with zero grace demanding to be let in ten minutes before her exit.

I've watched you fight over a possession that would typically be claimed except that I was asking the rightful owner to pick it up and put it where it belonged, in which case you fought, both claiming (pointing the figurative finger) that it was hers.

Car trips haven't been too bad for years. But only because you each take an entire bench seat. You drown out the world with your pillow and your headphones; blasting the playlist you so carefully created before we left the house. You each forget the other is in the car until it's time to stop for a restroom break.

Sure you've taken up for each other a time or two when someone outside our family has criticized or mistreated your sister. That's what siblings do. They hold outsiders to a higher standard than they hold themselves. How dare anybody (besides me) treat her that way?

Was it the ice cream? Did yesterday's impulsive purchase of the Bluebell flavor The Great Divide have some sort of counter-cataclysmic effect that turned you into foreign characters...friends?

I can't be sure, but you give me hope.  I fully expect to hear arguing later, over whether or not the YouTube video one of you is playing loudly in the kitchen is annoying. I'll be patient and let you work it out.  I know from my own experience that the process from sister, to friend, to best friend is a long one.

I'll remember that one of the ingredients to such a friendship is a number of failed attempts. I'll know that the disappointments and heartbreaks that will come from outside (and probably in) our family will serve in helping you to better care for one another (as has already happened a few times).


Until then I've stolen this selfie off your Instagram account to remind me that it just might happen. While I wait I'll think about my own sisters, my best friends. I'll be thankful that we got it right, even if it took a little while.

Check out the ultimate book for girls here.



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So......It's Sisters Day. 

I had no idea until I was scrolling through the feed on Facebook instead of folding my laundry that was on its second round of drying (to smooth the wrinkles that formed when I didn't get the load out yesterday). 

Sisters Day is the first Sunday of August.  I never knew. And because I'll probably forget this fun fact before the next Sisters Day comes around,  there are a few things I guess I should say. 

 

In honor of Sisters Day I used this picture (which is great of you two) even though my hair makes me look like a rooster.
 
To my sisters, 

You were my first best friend. And now decades later, with hundreds of miles between us, you're both still my best friend. 

I'm sorry for borrowing your clothes without asking (and sometimes ruining them like the time I burned a hole in your suede vest). 

I forgive you too, for things like taking credit for nick-naming our first nephew Rufus when you know good and well that I came up with that name. I forgive you for throwing a chair at me when I wouldn't let you out of the room and also for the time when we were little and you wouldn't let me sleep with you and I got stung by a stinging scorpion because I was crying on the floor. 

I think it's cool how we know each other's looks (even though sometimes your look means "What are you thinking wearing that get-up?") There's also the look that tells me "Yep. You've lost it..." when you witness me overreacting with one of my kids. You know my looks too like the one I make when I'm thinking about laughing at something I think you said wrong. 

I wish we lived closer to each other. 

I take comfort in knowing I can tell you anything. Thanks for answering my lengthy texts and for staying on the phone with me when I'm down. Thanks for keeping secrets and trusting me with yours. 

Looking back, I think it's cool the way we shared our birthday parties (since our birthday was two days apart). 

Thanks for being our life-sized doll when we wanted to put your bangs in high ponytails and stretch out your ears because we thought it looked funny. Thanks for dancing "the Chinka" for our friends and making them laugh. 

I think you're brave. 

Thanks for making me an aunt. My heart is full of love and bursting with pride  for every niece and nephew. 

Thanks for French-braiding my hair over and over even though I'd complain that you pulled too tight EVERY TIME. 

Sorry for those times I burned you with the curling iron. 

The way you call me "dork" is kind of like a term of endearment. 

My fond memories are too many to count like the times we'd pretend to put makeup on each other using just our fingers and a little imagination. 

I love thinking back to the times you would pretend to be "Jo" from Little Women or the cowardly lion from "The Wizard of Oz". You were always good for a performance. 

Thanks for giving me awesome brother-in-laws who I call my friends too.

The older we get the more I think resemble mom in both how we look and how we act. 

Thanks for being an awesome aunt to my kids. 

I skipped my Sunday nap to write this and almost got overheated in the garage looking for pictures of us (Which by the way are too few). 

I'm glad you're my sister even though I'm always too busy talking with you about what's going on in our lives to actually say it. Surely you know. 
Even though it sounds hokey, know that I love you always. 

Happy Sisters Day.