Happy Birthday Shiela!

Today is my sister's birthday. I spoke with her earlier to see what the big birthday plans are. There are none. She said, "have you met my husband?" Um, good point. He's not a bad guy, just not someone who makes a big deal out of celebrating birthdays and holidays. You'd think after 22 years in our family (25 if you count pre-marriage years) he would know differently. We're a have-a-party-for-any-occasion kind of people. So Peter conned Grandma into making a cake for his mom. I'm not invited (insert sobs here). Seriously though, I'm not bitter about it -- we have small group tonight so there is no sense inviting us.

Shil is almost 2 years older than I am so that created a special bond. We went to one year of junior high together, back in the old days when 9th grade was in junior high, and we went to one year of high school together. I was painfully shy and she was not, so having someone I knew on the first day of each made it fairly bearable.

We've shared so many of the same experiences together but as you might expect, I can surely pull out a few faves. In the months before my MD diagnosis came, I was always sick and in a fair amount of pain. I would wake up at night with excruciating charlie horses in my legs -- often 3 or 4 per leg. She would get up, run a hot bath for me, and then sit on the edge while I soaked my legs. We talked about everything. She did this knowing she'd have to go to school the next day but I would likely not. It would have made sense for her to go get mom up but instead she did it herself. Often mom woke up anyway but Shiela always stayed until I went back to bed. She went repeatedly to all my teachers to get my assignments or turn them in so I wouldn't get behind. She even rode the elevator with me at school after my surgery. It was so not cool to ride the elevator. She didn't care. She watched out for me, protected me, and was never embarrassed even though I gave her many reasons to be.

After she married she moved to Minnesota and a few years later I married and moved to Phoenix. Pre-cell phone days and long distance was expensive. We were poor college students but we burned up the lines for years on end anyway. When we lived in Virginia I worked at a place with an 800 number. WOO HOO! Then one day they had me do a phone analysis on where we received the most calls from. I remember my boss saying, "wow, we've had a huge increase in callers from Minnesota." Right. We sure have. No doubt they noticed a huge decrease in Minnesota callers after we moved to North Carolina.

So many memories of going to see them in Minnesota and the year Steve and I were stationed in Virginia, they came to spend Thanksgiving with us. That was such a fun weekend! Since we were just 30 miles south of D.C. we tried to take advantage of as many historical things as we could in those 7 months.

As fun as all that was, I love that we can do lunch on a whim or Christmas crafts together or go shopping and the list goes on. I can even talk to her for free as much as I want! We can cry together...laugh together...celebrate together...mourn together...there are definitely advantages to living a few miles apart.

Shil -- thanks for making life so much richer. Thanks for sharing your babies with us and walking that dark time with me. For crying with me, laughing with me, um, at me. I love you.