Jen

January 9, 2009

So, I start writing this blog with my sister Jen in mind on February 11, 2008. I had all these memories going through my head and wanted to put them down in a form that would be flattering and fun and funny.

And as my life is wont to do, it got busy and I never came back to edit this blog.

Well, fast forward to like the beginning of November or so and I found out that my sister is having her first baby. I'm sure that her and my brother-in-law, Jim are so excited.

I am, too! So, in honor of my baby sister being a mommy and me becoming Auntie Kimmy, I'm going to remind her of the stuff we used to get into so she knows what's in store for her beginning in less than 9 months time...


Pop beads
vacations on your birthday
"wosco peeeecotrain"
tippie toes
Jenny Wrenny
The Hawthorne tree at woodhaven
picking all the fat off of your meat for you
laying out a peeled raw carrot on nights we were having cooked ones
playing with your hair
sharing "The Church of Walgreens"
The great basement flood of '85
"Bayoobda"
Mello Yellow
Fashion shows
Oh you beautiful doll
sneaking out the basement door
the clubhouse
bootlegged cassette tapes
watching Love Boat/Fantasy Island when we should have been sleeping
dueling stereos
The blizzard of '79 and the snow being taller than you were
either a best friend, an enemy, or a cohort depending on the day and situation


Favorite memories:

You on your hands and knees on the asphalt at Blackhawk park because I didn't have enough arm strength to pull myself out of the baby swing I was stuck in.

You running home at 6 years old from Blackhawk Park, to get mom and dad because I thought I broke my ankle jumping out of the tree.

Your wedding--nothing specific, it was just a perfect day.

Listening to you after you take the kids for a weekend.

Woodhaven, Owassippee, Crystal Lake--just having you around.

Remember the teeny tiny tree froggies at Crystal lake that were like smaller than the tips of our fingers?

Snipe hunting at Owassippee?

The East Coast Trip. It wouldn't have been the same without you there.
That stupid ginormous ferris wheel that you HAD to go on?
Remember The Atlantic City Hotel and the HIHO Casino?
Remember singing, "Under the Boardwalk"?

Remember the endless scuba diving "vacations" where we got to babysit in fun and new locations all summer?

Driving you crazy listening to country music, and watching you eat it up when Bowie would tell me that I should be nice to you.

Making you run screaming from the room to stop playing that damn song every Christmas when I'd wear out mom's "The Kingston Trio" album?
"Children go where I send thee/
how shall I send thee,/
I'm gonna send thee one by one,/
one for the little bitty baby,
who was born, born, born in Bethelehem/"

Helping to trim the Christmas tree after mom had strung the lights.

Remember the one year we made her buy cranberries and we strung popcorn and cranberries on the tree?

Sleeping in Great-Grandma Mom's bed when we'd stay over at Gram's house and hoping that they would let us spend the entire night?

That mom said to each one of us, "Someday you'll understand when you have a child just like you..."

I can only hope that happens, the world needs more like you...
...and it's good payback for you barfing on my side of the bed that time and then climbing over me so I had to lay in it.