My baby sister is all grown up!

Saturday, my children and I spent the day at my parent's farm. Friday night was my baby sister's bridal shower. (Say what???? I know! She grew up when I wasn't looking!) We spent Friday night and most of Saturday at my parents so the children could go sledding in the snow left over from last week's storm. I reminisced about days gone by with my mother, played a new game with my grandmother, (and beat her soundly, I might add.), but my favorite part of the day, was spending time with my baby sister at the house she will live in after she marries her hunka hunka burnin love in February. We unpacked the loot she had received at her shower, washed and dried dishes, put food items away, and talked about the coming changes in her life. I wish I could say I imparted a good bit of sisterly wisdom, but I didn't really have any, as I still haven't quite figured out this whole marriage thing, and I've been doing it for a little over 12 years now! As I watched her in her new kitchen, sweeping up the floor and putting everything in its rightful place, I remembered. I remembered a baby with big eyes, looking up at me, the first time I held her almost 22 years ago. I remembered the winter we all got chicken pox and she ended up in the hospital because she was dehydrated. I remembered a little toddler running through the grass with her puppy, and laughing at their antics as they played together. I remembered that same toddler high on the milk house roof, happily eating the berries that grew from a plant that was probably poisonous, while I died a thousand deaths below. Our father was quickly summoned from milking so he could get her down. Miraculously, she seemed to suffer no ill effects from the berries or the climb up the silo that stood beside the milk house. I remembered being woken from a sound sleep in the middle of the night as she wanted a drink. And then I remembered hearing a thump and crying as she felt out of the bunk bed, waking me from yet another sound sleep... in fact the one thing I don't remember doing when she was little is sleeping... I remembered how hard it was to get her to sleep! We had a vhs documentary that explained the life cycle of plants with amazing time lapse photography. We'd turn it on, and in minutes, she'd be out. I remembered laying awake at night and whispering secrets with my younger sister, and finding out later that Amanda was only pretending to sleep. I think I may have threatened her with bodily harm if she shared with our mother. I don't know why I bothered. I usually ended up telling mom everything, anyway! I remembered so much as we worked together this morning. I remembered how old she was when I left home for the first time at 19 and she was 5. She was 6 when I came back, and I moved in to our great-grandmother's house to take care of her. Sometimes I'd take Amanda along to spend a few days. We'd spend time together, but mostly, I was convinced she was spying for Mom. Then I went to Haiti, and Amanda was almost 9 when I returned. I left home for good a year later and didn't return as often as I got busy raising my own family.  She came to visit once in a while but those visits waned too, as she grew older, and suddenly here we are 12 years later. She's a grown woman, and I'm still seeing the 5 year old sister I left behind as I first went into the world to make my mark. I didn't call home as often as I should have, and didn't have the time for her as often as I should have. But the memories I have are good. Like the time, she came to visit for a week the year she was 11. She was eating a pear from the pear tree outside of our house and as we were driving down the road, she tossed the core of the pear out the car window. Except the window was still up and pear juice splattered everywhere. And even more recently, we made a late night trip to Giant when she came for a visit, and we danced down the aisles to the songs as we shopped. She in her cowgirl boots, and I in my Nike flipflops. There have been fun times, sad times, hard times, and worst times, but through it all, we're sisters. There's three of us and some day, we'll be just like our mother. But that story, entitled Becky's Daughters, is going to have to wait til next time!