Happy Birthday Sis

A couple days ago my little sister Jessie turned 20. It took me all day long trying to figure it out and then just finally asking her how old she was turning. I just could not come to grips with the fact that my baby sister is 20! That makes me feel really old. I hope she had a wonderful birthday with her friends in Idaho. She broke her leg a few weeks ago, and ended up having to have surgery. She has to be off of it for 10 weeks! That sure puts a damper on all the summer activities she was planning on doing. I feel so bad for her. I sent her a "Summer-With-a-Broken-Leg" survival kit filled with things that she can hopefully use to help her enjoy the sun and pass the time. Growing up, Jess and I always had a love/ hate relationship. There was no one who could make me more angry, but there was also no one who could make me laugh so uncontrollably hard. I remember her sneaking into my room and stealing my stuff and me being furious about it. (Now I'm the one always stealing her clothes :) She was such a funny little girl. She always dominated me with her strong, sassy personality, and loved to be the center of attention. But at the same time she had a way with winning you over and making you love her despite whatever she had just done. I don't know of two sisters more opposite than Jessie and I. She loves to perform. She has a rockin voice and can dance like nobody's business. She is outgoing and makes friends easily. She would rather play than be responsible any day. She falls in love easily. She is naturally funny. She's a yellow through and through. (These are all things I'm not.) When she was little, I always felt a need to take care of her, protect her, make sure she was happy and had friends, and use her to practice my hair and make-up skills. We'd play Barbies for hours on end, and she'd cry along with her Barbie when something sad happened in our pretend drama. She would drive me crazy with her never-ending singing while I was trying to concentrate on homework. We had countless matches of tennis ball soccer in the kitchen and spent hours together selling lemonade and shaved ice on the corner. It was weird when I realized that she was growing up and growing into herself. She no longer needed me to look out for her and make sure her life was smooth. (Well, maybe she could've used my help, but didn't really want it.) She became the typical bratty teenager when I was getting ready to leave for college. The moments of uncontrollable laughter and closeness were pretty few and far between. She was into her life, and me into mine. I have always felt like I missed out on so much of her life when I went to BYU. Anyways, we just had a few years where we weren't very close. It made me sad, and I always hoped and prayed that she would find her happy self again and we could go back to being the best of friends.

Well, that finally happened maybe two years ago and I've loved getting to know the person she's become. She is truly an amazing person, and I have so many reasons to look up to her now. She is so quick to forgive and quick to love. I love her so much and LOVE that we are sisters so that forces us to be friends forever :). Love you Jessie and can't wait to come see you next weekend!