My Laugh of the Day

Today while herding my crew of teenage boy campers to our next destination the following conversation took place;

Camper A: Relish do you have any brothers?
Me; Yep three.
Camper B: Do you have any sisters?
Me: Yep three.
Camper A: So you've got three brothers and three sisters?
Me: Yes and one on the way.
Camper C: You have 7 brothers and sisters!??! Eight kids in your family?
Me: Yes.
Camper D: 10 people live in your house??!!
(in my head at this point thinking,  "Well I'm glad they can do that math.")
Back to Camper C who's an only child: That's so many people living in one house!

Then the conversation turned to my age. Those dear children thought I was four years younger than I actually am.  So I guess it makes sense why Liz Taylor and I are confused as twins. I look the same age as her according to my campers.

She Added a Few New Words to Her Vocab

Besides hanging out on the beach and enjoying the awesome weather for the week we also spent a lot of time playing various board and card games.  Elizabeth Taylor makes a really interesting fellow player.  Turns out she's a really risky Euchre player, to the point that BOTD was regretting saying he would be her partner on multiple occasions.  She is also quite the character when playing Bananagrams.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a word game that basically involves each player creating their own Scrabble board out of little tiles.  Liz Taylor decided to ditch the general convention of trying to get rid of all your tiles by spelling whatever words possible that weren't proper knows or abbreviations and waited for just the right letters to spell the words she wanted.  One particular game she wished to spell numbskull, failing to draw all the letters she needed she spelled out numbscuttle.  After that White Tornado did something to tick her off so she spelled out his name and then added is a cottenheadedninnymuggins.  Thank you Elf.

One of our favorite car ride games is the alphabet game and on ride Elizabeth Taylor was really struggling to find a particular letter (I can't remember what) and was getting irritated with me and BOTD as we were breezing through the alphabet.  After passing several Bojangles restaurants she coined it as her new catch phrase and every time she didn't agree with something she declared that it was "Bojangles."  It stuck and she's still declaring Bojangles on people, we'll see how long this lasts and if she can make it a thing.

They Concern Me

This morning I was working in the kitchen and Elizabeth Taylor walks in carrying Star wrapped in one of Charmer's blankets.  She sets the "sleeping" Star in my arms.  Charmer then informs me that Star is "dead" and they are having her funeral.  Liz Taylor was going to burying her in the garbage can but first Charmer needed to bless her.

The kid is three.  How many three year olds know people get blessed before they are buried? Or come up with the idea of pretending to have a funeral for that matter?

Star miraculously came back to life right before being dropped in the can.  Two minutes later Charmer was dead and being buried.  At this point,  I told Liz Taylor to start having baptisms or weddings, the idea of burying each other in the garbage can and playing dead was a touch too much to handle.  I mean seriously when I was that age I definitely was not playing funeral maybe we have a future mortician on our hands.

I Guess She's Okay

Fourteen years ago today I was given a late birthday "present."  My dreams of having a little sister were fulfilled.

I've told her since then she's the best and worst birthday present I ever got.

For about a year she went through a stage of being the best, but then she went through a really long phase of being the worst because for a long time she went through a phase of being a mean, quick tempered, angry little child who drove me absolutely crazy.  She got on my nerves and got into my stuff.  I couldn't stand her and no longer understood why people thought little sisters were so great.  Recently, I ran into my 5th grade teacher at the Rec Center and when talking to her she asked me if I remembered how I couldn't stand Elizabeth Taylor back when I was in her class.  I laughed because all of a sudden that annoying, pain in the neck started growing up.  Her main goal in life no longer seemed to be to push all my buttons and it turned out my obnoxious little sister was actually kind of cool to hang around.

Looking back at pictures today it turns out she's been my partner in crime longer than I am willing to admit.

In the last year or so she's really started becoming my friend rather than my frenemy, a person who makes me laugh, who will swing dance in the kitchen with me, and who wants to talk drama about school and swimming and anything else in life.  

Thank you for knowing just how to make me laugh, for sending me those random obnoxious texts and for dealing with the current chaos that is me moving back into our room.  I wish for the next year to be your best one yet as you enter the next saga of your life, but never forget to be my crazy little sister who probably should have been blonde and who is confused as a chameleon in a bag of skittles. 

Happy Birthday kid!

She Made It

Tonight I was excited to sit in the pew and watch as my little sister graduated from eighth grade and became a high school student.  I realize that it's just eighth grade and she's only moving to the high school across town, just the same I was happy for her and her accomplishments.

You did it kid! You survived the first nine years of your education.  So in light of the next four years, I have some advice for you to survive the craziness of high school.

First of all don't be afraid to try new things.  High school opens up a lot of new opportunities for you, take advantage of them.

Second, there isn't an elevator so don't buy a pass.

Third, even though I tell you pretty much everyday that you're a weirdo or a dork, you're a pretty cool kid and don't let anybody tell you any different.

The next four years are going to go fast and they are going to be fun, make the most of every moment before you have to go out into the real world.

Oh and by the way, I'm still taller and you're wearing heels.