Emails from my Sisters

There are five girls in my family. My mom had to work pretty hard to give us each the gift of having four sisters. Why if she’d even stopped at an admirable eight children, those two older girls would be left as lone and miserable sisters, but as luck would have it, she pushed through (literally and figuratively I guess) and had three more girls. When we last three girls were small, the older two (Kathy and Amy) carted us around much like their own children – taking us for ice-cream or fries, taking us to get pictures taken, etc. And in turn, we spent enough of our youth tending their own little ones to practically be their under aged mothers. Now that we are all pretty well grown up, you’d hardly know there was ever the gap in ages (well, except that we younger three – Shannon, Nancy and Megan are OBVIOUSLY so much more in the prime of life – don’t worry, my sisters are all smart-alecs, and “when in Rome . . .”). We love to be together as much as possible along with our many other “sisters” who have married into the family.

I was looking through some old emails last night and found these that made me laugh. We’d been emailing back and forth nice things about one another – who was good at what, etc. Megan claimed that while I might be the one to claim best runner in the group (although Amy should perhaps be), she could have been the best biker. Here is a snippet from her email:

OOoo, I know what I could be best at. Mountain biking. Yes, I could be good at that. . . But then again, Nancy’s bike tire went flat. Maybe she would have passed me right, up. O' well its all speculation, I am taking it! Fastest biker!

The “flat tire” she referred to was the flat tire I received while participating in a biathlon with her and Amy. Amy went on to tell a little more of the “flat tire” story. It doesn’t portray me most favorably, but it is rather funny and perhaps even mostly true (though I'm sure I didn't curse!). . . I was very frustrated to have my race thrown so unexpectedly though. Here is Amy’s reply:

Meg you truly are a vision on a bike and I applaud you. But a little more to the flat tire story. I know I wasn't in a very good mood or in that good of shape come race day. But I seem to remember stopping to help the very frustrated Nancy who was wailing about her %$#@@ tire. I flagged someone down and got him to lend us a hand. It took about 15 minutes or more as I remember so we were pretty late coming in. As we got to the parking lot, I was apparently a little slow getting off my bike. Nancy, again knowing she was the fastest runner in the world, and knowing how behind she was, just looked at me and in exasperation said, "We'll are you going to run or what?" At that point I thought it prudent to tell her to go ahead, which she did and passed about 40 runners. Hoo Wee.

Now a little more from Amy just because she’s so funny (and so sweet):

Sometimes when I think about how lucky we are to have each other I almost want to cry. But of course having lost my ovaries (by the way has anyone seen them?) and being on a patch, I rarely cry. But I feel like crying! And on a serious note I realize that this sisterhood we have is a very, very rare gift from our Heavenly Father, as well as our parents who were willing to have # 9, 10 and 11, when eight children could have seemed more than plenty. Love you girls, Amy

I was actually going to put the comments Shannon made about me when we were emailing these nice things back and forth – not to show how great I am (and she did make me sound great), but to give you a glimpse at how incredibly complimentary and kind she is. I couldn’t do it in the end though because it was so dang nice I would feel like I was bragging just putting it on here! I will put a few pieces of it though . . . followed by my once again smart reply:

Nancy—. . . Such a good mom. So patient when her kids are whiney. So nice to me and cries with me when I am sad or something sad happens to me. . . . Can laugh laugh laugh. Just calls to see how I’m doing. . . . Doesn’t mind the smell of a cadaver that much . . . I love Nancy.

Ohh, if Shan just isn't the best! (You must be getting’ your cup all filled back up to be spillin' so much over to the rest of us). Really, I was just being goofy and then Shan writes the nicest stuff ever. Sigh, it feels really good when someone says specific nice things about you. Thanks Shoobs . . . ohh . . . except for me – “a good mom when my kids are whiny”??? Well, who knows, maybe I would be, but I can't be sure, you see, my kids don't whine. OH HOHO, HAHA HEE, HEEHEEHAW HAW!!

My sisters are also fun for when you want to brag a little. They are all about letting you brag and then praising you a bit more. Here are two emails from Kathy – one right before and one right after my last marathon:

I am on “pins and needles” to hear about the big results—ok really I am on a basically soft leather desk chair – but STILL, said prayers and hoping all went well.
Love,
Kath

NANCY, NANCY, NANCY…..WAY TO GO!!!!!! NUMBER 15 OF 750 LOSERS—I MEAN OTHER RUNNERS—AND BIG, FAT ATHENIAN AWARD!!!! I HAVE SHIVERS!!!! Truly I am so very, very happy for you. It is such a good feeling to accomplish a goal and stick with it—something I wouldn’t know much about- ha ha.

Lastly, here is an email from me to Megan that gives a little glimpse into how cool she is. She kept emailing me to take up drawing again and try her new sketching technique. Megan has five kids under eight, a spotless house and is always painting a room, sewing something, etc. Here was my reply to her request for me to get crackin’:

Ohhh I feel a stress coming upon me. Perhaps another day. Tata for now! Really, I have intended to, but neighbors were over while there kids played all morning. Then I had to take a nap and then fold laundry and now Mike is almost home to be with us for a few hours til he leaves out of town and then it will be dinner and family night and meanies to bed and then I can only draw if there is absolutely nothing on tv. So . . . we'll see. Heaven knows it won't happen tomorrow with 3 hours of "kindergarten testing" and then a young women's mtg. At least they have the mtgs. and my house so my kids can just watch tv instead of destroy someone elses home while I am supposed to be paying attention to my mtg. In the mean time, you have probably already learned a new language and how to play the guitar and the harp and are just finishing building an armoire.

Anyway, my friend Liz tells me to be grateful for having sisters and to be grateful that my little girls have sisters (especially good to remember when I am trying to do many little pony tails and not be late for church)! I do love my sisters though! I also love my eight trillion brothers, sister-in-laws, and brother-in-laws (along with all their little ones) on both Mike’s side and mine.