Sisters

This is my sister. That's me on the right and her on the left. As I type that I am reminded of a funny story. WheneverI would see a picture of the two of us together and I couldn't tell who was who, I would ask my mom "mom, which one is me". She would take the picture, look at it and immediately hand it back saying "that's you on the right". Every time, I was on the right. Amazing....each time we posed, Tina would be on the left and I would be on the right. As the years went on, I realized that she would barely glance at the picture, but say right away "that's you on the right". That's right folks, even mom couldn't always tell us apart, but instead of hurting our feelings and saying "I'm not sure", she just always said I was on the right. She knew that if we were asking her who was who, then we certainly wouldn't know if she was right or not. I chuckle about that a lot.....especially when I'm on the right.

Anyway, back to the point of my post.....

For those that don't know me, yes, I am a twin. An identical twin. We are incredibly close, but for all those who are curious....no, we don't feel each other's pain. No, I don't know when she is sick. No, I can't read her mind. No, we never switched boyfriends. No, we never switched classes in school. Yep, we're boring that way.

My sister recently moved to Houston, and though it's been a year since she left, we are both still struggling with being apart from each other. Yes, we talk on the phone....A LOT. And yes, we visit each other (in fact, in the one year she has been gone, we've seen each other 6 times....not bad for being 2000 miles away). But it isn't the same. I can't just get in the car and drive to her house so that I can do nothing there instead of nothing here. I can't call her at the last minute and ask her to go to a movie with me. It definitely has been a growing experience for both of us.

Tina is married to Ron and they have two wonderful little boys. Eli is five, and will be starting kindergarten this year, and Ethan is two. My sister has always shared her family with me, and that is a gift that is so precious. It's harder now that she is in Texas, but when they lived in Portland, I would always be included in their family outings.....and if I wasn't I would just invite myself. :) I can't wait for my daughter to come home so that I can finally share my family with her.

This is us this last Christmas in Houston