Birthday Wishes - part I

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was better than ours... we spent a few days with two very sick kiddos and did a lot of laundry, changed a lot of sheets, used a lot of Clorox wipes... you get the picture. I'm not even sure if both kids are fully on the mend yet, but we're crossing our fingers that we've seen the last of this bug. More importantly, I'm double crossing my fingers that Josh and I will steer clear... it doesn't look good and those poor kiddos have seemed so pitiful here lately. But anyway...

 

It's been awhile since I did a birthday post and I used to do one for just about everyone in the family when their birthday rolled around. Oh yeah, I didn't have kids back then. But anyway, today and tomorrow are two very special birthdays as I have two very special sisters, so I wanted to take the time to give them a little bit of love on each of their days.

First up... sister Mindy's is today! She's three years older than me and although we have always been friends, I'd say we've become best friends over the past eight years. We lived down the street from each other in Florida for five of those years, had the same great group of girlfriends, did Disney trips and Bachelor nights together, celebrated many birthdays, weddings, showers, bachelorette parties, etc. together, have run a marathon (and many halves) together, and then when I moved away, we ended up pregnant at the same time and got to share that together (from afar). Her son Adam is only seven weeks older than our Jake and they are the best of friends, too.... it just doesn't get much better. And three months ago, she added baby Sam to the family, for which I am thankful so that I can get my baby fix without having another one any time soon! This family is not quite ready to handle three!

 

But anyway, I mainly just wanted to take a minute in the blog world to tell her how much I love her and how much I look up to her. I feel like we live in a society where we don't tell each other positive things enough... everyone focuses so much on critiques and criticisms, but why not tell the people you care about the most just how special they are? And this chick is so special! She's a wonderful (and very patient) mom, an incredibly supportive wife (her husband had one three Ironman races, which require 20+ hours of training a week for months!), a friend you can tell anything to and know that it won't be gossiped about ever, she's incredibly creative and crafty, she can design anything you need her to (invitations, save the dates, odds and ends for a party, you name it!), and would give you the shirt off of your back if you needed it. Oh, and have I mentioned that she's gorgeous???

 

We chat on the phone multiple times a week about nothing at all, and I know she'd make the drive down here in a heartbeat if I ever needed her. She balances a full-time career and the family and the house and makes people ask, how does she do it? Yes, we see you like that, even if you don't see yourself in that light. I could go on and on, but I'll just get to it... without further ado I'd just like to say a big Happy Happy Birthday to my big sister, Mindy! I love you more than you know and I am so lucky that God put us in the same family. Have a great day... can't wait to celebrate with you this weekend!