My little teeny tiny sister turned 20 years old yesterday. That’s right. I have the world’s coolest sister. She a taller, leggier, tanner, more athletic, less freckled version of me (ah, but I am still older!) and now she is not a teenager anymore. I thought I would celebrate her birthday by remembering a few good times.

I don’t remember much about her birth, except that I got a “I’m a big sister” tshirt from the hospital and I cried when other people held her because she was mine. Ironically, I think I still feel that way sometimes. Sorry, sis, I guess it’s in my blood. I’m not too overprotective, am I?

Let’s move onto Big Spring where she was the Miley to my Billy Ray as we entertained friends and family members alike with our startling rendition of “Achy Breaky Heart” (or our equally stunning Michael Jackson choreography). She did everything that I did. I have video to prove it. She loved me.

When we moved back to Abilene, Leah and I shared an upstairs bedroom in a townhome we rented for a while. This is where we got our first gerbil. I don’t remember his name (Peanut?) but I do remember that he was annoyingly nocturnal. This is also where Leah sang her first American hit single, “I like to try new things/ But sometimes they are hard/ I….don’t…….get it.” So proud.

Then we moved into the house that we really grew up in. So many memories. I’ll put them in a list:

-Remember that time that mom and dad left us alone for the first time and there was a dead sparrow in the fireplace and we ran around the house screaming our heads off?

-Remember that time I slammed your upper arm in the door of dad’s tiny mazda pick-up?

-Remember that time that you called me a b!$*& and then didn’t even know what it meant and cried like a baby when I told mom?

-Remember that time you kicked Samson in the head when he was a puppy?

-Remember those (multiple) times when I would warm up with your soccer team because I thought it was cool (but it was really lame)?

-Remember the time that you claim (to this day) I slammed your lip in the bathroom door? You must have been really pouty that day.

– Remember the time you fell off the kitchen counter and your belt loop got stuck on the cabinet door and you hung upside down?

-Remember the time you got me in trouble because I let you drive my car and you told mom about it?

-Remember the time last time we played basketball? We’ve never played again cause i accidentally poked you in the eye.

-Remember the time you read the word machine as mah chine? And then you said, “What’s a mah chine?”

– Remember the time mom and dad were gone and a drunk guy banged on our fence and I had to commando crawl across the house to get the phone and you were screaming expletives in mom’s closet?

– Remember the time we would put Barbies on top of the ceiling fans and turn it on?

-Remember when dad taught you to say, “I’m the boss of my chips.”

-Remember when I used to throw clean socks in your bath water and you reacted like they were bombs?

-Remember the time when we were hanging curtains for a surprise bedroom makeover for mom and dad and we didn’t  kill each other.

Oh and that’s just our house. I have so many favorite memories from trips away from Abilene, but I will pick my top 3.

3. My first laugh cry at Mo-Ranch. I was trying to rinse my feet off in the bathtub, but the shower was on as well and it sprayed me. I started laugh crying and I think you might have too.

2. The time we thought an alien ship had marked your bed at Grandmother’s because there were three lines of inexplicable light on your comforter. After testing multiple theories, we still thought an alien would get you. When you asked if you could sleep in my bed, I said no. If the lines of light hadn’t turned out to be from the neighbor’s garage light filtering through the shutters and aliens had actually abducted you, I never would have been able to forgive myself.

3. Longs Peak this last summer. I don’t know if I’ve ever had as much terrified, exhausted, and oxygen deprived fun as I did when that marmot was chasing us across teetering rocks on the edge of a cliff and we threw rocks at it.

Here’s to many more, little sister. Happy birthday.

Love, Lil’ Mama