kristiapplesauce

My sister hated me....

When I was little this is what I believed. My sister and I would fight and fight. Every year we would go Trick or Treating and we always had these amazing costumes my mom had sewn for us; my mom rocks!

So this one year, there we were - going all around the neighborhood and all of a sudden, to my horror and surprise - my sister pushes me into the biggest hole on the planet and my candy goes every where. It was pitch black right there, in between houses and instead of helping the situation, my sister begins to steal all of my candy as I scramble to pick all of it up off the ground.

I am, by this time crying and screaming and crying and hollering at my mom to punish my sister but she is laughing at us. I am three years younger then Laura; my horrible, mean sister and I didn't realize that she and my mom were talking and she really wasn't trick or treating that year, it was only for my benefit that she was there at all (so she tells me later)...they also tell me that they were about 15 feet behind me and I tripped over something "on my own" or "over my own two feet" (into the gigantic hole) and she wasn't stealing my candy but rather trying to help me pick it up and give it back - because we were all in the dark and I was hysterical. But that isn't how I remember it at all. Whatever. She is a liar and a thief. She was dressed as a ninja that year and I was of course dressed as a fairy princess. So you can believe what you want to.

The end.

36

Growing up in Las Vegas, my sister and I were kind of the strange ones - being that our parents were still married (to each other). We would have pool parties or sleep overs and I remember my friends always kind of looking at me funny and cocking their heads saying something like "that isn't your step mom or step dad..." Nope. They got married young and have had a rockin life. I love that about my parents. I love that my parents are still married and have given us an incredible life with them. I love that they have shown me adventure and trust. I love that they have provided for us and have paved the way for us to follow the Lord. I love that they are strong and courageous. I love that they put their own faith in action and sometimes do the crazy thing by taking the road less traveled. I love that my parents are cool. I love that my parents put others first. I love that they love one another. I love my mom and dad and I love that they are celebrating their 36. Yay them.

I heart my Dad.

I have never been good at being a daughter. I have never been good at being his daughter. Me and him - yeah, we are like total and complete polar opposites, but at the same time - we hold absolute extreme identical personalities. That's probably why we don't get along. But I love my Dad. He is somebody that I respect and look up to. He has led our family of girls and provided for us when so many of my friends growing up had nothing. We never went without. I still struggle with conversation when we are together; I never really know what to say - and at times I allow our past to catch up to us as my selfishness pushes forth...but I love my Dad. I sometimes remember past conversations or think about what I wish I said, but then I remember what he must have gone through as a kid and how he must have struggled with his parents and I have to let it go. Kids and parents; parents and kids...I  don't know why it is so difficult, but I love my Dad. I wish sometimes it could be easier and I wish I was easier to love and I wish that I would have done that or said something else or done whatever it is that he wanted or become who I needed to be but when the day is done and the sun has set, I know he loves me still.

Thanks Dad.

Mom

Families are complicated. But I can't help it; I love mine. I love the way we laugh. I love the way it is sometime necessary to cry. I love the familiar and I love the intimate.

My mom is incredible. When I was growing up, I was jealous of my mom at times because my friends would come over and spend more time with her then with me. So many of our friends didn't have moms, or didn't have a two parent house-hold so when our friends would come over to go swimming or spend the night, my friends (and my sisters) would spend hours talking to our mom about girl stuff or eating our food and sometimes spend all night long hanging out with our mom at the kitchen table. But looking back, I am so thankful for that. I am so thankful that my mom made our home a safe place to come. A safe place for conversation and a safe place that they knew they would be fed and protected.

Even now, sometimes I bring my friends and they are welcomed. I don't have to make a big production of it...but they are always welcomed. If somebody needs something to eat, or a present or just a conversation, my mom is the person to go to....but not just for "them"...for me to. My mom is the lady to make things happen. I may not understand my mom at times, and our paths might have gone different ways here and there, but she has helped get us where we are going and has directed us along the way and I am so thankful.

So thanks, mom.

I love you and I don't tell you that enough.

 

Undone

I am undone by this girl. Hannah is my niece and she rocks my world. Today we took her to a farmstead and she fished for the first time (caught 10) and even hooked her own worms. It amazes me how I can love somebody so much...but even more then that, how somebody so incredible could choose to love me back.

Lunchbox

My sister and I share a lot of sister only situations that only sisters do...okay, maybe brothers do crazy and wonderful things, but I doubt it. They do brother stuff - maybe, I dunno, I don't have brothers but my sister rocks and this is one reason why.

A handful of years ago she and I started "the lunchbox". It is a metal lunchbox that we found and decorated and started passing back and forth. We put fun prizes in it and usually a letter. We started this when we were both in the States, but now that we live across the world it means even more. We used to just drop it off whenever we saw each other, but now we mail - send it with teams or bring it whenever we come back. Yay! 

Family

This is the very first year that we haven't been with our families to celebrate. Daniel is 29 and I am 30, it is almost 5:00 pm and we have managed to get through the day. I don't really know what to think of that as this year and last have brought a lot of firsts but I never really thought that Christmas without our families would be one of them. So strange. We did however bring with us the love and traditions that we grew up with and have merged them into our own. We celebrate on Christmas eve with a picnic on the floor with cheese and crackers. We pray, and talk about the past year...talking about all that we are thankful for. It is super cool and I love that we do it. That is from his side. From mine, we do stockings. My family has always made this special. When I was little my sister Laura and I would try to wait up then we would practically try to convince my parents every hour on the hour to go check to see if Santa had arrived. This even went on way into our "past Santa years" as we were both (me more then her) excited for Christmas morning to begin. We would finally get my parents up around 3:30ish and my dad would agree that Santa had arrived. He would make a fire and mom would make hot chocolate. We would pile onto their big bed and dad would bring in the overstuffed stockings. We then would open them and play with all the stuff inside. They never had to be expensive or elaborate gifts inside but as we have gotten older they kind of evolved into that. Underwear, yo-yos, incense, stationary, candy, nail polish, stickers....all stuff that gets jammed into the infamous stockings. Yay. So then after an hour or so of that, we would then go get situated in the living room and one by one open up gifts under the tree. I guess the wonderful and sad part of this day is that Daniel has made this special and I fear that it is now "normal" that we are now doing things apart from how things have always been and I am okay with it. I know that none of what we are doing here would be possible apart from the love and encouragement and support and guidance from our families back home. They are an integral and essential component of every single day and I so fear that I am loosing part of where I came from or who I am by these monumental days of being away from the people I love most.

Logic

So my Niece Hannah has a "dead" tooth. She face planted or got hit in the face or punched in the tooth or something...who knows with that girl because really, she is a boy. She is so stinkin ornery. Anyways, so her tooth (which is really loose and about to come out any minute) has turned purple because like I said, the root is dead. So we went to the store the other day and she begged for some rocks that came in this tiny pouch. Of course I succumbed to her demands and bought her the bag of treasures and was just as excited as her as she showed me all her colorful rocks she bought with my money. Yay. She then noticed that all her 10 fingers were turning blue and purple because all the rocks were not actually sparkly blue and purple by themselves...but dyed to look that way. Dang. So then came the best part. She said "Kiki" (my given name by the most fabulous kids in the universe) are my fingers going to get dead like my tooth?"

Hannah

So being that I don't live here in the States, I obviously miss the everyday happenings of my family and the funny moments of my nephew and niece. They are so great. So so so great. They are really funny and I love how their minds work. So Hannah, she is 6 was talking on the phone to my mom the other day and I overhear her say "did you do it back?...come on do it!" She was trying to get my mom to high-five the phone as she slapped the receiver. She then tried to get my mom to guess what she was doing by the noise she was making....I was watching her, and I still couldn't get it....so after about 2 minutes I could tell my mom was getting frustrated and finally she blurts out, "No Ma-maw! I am wiggling my tooth!" I seriously love those kids.

Fourth of July lights

My Grandma,Leona Vicker (moms mom) turns 75 today. Yay Grandma!! But what is super cool about her is that every 3rd of July we all go to Grandma's house and celebrate Independence Day. Since the extended family is kinda big...each family buys a bunch of fireworks and then combine them to make a pretty impressive display. I heart Fourth of July. Grandma always decorates her house with all kinds of crazy lawn ornaments for holidays but even for the rest of the year, she has it pretty blinged out. Like she has 3 bicycles in her front yard that she spray painted; one red one white one blue...also has cement and plastic rabbits everywhere and a bed frame (like for a flower bed). I heart Grandma Vicker. Anyways one year she bought these shinny new lights for the fourth of July for the back porch and we all noticed and she said "Yeah, those are my fourth of July lights." We all started laughing because when she said it-it sounded funny and then we said it and it was fun to say and now it is a great and wonderful way to make fun of Grandma every year.