Sisters...

Well, I did a "tribute" to my brother Brad, so I thought I would do a similar one for Christina. It is fun, after all, to focus solely on one person and tell stories about them ;). At least it is for me. Sadly, I don't have any young pictures of just me and Christina... Obviously I need to raid my parents' photo albums while I'm in Dothan for Thanksgiving and find some so that I do have them. But for now:Christina and I did not share the closeness that Brad and I shared until recently. We always got along, and we shared a room for many years. But Christina and I are like night and day, at least we used to be. But as we have both entered adulthood (whatever that is), we have gotten closer, about which I am very happy. We talk at least once a week, so that is always nice. If I had to describe Christina in a few words, they would include: strong, independent, loyal. For every ounce of strength and independence I did not get, Christina got them 10-fold. So, here I will tell you a few Christina stories:

The story goes (I was too young to remember exactly), that when my mom was expecting Christina, everyone was sure that she was a boy. I don't know if they had ultrasound technology available at the time, but if they did, it was not common practice to find out the gender of the baby. So everyone thought for sure that Christina would be a boy. Except me. I just knew I was going to have a baby sister. And I was right. Years later, when Christina and I would clash heads, I would think that, if only I'd have been convinced that she was a boy, she would have been. Haha. Yeah, I know it doesn't work that way. But in my younger years, I can remember having that thought. I guess I was awfully big-headed to think that my desire would determine the gender of the baby :)! I do have to say, though, that I'm glad Christina is Christina.
Christina was never shy, like I was. She was fearless (a trait that has been passed on to her daughter Desiree). One time, my mom took Christina to the swimming pool when Christina was about 4. My mom made the mistake of getting Christina dressed and ready to go first (after being done swimming). Christina decided she was not going to wait for my mom to get done dressing, and so Christina left the pool and started walking home. The good news is that she was headed in the right direction. The other good news is that one of the local maids saw her walking, recognized her, and stopped her until my mom could get there. My mom says Christina was just mad at the maid for not letting her continue her journey home. And knowing my sister, I don't doubt that in the least.Before Christina and I officially shared a room, there was about 1 sweet year in which I had my own room. However, I was a nice sister, and I would let Christina sleep with me most nights in my queen-size bed. Well, Christina was a "roller" and would always end up crowding me out. So I would wake up in the night and gently jostle her awake and ask her, nicely, to move back to "her side" of the bed. I, on the other hand, am a pretty still sleeper. And I mean that... I still sleep only on one half ("my" half) of my queen-size bed. Except one night I did happen to roll on "her side" of my bed. I only know this because I was awakened by an incredibly powerful punch to my delicate derriere and Christina's command, "Move over." Such love...Once we did start sharing a room officially (and still sharing a bed), we took care of each other. Sometimes Christina would wake up in the night and feel like she couldn't open her eyes (we are not sure if these were the beginnings of her vertigo attacks). She was afraid, and she would call out to me. And so I would wake up, calm her down enough, and then go get Mom. And there were nights when I would wake up with severely painful cramps in my calves. I have no idea what they were, but they were seriously excruciating. Christina would wake up and go get Mom, who would hold my foot pointed straight up until the pain alleviated and went away. I can remember when I first started dating Heath. Christina would do my make-up, because she was much better at it than I was. She would pluck my eyebrows for me (haha), and spend her time making me pretty for my date. I've never forgotten that she did that for me. Also, the only time I get her to read my blog is when I call her and make her read it while on the phone with me. She reads them out loud and laughs the whole way through, and so it's fun to laugh together over the phone about these stories. She's so fun. And she really does have a heart of gold. I love her and look forward to many more years of memories :).

Correction:

See, this is why it's good to tell old stories with one's siblings. Saturday night, while Christina was reading my blog posts over the phone, she came to the one called "Music and Cockroaches." She remembered details that I did not, but that I now remember. So, I should share them with you, because they are neat little details. Okay, it turns out that, yes, we wanted to eat the sugar to help us stay up later. It also turns out that most of us (well, make that all of us, except Brad) wanted to eat brown sugar. Only Brad wanted the white sugar. And that is where the roach was. So, Brad ended up dropping the white sugar bowl, which is why sugar went everywhere and the "cockroach fell out of the sugar." I don't know, I think that detail adds a little more humor to it. Good ol' Brad. Just had to have the white sugar... Oh, and this is a link to the song from which today's "Quote of the day" came. It's a neat little song: (Everybody's free) to wear sunscreen.