My Mini-Me

Or maybe I'm a Mini-Her.  I'm older.  She's taller.  I don't know which counts more.  All I know is that we're basically the same.  It used to be that we just looked like.  It's obvious (to most) that we're sisters.  Some would be fooled into thinking we're twins.  At the very least, we force the unsuspecting to do a double-take.  But lately, our resemblance has deepened beyond our appearance.  I see in her everything I feel in myself.  She is a reflection of my own spirit.  Our souls sing the same song.

She left today.  In my car.  It's almost like I'm going with her.  We didn't cry.  We smiled and hugged and waved goodbye.

 

Then she started to drive away.  I was taking lots of pictures.  She was annoyed, I'm sure.  But I couldn't help it.  I love her so much!

I turned to go inside, but I couldn't let her go.  I needed one more picture.  One last shot of her heading off toward the adventure God has prepared her for.  I turned back.  Not fast enough.  I barely caught her before she was out of sight.

Panic overwhelmed me.  I couldn't breath.  It was like all the oxygen in my air had followed her.  We had avoided the tears.  We tried to avoid time.  But in that moment on the driveway (and several since) I haven't been able to avoid either.  The finality of that happy farewell is sinking in.  So it is with wet eyes and a joyful heart that I say, Sister, I don't know when I'll get to hug you again, but my soul will sing with your's forever... a song of passion and adventure and fullness in Christ.  I love you.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

We don't always get a choice.  Somethings just have to be done.  For example, my sweet little Amy had to graduate from college this past Saturday.  It didn't matter if she was ready to move on.  Or if Mooly was ready for her baby to become a grownup.  Time made the decision on this one.  

Dakota didn't get a choice either.  She was very stinky from a weekend of romping around at Bark Boutique Hotel for Dogs.  She had to get a bath.  It didn't matter how much she didn't want it.  Or how much she tried to run away.  Jes put it nicely when she said, "My hose is longer than your leash."  Sorry, Dakota, but the stink had to go.

Amy, thank you for letting me be proud of you.

Dakota, thank you for limiting your protest to pitiful looks and the occasional side-step.

The Miss List, volume one

One month from today I'll be boarding a plane to Dublin!  It's almost official.  I've purchased my ticket through a missionary travel agency.  I'm just waiting on an invoice from them.  Then it will be officially official.  One month.  That's crazy!  I'm trying to cram as much into the next few weeks as I can, which makes the time seem to pass even faster.  So much to do, so little time... totally cliche and totally true.  My excitement to go gets a little clouded by my reluctance to leave.  There are so many things I'm gonna miss.  Here's a list, off the top of my head:

*Playing Gin Rummy with Jes.  The current score is something like 6,650 to 6,470.  I'm winning.  We're trying to figure out how we can play on Skype.  It's gonna be tricky.
*Sonic Happy Hour.  Where else can you get 44 ounces of Diet Coke with vanilla and easy ice for $1.10?
*My little Red Team swimmers.  They have a tendency to drive me bananas, but they've grown on me.  I'm gonna miss coaching them.
*My sewing machine.  Access to cool fabric.  The Quilt Asylum where I get most of my cool fabric.
*The sun.  But not the heat.  And the sun has been known to make an appearance in Dublin, so maybe this one won't be as bad as I think.  But in case it is, I'm gonna go ahead and add "being tan" to the Miss List, too.
*Target.  No explanation necessary.
*Working out with Jes.  Working out alone isn't nearly as fun.  I may have to recruit the girls on my team to join me... get ready, girls!
*Lunch with Mooly.  That's our time to get caught up on current events... The Young and the Restless.  The Bold and the Beautiful.  Days of Our Lives.  Oh, and I can't forget Project Runway, it's probably the most legitimate waste of our time.
*Baseball.  Even though the Rangers haven't been giving me much reason to hang around.  Hopefully that'll change soon.
*Mexican food.  Tortillas.  Quesadillas.  Chips and salsa.  Cheese dip.  Guacamole.  Fajitas...
*Hot Tamales.

Of course I'll miss the big, important, obvious things too... my family, my Dakota, my friends... but those are all too sad to dwell on, so we'll pass over them quickly...

I'm sure I'll think of several things to add to the Miss List after I've been in Dublin for a while.  In the meantime, I'm going to overindulge in as many things on the list as possible!

Mooly's Day

This year, Mooly bought baseball tickets so we could all celebrate Mother's Day Mooly-style.  The Yankees came to celebrate too.  Remember this post?  Mooly loves the Yankees.  (Well, not all Yankees, just a few particular ones).

We went to Jes and Brother.In.Law's apartment for brunch after church.  Then we all piled into the car and headed for The Ballpark.  Mooly picked the best seats ever!  We were way up above home plate.  Thirty minutes into the game, we were in the shade (I don't think the thin layer of SPF 15 I sprayed at the apartment would've lasted me 3 hours anyway), and there was a nice breeze blowing through the stadium.  I take that back... the "nice breeze" probably cost us a homerun or two... maybe it wasn't so nice afterall...

B.I.L had never been to a Major League Baseball game before.  We made him sit by the Yankee fans on our row.  He didn't seem to mind.  He did eat a hotdog.  And he whistled a few times.  Really loud.  I didn't know he could do that.

Mooly hit me in the arm for booing the home plate umpire after he made a less-than-satisfactory-and-extremely-crucial-bad-call.  "We don't boo!" she said.  I said he deserved it.  She said it didn't matter.  I didn't boo when the first base ump made a similar mistake.  Mooly was proud.

We didn't win.  But that's okay (at least that's what I keep telling myself).  We still had a perfect time.  Perfect seats.  Perfect weather (in the shade anyway).  Jes and I shared a perfect pretzel.  It was a Perfect Mooly's Day!

A Dublin kind of day.

I used to hate running, as documented in this post from way-back-when.  In recent months, however, I've had a change of heart.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that I love running, but I will admit that I'm starting to like it slightly more than a little bit.  Especially on days like today.  Low 50's.  Gray.  Drizzle.  Dublin weather.

As much as I complain about the heat, I do love the sun.  Because it makes me tan.  Sometimes too tan (as illustrated in this picture).  But I'm willing to trade a few months of bronzed skin (plus the premature aging and melanoma that goes with it) for an entire year of cooler weather.  Call me crazy, but I love days like today.  Dublin kind of days.  Guess I'm making the right move... "literally".