The MEANEST SISTER

By the time I post this...my older sister,

(actually my only sister) will be a year older.

So happy Birthday sis.



This post will not be the typical birthday tribute, where I gush and go on and on and list all the things I love about my sister Brooke.

There are plenty of good things to say about the beautiful birthday girl.

but nope, today there is something that I just have to get off my chest.

My sister is mean!

or at least she was mean.  there I said it.

Brooke and I are only 18 months apart and are the only girls in a family of five boys.
We have always been really close.

When we were just little girls I admired Brooke so much.
She was everything I wanted to be.




(really mom? that's the best you could do with my hair? 
No wonder Uncle Mike thought I was a boy.)

Brooke and I had a wonderful childhood filled with playing barbies, girl talk, sharing a bedroom, inside jokes, creating, making up plays, working, exploring, babysitting, and of course...laughing.   

Life was great until....

da

da

dum

                               We both turned into teenagers.

Everyone thought Brooke was so cool.

She always had the coolest clothes,

the coolest style, the coolest music, the coolest friends. 

And Brooke and I started to fight.

We would mostly fight over clothes.

her clothes.

She would never let me borrow any, so I of course... took them.

One infamous day Brooke came storming in to my Dad's office

where I was working, demanding that I take off her shirt that I was currently wearing.

 So I did, right there and then. (leaving me wearing only a reflective safety vest)

And as she walked away with her reclaimed shirt in her hand...

I still thought she was cool.

Even today my sister is still really cool.

And I was (and always will be) just her nerdy little sister.

 

And Brooke treated me as such.

We were just a grade apart in school, and on my first day of High School, in the middle of the main hall, Brooke jumped on my back like you see above...
 and I fell loudly to the floor.

I knew she was the meanest sister ever!

Brooke happened to like the guy I liked,
 and of course...He went for her...

My mom and Dad gave Brooke a car, and if I was ever late and missed the bus,
she would kindly offer to take me to school...for a fee.

Once at a Stake Young Women's activity, I was called up on stage.
During the First Aid demonstration, I had locked my knees and I felt weak and ended up fainting right there on the stage. The first thing I saw as I was coming to with all the EMT's around me was my sister almost falling off her chair laughing and pointing at me. 
  
When I missed school, Brooke told on me.
When Brooke skipped...I told on her, but she actually got away with it.

Brooke and I were on the same softball team every year,
and while most sisters would be cheering each other on;
mine told me to crowd the plate and try to get hit.



Brooke could talk me in to doing anything.

She would make me run around town doing errands for her,

she would only pay me in chocolate Twizzlers.

I constantly was looking for her approval and to hear her laugh...even if it was at me.

 Occasionally it was with me. That was the only pay I needed. 

         Then, about the time we were both about to start college,
                                                                 something happened.

                                                                    There was a shift.

After a long break...Brooke and I became friends again.
We were on equal footing. She and I entering into adulthood together.
Brooke moved up to Utah State and I would drive up on the weekends and we would hang out in her dorm, making fun of her homely roommates. Ya know, the stuff most sisters do.

That summer we went to concerts, cooked, double dated, hit up the midnight movie, met guys at the mall etc.  We were making up for lost time.

One time we hit up Taco Bell around 1:00 am. Trying for some laughs, I spoke gibberish in the speaker, ordering a bunch of food... all the while Brooke was in the passenger seat doubled over laughing. After we paid, they told us to proceed to the next window...they held our bag out the window and I revved up my car three or four times and hit the gas and as we sped past the window, I grabbed our food from the lady's outstretched arm not even slowing down.
Brooke's laugh was my addiction.    
 

If I look nerdy in the picture above, it's because Brooke is grabbing the back of my dress

 and hiking it up, giving me a snuggie.

Brooke moved home that summer and we both got a job together in Springville.
We worked at the same company, but in different buildings. So Brooke and I would talk to each other through the intercom.

I would say over the loud speaker in front of her customers...
"hey Brooke, your zipper is down"...
So she would comment back over the intercom, "Hil, isn't that the guy you like?"
Then I would say back "Brooke, the doctor called...your test is positive."
and she would comment back loudly "Hil, do you still have diarrhea?"

Good times, good times.

That summer I met my husband.

Dean joined in on our fun. He understood all too well our silliness,
(he has SIX older sisters.)
but he still just shook his head at our crazy antics.

One night back in the day (before I was engaged); Dean came over to my parents house to hang out with me. Brooke and my little brothers were there and we were all just goofing around, fixing dinner and taking pictures.

We were having a great time I thought, until towards the end of the night Brooke became annoyed and... started again to be mean to me. (see, I told you.)

After Dean left I said something like..."hey Brooke, what's the matter?"


Brooke paused just for a second, then turned sharp and said;
"You are going to marry him, aren't you?"

Taken off guard, I backtracked and hemmed and hawed..dodging the question.

Then I was silent.

Suddenly my eyes filled with tears and I nodded, ...yes.

again silence.

Then my big sister and I cried together for a moment right there at the bottom of the stairs; We realized that our sisterhood as we knew it was about to change.

Over the years our friendship has evolved from that of driving around, acting crazy and embarrassing ourselves...
to now driving around, acting crazy and embarrassing our children.

And I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

                                                                       It is so perfect.
   
                                 I love you Brookers...Happy Birthday!

      this last one is for you.