baby bailey beav's 20th birthday.

Beings today is my oldest younger sister's birthday, I thought it might be fun to share a few stories about her over her over the years.

Sorry, these aren't the ones that will be featured in my maid-of-honor speech someday. You're just going to have to attend the reception for that one.

One day, little Bailey (she was probably 4 or 5 or so, as she is in all these stories) walked in the house just shortly after we had gone outside to play. Our parents said, "You're back inside so quick? You must've gotten too cold!" and Bailey said to them, "Yep, and me and Kalli don't know NOTHIN' about the broken clothesline!"

Hahaha.

For Granny's birthday one year, all she wanted to do was have Bailey and me over so we could decorate sugar cookies. We had a sleepover, and when we woke up the next morning, Granny told us that she had to run to the store to get ONE THING (butter or eggs or something) to make the cookies. I, of course, threw a fit and insisted on going with her. Once she said I could come along, Bailey decided that she better join in, too.

Evidently no one wanted to hang out with Papa Ray that day.

Anyways, Granny got us all bundled up in our winter gear and loaded into the car and drove us to the grocery store. Before we went in, she told us (I can still see her wagging her pointer finger at us), "We are absolutely not getting anything except for what we came for. Okay?" "OKAY!" we said. We went in the store and - the way Granny tells it - I went one way, and Bailey went the other way (it's pretty comical to hear watch Granny tell this story because she uses a lot of hand gestures and things). Anyways, I climbed up a pop display that had the cases organized in a stair-like pattern, and Bailey knocked over a bunch of stuff with the shopping cart. Granny was pretty not-happy when she got us back to the house, so we each had to sit in a chair for a timeout. Then, she went into the bathroom and burst out laughing because it was so funny.

After the timeout was over, Bailey said to Granny, "I'm sorry Granny, but it wasn't me driving the cart. It was my blankie."

Hahaha. Ahhh. This kid. I tell you what, you can't make this stuff up.

Whale watching in Massachusetts with our good friend, Lolli, who has put up with a lot of our arguments over the years. Thank you, Loll; without you, one of us would probably be dead right now.

One more before I close for the day (this is my personal favorite):

When our neighbors Terry and Joan were putting their house in, we had to dig a hole in our yard so they could hook up to our water line. This created a mucky mess sinkhole-type thing and Bailey and I had STRICT instructions not to go anywhere NEAR it.

Obviously that didn't happen, or there wouldn't be a story, now would there?

Nannie was a new baby, so Mom was in the house with her, when all the sudden she heard some kind of yelling or screaming or something outside. I'm not sure how it went down from there, but Bailey got stuck in that sinkhole we were NOT supposed to have anything to do with, Auntie Janet wound up saving her, and Mom was BEYOND pissed.

Also, I'm pretty sure there's still a little Barney-the-dinosaur purple mud boot buried in our yard on the north side somewhere.

About a decade and a half later (so only recently), we were sitting around the table reminiscing about this funny story (because Mom is finally able to laugh about it now) and I said, "Well, Mom...you know why Bailey went into the mud, don't you?"

Mom: "No, why?"

Bailey and I looked at each other and smiled and I said, "Because I had some silk sunflowers and I picked one apart and threw it in there and told Bailey to go get it."

HAHAHA.

:)

Other things we have done together over the years: the reason I got weaned off the bottle when I was a 19-month-old was because I whacked her over the head with it the day my parents brought her home from the hospital. One day, Bailey got sick of me picking on her all the time, so while I was laying on the floor with my head propped up on my hands watching Barney, she snuck up on the couch and jumped on top of me (I threw a fit, of course). Also, on an outing with Grandma HA to the Farmer's Store, I tipped over our shopping cart with her (Bailey, not Grandma) in it. To punish us when we would fight, Mom and Dad would make us do chores together holding hands. And let me tell you, it's not overly easy to dump a bucket of water in for the pigs when you've only got one good hand. Usually we would head back to the house laughing and skipping. I cut her curly red ringlets one day when MOM was gone and DAD was "watching us" when we were playing salon - they never grew back the same way, and I'm pretty sure she's just starting to get over it, maybe. Over the last 20 years, we've kicked, scratched, pinched, punched, screamed profanities at each other, cried together, laughed together, and (even sometimes) cuddled together. And there is no one else I would have rather done any of these things with.

Happy birthday, dear sister. I love you more than you will ever know.

[This one's my favorite.]

Love,

Kalli