Happy Birthday Rachel!

My sister Rachel's birthday was Saturday. And I forgot to call her. I am such a slacker sister. So, to make up for my birthday faux-pas, I decided to post her birthday for all the world to read. I wish I had a picture of her to slap on here for maximum embarrassment, but alas, we'll have to do without. Which reminds me of the time John saw Mom in her towel and Mom said later that she was so "em-bare-assed", but that's beside the point.

Rachel is the closest sister to me, 3 1/2 years older than I, which makes her, um....old. We never got along when we were younger. When I say we fought constantly, it really was constantly. I am sure there were times when we got along, but I can't remember any that occurred before she graduated from high school. Rachel has a quick temper, and I have a slow one, and I would use that to my advantage. She would get mad and yell and I would sit and stare and not say a word and she would get madder, and madder, and madder, and I loved it. What a snot I was! But let's remember the good times, shall we? Rachel and I did a little reminiscing the other day, and here is some of what we remembered, and some we didn't.

When we were kids, Rachel used to plead with me to tell her what Mom and Dad got her for Christmas. I would refuse. She would offer bribes, and I would refuse. She would threaten bodily harm, and I would give in. Then she would run to Mom and Dad and tattle on me for telling secrets, and I would get in trouble. Another Christmas memory: The year we got Cabbage Patch Dolls. I wanted a bald-headed baby, and Rachel wanted one with hair. On Christmas morning, we got each other's dolls. I am sure that part of me wanted to keep the one with hair just to make her mad, but I must have really wanted that bald-headed baby, so we switched. Mom doesn't remember that Christmas, so that memory may be fabricated.

In a rare moment of niceness, Rachel bought me a pet rat and all the trimmings for Christmas one year. And she hid it in her room for a week. And she HATED it! When she was mean to me I would take the rat and throw it on her. Gosh, how mean was I?

We hated mowing the lawn when we were kids. Rachel would bribe me with her allowance to mow her portion. And I did it, every time, because it was too scary to say "no".

In high school, we fought even more. But I always knew that Rachel had my back. Her friends called me "Little Rai" and looked out for me as well. A few years before I got to high school, Rachel got in a fight and beat the living snot out of this girl, who totally deserved it, even Mom says so. My Freshman year, that same girl was in my Geometry class. She had some crazy thought that she could pick on me. One day Rachel made some comment to her in the hall, and that girl came storming into class, waving her cane at me and sayaing she was going to get me. I ran down the hall to Rachel's class, cried all about it, and Rachel went down to my class and "dealt with it". I think the principal was involved. Needless to say, she didn't bother me again.

Later that same year, I had a secret boyfriend. One of Rachel's friends saw me kissing him during lunch, and told Rachel, who told my mom. Ooh, was I mad!

We have a bunch of friends in VA, and after Rachel graduated she moved up there for a while. The times I went to visit her were the best. One summer a mutual friend came to NC to visit us and expressed his undying love for me. Little did I know he had done the same thing the previous week to my best friend in VA. We had a great week, drove back to VA together, and he took my friend out for her birthday. She came home and told me all about their "date" I had to tell her that he was my guy, and she asserted that he was her guy. We were livid. We found out a few days later that he and some friends had a bet going to see who could kiss the most girls before leaving on their missions. We ran and told Rachel who showed up at his open house, spitting nails, dragged him up to his room and let him have it. We stood outside his door and laughed our heads off. She made him come downstairs and apologize to us in front of the entire party. That was awesome.

There are so many more memories, and most of them involve her rescuing me from one situation or another, which is what big sisters are supposed to do. I didn't know what I could do for her birthday, so I set up a blog for her to document the goings-on of our family. Since she is the only one in our family to keep a journal, and since her free time is no taken up by knitting, her blog is a way to save her sanity, else she knit it right out the door! So Rachel, go to your email and get the details of how to sign in to your new blog, http://scaddenclan.blogspot.com, and go nuts!

Happy Birthday!