November 2nd- Rhonda

Today I am grateful for my "baby" sister. I know that she is actually only 18 months younger than me and I can't actually remember a time when she wasn't around, but I still like to call her baby. I think it's a complex of the eldest. Rhonda and I don't look anything alike. Mom maintains that we have the same eye shape but basically I think Rhonda takes after the Carneys (Mom's side) and I take after the Millers (Dad's side). She's always been a tiny little thing and I'm the more... robust model. She won a cutest baby contest - I only came in 1st runner up (different contests, different years.) I look young for my age, but Rhonda still gets asked if her parents are home by salesmen who come to her house. (She has two children of her own!) Growing up, Rhonda and I fought like crazy. Being only 18 months apart can do that. Plus she had a pretty serious temper when she was little... Rhonda is how I learned to remain calm... because nothing drove her crazier than for her to be spittin' mad and for me to just be looking at her with no emotion. It probably didn't help that I was always stronger than her, too, so I could just wrap my arms around her and hold her still. Rhonda is also the reason I can sing in with the guy in most songs. She would yell at me if I didn't sing the song the way it was "supposed" to be- heck she's probably the reason I'm such a mimic, too. When Rhonda is startled she makes a high pitched squeal, and so I nick-named her Squeaker. (Yes, I was very creative and witty, I know) I loved to cause this. When we would clean our rooms I would pick up a bag or a purse or something and start talking to her, and then casually look down into the bag and then yell as if there was something (mouse, spider, whatever) inside and throw it at her... she was scared every single time. Or if I was cleaning  my contacts I would use my cleaning solution bottle as a squirt gun when she walked past. I pretty much took tormenting as a full time occupation. Don't you worry, she gave it back as well, she just never gave me a nickname... unless "idjit" counts. Today our lives are pretty much nothing alike, and we live 5 hours apart, but we both know that the other one is always gonna be there when we need them. We are pretty similar in how we think and make a fearsome Taboo team (did I mention that Rhonda is the only person I know who loves games as much as I do? Actually I think she loves them more.) I'm so incredibly glad to have a sister, to have someone who is so similar but so different from me and knows me so well. I feel very strongly that I need to have more than one child when that time comes because I know how much of a blessing my sister is to me. Story time!

When I was in HS and Rhonda was in Jr. High we rode the bus. I was 18 before I got my license, but I think I wasn't old enough to have it at this particular time anyway. One day mom had work at 3:30 AM (She works in the kitchen of a nursing home/hospital.)  Dad had to go in early, too for some reason, so he made sure that we were up and then left. We got ready to go and then went out to catch the bus. Something of import is that our house has a semi-long driveway, and you can't see the bus coming until you (or it) are at the end of it. Usually in the winter we would sit inside and wait for the bus, because it gets awfully cold at the end of the driveway at 7 in the morning. This day either we were running late and didn't know it or the bus was running early- either way we missed it. We went outside eventually and waited and waited, but the bus never showed up, so finally we gave up...I didn't know what to do. I felt like it was all my fault and I don't like being in trouble. Especially when I didn't mean to do something wrong. So outside in the cold, waiting and giving up on the bus I started crying. I know, what a big 15 year old baby! (I was totally a goody-two shoes growing up.) There was no way to fix this. Our parents were gone and thus the cars were gone, so we had to stay home. I was so upset and silently dreading calling my mom and telling her, crying as we walked into the house and then Rhonda in all her 14 year old glory went and picked up the phone and called Mom to let her know what happened either of us saying a word to the other. I don't think Mom was really all that mad, and I was able to calm down and eventually enjoy our impromptu free day, but I still remember how grateful I was to Rhonda for making that call so I didn't have to.
  She's pretty much the best sister I know.... and she makes cute babies, too.