HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today, in honor the 25th birthday of my awesome sister, Sarah, our Sunday edition of Weekend Listing is a tribute to her greatness!

Also, this is Sarah's Golden Birthday, which is even specialer, so:

I will now list the 25 greatest memories I have of Sarah~

1. We have a home video of Sarah telling jokes from when she was 3 or 4, I think. The whole thing is amusing, but the best part is when Sarah tells this joke: "And the horse kissed the cat!" And then she laughs and says, "Huh, huh huh? Did you geeeet it?"

2. At one point during our childhood, Sarah had an iguana named Zeke. There are pictures somewhere that show this iguana in Sarah's hair. I wish I knew where that picture is today.

3. Sarah usually got along great with animals, but one time our cat Roo was trying to sit on her stomach while she was trying to homework. So Sarah pushed Roo off of her bed. Roo jumped back up and sprayed her in the face, so Sarah drop-kicked him down the hall.

4. There is an awesome aquarium in Vancouver, Canada and our family used to go up there during the summers when we were young. Our favorite exhibit was the beluga whale exhibit. One time, we were watching the beluga show and Sarah picked out her favorite beluga, Nanoo Nanoo. After the show, we went down to the railing to look at the whales. This part is a little fuzzy; I'm not sure if she said the whale's name or if it swam up to us on it's own, but it spit a stream of water right at Sarah. Freaked her out!

5. That same day, a black squirrel stole her hot dog while it was in her hands. And then, after she ran off screaming, it went back for her bag of Cheetos.

6. Our dad bought a boat when we were in late elementary school or junior high, and Sarah was fearless. I have lots of memories of her learning to water ski or just riding in the inner-tube for fun.

7. A few summers, Sarah and I went to a church camp on Mt. Baker. They did a 5 am Polar Bear Plunge and I am pretty sure that Sarah participated.( It's one of the reasons I think you are brave, so if this isn't true, Sarah, I wouldn't refute it)

8. In junior high, Sarah was on the drill team for a year, which was like a dance team. She learned a routine to Britney Spears's song Crazy. I can still picture her practicing the moves in the basement. Of course, that may be because every once in a while she tries to see if she can still remember them. I bet after she reads this, she'll try to do the steps... (You'll admit it if I'm right, right Sarah?)

9. In high school, Sarah was given a jeep-type car, a Dihatsu Rocky. It earned many nicknames in the time she had it, but the best one was the Jesus Jeep.

10. Sarah broke her ankle while diving off a lifeguard stand in junior high. In high school, she had to have surgery to fix something with the growth plate in her ankle. Her anesthesiologist was a man, who was unacquainted with women, and he could not remove her bra. She told me this story while still groggy from the anesthesia, so that may be why I think it is so funny.

11. Our church did a children's musical (eons ago) called Good King's Come in Small Packages, and Sarah had the lead. I believe her name was Elizabeth. She was good.

12. Somewhere, Sarah found this awful sparkly spandexy crazy colored costume thing. She would put it on and perform Michael Bolton's classic hit, Love Is A Wonderful Thing with a hairbrush for a microphone. I wish I had a photo of her in this outfit, but the only one I could find was of my ex-boyfriend in the costume... And no one wants to see that.

13. A few Christmases ago, I took Sarah to get her ears pierced. I think I was more scared for her than she was for herself. I'd had mine pierced 2 years before, I think, and the people who took me kept telling me that it wouldn't hurt and it hurt bad. So I told her that I was going to be honest with her and tell her it hurt. A lot. But she was cool as a cucumber.

14. Stephen likes to tease me and Sarah, because our conversations are about 23% real life and 77% TV shows. It's a funny way to communicate, but we like it, cause we both like to laugh. And we typically find the same things in a show funny.

15. Sarah does an amazing karaoke rendition of Queen's Fat-Bottom Girls. It's pretty legendary. I mean, if you haven't seen it, you need to add it to your bucket list.

16. Our old church, Celebration Community, used to go on church retreat weekends. The best place was called Black Lake. Again, I have lots of memories from there, but the best one is the year that Sarah wrote a "Veggietales" skit for us young kids to perform and we wore red and green sleeping bags for Bob and Larry.

17. Sometime during high school, Sarah had to have surgery for a deviated septum. If you know me well, you know that I do not do well with blood. But Sarah's bandages had to be changed regularly and I had to help. This probably sounds like a gross memory, but for some reason I remember it with some gladness. I think it was the first time I felt like Sarah needed me to help her. She's super independent and I know that is part of the reason I am super independent.

18. When I was a freshman at SBU, Sarah took me to my first SBU football game. I was so badly sunburned that I could only wear 1 type of shirt-- i.e. the shirt type I had on when I got burned. But Sarah was so nice. She went to the store and got me lotion and she made fun of me less than anyone else.

19. Sarah likes to send me about a thousand text messages on my birthday. She's done this every year since we were given cell phones. And we got cell phones for Christmas my freshman year of college. I've actually saved some cause they are so funny.

20. In Sarah's sophomore year of college, she brought a few friends to Seattle for Spring Break. I have so many funny memories of her from that trip, but my favorite was when we went to Ft. Casey and had a random song-time in one of the bunkers.

21. One time when Sarah came home from college on break, she taught a few of us at church an 'interpretive dance' to Avalon's Testify to Love. We performed it at a church, not our church. I wish someone had video-taped that!

22. My senior year of high school, I was in a musical. Sarah was still at SBU when it started, and I really wanted her to make it home for at least 1 of the shows. It was either the night before closing night, or closing night that Sarah made it home and was able to go to my show. I was glad that other people were there, but having her there was most important to me.

23. During the HORRIBLE ice storm in Bolivar, January of 2007, the power went off in my dorm. Sarah came to pick me up in her Cadillac and let me stay at her apt with her 2 roommates. We played lots of card games.

24. One year, when we were in Bolivar, for Sarah's birthday, we had dinner at Red Robin and then we went mini-golfing. I'm pretty sure that at one point Sarah got so bored she laid down on the course. Or maybe she was just tired. But I have this mental image of her lying on the green AstroTurf.

25. When Stephen and I went to Seattle the week before our wedding, Sarah did all that she could to spend time with us. We had early Christmas, went light looking, had Kau-Kau downtown. And she took us karaoking. I know Stephen did not love it like I did, but karaoke with Sarah is one of the best things ever.

There are about 23 years of memories that could have made it into this list and I wish I could name more. Because my sister is super fantastic. I am pretty lucky to have her. We did not always get along (I mean, we are sisters). But, I am not only proud to call her sister, I am proud to call her a friend.

I hope this list makes you laugh and does not make you want to punch me, Sarah! This is just a sample of the fun times I have shared with you and I look forward to many years more!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!