Sisters by Chance Friends by Choice

 Happy Birthday to my Twin Sister and my best friend!  For the past 39 years, or at lease the ones I can remember, I have LOVED sharing a birthday with you!  I think it is a privilege to share this day with you and I wouldn't want it any other way. The only way that could make it better is if we could always celebrate together.  You are so beautiful.... just look at that picture!  You sparkle!  How do you do that?  I am so blessed to have walked through the past 38 years with you by my side.  Being a twin is special.  It makes us unique, even though growing up we were often confused for one, rather than two individuals. 
It still seems funny to me when I think about all the times we were asked if "we could feel each other's pain"  The answer is of course no... but in all honesty the answer could be yes.  Not in the literal sense of course.  You can't hit me if you want Heather to feel it but we have grown up together.  Her hurts are my hurts.  I can empathize with  her like NO ONE else.  There is just a bond there.  As children when one of us would cry, so would the other.  There's a trait that hasn't faded.  So I guess the truth is when she hurts, I hurt.  Even though we are two very different individuals we can truly understand what the other one is going through.  I just love being a twin... to you, Heather!  I promise to always feel your pain and hope that cutting that pain in half helps!

 Do you love this picture?  I do!  I took this picture with a polaroid camera.  I embarrassed the daylights out of her that night.  This happened to be Heather and Grant's (husband) first official date.  I told her she would thank me one day.  (she did.... on her wedding day)  Maybe being a twin comes with some intuition.  I had the foresight to snap a shot that marks the beginning and I even guessed the weekend that she got engaged- much to Heather's SHOCK!!!

I included this picture to show you just how classy my twin sister is!  This was taken at the 80's dance at her son's school.  She told me she was going to wear an iron on of Michael Jackson.  This is NOT what I was expecting.   This is classy!  I have no idea how she does it.   But... I love it! 

Heather and I are really pretty different people.  Not like what you see on TV.  One of us isn't an athletic star while the other a diva but we still maintain very different personalities.  However, there is always that underlying "thing" that makes us very similar!  Even though we don't look nearly as much alike as we once did... we still get people tripped up.   My nephews poor gym teacher thought Heather had drastically changed her hair one afternoon when I made the after school pick up! 

I just wanted to take a little more space than a facebook status update to tell my best friend, my sister, Happy Birthday!   We are not perfect!  We are still siblings after all and we had our moments both when we were young and older where we fought but darn it.... I know that she always has my back.....and I have hers!  

So Happy Birthday Little Sister (by 24minutes) may this day be grand!  I know it will be for me because not only do I get to wake up tomorrow and remember it's my birthday... I also get to remember that it is your birthday too!