Happy Birthday to My Sister

Today is my sister, Teri's birthday. She is three years younger than me, but I look so much younger, right Teri? In this photo she is with with dad at our grandparents house, who had us call them "Nanny and Daddy Dick"! Yep, you heard that one right. I mean my grandpa's name was Wesley, but they always called him Dick, and I don't EVEN want to know why! As the older sister, I never wanted to be left out of anything, or share the spotlight with my little sister, as you see here. I too had to be included in a photo as I grab her, and probably pinched her as well. Here we are again, with our grandpa, "Daddy Dick"! What the hell was wrong with that family? This is us in our backyard. This picture means a lot to me because some of you may know that after my parents passed away, Katie and Vinnie bought my parents home. And this is now the backyard that Riley plays in, although it looks just a bit different! In the "old days" it didn't matter if kids were politically incorrect as we stood proud in or Indian headdress! The car in the background was the first car I learned how to drive. Wish I still had it today. My mom and her Aunt Ruby from Texas are posing with me and my sister at the Seal Beach pier. Which ironically is the beach that we take Riley and Morgan too! This is one of my most favorite pictures of all. It was with myself, Teri, and my dad at Pier Point Landing which use to be in Long Beach. It was the coolest little place, you could feed the seals, there were rides to go on, and you were right there at the beach!! My sister Teri has always been close to my three kids. This is her with Brande on Brande's first birthday. To look at my sister and I, we are very different. She is tall, almost 5'11 while I stand proud at 5'4! As a kid when I picked a fight with her, I always ran after I smacked her, because I knew she was capable of kicking my butt! My sister is also gay, and I am very proud of the fact that she doesn't hide from it anymore. She has the most awesome partner right now, Linda. And if you ever wonder why I may have a blog post here or there about the prejudicial attitude that some people hold against gay people, along with some of our judgemental churches as well, this is "part" of the reason why I feel so strongly. That and it is just wrong! Recently my sister stood up for herself. She was a VP for a health care company. I won't bore you with the details, but she stood up and fought for what was due to her. And you know what, a week ago it all ended, and she won. Teri really did have it tough growing up. She had her kidney removed when she was five years old. Then I believe that caused her to gain weight. And as she said to me when I told her how proud I was of her for standing up against this big corporation she said it felt good, because as a kid she never, ever stood up to the bullies. And even though it took a lot of years to stand tall, she did, and she won. So, happy birthday and props to you on this birthday for standing so tall and proud!!