Well, Sam and Tonya, your requests are coming true. Both of them asked that I post about how much I ah. . .
look up to them and their families.
For a minute I thought about doing a completely sarcastic post, but maybe these pregnancy hormones are making me a little mushy so I've decided to actually be nice and talk about how much, indeed, I do look up to them.
In a nutshell: My family is awesome.
Oh sure, we are just like most families-sometimes I just want to wring some of their necks because they are driving me crazy, but that always passes and we end up laughing so hard we're crying at some inside joke. We Whittiers are pretty hilarious. Ask any of us!
I actually like the idea of posting about a couple siblings at a time since, you know, there are
so many of us. Not gonna lie, sometimes growing up in the thick of 7 kids fighting over the last cookie, or getting furious because someone broke the lock on my diary and
read it, or knowing that when Mom had to run some errands that meant babysitting for free (which usually ALWAYS meant every one was on their worst behavior because just a
sister was watching them), made me wish that my family was smaller. But that has changed as I have grown up. Now I really do love being able to spend time with all of them.
So, today, because it was graciously requested, you get a post about Tonya and Sam.
Tonya-
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| Waaay back in 2007! Aw. |
Most anyone who knows me now knows that Tuna and I are pretty much besties. Seriously. We chat weekly and always end up laughing at our own hilarious jokes. We really think we are comedians. If anything obnoxious happens to me, she's one of the first people I think to tell about it, knowing she'll appreciate the laugh- and vice versa. I love having her tell me about being a parent-she just lays it all out-doesn't sugar coat anything.
Yet growing up we were not really the closest. I have memories of her and a friend tricking me into thinking there was a secret door that opened up on the wall next to her bed on the top bunk, she and a friend (probably the same one) sneaking into my closet and eavesdropping on me while I played by myself with my stuffed animals, etc.
Then, somehow, we became friends! And stayed friends! And are still friends!
And now here's where it will get mushy:
We're best friends because I look up to her. Tuna has been through a lot and yet is still one of the most amazing people I have ever known. She's kept a positive attitude when life has thrown some way not awesome curve balls her way. She's real. She tells it how it is and I love that about her. She has a beautiful family and the cutest daughter that I love with all my heart. I'm so blessed that not only are we besties, we're family, which means we get to be together forever.
Sam-
Oh Sam, where to start. Almost the same tale as Tonya, we were not the best of friends growing up. Being the closest in age out of anyone in the family, we definitely had our share of bickering. The diary reading incident was him, I was always so mad when we would be playing together along with younger brothers Cory and Alex and whenever we fought Cory and Alex would take
his side only because he was a boy. It drove me nuts!
Yet through all that fighting, we still schemed together to do things, especially when Mom wasn't around- like watching him get on the roof with our bean bag chair and jump off onto the trampoline, put pillows against the wall at the bottom of the stair and ride down in either a box or a random giant piece of wood, lay under a swing that Cory was in thinking it was so cool and then sitting up all of a sudden expecting Cory to magically stop and instead both being hit right in the head (Sam took the worst of it, getting butterfly stitches on his forehead, I just got a giant bruise).
There were days after days of friendly water fights in the backyard, building rivers in the sandbox, playing game after game of "City" or "Doggie Town" or our personal favorite "Suck Up" (all of these will take too long to explain). And yet there were also times of him shooting boogers out of his nose that landed on my forehead, of endless teasing that once resulted in him chasing me to my room where I locked myself in and somehow jammed the door and Dad had to get me out of my room by a ladder outside my window, I could go on because most of my childhood memories involve that guy.
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| Pretty sure he is not as innocent as he seems in this photo. He probably just burped or something nasty. |
What's nice about growing up is we have become great friends. I admire his ambition, and how well he cares for his family. When we are together with the family, I feel like he is one I reminisce with the most, since we did so much together growing up. We chat, I can't get enough pictures of his cute little girl, and I love his little family too with all my heart.
And there you have it- a nice post about these two.
I better hurry up and write one about Jodee before she leaves on her mission. . . .
