My Four Best Friends

Growing up the 2nd to oldest of 5 girls was quite the experience and it took me a long time to appreciate them as I should. We are all really close in age (29,28,26,25,23) and wear about the same size in clothes, so life was basically one big girl fight. We love each other a lot, but we all had to grow up before we knew how lucky we were to have each other.

My older sister Becky is the book brainy one. Her bishop challenged her to read the BOM before she got baptized and she did, and was also the type to ask her teachers for extra homework. She's far away in Indiana going to Purdue and I think she may win an award for spending the most on a degree to become a teacher. ;-) Becky is a real survivor that loves the outdoors and her 3 adorable boys.



My sister Kristal, whom most of my friends here have met, didn't join our family until I was 10 and our parents married, but I don't know what I would do w/o her. Other than Mike's family, she's the only family I have here and am grateful I get to see her as much as I do. She was always the peace keeper growing up and it wasn't until we roomed together as college roommates that we had our first, and I think only, fight. (I hadn't remembered it at all until she reminded me not long ago) She took a five year break from school, but is going back to finish her teaching degree at the U.



Jessica is the freakishly smart one that is also the best sales person I've ever met. She's getting a math degree, and for those of you that are interested, I had to take bone head math my 1st year of college because it was never my thing. She was tutoring calculus when I was taking basic college algebra. When we were teenagers we worked for a telemarketing company and the only reason they kept me around was because I was her sister. She's a bubbly free spirit that loves to live life by her own rules.



My baby sister Ashley got all the looks. Lucky for her she also has brains and will hopefully finish her electrical engineering degree in the near future. She's one of the most caring people I've ever met, almost to a fault. She puts every one's needs before her own and is a 2nd mother to all her nieces and nephews. Growing up she was the typical spoiled youngest, so we all picked on her, but now she's taller than me so that doesn't work anymore. ;-)


Last week Mike and I drove eight hours with our kids to visit two of my sisters in Colorado. We stayed with my baby sister Ashley in her house in Fort Collins. Ash lives there so she can attend CSU and my other sister Jessica lives about an hour away in Boulder so she can attend CU. I don't get to see them very often, so it was a real treat for me.



We went to help Ashley prepare her house to sell, but we didn't seem to get a lot done due to socializing and a lot of little kids running around. My sister Jessica has a daughter that is a week younger than Sarah and a little boy 4 months older than Steven, so sleep time was a welcome event. :-) The kids had a lot of fun getting to know each other better.



We also visited my grandparents that live in Fort Collins, since they hadn't met Steven yet. I moved away from home a week after I graduated and have gotten used to not seeing my family a lot, but having kids has made me want my family closer. I wish we were wealthy and could fly out once a month. :-)



I don't get to see my sister's a lot, but I love them all very much. Sometimes our only similarities are our looks, but it's nice to know that where ever I go I have four best friends I can always call and talk to.