Happy Birthday, Angie

To my inspiration, my companion, my teacher, my sister but most of all my BEST FRIEND. Happy Birthday (one day late). You always post about other people, well, since I know your log in now, I am going to post in honor of your birthday.

Angie is a compassionate, strong, wise, intelligent woman. She is a wonderful mother, daughter, aunt, niece, friend and needless to say the most wonderful SISTER anyone could ask for. She is the one that is always willing to help when you need her. She is the one that will tell you the truth even if you don’t want to hear it. She is the one that I call for any advice I might need. She is funny and has a wonderful sense of humor, as I am sure most of you know.

She has taken so much interest in my family and helped me to be the mother I am today. She was the “sarge” of raising our children but it worked. She taught me how to get our kids to sleep through the night at a very young age and as some might think it is torture, tickling them and taking their clothes off when they are trying to sleep when it should be “awake” time actually does work. Tapping the bottle to make sure they finish every last drop of formula, really does work. Giving them three baths a day to wake them up, really does work.

When deciding when to come to Peoria over the last week, I was torn. I knew I needed to be there for her after the passing of Brian but I also knew she needed me before as well. I just got through telling my brother, Kevin, that no matter what happened, I was heading up on Tuesday after work, because even though she told me she had enough support during the tough times of the last days of Brian’s life, I knew there is nothing like having your sister around and I wanted to be there for her. When she called to tell me that Brian had passed at 1:00 am, I immediately turned to my husband, Matt, and said “I ‘m leaving, she needs me.” I drove 4 hours in the middle of the night because I wanted her to cry in my shoulders and I wanted to change the rolls for once and be her support and be strong for her so she could be weak, but I felt like I could get there fast enough, she needed her sister. It is times like this that I wish we lived closer to each other. I wish we could do more spare of the moment things together but at the same time, love the long weekends we get spend together and stay up until wee hours of the morning, just talking and reminiscing.

Being the younger sister, I am sure there was times that Angie thought why does she have to tag along again, but she never made me feel that way. She always had open arms for me and nurtured me throughout our childhood. She would help me get ready for school, sometimes do my hair or pick out my clothes. She even let me wear some of her clothes. She just cared.

I know she gets does not feel that she is this strong, amazing woman but she is far more than that too. She is powerful and inspiring to so many people, even one’s she has never met. She has this amazing talent of writing that so many can only dream of having (which hopefully, will some day become a book). We do everything together, we laugh, we cry, we smile, we play. Angie is my everything. I love you so much. Happy Birthday.