Happy Birthday Sis!

I felt like it was my birthday not hers. I got to spend the entire weekend with my brother and sister.

 I got off work Friday afternoon around five thirty. By six thirty I had dashed home, changed clothes, packed an overnight bag and was sitting with my sister and brother on his back porch overlooking Lake Mary Jane.

My brother took us both out for dinner and was an affair to remember. Number one, they had both been waiting for me to get off work. I thought I could sneak out of work at four but ended up having to stay until five thirty. Number two, of course my brother started Happy Hour the minute Cin got to his house after picking her up at the airport around three. I catch on (and up) quickly so by the time we all got seated after a twenty minute wait at Nona Blue (great restaurant here in OTown) we were all in high spirits.

My brother is possibly (most probably) the funniest person I have ever met, who has a heart of gold...unless you do something wrong. Then he is a man to be feared.

Much like (extremely like) our own father.

He put our server through the wringer, from the get go...but always in a joking way. We ran up quite a tab and the server was awesome and accommodating the entire time. My brother paid the tab and went to the restroom before we left. Of course I (the lifer server) opened the payment book on the table, and as expected,  he had left the server about a thirty percent, plus some tip.

We went back to his house and were all so full we could barely move. I decided to go home for the night, only a ten minute drive but left my bag there for the next night.

Massey and I got to the lake the next day around one. Cindy, Massey and I went out to the dock to soak in some rays.

Massey was smart and hug her hammock under the boat dock. Cindy and I sat (broiled) in chairs directly beneath the Florida sun. The wind on the lake was so gusty it never got hot. Seems you don't have to feel hot to get scorched.

Cindy and I both looked like red snappers after our two hour stint.

By that time, Tim had gotten off from work and came over. Chris had bought fillet Mignon's. I made a  salad and had stuck some huge taters in the oven to bake before we went out to bake on the dock.

We dined like kings and Massey brought Cindy a massive birthday cake for dessert.

Then we drank like fools and played cards late into the night. Tim went home to our house, Chris probably wished he had another home to go to but put up with us, trying his best to snooze on the couch with his dobes.

His dogs are as  massive as they are submissive.

 The female is very girly...but totally in charge.

The male...has the biggest paws and nostrils I've ever seen but is a total gentle giant. He prances like a Clydesdale when he walks.

The female weighs a bit less than me, the male a couple of pounds more than me but are the sweetest (and luckiest) pups you'll ever meet.

They put up with us this weekend, along with their dad, our brother, and my husband who escaped each night back to our rental house.

Whenever my sister is leaving the next day, I have to go home to my own house the night before. I just can't deal with saying good bye to one of the most important parts of what makes me me.

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She is my sister. She is my touchstone in life. She is someone who had better live longer than me because I don't think I could live without her.

Happiest of Birthdays, dear sister. Could not have left my Lost Boy in better hands.


You are incredible on every level of life and in every way a person can be good. I aspire to be half the woman and person you are...and if I do, will consider myself successful in life.

I love you more than you could ever imagine...trust me.


Till next time...

COTTON