Birthdays and Updates

Two of my sisters are celebrating birthdays this month. Miriam Naomi Brant is now 26 and Rachel Elishiba Taylor will be 33 tomorrow. I'll try to find pictures of them to post. In short, they are awesome sisters- beautiful, intelligent, each with so many talents including being two of the funniest people you'll ever laugh at :-). Oh, and they are wonderful mothers as well as sisters in Christ with tremendous wisdom.

One of my funniest memories of Miriam (a.k.a Merm) happened during one of our many teenage arguments. She was teasing me about who knows what while we were making sandwiches for lunch one day. I warned her that if she continued to mouth off I would throw mayonnaise in her face. Well, she clearly didn't believe me as she continued to provoke me as only little sisters can. I gleefully catapulted a spoonful of mayonnaise at her, successfully hitting my target (between her eyes). I'll never forget the look on her face. It was so worth the punishment I received.

Rachel (a.k.a. Ray) and I, although we get along great now, fought like cats and dogs for a few tumultuous years. When I was pretty young she hit me over the head with a croquet mallet (explains a lot). She has all but thrown me out of a second story window during a fight. Then there was the time I got really brave and smacked her across the face for yelling/spitting in my face...she didn't even flinch. She just hit me right back even harder, and of course, I was the one crying at the end of it. My favorite was the time she sliced my leg open with a heavy-duty weed-eater "just to see what would happen". Thankfully I was wearing jeans.

Despite these somewhat violent stories we love each other dearly, love to make each other laugh, and would defend each other no matter the consequences. Having sisters is one of the greatest blessings in my life. Oh, and there is another sister Esther Grace French (a.k.a. Ecky). She had the unfortunate privilege of being the oldest...more on her later :-).

I'm now over 6 months along in this pregnancy. All seems to be going well. Trying to decide on names for boy #2. Benjamin thinks it's funny to "kiss" his baby brother and rub my belly. Hopefully this is something he outgrows before grade school :-). He is becoming quite the little boy rather than the "baby". We have a little potty for him which he is happy to sit on fully clothed for now. He also loves to give Mommy "reports" about his day when I come home from work. They involve a lot of pointing and jibberish but I love it and pretend I understand every word. I continue to be amazed at and grateful for the wonderful job Skip does with him at home- Benjamin has a sweet temperament and awesome sense of humor. And he amazes me everyday with what he knows and understands. Hopefully little brother will be as "easy"...