chelle-b-lynn

27 Years ago today, I discovered that the universe did not revolve around me.  I was no longer the baby who got spoiled because now my sweet little sister, Tonia Michelle Southern, was the baby and got all the spoiling.  Although I probably was not excited about it at the time, now I am so grateful that I have a little sister.  So, Chelle, this post is dedicated to you!!!

Here is Chelle's baby picture.  I love this picture, she looks darling.

I remember sharing a room when we were young.  The box springs of our bed had broken in the middle from us jumping on it.  We would wake up in the morning all squished together in the middle of the bed where the dip was.

Chelle got to be the angel that year.  Unfortunately I was the ghost, not quite as pretty, but oh well.

I remember late nights staying up laughing.  Dad would come in and tell us to be quiet.  We would try for a minute or two and then we were right back to laughing.  My favorite night memory was a night when I had a bad dream.  I woke Michelle up because I was scared and we started to play with our Rainbow Bright and Cabbage Patch dolls.  We had our shoes all arranged like a house, with our big white roller skates as the front door.  I took the cabbage patch doll and walked it up the skate saying, "da, da, da coooome and eeeeat!!!"  We laughed and laughed about that.  (I know that nobody else will find that funny, but I also know that Chelle will.  Since this post is for her, I'm gonna leave it in.)

"Sisters!  Sisters!  There were never such devoted sisters!

I remember our room would get to be as mither would say, "a pig stye."  Every so often mither would make us clean our room.  I remember we would divide the room in half and each of us would have a side to clean.  I would clean my room right away while Michelle sat on her side singing or playing.  I used to get so frustrated because my side would be all clean and her side was still a mess.  Most of the time she would sit in there forever and never end up cleaning her side.  Then within a day or two, all of the clutter from her side of the room would make it's way to my side of the room and it would all be a mess again.  Then we would start the whole process over again.

This was at Christmas time a year or two ago. 

One of my favorite Christmas memories of Chelle was when we were 7 or 8.  Dad used to put a sheet up over the door to the living room and we would line up youngest to oldest.  Dad always used to let Michelle and I go in first because we were the youngest.  This particular year, we walked in and Michelle said "we got bikes!"  and then, "Seth and Adam got bikes too!!" thereby ruining the surprise for Seth and Adam who were not in the living room yet.  Good times!

We went to the Homecoming dance in the same group together.  It was a little awkward because both my date and Chelle's date were madly in love with Chelle.  Oh well, it was fun to be in a group with her.

We used to hang out in high school together.  At first I was bugged that Michelle always came to hang out with me and my friends.  However, I got over that and realized that it was actually a lot of fun to have her there.  We were in drama together and for one of the showcases we were in a group that learned a detailed clapping/kicking/slapping routine called "Will Rogers Follies."  It was so much fun that we taught it to Jan and Jen and we all did it for one of the talent shows for the Spendlove family party.  It was so fun.

The four sissies.  We always have so much fun together.  

I remember for 3 or 4 years in a row, we all went to Oregon together for a vacation.  We had a lot of fun getting chased by fish guys, getting flat tires, getting knocked down by enormous waves, and getting asked to go to bars with other random guys.  Ahhh those were the days!  One of my favorite memories about Oregon was on the last day of the first trip.  We had spent an hour or 2 trying to do a movie line from "The Fugitive."  It was so fun and we were all laughing about it as we knelt down to pray for the night.  Janice was telling some story really fast before the prayer when she stopped mid sentence and said, "I found something with my toe."  I don't remember what she found, but we all laughed so hard are tummies were sore.  It was great!

This was a picture of Chelle and I just before we got married.  

Chelle and I got married 1 month apart and it was so fun to do all of the pre-wedding stuff together.  Thanks again Chelle for not being bugged about me getting married first.

"I loved you too much to just be your friend, so God let me be your sister."

Thanks Chelle for all of the fun times throughout the years.  You are one of the most thoughtful people I know.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!