A dog named Boat Beer

My Sissy had an "epic status" on Facebook yesterday.  The "epicness" came from how one of her friends and I completely hijacked all the comments, and even got a few others to play along.  As it turns out though, one of my comments was about shiner minnows.  And in discussing this status with her after the fact I told her how her doggy nephew "Shiner" is named after these minnows.

Both of our dogs have fishing and drinking themes to their names.  Rascal Jack is named after a fishing boat in Hawaii named "The Rascal", and Jack Daniels.  Shiner Bock is named after the aforementioned minnow, and a delcious beer brewed in Texas.  I told my sister that we will forever have to name our dogs after fishing and drinking.  We eventually started laughing about where these names would lead and decided that sooner or later Hot Hubby and I'd run out of ideas and we'd end with a dog named "Boat Beer".

Then, because my sissy and I are quite funny, our giggles turned into us concocting a story about Brian and I being on our deathbed and rewriting our will so that my niece (my sissy's stepdaughter, The Artist) would end up with Boat Beer.  And we'd will her a lifetime supply of milk bones to keep Boat Beer happy.  And she'd have to love Boat Beer even though he will be slobbery.  And her friends would extend their sympathies for our passing, but she'd be a wee bit fussy that we left her with a slobbery, snuggly, huge dog named Boat Beer.

Oh, how my sissy can make me laugh!  A laugh that I think she definitely needed.  And I'm thankful for our laughter together.

What If...

I'm very curious by nature, and I love to know the answers to "Why" and "How". One of my favorite questions is "What if". I used to play this game called "What if..." It's not necessarily a game in that there's a winner or a loser. But it was something I did for fun to pass the time. I would come up with so many different "What if's..."

There were the questions that are absolutely absurd:

What if...

• there were no sidewalks anywhere?
• babies were born as 2 year olds?
• there were no dogs?
• the automobile was never invented?
• the sky was red all the time?

Then, there were the questions that seemed absurd at the time, but became reality:

What if...

• the planes fell from the sky?
• the bridge collapsed while we were driving over it?
• the roof caved in?

Unfortunately, 99% of these questions were directed at my sister. She tried to answer them honestly for years and years. But finally one day, she looked at me and quite seriously said, "We'd all be dead." I was so startled at her answer. I couldn't believe that everyone would really be dead if we only ate beef and never tried chicken. We certainly wouldn't all be dead if we didn't know how to use a computer. And we definitely wouldn't all be dead if every car in the world was orange!

See, she sort of got frustrated with all my questioning. It was non stop, over and over, my imagination would come up with so many questions. She got so tired of coming up with answers.

But now that I'm an adult, she is one of the first people I run my "What if's..." by. I reach out to her when I have big decisions to make. We run through scenarios of what could happen. But she never tells me "We'd all be dead." She knows that my questioning is helpful, and a good thing. She embraces my curiosity. She even encourages her own kids to question things.

I still, very much, enjoy questioning things. I love knowing why a process is done one way or another. I enjoy learning how things are completed from beginning to end. I just simply love learning.

Thankfully, the answer to my questions is very, very rarely "We'd all be dead."

My Security Blanket(s)

My sister and her family picked Brian and I up from the airport a week ago. I had been missing her so much, even though we both texted, called, and emailed the entire time I was away. We were in constant communication, but there was something about being gone that made my heart hurt.

A few days after being home I figured out what was making me hurt. I didn't have one of my oldest and most reliable security blankets with me on my trip. I figured out that my sister is my security net! I feel safe, warm, calm, and level headed when I know that she is near. My heart and mind are at ease when I know that if I really, really needed my sister all I'd have to do is pick up the phone and tell her to come be with me. And within 30 minutes of that phone call she'd be there.

It makes me feel at ease to know that she's only a phone call and 30 minutes away. I am comforted by the fact that she'd drop anything and she'd be with me. Now this isn't something that I test from time to time, because I'm not that sister who cries wolf. But I know it to be true because we both have done it for each other in the past.

Kimberly is just one of my security blankets. I also feel most calm when Brian is home with me. When we cook together and relax, I feel like I could take on anything. He is truly my rock, my other half, my soul mate. He calms me down, and excites me. He makes me laugh, and takes care of me when I cry. Brian is my slow and steady. He is my newest security blanket.

When my sister got out of her van to help us with our luggage I dropped my bags and ran to her arms. I squealed with delight and had tears in my eyes when I was in her embrace. Coming home felt so good. And I once again felt secure.