Happy, Happy Birthday, Melissa Dear!

My little sister MELISSA is turning 23!!

So, ode to Miss, here are 23 amazing things I love about her: (oh, there's pictures too, in no particular order)

#1:

She's the baby of the family. She was such a cute little baby and I loved playing with her. Since she's 5 1/2 years younger than me, I totally remember everything about when she was born, at home in the bathtub, I had the video camera. (totally kidding to any of you who don't know my family.)



(This was my favorite outfit of hers, when she grew out of it, I totally stole it to dress my home-made Cabbage Patch in.)

#2:

She's always up for a good time. Dressing up, dancing, being completely awesome, she's all in. Not just kindof, full fledged all in.

#3:

She loves to plan. Often, we get so excited about any event, and make lists of what's needed, and draw layouts of things. She's totally a member of the Finer Things Club.

(Remember these?)

#4:

We share a brain. Often we can have a conversation like this:
M: So do you think
S: Yes, but didn't he
M: I know they
S: No, I talked to Mom and she
M: Oh, okay.


Our husbands and co-workers hate it.

#5:

Speaking of work, she's the best front desk girl anyone has ever met. She knows everybody's life, inside and out, recognizes people (from our thousands of patients) voices on the phone without them saying who they are, and has had MANY opportunities to date patients. They were SO sad when they saw her gigantic wedding ring on. Poor short boys, Elvis impersonators, men that just comment on a survey that the front desk girl is very attractive and include their name, return missionaries, other attractive boys, on and on and on... I'm afraid our male patient base is going to totally disappear when she leaves to go to hygiene school.

#6:

Yeah, that's right, I said hygiene school! This girl is possibly the smartest girl I've met. My dad says he seriously think her IQ is in the genius level (but she's suprisingly sociable) and I'd have to agree. She took all three science pre-req's (chemistry, micro and anatomy) in one semester, first try, and got A's in all of them. Then, she applied to hygiene school and got in on her first try. Yep, she's genius alright!

#7:

She's the eyebrow master. She manicures my eyebrows and is fantastic at it.

#8:

She has OCD and puts it to good use. She overthinks things and hence, everything is very well thought out.

#9:

When she was little, she went through a harsh ugly duckling stage. (This is largely my fault. I encouraged the cut, the perm, and just when she was passing through, I started in at experimenting different hair cuts on her.) It's just easier to love someone who you know wasn't always freakishly beautiful. You like her bangin' body? I'm totally jealous.

(yeah, I wish that was me!)

#10:

She's the most gracious gift accepter. You could give her turtle poo, and she would be so excited to have something nice to fertilize her neighbor's plants with. She would probably shed tears of joy over it too.

#11:

She talked me into getting my first pair of flare jeans. Being the hottie she was in high-school, she looked out for me and moved me on past straight leg high rise (maybe Zena) jeans.

#12:

She has an amazing sense of design. For a too brief moment, she considered going into interior design. She changed her mind and ever since I've been begging her to take one for the team and go back to that.

#13:

She can speak her mind. None of us other Jones' can. (Except Jake when he snaps and throws binders off a shelf.) But she's not a jerk about it, she's just honest.

#14:

She's a fantastic 2nd mom to Oakley. We think that sometimes people think we are a lesbian couple with our adopted baby. Oh, when he was born, I said he had Melissa's eyes. (Because I remember when she was born, remember?)

#15:

She's INCREDIBLY sentimental. Even more than me. Once she started crying during "bridge over troubled water" when we were doing the dishes before I got married. I still laugh at that, and then get a little teary.

#16:

Melissa has had several nick-names. Miss is #1. There's also been Mitz, Mel, Mel-Mels, Smelly (okay that was only one day *wink*) and maybe my favorite - Malissafint like Melifacint the bad witch on Sleeping beauty. That used to make her super mad and she'd start crying and run to my mom's room and slam the door and lock it.

#17:

Oh, she is so fun to tease. I love to hear her whine.

#18:

She has good sense of direction like a man. You know, she can go somewhere and totally find her way and not get lost of panicky. Even out of town and stuff.

#19:

She is easy to please with her favorites: Favorite food: bean and cheese burrito. Favorite drink: Diet Pepsi. Favorite treat: Sour Watermelons.

#20:

Her first CD she ever bought was Pretty Woman soundtrack.

#21:

She makes amazing rolls. Who other than your grandma makes good rolls? Nobody under the age of 45, except, oh yeah, Melissa. (Okay maybe Kelli too, thanks for teaching her how.) Jason says he wants his own little batch on Thanksgiving.

#22:

She's a gifted writer. Read her blog here. She could be a published columnist. Had she written this, it'd be much more cohesive and organized.

#23:

She's very, very thoughtful. She writes the nicest notes for any occasion. She is an includer, and a host. She wants everyone to be happy, everything to be fair and everything to be presented well. She puts much more effort into all she does, to make everything more fun for everyone. You're the best Sissy! (Oh, that's one of the nicknames I forgot, used to be Sissy Lou Lou, then shortened to Sissy, but dropped when our neighbor moved in named Sissy (V***.))


Anyhow, Love you Lots!!