Happy Belated Birthday, Mini-Me!

So, yesterday was my sister Talina's birthday.
Happy Birthday Beans!

I know, I know, I suck that this is late (she's called me a few times to let me know I'm slacking), but I've felt pukey and sick and exhausted and wiped out and I'm growing a whole new little person in my uterus, so I'm allowed to be a bit behind on birthday blog posts.

So, anyway. Talina is 25 now! (Am I allowed to say that? I don't ever worry too much about 'outing' the age of anyone younger than me.)

Which is only half of the age Annie guessed, "Aunt Talina's 50 now, right?" (Ha ha ha ha ha!)

Beans (which is what I call her, whether she wants me to or not) is really accomplished for her age. She graduated from BYU a few years back or whatever with her Master's in something that basically makes her like a molecular biologist or a super smarty-pants who grows stuff in petri dishes while wearing a lab coat. By far and away, she's the most driven of my parent's spawn. Talina was the kid who was giving herself ulcers over 2nd grade spelling tests (literally, ulcers -- I was there for some of the ER visits). She's really uber-competitive (and really good) at the sports she plays -- soccer, racquetball, basketball. She was the Salutatorian of her high school graduating class (stupid gym classes pulling down her 4.5 or whatever GPA). She had a near perfect ACT score. Her and Greg like to make weird, nerdy physics jokes, or figure out math problems and stuff, while the rest of us mock them and their left brains. She puts the rest of us to shame. And it's no wonder she's totally my parents favorite. (It's true, nobody but my parents even try to deny it. She's totally my grandparent's favorite too. Old people just like her a lot.)

Talina is my own personal Mini-Me. She's like me, but 30% smaller (maybe even a little smaller than that now that I'm lumpy and pregnant). She even has a smaller head than me (but somehow, her brain operates at a higher capacity despite it's apparently child-like size.) Like all of my sisters, she looks a lot like me, and I've had old high school friends of hers come up and shockingly congratulate me on my two kids . . . I have to inform them I'm not Talina, I'm actually her older sister and she hasn't just really let herself go (and doubled the size of her head.) You'd think having my own Mini-Me would be motivational for me -- just to be able to look at her and think, "If I just lost some weight, that's exactly what I'd look like!" But instead I just stare and her and think, "My head would look ginormous on that body," and go back to eating Mini M&Ms.

Talina is one of my best friends. One of my go-to people when I want to randomly call and talk with someone during the day. Unfortunately, she has a job, which means she's not as available as I'd like her to be. But fortunately, her job involves a lot of stuff like 'watching yeast grow', so she can talk more than my other sisters can during the day. Most of you who know me well, know that my social circle tends to consist of people who are blood related to me (or who have married into the craziness), and Talina's a huge part of that. It's been fun, having Talina and her husband David come over and play cards on Friday nights. It makes it so Greg and I have actual 'couple' friends -- even if we are related to them. Talina & David are also extremely dedicated in their roles as 'Aunt & Uncle' to my girls. When pulling up Talina's name on my computer to get pictures for this post, there were about 9 folders that had pictures of Talina and my girls in them, just in the past two months. And that was even with Talina and David out of town for Christmas! I love spending time with Talina and the rest of my family, and look forward longingly (and possibly delusionally) to a time when we'll all live within a few blocks of each other, rather than this half way across the valley crap we have going on now.

Anyway. Sorry this is late Talina. Happy Birthday!