Alison Finally Gets Siblings

BAlison has asked for siblings off and on since she was little. Mostly, she's happy being the sole focus of our lives, but occasionally she'll say it would be nice to have a brother or a sister.

When she was really little, she'd put a sad look on her face and tell perfect strangers, "No. I don't have a brother or a sister or even a puppy or a kitten. Just a fish."  Then she'd look pitiful so they'd just shake their heads and ask what was wrong with me to treat her so poorly.

Today, USPS finally delivered on her wish for siblings:

  We call them Kenny, Kyle, Cartman and Stan. She loves them.

In other news, we've had more than our fair share of my family.  We attended a lovely wedding for Acacia and Mark, and then helped Aunt Shirley, Uncle Larry and my cousin Lori with part of their move from Columbus closer to the county of their births.

Even though she's a teenager, Alison was a big help carting and packing and toting. We had a good time, even though it's a little bittersweet. Larry and Shirley built their home in Columbus 36 years ago well outside the city limits. Plenty of ground around and only a few neighbors.

But civilization has been encroaching for years and they're hoping to find another house where the country is still country. Their house is sold, though, and they're still looking for the permanent replacement. So it's a rental for them for a while.

Ali took one last swing in the swingset Larry built years ago for Allyssa and I took a picture of the birdbath -- it's a replacement birdbath. Jeff broke the original on, if I remember correctly, was his first visit to the Columbus house. Or maybe it was his first 4th of July there. In any case, he tripped over it running from a firework gone awry and broke it right in two..

Ah. Memories.

Ali was my date to the wedding. Jeff had important errands to run with Duane. We were with Donna, Diane, Jason, Jaime and her girls, waiting for the wedding to start. Most of us were seated, and as Annie and her newish husband Justin joined us, someone claimed Justin had earlier referred to my sister, Diane, as "the nice one."

There was a collective gasp and immediate, loud protest. The argiments began with, "Is he confused about which one Diane is? Does he understand the definition of "nice"? At least one person suggested herself as the nice one.

Justin looked on, bemused. Then in a rare moment of silence, we hear this from Rachael: "We don't have a nice one."

Rachael wins.