Happy Birthday Diane!

Today is my oldest sister's birthday!  She stopped counting birthdays long ago, and I honestly don't keep track, but I can tell you that she is the first born in our family and I was born 5th, so that gives you an idea how much older she is than I am.    Yes, I'm the one that was always pestering her and her girlfriends to let me play with them and they always thought I was just an annoyance because I was too young.

I do appreciate the fact that she laid the groundwork with the teachers in our small town by being a model student and getting good grades in her classes.  Of course that was all undone by the 3 siblings in between us, so it just depended which Perkins child they had in their class whether they thought I'd be wonderful or trouble makers.  I, of course was an excellent student so it was sometimes tough to undo the rebellious reputation of my other siblings, especially in the upper grades.  Oh well, that's life.  I learned to deal with it and my teachers and I learned not to judge a person by their siblings or by other people's opinions of them.  Good life lesson overall.

The first photo here is Diane and my oldest brother, Rusty.  The black spot on his nose is from a faceplant of some sort (he was a rambunctious boy - see reference above).  My mom must have taken a whole roll of film with him like that.  Not sure why...doesn't Diane look like the perfect big sister though? We won't talk about the time she accidentally almost killed him.

Next one is a family  photo before my youngest brother Michael came along.  Aren't we all so spiffy and sweet looking?  Diane's standing by my mom. (I'm in front on the left.).  Sharon always had better hair than I did.

Next is a photo from 1960, also pre-Michael.  Diane is on the left in this one.

Then one of the 4 remaining siblings in our family (L to R) from youngest to oldest. The photo above is at least 15 years ago when all of us sisters happened to wear pink, which was very unusual.  We are all VERY different from each other in oh so many ways, not the least of which is fashion choices.


The next is a Stratton family photo.  We miss their son, Nick and it was good to see Steve on Thanksgiving Day.


Lastly, these next 2 are of us 3 girls on a trip to Breckenridge with my mom a couple of years ago.  The last few years since Terry and I moved back to Arizona from California, us girls have been trying to do a trip each year together with my mom, who loves to travel!  She will be 86 in a month and we have a trip planned to go to Florida in February to visit her half sister, Alice.  Mom is looking forward to it and these trips have given us sisters a chance to get reacquanted after living apart for over 18 years.  I've learned to love and appreciate them more as we spend quality time together.

This last pic is an awesome sailboat ride that we took in Colorado.  It was the first time on a sailboat for most of us, which is pretty surprising considering we grew up a few hundred yards from Lake Erie.

I'm thankful for my sister, Diane.  She has been a sweet friend and big sister.  It's been fun hanging out with her these last few years since I've been back.  I look forward to many more years of "hanging out".

Diane, I hope you had a Happy Birthday!  Love you lots!