It's my favorite sister's birthday today!!! Unfortunately, we can't throw a huge celebration for her since she's in Indonesia while I'm...here. I sure wish we could be together on our special days.
I thought I would share some memories of growing up with my sister, Mei (pronounced "May") which will ultimately explain why she's my favorite sister, of course!
1. Red bean Soup nightmare
For breakfast, my mom used to make us drink these tall glasses of red bean soup (red bean soup is usually an asian dessert which is eaten after dinner) for breakfast. My mother though that the beans=high nutrition. Anyway, it should have been outlawed and banned!!! And to make things worse, my mother didn't like using sugar (and believe me, that red bean sludge NEEDED it!!!) so it was NOT my favorite thing to eat. At all. And the consequences for not finishing the whole thing was...well, let's put it this way: not pleasant. My sister used to drink mine for me (or at least half of it) so I wouldn't get in BIG trouble with my mom. This is why every child should have a sister like that!!! Note: And to this day, I won't touch the stuff. See how things from your childhood can scar you for life?!?
2. The Big Garden
I'm so not into gardening. I don't like picking strawberries, vegetables or anything that involves heat, bugs and more bugs. When we were growing up, my dad and mom had an enormous garden. They grew all kinds of vegetables including the asian variety. They had an enormous strawberry patch that kept multiplying like rabbits. And one of our jobs was to help harvest stuff. Which I hated. I didn't like getting hot because then I would be SO itchy (my eczema was really bad when I was younger) and nothing brings on the bugs like open sores and owies on your neck, arms and legs. My sister would allow me to entertain her with my stories (I was good at making her laugh with my ridiculous stories!!!) while she picked all the veggies and stuff. Don't you wish you had a big sister like her?!? Note: To this day, I refuse to garden. I'm happy to buy fresh produce at the store or at a farmer's market, thank you very much!
3. Candy, Bubble Gum and Other Adventures
We used to live close by to this convenience store called "Farmer Boy Dairy." They had the best candy selection. Since candy was forbidden at our house, the only way to get it was from A. Miss Selleck's purse at church (this adorable grandmother that would carry a big purse with lots of candy for all the kids that came to give her hugs) B. Sometimes my dad would bring some back from work when he was testing different flavors C. Farmer Boy Dairy---my sister got me to save my milk money so we could buy candy when the bus dropped us off at the bus stop. What a brilliant sister!!! I developed a taste for Lemon Heads, Swedish Fish (one of my top seafood choices!), Gummy Bears, those nasty wax bottles with sugar syrup in them, Milk Duds and Bubble Gum. All was well until we were chewing bubble gum in bed one night (yes, she introduced me to bubble gum!!!) and mine somehow got stuck in my hair...which then had to be cut off by my sister...which then clued my mother in that something fishy was going on...well, it wasn't a pretty picture!
She is the BEST sister in the world and though she's not saving me from scary monsters anymore, she's ranked #1 in my book!!!
Happy Birthday, Jeh-Jeh ("sister" in Chinese)!!!
Psalm 118:24 (NASB) "This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"
