Darla, Me and Cheryl
I grew up as an only child and so I never really knew what it was like to live with siblings. I had the next best thing though . . . I had cousins. My cousins are my sisters in many ways. My mother’s sister Eloise had 3 children – Larre, Cheryl and Darla. Larre and Cheryl were a good bit older than me, but Darla was only a little over 2 years older than me.
When I was in the 6th grade, we moved close to my Aunt and Uncle so I got to spend a lot more time with my cousins. I would spend a lot of time at their house hanging out with Darla and she would spend many summer days at my house. We lived in an apartment complex that had a swimming pool and she would come over early in the morning and we’d hang out by the pool all day.
Our favorite thing to do was to go to the K-Mart across the street and get a Chef Boy-ar-dee boxed pizza mix and come home and make homemade pizza. I should own the company by now if you got stock for every pizza of theirs you bought! They sure were good though.
Our families have always gotten together for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. These family gatherings have always been some of the best times of my life. We would often talk to friends about our get-togethers and they would find it hard to believe that we never heard a cross word or anything spoken in anger. It was and still is a constant source of humor and laughter. Whether we are telling tales on one another or just talking over old times, there is always laughter involved. I am so proud to have come from a family like this and hope that it has rubbed off onto the next generation (and I’m pretty sure it has).
There’s always a card game, a trivia game or some kind of sports event that everyone gets into. I must admit that even though I love to play cards, I do love our family trivia games. We divide the family into 2 teams and then have at it! There’s always an answer or two that gets everyone going and then it just goes downhill from there with us laughing all the way to the bottom of the hill!
Darla and her husband live on a small lake in Jonesboro, Georgia and we spend time there having picnics, bar-b-ques and just hanging out. The kids (and now the grandkids) can fish, swim, paddleboat or go out on the lake in the canoe. It has been the source of many a great party and as always, lots of laughter!
Cheryl and her husband, Roy, live in an old farmhouse near Jackson, Georgia and have lots of room. There’s tons of places for the kids to play and for the grown-ups to relax and try to rest (which usually doesn’t last long!). We love having Thanksgiving and Christmas there because there is so much room and so many things to do. One year we had a true “Redneck” Thanksgiving. When we pulled up, some of the family was already there and the women of the family were in the lower yard firing a pistol while the men were next to the barn throwing knives. It was a hoot – there’ll be another blog on that event, because it was just too crazy not to have it’s own page!
The older we get, the more I have come to appreciate and love the “Sisters” that God gave to me. I got the next best thing to real ones, but I couldn’t love them more if they were my real sisters. They have made my life a wonderful place and I’m the lucky one – I’m richer, more blessed, and happier for having these wonderful ladies in my life!
I Love You, my Sisters!
Even though there was a tropical storm near several of the ports that we visited, we were able to complete our cruise and still have a wonderful time. We got to snorkel while we were in Isla Roatan, Hondourus and had an absolutely wonderful time. We saw lots of pretty fish, lounged around on a gorgeous beach and got to see some beautiful sights there.
