My little sister is coming home Sunday. Meet Aimee, 10 years my junior. LPN and self-proclaimed missionary who travels the world and spreads the Gospel. She also steals the big crawfish at every single crawfish boil we have ever had.

(check out that kid doing a wheelie in the background, this pic is over a year old and I just noticed that!)

I am especially excited about Aimee coming home to visit, because my son is about to come out of his skin he is so happy she will be home. They have a very unique and special relationship, and I love to watch it blossom. He loves her dearly, and instantly becomes her shadow whenever she is around.

They do get sick of each other at times. That’s not particularly a time when I like to be around, because as much as they love each other, man can they duke it out!! But all he has to do is make a sad face, poke out a lip, or something to that effect and she starts feeling bad and gives him whatever in the world his little heart desires.

I did mention they were special, right? Yeah. Because she cut the tree down, they wrongly assumed they had to take “welcome to the gun show” pictures…. but, I knew that someday the gun show pictures of my kid in his skivvies would prove to be priceless, so I snapped away. Another special moment, brought to you by my kid and my sister.

So anyway, she has been doing missionary work for over a year now and we don’t get to see her often. Her last visit home she brought a friend, Maria, with her. I’m not really sure if Maria has ever had the pleasure of working with goats before, but she wasn’t about to weasel her way out of this. Aimee was home, and the goats needed a good deworming (because I sure as heck am not about to do it!).

I know the whole worming process looks mean, but the goat survived - see? And they went on to torture another one…

These goats are pets, by the way. No, we do not eat them. Some of us do not particularly care for them, but I won’t be naming any names. The white goat is Snowflake, and she is a flat out bitch. She will headbutt you at the drop of a hat. I think she’s great target practice for N when he is ready to learn to shoot the BB gun. The other one is Tallulah, whom yours truly got to name. That does not particularly mean that I am a big fan of hers, however.

Usually when she comes home (we’re talking about Aimee again, keep up, will ya?) there is a lot of work to be done, and for some reason unbeknownst to me, she seems to enjoy doing it. So, we let her. What? You wouldn’t? You would let her enjoy her vacation? You mean, gallivanting around the world and saving souls is not a vacation? Ok, ok. I’m only kidding - it’s very hard work. I am by no means making fun. I’m quite proud of my sister for what she does.

Even if it IS just planting tomato plants, at least she’s doing SOMETHING. Okay, I’m kidding again. I just can’t stop. I’m on a roll, man! We just can’t get too serious here. It will dampen the mood and make the nice, spiffy new graphics look all dreary, and I cannot have that.

Aimee is on staff at YWAM Pittsburgh (that’s Youth With A Mission), although the “on staff” part is generally misleading. She does not get paid. As a matter of fact, she has to produce a certain amount each month to cover her housing needs, and since she does missionary work full-time, she survives solely on the generous donations of anyone who feels compelled to do so. (Go to the site, you can donate to her from there if you are feeling compelled right now!)

This post, however, is not to generate any donations for her. As nice as it would be, it probably wouldn’t help anyway because I’m convinced I have all of 3 readers. And I know who you are, man!

This post is just to say I’m glad she is coming home. I miss her, and I’m proud of her.

And for reference next week, when the newness of her being home wears off and her and N are going at each others throats and I’m ready to pull my hair out. To remind me that we really did miss her at one point. Ok, ok. I’m kidding again. We don’t really miss her.

Yeah, right. She’s awesome. And we do miss her. And I’m really glad that she loves my kid the way she does, because she’s really a good influence on him. I’m grateful for that. He will be, too. Someday. Whenever the day arrives that kids become grateful for things…