Family Ties that Bind and Sometimes Bunch

Last night, Tree Faerie slept like normal. I think she fussed around 11, but all I had to do was pick her up and rock her for a few minutes and she was back out. I didn't even fully wake up. The next time she woke up was after 4, and she just wanted a snack, then she woke up at 6:30 as happy as a bug in a rug. She woke me up by saying "Hey" in her own special way. I guess I use the word hey a lot, because she says it EXACTLY like I do. So, things are better in that regard today, but it seems to vary day-to-day. I FEEL better, anyway. At least, I'm not as grumpy.

As soon as I finish the fashion panel (which won't take long once I actually get the chance to do it), I promise to post pictures of the mei tai carrier since several of you have asked. Here's the pattern I modified, in case you're interested. I only made minor modifications to the straps, but otherwise I followed the pattern pretty closely.

In other news, I talked to my oldest little sister last night for the first time in like 5 years or something crazy like that. I was just scrolling through my phone book and decided to call on a whim. I got her number from her mother several months ago, but her mother told me to text instead of call because my sister worked crazy hours. Well, I don't text. Period. So I called.

I actually have 2 sisters; both are half-sisters by my biological father and both are younger than I am (I'm the oldest of all my siblings). We didn't see a whole lot of each other growing up because my father was in the Air Force and was limited on his time off and such. I haven't seen my youngest little sister in about 14 years, and I haven't seen my oldest little sister in about 9 years.

I have their mother's contact information and occasionally email or call her to catch up on the girls, but I've admitted before that I'm really bad at keeping up with long-distance relationships of any kind. I don't talk to our father because I'm done with trying to build a relationship with someone I honestly don't like as a person. He doesn't try to contact me, either, so it's a pretty equal relationship. I did send him a Yule (Christmas) card this year, but I didn't get a response. Thankfully, I didn't expect to.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if he's still married to the last wife I knew he married. She was his 5th wife, I think. She may have been his 6th. Anyway, she finally birthed him a son, whom I have not even met yet. I guess the boy would be about 6 years old now. I'd like to meet him someday.

To get back on track - I talked to my oldest little sister last night, and I must say, it's almost like talking to myself. We have almost identical voices and tonal inflections. We even use some of the same phrases. We're both Wiccan, and I discovered last night that we're both tattooed and pierced (the only ones I have left are the ones in my ears). We grew up in entirely different worlds, yet we're a lot alike. We even look almost identical and always have. One of my mother's favorite stories about that is when my father got back from Desert Storm, he brought my sisters up to visit me, and my sister was sitting in my chair facing partially away from my mom, and she really thought it was me and kept trying to get my attention. Only when Mom walked over to my sister did she realize her mistake. I still find that funny, especially since my sister is not her daughter.

We hung up last night with her promising to call in the next few days to exchange email addresses. I guess if I haven't heard from her after a week, I'll try again. It would be nice to reconnect.