Twenty Six

Jamie is TWENTY SIX today!!

So I had a grand idea of getting some fun memories from a few people of Jamie. So we have a little collection of fun here and maybe embarrassing in some way or another. Hold on for a bit, it is a tad long, but we all got a lot of love for this girl!

LOVE YOU JAMIE!!!

I will start of with a quick story of Jamie and I had together. She was 16, me 14 and we wanted to go to Lansing. Jamie had never driven there before by herself, so this was a big deal. I guess more so the fact mom said YES! Anyway we jumped in the silver Taurus and took off. If I remember correctly we were doing pretty good. Possibly even made a stop or two already. Well Jamie was trying to get back on the road and had to cross 2 lanes of traffic to get to the turn lane, so then we could try to get in the next lane. I don't even remember exactly what we did, ok what she did. But all of the sudden a car flew around us and through milk at us. Luckily I had my window up! We never told my mom until we were out of the house because we wanted to be able to go to Lansing again. haha!

Might as well fit one other driving story in here. We were on our way to Aim High from a lamb show at MSU. Jamie was driving and I was passenger again. Jamie couldn't figure out how to get there and I was trying to tell her what to do. (Was and still am better with directions) She seriously got off an exit and would get back on going the same way. No lie we got off on 5+ times. She kept doing the opposite of what I told her. Big sisters. . . 

The next one is not really an unsual scenario for sisters, I don't think anyway. Jamie and I were fighting (just verbal) and she started to walk away into her bedroom (which was mine too). I obviously couldn't let her just walk away, I had to get the last word in. So she slams the door, I kick it open (yes I was and still am dramatic). What does Jamie do, well of course is waiting there and SUCKER PUNCHES me right in the gut. That is the only time Jamie has ever physically hurt me that I remember. (I am told she did chuck a shovel at my head when I was young. She didn't want to be a big sister)

Alexis will eleaborate on this more later on down but, Jamie loved indians. Therefore we played Pocahontas a lot. And she got to be Pocha and would talk to one of the pine trees and pretend it was Grandmother Willow. Alexis got to be Naomi and of course I had to be John Smith. She was pretty protective over Grandmother Willow. She was the ONLY one who could talk to her. HAHA. 

Love you J:)

I also got Jamie's best friend Mandy to write up something. 

I have many memories of my best friend Jaime. One of my favorite one actually happened at-least once a week our Freshman year of College. It was called "futon of love time"...it isn't what you think. We would go over to the other residence hall to get snacks and pop (our snack selection was terrible) and then we would sit on Jamie's futon and watch Boy Meets World before class would start. I am pretty sure we started this tradition because we decided we should talk about Graphic Design stuff in between classes so we were "better students" but that didn't last long! From boys, to clothes, to finding new college friends for our "group", we never ran out of things to say. I think that 35 minutes in between class is what really made our friendship even stronger (Thanks, Cory Mathews). Even after Freshman year, our friendship revolved around corny television shows and vast amount of snacks, and I am not afraid to say that. I love you jobo, pekoshka, james, or whatever nickname I gave through out the week. Happy Birthday Woman!

Then Al chimes in here:) 

Jamie is THE definition of the oldest child to the tee. Urban Dictionary says the oldest child is 

".. usually the child that gets to much responsibility. Can be seen as an automatic babysitter. the oldest child also has much firmer rules then younger siblings. parents often forget what the oldest child was made to do at a certain age for example: at the age of 8 the oldest child is made to start doing the washing up but by the time the second child gets to that age the parent isnt making him do anything yet. the oldest chld gets the least attention as they are seen to be more capable. the oldest child often longs for the only childness they had for a while before there younger sibling was born." We have heard Jamie preach on this over and over and beg for pity for having to be the oldest child. But when it comes down to it Jamie is just so darn good at it!  There are so many crazy memories with J that I have no idea how to share them or how to pick just one. But when I think about what we pick on J about the most it is definitely her love for Indians she had growing up.  She was weirdly obsessed with Indians. She wanted to read about them, paint them, live with them. She wanted to be one of them. When we were on family vacations of course we had to stop and look at every Indian exhibit. I'm thinking Jamie's love for Indians also drove her to her crazy idea of getting trampled by a heard of buffalo. When on a family vacay in Monatana we were driving through a park and began driving through this heard of buffalo. Jamie insisted on getting a picture so continued to climb to the back of our lovely forest green clubwagon van over our luggage and open the back door to get a close up. Well as most people know a van packed full of luggage and opening the back door does not go well together. Jamie then continued to start to fall out of the van and into this massive heard of buffalo. I don't remember how she managed to get back in I just know she did or she probably wouldn't be here today. ;

I also curious of the definition of a Jamie and found it necessary to include Urban Dictionary's definition of Jamie too.

Jamie: Super hot and adorable with an incredibly perfect butt; I wish I had Jamie's butt!

-Love Al

We even got Tim (her hubs) in on the action! 

One of my favorite memories with Jamie is when we had first moved to Chicago and we would go for walk and explore the neighborhood and ultimately the city, we wouldn't have an agenda just walk and talk.

Another of my favorite memories with Jamie is when went to the haunted jail in big rapids, for Halloween. Jamie was so scared to go but we made her go. While we were waiting in line there was a guy that didn't even work for the haunted house that kept scaring her before we even got inside. We finally got inside and she was jumping at every little thing, I tried to get her to go the next year and it was a big fat no. Lol

Probably my favorite memory of Jamie is when I first saw her coming down the isle at our wedding. That moment was the culmination of a bunch of arguments and a lot of stress. At that moment everything was perfect.

We all love you Jamie! You are an intelligent, loving, caring woman!