Patty.

April 29, 2019
Day 943

     Tonight, I'm thankful for Patty. Today is her birthday. If it wasn't for Patty, I'd be lost. I'd be lonely. I'd be sad. I'd be alone. Wherever she is where my home is. She makes everything okay. She makes everything better. She makes me smile and laugh more than any other person I know. I am so thankful that God made a person called Patty and chose to give her to me as a sister.

     My kids were watching Frozen the other day, and I realized that Elsa and Anna are a lot like me and Patty. I'm Elsa. Patty is Anna. Elsa loves the cold and she has magic powers, but she's got issues. Anna is just perfect. She is kind. She loves others. She is fun and funny. She believes the best about people. But the main thing is this: Anna is the hero of the story. She saves Elsa and literally everyone else in Arendelle.

     I realized this just yesterday: Patty's the hero. She saves me. She saves everybody. All day. Every day.

     Thankful for Patty.

Sick.

Project 365 * 2
Day 746

    

     I'm sick. I feel like hell. My sister is so amazing that she is watching my kids, after watching them all day, so I can sleep. I'm thankful for my sister. She is a person who is constantly good and lovely and kind and loving. And I get to call her mine.

Jen and Patty.

Project 365 * 4
Day 662

     Thankful for my cousin, Jen. She cut my hair tonight, and I am so happy to not have a mullet anymore. Growing your hair out from a pixie cut is not fun. I also left her house with five or six huge bags of clothes for Tobin. Such a blessing. I'm so thankful to have such a sweet person to call my cousin and my friend. Thankful for Patty. We had the best time talking in the bed of AJ's truck in the parking lot after our workout tonight. Thankful for incredible woman to call my favorites.

Old Friends. Happy Birthday, Patty! (Part Two)

Project 365 * 4
Day 484

     Two things made my day awesome:

1. Getting to visit with some very good friends of mine. I love visiting with friends. Especially at Starbucks, on a rainy day. Seriously, it makes my heart feel warm and cozy to visit with people that I love and miss. I hate the time and distance between me and all the people I love and care about. I really have to get better about making time to see my favorite people. I'm so incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

2. Today was Patty's actual birthday. So, I blew up balloons and hung streamers. I made roast chicken. And roasted sweet potatoes, and potatoes, and carrots. And we had cake and ice cream. And we talked about how much we all love Patty. Honest truth? She is, literally, one of the best people I know. I'm so blessed to have her. She is such an incredible person that I kind of feel bad for all the people in the world who don't know her. They're missing out.

     Thankful for a good day. Thankful for old friends. And coffee on a rainy afternoon. Thankful for Patty. Thankful for a day to celebrate her.

Happy Birthday, Patty!

Project 365 * 4
Day 482


52 Kind Things

     The other day, I watched Casey and Sophia while Patty and AJ went on a date. They left in a hurry, so they didn't had time to clean up the kitchen or pick up the toys. So, I cleaned up for them. I thought it would be nice for them to come home from their date to a clean kitchen and home. While one part of me thinks that cleaning up for them was just the right thing to do considering how much Patty and AJ do for us, the other part of me thinks it was a kind thing because I really didn't want to do it. Sometimes doing the kind thing isn't really the fun thing. Or the thing you want to be doing. Being kind is about making sacrifices for others.

52 People I Love

     We had Patty's birthday party today. And it was freaking crazy. I mean crazy. The four kids were straight up out of control. They screamed the whole time. They cried the whole time. They pushed each other. They didn't share. They interrupted. Pretty much, they were kids acting like kids, but when you have four little kids acting like kids, it just wears you down. Honestly, it was so loud and confusing, I couldn't even see straight. I couldn't get one sentence out correctly. It was just insane. So insane, I wanted to punch a hole in the wall. Or just jump off the deck screaming, "I can't take it anymore!" Sometimes, I feel like the Grinch. "Oh, the noise, noise, noise, noise!"

     One of our family traditions is to do affirmations for the birthday person. And we did them. But it was hard. Boy, was it hard. We tried as best we could to tell Patty why we loved her between the crying, screaming, yelling, and whining. And because I'm not sure if she heard all of mine, I want to tell her here, just how much I love her. I know I've written about her before in my 52 people I love. But, it's my blog. So there.

     Why do I love Patty? It's hard to put that into 50,000 words or less. She is my person. I go to her when I am happy. Sad. Excited. Scared. She is like my twin. She knows what I'm thinking by just looking at me. I know what she's thinking by just looking at her. She's honest with me. She believes in me. She's truly, the most generous, most giving person I've ever known. She doesn't keep a record of the nice things she does for others. She just does them. Just because that's who she is. She doesn't keep a record of the wrong things people do to her. She forgives them. That's just who she is. She is incredibly beautiful. And talented. And intelligent. If I didn't have her, I honestly don't know where I'd be. I would be lost. I would be lonely. I would have a lot less laughter in my life. The times that I've laughed the absolute hardest in my life, have been with her. I have the kind of laughs with her that you remember forever. I'm so thankful for her. I'm so thankful we get to live our lives together. There isn't one day that goes by that we don't see each other or at least talk four or five times. We depend on each other to get through the day. It's so nice to have a sister to lean on like that. I love her more than words can say. There just aren't words big enough, beautiful enough, or kind enough to say all that she is to me.

     Thankful for a good day. Thankful for the cool breeze. Thankful for the blue sky. Thankful for walks to the playground. Thankful for time to celebrate one of my favorite people, Patty. Thankful for cake and ice cream. Thankful for my family. Thankful for our family days. Even though they're so crazy sometimes, I want to jump off the deck. ;)

Oh, yes it's ladies night!

Project 365 * 4
Day 431

     Patty and I took my mom out tonight to celebrate her...49th, yes. Her 49th birthday. And it rocked. It was awesome. Incredible night. It was so, so good to eat a meal uninterrupted. It was so good to have dessert and coffee afterwards. It was so good to sit and talk and laugh. And drive. We Otterstedt girls love to drive. We turn the music way up, and we drive to no where in particular. We drive down old familiar roads. We make lots of u-turns. We talk while we drive. And we laugh. We tell stories. Being in the car, driving down dark roads with my mom and sister tonight fed my soul. I have so missed driving around with the women I love. Patty and I are blessed to have the woman we call mom. She is literally, the best. And it has been way too long since we've spent a night together. And because Patty and I were so enjoying our long drive home, we took the extra, extra long way, to make our drive even longer. And while we drove, we listened to 200 songs by listening to no more than two minutes of each one. We turned the volume all the way up. And we sang and drove until now, 2:00 am, when I just got home. And even though I'm going to be dead tired when Tobin gets up for the day in less than five hours, this night was well worth it.

     Thankful for my incredible mama. Thankful to call her mom and best friend and family. Three of the best things I can think of. Thankful for a night to celebrate with her. She's amazing. And she deserves a million nights out. I'm not just saying that because she's my mom. For real. She is actually, amazing. One of the best people I know. At the top of my list. Thankful for a lovely meal. Thankful for dessert and coffee. Thankful for long drives down dark roads with my favorite girls. Thankful for a long night of celebrating, driving, dining, car dancing, and singing. I so needed this night. Thankful for how good my cup of coffee will taste tomorrow morning. For some reason, the more tired you are, the better coffee tastes.

By the way...I feel the need to say, I never edit any of my nature pictures, except maybe to crop them. I never mess with the colors, or enhance them in any way. I feel like nature is so beautiful, it doesn't need any help. It's beautiful all on it's own. I like pictures of nature that are real. I like to look at beautiful places or things and think, there is really something THAT amazing on this earth. 

You should call your mother...

Project 365 * 4
Day 370

     Two things I'm thinking about tonight. One, I'm thankful for my sister. I said it last night, and I'm saying it again tonight, I would be in a very bad place without her. She knows when to listen. She knows when to speak. She knows when to make me laugh. She knows when to cry with me. She says things like, "why don't we cruise through the bakery and get ourselves some chocolate eclairs." And, "why don't you come over tomorrow morning, bright and early. I'll make us some lattes, and we can bake Addy some gluten free bread in my bread machine." Thankful for our drive and our late night trip to the grocery store. Thankful she knows how to make everything better.

     The second thing I'm thinking about tonight is this: if you haven't told your mom you love her today, you should. Being a mom is the hardest job ever. And it never ends. You can't call in sick. You can't take a personal day. You don't get paid. And mostly all of what a mom does goes unrecognized. There is no boss to say, "you're doing a great job, I'm giving you a raise!" Instead, a mom works and works and works, and in return, gets peed on during bath time. Twice tonight for me. And because a mom can't walk away from the tub while her children are in there, she must sit there. In her pee soaked clothes for the duration of bath time. A mom gets bit. Hit. Kicked. Yelled at. Screamed at. Snotted on. Vomited on. Peed on. Pooped on.

     Being a mom is the most amazing thing I've ever done. My children are my entire life. They are my joy. My peace. They are the greatest loves my heart has ever known. I love what I do. I love being a mother. But being a mother has taught me something I never knew before. And that is that I haven't thanked my mother enough for all that she has done for me. For every chore that went unnoticed. For every time she endured a bath time in pee soaked clothes. Or worse. For every snotty nose she wiped. For every bucket of vomit she flushed down the toilet. For every tear she cried for us. And because of us. For every sleepless night. Believe me. There are many. My mom is just one of the hundreds of thousands of moms out there who has worked and served and mothered without praise or recognition.

     Mom, Sue, Gamie, and all of you mothers out there reading this, thank you. Thank you for all you have done, for all you do, and for all you will continue to do because you are a mother. One day a year is not enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are superheroes.

     Thankful for all the amazing mothers in my life.

Patty.

Project 365 * 4
Day 369

     Patty. Just saying that name makes me feel at home. I would be utterly lost and hopeless without her. She has been my person since the day she was born. She was my first friend. My first great love. The first person that I looked at and thought, "I really can't live without this girl." She has been there for me through every circumstance. Small and big. Happy and sad. My triumphs are her triumphs. My sorrows are her sorrows. She is like my twin. Just born three years later. Just the other day, I told her, through tears, that if she ever moved away from me, it would be like someone chopped off my arms and legs and left me bleeding, to die alone. Dramatic? Perhaps. But, it's the truth.

     Of all the great people I know, Patty stands alone. She is in her own column of greatness. She reminds me time and again how to be a better person. Just by being her. Case in point, we got into a fight tonight. I mean, we really got into it. And what does she do? She takes all the blame, apologizes, and tells me that she loves me. Even though it was all my fault. Seriously, I'm in love with Patty. Not the romantic kind. I'm in the kind of love with her that makes me want to be a better person, because of her. Because she is just that great.

     To say that I'm thankful for Patty is an understatement. To say that I love her isn't big enough. I need new words to describe how great she is. I need new words to say that she's the best. I'm in love with Patty. That's a fact.

   

My two favorite parts of today.

Project 365 * 2 -- Day 345

1. It only lasted about a minute. But it was sweet. And because most of this day was extremely difficult, it was a very sweet minute. Adelyn read to Tobin after bath time tonight. It made my heart so full.

Tobin kissing Adelyn. 

2. Hanging out with Patty. I put the kids down, and she came over and hung out for a bit. It was the best. I love Patty. I absolutely adore her. I want to put her in my pocket and keep her with me forever. And because she had to go home but we didn't want to stop hanging out, we've been on the phone ever since. Even now, as I type, she's cutting apples for the Christmas party at Addy and Casey's preschool tomorrow. I would be so lost and lonely in this world without her.

     Thankful tonight for two sweet moments that made my rough day all better. Thankful for sweet babies to read bedtime stories to. Thankful for sweet babies to kiss goodnight. Thankful for my sister. Thankful to have such an amazing person to be my person.