I LOVE these girls!

These are "the girls" minus Mary Ann and Aubrey. Just a second... Mary Ann, dear. This was your night, your celebration, thus the reason for our gathering. And you're not in the damn picture. Seriously!?

Moving on. My life would not be as beautiful, funny, amazing, tender, and dramatic without these girls.

I couldn't say it any better myself, so I didn't.

Hello, blog world. I would like you to meet Lindsey, my fraternal twin sister. Isn't she adorable? Of course my closest friends all know the famous Lindsey (because she is totally unforgettable), but a lot of other people don't know her because we've lived in different states for so long. I just want to make everyone is aware of this incredible human that shared a womb with me for 9 months. It's pretty crazy to think our hot bodies were created at the same time right next to each other. Actually, it was only 8 months because we were born 4 weeks early. Probably because we were fighting (which is just our way of expressing love for all you outsiders) and couldn't stand being near each other any longer.

Like I said, we are fraternal. Duh. We came from two different eggs...but we have many things in common like parents, a birthday, an inappropriate sense of humor, a loud laugh, addiction to diet coke, weekly gossip via cell phone in the car, an 80 wpm typing speed, nail biting habit, love of puppies and number of suspensions in high school. Just kidding on the last one! I hope I made my friends laugh.


About sharing a birthday...I love it. The reason I love sharing a birthday so much is that I LOVE my birthday because I'm very narcissistic. And I would love to shout to the whole world "ME ME ME ITS MY BIRTHDAY" but I'm sure most people would ignore me. So Lindsey and I just freak out about our birthday with each other. It's quite fun. I would compare it to watching a super funny movie. It's just not the same unless you have another person to help you laugh.


Oh my gosh how adorable are we!? This was taken with our friends Kim and Alia in Kindergarten. Check out my sister's scowl! Here is evidence that she started being critical and judgemental at a very early age. (Hey! She said it!)


And here is the brave woman who raised us! Our adorable mom. We call her Mama Cooksey. Marshal made up the name after he heard that we call our dad Papa Cooksey. We always talk about mom behind her back by calling her Mama Cooksey. Mama Cooksey this and Mama Cooksey that...always a good story. Sometimes followed by a silent laugh (Lindsey and Rachel twin inside joke, sorry).


ON OUR BIRTHDAY! See those smiling faces? We were enjoying our very own inside jokes and cheerleading for each other.


On my twin's wedding day. Of course it wouldn't have been complete without me, Wombie!


Here we are at our OTHER sister's house. Her name is Melissa and she is awesome too! There is never a dull moment when the three of us unite. I will make a blog tribute to her sometime too...but Lindsey goes first since she actually blogs and Melissa doesn't.


I love you Lindsey! Thanks for being my sidekick, and thanks for writing such an awesome blog!

Boo. Hiss.

I'm in kind of a blah mood. I'd like to thank the rhinovirus or whatever booger has decided to invade my immune system. Can I just say that I felt for a while that my body was cooperating with me for once, and now.... now it's not. I have a LOT I could blog about -- could being the operative. You see, I'm a little slothful, and I'll quit blogging at precisely the second I feel like it -- regardless of whether or not I've blogged about everything I wanted to.

I'm going to start with last weekend. It was amazing. I've hated this week just because it meant last weekend was over, and I will probably continue to be resentful at the general flow of life until I decide to apply what I learned last weekend to my life today. That being said.... I went on a retreat sponsored by the women's ministry people at Heartland. The theme was the Jewish Roots of Christianity, and my mind will fail at this point to share the brilliant things I learned with you. Just know that if ever there is a question, tradition, obstacle, miracle, answer, etc ... it's Jesus. I've come to appreciate the hand of God at work in my life. I've grown to notice it. I use the word grown very delicately because it's been such an uphill climb for me to get to a point where I recognize my Creator's hands in my life. Yes, I do take credit for His work at times, but that is getting a lot better.

The biggest message from the retreat was the need for a weekly Sabbath time. I'm talking no cell phone, no boyfriend, no friends, no nothing. A time to spend with Jesus in communion, lost in God's word, and refreshing your spirit. A refilling of the tank of sorts. We had four hours of Sabbath on Saturday, and I don't think there are words to describe the calm and the peace and the serenity.... and the just knowing that I was right where I was supposed to be.

I am now challenged to find this time in my week. My first thought is Friday afternoons, as I babysit on Friday mornings. I'm pretty sure it will be Fridays from Noon-5p for now. I don't want to shoot for something too big because I know myself well enough to know I'll not do it, but I also want it to be a significant sacrifice of my time. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Now onto why I didn't get my Sabbath time this week. I babysat overnight for 2 adorable kids Mon-Wed. They're great kids, and things went pretty smoothly. That is until I woke up at 5am on Wednesday morning sick as a damn dog. I don't think I have thrown up like that in a long time. Sorry for the details, but shit! I couldn't do anything, and I still had a 4 year old to get dressed & out the door in 30 minutes, get myself ready, then get the baby dressed, fed, & out the door. I scrapped my plan of getting everyone ready on time as soon as I realized that I wasn't going to get far if my vomiting didn't subside. I called the parents who got a hold of the grandparents for back-up. Long story short, we all survived, but I have so much more respect for you parents out there. Seriously, I've never had to get children ready while I've not been feeling well, yet alone having to run to the bathroom to vom every 3 minutes. You get a standing slow-clap for that dedication right there!

I went home on Wednesday morning, pretty much slept for 2 days, woke up Friday feeling better, and today I'm still better, but not perfect. I have no idea what has invaded my body. It seems to be switching days as far as symptoms are concerned. Like one day I'm all stuffy & congested (yesterday) and the next I'm nauseous & my stomach hurts (today). Enough whining, right?

In very exciting happy news, there has been an addition made to the family tree! My beautiful cousin April gave birth to the perfect Emersyn May on Thursday! Congrats to April, Ben, Lunden, Brennen, Carsen, & Logan! And here's a picture of Emersyn:

And that about wraps up my week. Really, I thought it would be much more exciting, but I'm now announcing it wasn't (minus the birth of Emersyn!).

Puppies!

I dedicate this post to my twin for harassing me to post puppy pictures. My mom has the cutest dogs ever. Here are their pictures... well mostly Ripley and Tyti (pronounced "Tootie" because my parents lack phonetic skills) because Boo doesn't sit still long enough to get a take a picture.

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough!

The title of this blog has nothing to do with this post -- it's just stuck in my head for some strange reason. I haven't posted in a while. There's a lot to post. There will be pictures.


First of all... I had a blast in Utah. Really it was super relaxing, and I got to hang out with my Mom. It doesn't get any better than that. The above picture is of the Garage Majal, otherwise known as Mom & Larry's crib all lit up in it's Christmas light splendor. Highlights of the trip include watching Hairspray (the new one) a million times, getting a play-by-play of the Trolley Square shooting from Mom while we were AT Trolley Square, hitting up Fashion Place Mall for a little shopping at Nordstrom, and sneaking caramel apples. I had an awesome Christmas. Seriously, my parents are fabulous. I think my favorite gift would be my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. SERIOUSLY so excited to use it. I also got a ton of necessary kitchen gadgets that I needed as well. Mom, thank you!

So, I've been back since about 11p on New Year's Eve. I rang in the New Year by unpacking my suitcase. It really doesn't get better than that. My beloved Lydia is in town for her break, and we've been spending lots of time together because that's just how we roll. We have a new tradition that involves building a gingerbread house & decorating gingerbread people. I started off by trying to make a gingerbread version of Barack Obama. However, mid-decorating, I decided my gingerbread guy looked more like Enrique Iglasias, so he morphed into Enrique. Lyd made a super zombie. The house is amazing. And by amazing, I mean it almost leaves one speechless. My side is cute and organzied. Lydia's side looks amazing. And this time by amazing, I mean well amazing. I should really just shut up and start posting pictures!


This would be the finished house. It was kind of a crime scene.


Lyd & me being goofs. We have picture after picture like this.