Jenny, Eliza, Star and Lily visit Memphis

[beginning of March]

My Seester - 

Let me tell you about my sister Jenny.   She is brave, interesting and sincere.  She is always true to herself.   I LOVED having her visit me because - just as a big sister should - she taught me a few things about life.  

#1,2 and 3 - Explore other religions, don't be afraid to get up in front of thousands of baptists and march right up to talk to the pastor afterwards about your religion and the doctrine of grace and works. 

Upon hearing I had lived in the south for 7 years and never been to a baptist church - Jenny knew what our next activity would be.  We would be attending the Sunday evening sermon at Bellevue Baptist Church.  After being there for only a few minutes -  they decided to do a brief open mic and before I know it I see a familiar red sweater moving up to the microphone. There she is on the big jumbo-tron saying she's grateful for her 5 kids and all they have taught her.  When we were walking out a few people stopped her and praised her for having five children and being thankful for it.  :) 

The service was a great experience and a lot of truth and similar beliefs were shared.  Afterwards she wanted to go ask some questions to the pastor (and tell him we were mormons).   I thought she was crazy and Star and I both were like - "now why are we doing this again?"  But it was amazing.  We discussed doctrine for a long time with him and his wife.  We prayed together and hugged and Star said some amazing comment about the Atonement and her face looked like an angel.  And then Jenny talked about coming together as Christians and fighting evil instead of each other.  And he told us we were the nicest mormons he had ever met.  I really, really enjoyed it.  And came away with the new awe for my sister.  She's the opposite of most people in that she embraces everything and everyone different than her.  Differences excite her rather than scare her.  

 My next favorite Jenny moment was the hour or more she spoke Luke's love language of wrestling.  So - she wanted to "buy a new couch" and was trying to sit on one with her cushion but then it would move or squeal and she'd say "oh this couch is sure a wiggly couch.  or a noisy, squeaky, giggly couch"

  Then she'd take the couch back to the store and talk to the manager about the problems she was having with her new couch.   He loved it so much.   I tried to do this later with Luke for homework breaks and he said "nooo!  you are waay bigger than aunt jenny!  you will crush me!"  

I think she might be fluent in the love languages of all kids - because she also snuggled with Maryanne a lot at night and read stories to all the kids during the day.   

The three of us had so much fun together.  I loved spending time with Star.  She is basically an adopted Songer sister because all 4 of us consider her one of our best friends.   She is one of the most lovely, refreshing people.  She's one of those people who is bursting with talent and charisma but then is humble enough and silly enough to make everyone around her feel instantly at ease.   She cares about everyone else before herself. 

And yes, we always dress like this ...

but it also happened to be our fancy tea party.

 And THIS is Lily Primm.  Pretty darn adorable right?

And my lovely niece ELIZA!!

The 5 days they were here - it was basically little girl heaven.  Eliza is right between Lucy and Maryanne and they just love her.  As I'm writing this blog they are sitting here saying "we want her to come back!!"  "we miss Eliza!"  "Hey! We loved that girl!"   I, too, love that girl.  She is a lot like her mom.  Thoughtful, deliberate and wise.   Here's a little taste of the little girl heaven:

Elizaanddancing from katiehale on Vimeo.

And no tea party and dance is complete without some princess charm school training.  Balancing books on our heads to make sure we have proper princess posture.

  My girls (especially Lucy) were so in love with Lily they would follow her around and mother her until she got sick of them and let out a little shriek.  Then Lily would do the same thing to Freddy.  She loved him so much... enough to make him a little concerned. 

On Monday we packed up our backpacks and headed to the children's musuem of memphis

Maryanne ringing up her HUGE slab of meat.   Eliza is more a vegetarian. 

 and Lily just being teeny, tiny and oh so cute. 

 

One of the funnest things was to show Jenny off at Book Club.  For about 5 years Jenny has been reading along with us in book club and hearing about all my friends.  It was so fun to finally have her THERE sharing all her cool insights and crazy experiences with my friends.  

Another was all the late-night conversations of psychoanalyzing each other.  You can't very well spend time with Jenny without deeply reflecting on why you do things and who you really are.   We even pulled an all-nighter - she and Star are just way too interesting to go to bed.

 cheesy sister-ness.  

 

Thank you for a wonderfully fun visit!  Just know that the 4 of you have a major fan club in Memphis.