A Round of Happy Birthdays!

*HARRY POTTER SPOLIER ALERT!* Just so you know=)

Happy birthday to Harry Potter, JK Rowling, and my baby-sister-who-isn't-a-baby-anymore!!!!

JK Rowling has seriously touched millions of lives and inspired millions of writers with the Harry Potter series. There are honestly very few books that have had such a strong emotional hold on me.

Afters months and months of pestering Catherine to read HP, she finally picked it up and fell in love almost as much as I did. And, actually, here's a picture of her reading it:

Appearently, we both get very emotionally involved with HP. She had just read about Lupin and Tonks dying. Poor kid.

What I wouldn't give to read HP again for the first time. *Sigh.*

Anyway. . .

I'm so blest by Catherine's life. I had to wait four loooong years for her=) She turns eleven today, which is way too crazy and makes me feel old. Before she was born, I would always tell my mom how unfair it was: she shared a room with my dad, and my brothers shared a room, but I had no one to share a room with!

After Catherine was born, we moved to a bigger house and my wish came true. I finally had a sister to share my room with! And then, about a year later, another sister came along and I had TWO sisters to share a room with! Wasn't I lucky?!

I was a strange child.

. . .years later, we would fight over who got to have their own room in our new house. . .naturally, being the oldest, I won. Isn't it funny how much we change?

But I did share a room with her for ten years. She's a neat freak (like, a crazy neat freak. She looooves cleaning anything. Even like a bathroom or a kitchen.) and she's kind-of-sort-of rubbed off on me.

Catherine inspires me. So much.

She's one of the most giving people I've ever met. She will seriously drop whatever she's doing and listen and help with whatever problem. She has a beautiful smile. She has a beautiful voice. She loves to read and make up stories. She loves watching Pride and Predjudice with me. (BBC-- there is no other watchable version as far as we're concerned.) She read the first chapter of my book and is constantly asking me question after question about it.

Catherine encourages me to press on with life, even when it's hard. When I have bad days, she makes me feel better. When my best friend and I resolved a very long fight we had, Cate was so excited for me. Everyone in my family couldn't believe that we were friends again, but Catherine told me how happy she was.

And sure, we argue just like sisters have since the beginning of time. We fight over the bathroom, over hair ties and bobby pins. . .typical girl stuff.

We were arguing about something a week or so ago, and I was clearly winning the argument, when Catherine exasperatedly threw her hands up in the air and said as she walked out of the room:

"FINE. But I get to marry SNAPE then. So THERE."

Isn't there a saying about how those who you love the most and who love you the most can also annoy you the most? Because if there isn't, there should be.

Anyway. . .Catherine rocks. And I'm so glad that she was born.

Happy birthday, baby sis. I love you forever<3

My Dad

My dad was always filming us when we were little. We have so many family videos that are pretty hilarious to watch. When I was little, I loved to get my face in the camera. Seriously, I was always talking. My mom would probably tell you that I am still always talking, but I like to think that I've become slightly more reflective than talkative over the years.

I have always loved to tell stories. It didn't matter if the stories were ones I made up or something that had happened to me, I loved to share them with everybody, especially the camera.

It's really my dad's fault that I started writing. He was the one who encouraged me to write down my crazy little stories. He, along with my beautiful mom, were the ones who listened to my constant ramblings. Fine, they still do. My dad is always expressing desire to know what I am working on. He constantly asks questions about plot struggles and characters. My mom (my faithful editor) reads every single one of my blog posts before I publish.

When we were little, my dad told us so many stories. Usually, it was at bedtime or on long car trips. I don't remember ever hearing the same story twice, which bugged me. I wished that he would write down his stories. I told him this, and he would always say the same thing-- "Someday."

My dad is always making up extremely ridiculous songs on the guitar, usually at the worst times. For example, when I'm trying to read and he's singing about me, it gets kind of hard to concentrate. Or when someone's in a bad mood, they get a full six-verse song complete with a refrain. That isn't the worst, though. The absolute worst is when he begins to belt out a song about me and whatever random guy he thinks I like. Yeah, those moments usually aren't my most virtuous. . . .

My point is, my dad is incredibly creative. He will try absolutely everything. One year, my mom got him a violin for Christmas (actually, he got himself a violin for Christmas and said it was from Mom) and he played around with it for months. Sure, it was really, really, really annoying, but I admired his determination. He always is eager to learn whatever my siblings' or my favorite song is on guitar so that we can sing it together. He is always providing opportunities for us, whether it be taking me to a cafe to write, paying for a Catholic school education, piano lessons, guitar lessons, and numerous other things.

As many of you may know, my family is moving. My dad was recently hired as the Secretariat Leader for Evangelization and Parish Life in the Diocese of Toledo. He began his job yesterday and moved on Friday. I just wanted to take this opportunity to share how much he has inspired me-- in my writing, yes, but in pretty much every aspect of my life. I am so proud of him and so blest to be his daughter.