Sisters and aunts

The following are a few, slightly disjointed ideas that seem related to me in my head.  I thought they'd come together when I wrote, but they haven't.  But here you go anyway.

A few weeks ago Nancy & Brent and I were having our Sunday afternoon Skype session (it wasn't a set thing, but it happened more often than not, especially after I moved to VT and N&B were baby-waiting) and we started telling stories from when we were little (Brent just listens to us be crazy).  [tangent: Any time our family tells stories, it is so funny to hear different points of view with different age gaps/perspective because of age order--especially where we moved so much.]

At one point Nancy wanted me to tell Brent about when my mother tied one of my brothers to a tree (I told you she's an awesome mother--it's still a highlight for us--well, at least for those of us not tied to the tree, I don't know about him).  I'm going along and then I get to this part:  "And then someone called, so she had to go inside and didn't get back to X for a long time.  I want to say it was probably Aunt Ruth Elaine [who called]."  At this (the ARE comment), Nancy and I both laugh uproariously and Brent just looks at us like, Okay?  What's so funny about that? 

And I realized then how very, very long it's been since I've said that to someone.  But what a huge part of our Checketts family life that was.  "Aunt Ruth Elaine called" (or "She's talking to ARE" or whatever variant.)  For everyone in our family we know what that means.  That's code for--Mother is going to be on the phone for a long time. Or, Now is an excellent time to get into trouble or do something we're not supposed to do. Or better yet, ask to do something that Mother will say "yes" to because she's only half paying attention. Or, we better just make supper ourselves. Or have family prayer without her.  Or, you know, whatever. You get it.  The point being, when ARE called, Mother was going to be out of commission for a good long while--and then when she got off the phone, she's have lots of good stories to tell us about many members of our family.

And that's just the way it was.  And it was normal, because it was normal in our family.  (I can only imagine that the Muhlesteins might have some similar connections to Aunt Martha on the phone.)

And that normal--I love it.  I loved and I love that my mother is bestest friends with her sister. 

ARE is my Bountiful aunt, who just about everyone who reads this has met (even Suzan in Germany!)--that's how important she is. Still is for us.  I have 20 (or so) aunts and I like them all. Several of them have been very important in my life. And it was a lot of years before my little girl self figured out who was blood related vs. married in (or that there was such a difference!).  Hint, little Ruth: they're likely married-in, since that number vastly out weighs the other.  But, I think that's kind of the point.  They outweigh in number.  But not in importance.  Until this day, it's the sisters--my mother's and my father's--that are special in a special way.  Who reads my blog?  Aunt Tamara. And Aunt RE.  Who calls when a hurricane is headed my way--just like she used to call my parents when it was headed their way? Aunt Jolene.  Who knows all sorts of random things happening in my life because they take the time to care?  The "sister" aunts.  Who randomly texts to tell me she loves me?  My aunt.  Etc. Etc.  Sisters are the best!!  And, at least in my experience, they keep being the best aunts too. :) 

And I think that's why the moment with Nancy just struck me--because I realized we've kind of become Mother and ARE.  I have spent dozens (literally) of hours on the phone with Nancy and Rachel in just the past few weeks (I'm going to guesstimate somewhere between 20 and 30 in the past maybe 5 weeks).  Hours skyping with Nancy, hours on the phone, tons of hours with Rachel. And when I'm not on the phone with one of them, they're talking to each other!  (Or, for one happy afternoon while Ra was in Wyoming, we were all 3 skyping together.) In a no-long distance world (and one without children burning the house down--or tied to trees), we leave those former conversations in the dust (time wise).   And it makes me happy. 

And it makes me happy that now my sister has a baby.  I've been an aunt for 6 years now, but it's different.  I don't know why. It just is.  I love both of my sisters in law (and I talk to both of them quite a lot, too), but there's just something about sisters.  I'm so happy to be a sister and an aunt!



This really is a tangent, but I won't write it anywhere else, so I'll tack it on here.  It also makes me happy that Nancy's daughter's name is Elaine.  [I should probably clarify this confusing detail. My Aunt Ruth Elaine's name is really Elaine. No one in the whole world calls her Ruth Elaine; only 8 Checketts children call her AuntRuthElaine (it's all one word, in case you wondered, about 2 1/2 syllables). Even my parents only call her ARE when it's one word; if they're not talking to us, they use her untitled name--Elaine. Ok, now that we got that straight.]  Anyway, baby Elaine is named after Brent's mom who passed away last fall (and whose birthday is 6 days after Elaine's). But it still makes us happy that she also shares the name of our dear aunt.
And, the two aunts and one Ruthanne who read this blog will have probably already noticed this, but for those not related I have to point out one other funny thing about the names.  Nancy told me last October that if the baby was a girl, she'd be named Elaine.  And all this time I've known that and even called the baby that once or twice.  But not until she was born and I was praying for their family of three did it hit me.  I started with the most important in my prayer, Please bless Nancy. And Brent, and Elaine.  And then it hit me and I started laughing out loud.  ARE's husband is Brent. So, THEY are Brent and Elaine.  Neither of which is a super common name.  So I think it's pretty funny that Nancy has a Brent&Elaine.

And now, I'm really done.