It's a little black ball! No, it's a beetle! No, it's ...

JADEN - my beautiful niece (this part has nothing to do with the title of my post....you'll hear about that a few paragraphs down...)

I could not get this girl to smile for the life of me at first!

But that quickly changed - what can I say...I'm HILARIOUS!

I had a mint on my tongue. She LOVES mints...only she calls them "Neos". Now she constantly points at my purse and asks for more neos.

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Hello again. Today was the day that I had been anticipating for approximately 128 days. (Wow, I used the word "day" a lot in that sentence...) It is June 12th and I woke up at 6am this morning to get ready to pick up my sister REBEKAH from the airport. She moved away almost exactly one year ago and I have missed her more than I can put into words...and if you know me, that must be a LOT! No one on this planet understands me the way she does. It is so weird. Like, we'll say the exact same sentence at the exact same time with the EXACT same inflections. And not just common, simple sentences like "I know!" or "No way", but weird, out of the blue sentences, like "If I jump off that cliff it will break approximately 193 of my bones"...ok, bad example. But you know what I mean. She's also the only person I've ever had a bum war with and the only person I'll workout with, ie. I don't care if I look like a fool in front of her. I have told her things I've been too scared to tell myself and I know that I can ask her any question about any subject...and I mean ANYTHING. Feelings that I can hardly describe because they're so intricate and inexplicable/ODD I'm sure that no one else has ever felt that way before, she understands completely. Like, I'll start trying to articulate how I feel about something but run out of words and she'll just take over and describe the very thing I'm trying to say. It's crazy. So now you know why I've been counting down the days since January. It was so awesome, cuz today when we got home we lay on the bed while Jaden played somewhere in the basement and just laughed so hard about the stupidest thing. Like, I can't even remember what it was - oh ya, stinky pillows...see, we can laugh about the STUPIDEST (for some reason it looks like I spelled 'stupidest' wrong...) things. And it was so strange because as we were lying there, gasping for air, pleading the other to stop laughing so we could refill on oxygen, but not being able to because we ALWAYS get worse the more we hear the other one laugh, I realized that I haven't laughed like that since Rebekah left. Literally. I mean, I've had plenty of good times since last June. I've laughed a ton. But I haven't laughed LIKE THAT. And there is no one in this world that can make me laugh so hard or so long or with such complete abandon. (But Naomi comes close! :)) And then again tonight as we were out in the yard all evening with Jaden, my parents working away on their various projects, Rebekah and I were just lying in the grass laughing so hard I could hardly handle it. Like, my abs HURT, people, and I work out 4 to 5 times a week! It feels like she has never been gone, in a way, yet somehow we're making up for lost time.

these two pics were taken while we were waiting for CAA at Canadian Tire because my dad locked the keys in the car...right after we picked Rebekah and Jaden up at the airport. HAHAHA.

...And then we went to Tim Hortons for Timbits...

They were THIS GOOD!

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So that's my sentimental moment/tribute to my long-lost sister for today. Now comes the funny story.
So we're by the side of the house, near the playstructure my dad just built (VERY COOL by the way...I'll post a pic soon) and I was just kicking at the grass, talking to Rebekah, not really paying attention to anything, but then something caught my eye. There were two black ball-shaped shiny things in the grass. From up high they looked like some kind of weird beetle that I had never seen before, so I decided to squat down for a closer look. So, like I said, they were black and shiny and it looked like there was a little stripe down the middle. They weren't moving as far as I could tell, but there was grass growing all around them, so I picked a blade or two of thicker grass to poke at them a bit. Dad sauntered over, too, to find out exactly what it was that I was poking at. (My dad will definitely not be pleased that I ended that sentence with a preposition. Too bad. It sounds better than the grammatically correct way.) Then one of the black balls kind of jumped and I heard this weird hissing sound. I jumped up out of my squatting position and took a big step back. I mean, this freaking beetle just hissed at me! But then I was like, no way I'm gonna be scared of these tiny beetles. I mean, I already freaked out about one spider this week and I killed THREE, yes THREE, beetles in my bedroom today, so I was going to CONQUER THIS SUCKER! I squatted again and resumed my poking with grass blades, trying to turn the other "beetle" over. Finally Rebekah looks down from where she's standing and says, "Julia, that is rabbit poop."

Me with timbit.

The End.


PS. I still don't know why I heard a sound, but I swear that poop hissed at me.