I just wanted to celebrate my sister Courtney today (the 15th) as she turns the big three-zero! The celebration started with a surprise getaway to Boston with her fiance Ben this past Valentine's weekend, and it continues with Court taking a CH-T day off work to do whatever she wants all day long. Sounds like a genius formula for an awesome and memorable birthday. I just wish I could be there to celebrate!
Part of me wants to go on and on about how I can't believe I have a 30 year-old sister. But when I think of all Courtney has done in her twenties, it's actually kind of hard to believe she's only just now turning 30! Courtney started her twenties president of our sorority at Florida, graduated, got an awesome job in Houston, bailed out for London (where she got employee of the month her first month working there!), backpacked across Europe (and went to the Olympics in Greece!) scammed the system (legally, people) to get work visas in London for five years, including getting her Master's there. She met her fiance Ben in the process of doing her Master's thesis about online dating (more genius), just in time to bring him to our wedding so he could meet the whole crazy family at once :)
Along the way, she has traveled like crazy (Malta, Egypt, Hong Kong, Australia, Spain, Jamaica & 3X to New Zealand, to name a few!). Plus she has done an amazing job of coming back to the States for friends' weddings, family gatherings and Gator football games. I was so glad when she and Ben moved to San Francisco, just up the PCH from us. Finally we were in the same time zone and only an hour flight away. She landed a rockstar job doing something she was a front runner on: video conferencing. She had all of us using Skype before most people our side of the pond had heard of it.
Most important to me, she has managed to stay involved in my life despite the fact that we have lived 7 to 8 time zones apart for most of the last ten years. We have partied together at weddings and football games. We have wept together at funerals (and sad movies, who am I kidding). We have grieved together in letters to each other. And we have celebrated each other's accomplishments and milestones, sometimes even in person (engagement!!). She was the perfect maid of honor at our wedding, and now I am thrilled to have that same honor as she and Ben tie the knot in the near future at a fabulous location!
So Court, on your birthday, just wanted to thank you for being such an awesome big sister. You set the stage for me to challenge myself to try more new things and go more places in this life. And what kind of a little sister would I be if I didn't point out that for the next 11 days, you are 30 and I am only 27. Then again, a little voice is creeping in my head urging me to say, "Don't count the candles, just enjoy the glow." And as you begin this next fabulous decade of travel and adventure and friendships and marriage, just know I'll be there cheering you on every step of the way. Love you, big sis... and happy birthday!
Part of me wants to go on and on about how I can't believe I have a 30 year-old sister. But when I think of all Courtney has done in her twenties, it's actually kind of hard to believe she's only just now turning 30! Courtney started her twenties president of our sorority at Florida, graduated, got an awesome job in Houston, bailed out for London (where she got employee of the month her first month working there!), backpacked across Europe (and went to the Olympics in Greece!) scammed the system (legally, people) to get work visas in London for five years, including getting her Master's there. She met her fiance Ben in the process of doing her Master's thesis about online dating (more genius), just in time to bring him to our wedding so he could meet the whole crazy family at once :)
Most important to me, she has managed to stay involved in my life despite the fact that we have lived 7 to 8 time zones apart for most of the last ten years. We have partied together at weddings and football games. We have wept together at funerals (and sad movies, who am I kidding). We have grieved together in letters to each other. And we have celebrated each other's accomplishments and milestones, sometimes even in person (engagement!!). She was the perfect maid of honor at our wedding, and now I am thrilled to have that same honor as she and Ben tie the knot in the near future at a fabulous location!
My she is so lucky to have a sister like YOU!! Happy Birthday Courtney!
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