Day 17: JAMIE

Can we talk about Jamie for a second? Isn't she so great? Jamie is the sweetest person I know, and she's had such a great effect on our family.

I think the first time I really spent a lot of time with her was when I visited her and Zach in Arizona for a long weekend - and we made tie-dyed shirts, bought sweet halloween tees to go to a haunted house, and basically just had fun all weekend long. I felt so comfortable right away in their new family, and she and her sweet pup Phebe had a lot to do with that (I mean, it definitely wasn't Oliver who welcomed me with open arms - that punk cat).

I think one of my favorite things about Jamie is she showers love on all people and all animals. She took in my grumpy cat when she married Zach, and she loved him to the end. She rescued Manny, sponsored a duck (I think that's right?) for a birthday present for Zach, and I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking of here. I remember her once saying her dream job would be a co-rehabilitation center for kids and animals to help each other in therapy - and I still really hope that happens one day because she'd run the coolest center, I'm sure of it - with our little Claire as her first intern, I hope! :)

Our family is a loving family, but I think Jamie has an ability to pull out and highlight that love - she brightens it, she opens her home to all of us for all the paloozas, which I think has made a huge impact on keeping our family close with each other as a whole, and I'm so glad she's one of us!

xoxo!

Day 16: WILL

Oh Will, my sweet young jedi. Will is probably the sweetest kid you'll meet. He's kind to people because he wants to be kind, he's helpful when you ask him to help with something, and he's so quick to smile, I love that joy. He's super impressive on Super Mario as well - it's kind of frustrating to me how good he is at age 8 when I still still struggle to get Luigi (I'll never be good enough to be Mario) to jump onto a brick more often than is acceptable. When he was a toddler, he would sit between Abby and me on the couch as we played Super Mario and Dr Mario in Arkansas, and I don't think we realized just how much he was learning then, because he's a total rockstar now and I think the Christmases of quiet observation really played a part in his skills. Now he tells me what I should do and how to overcome obstacles and how to finish levels - I learn so much from him!

Also, Will's crescent moon eyes when he smiles - heartmeltingly precious to me. AND he wears bowties like a boss.

Will is just so unassuming, he just kind of goes through life doing really great things and working hard at things - and not drawing very much attention to any of his accomplishments, it seems. Like, he wants to show some cool trick he's figured out, but he also feels good showing his brother the trick and calling that a good audience. And then when you ask when he figured out how to do something, he kind of just shrugs like it's just something he's always known. Will's just got a gentle heart, he's such a lover, and, truly so kind. I really, really love that he is still so quick to come give me a hug when I visit and act like he loves me - don't ever stop, Will!

xoxo!

Day 15: MOM

Happy birthday, Mom!! I hope you're being spoiled with warmer, non-rainy weather right now!

Oh mom - there are a lot of things I enjoy that I know I got from mom. We've spent a lot of time together in common, quiet interests - like working side-by-side through her collection of crossword puzzle and variety puzzlebooks (and like any good daughter, I lovingly stockpiled variety puzzles to bring to her in London when I visited, since she couldn't get them there) or sitting in the same or adjoining rooms, reading our separate books - many of my favorite books have been recommendations from her and I love talking to her about a mutually loved story, when the other finally reads it. And I'm 98% positive I got my inclination to shriek or jerk and squeal at important (or not important) moments in Green Bay Packers football games from her influence (sorry dad).

I also learned the joy of a nicely decorated home - the many trips home from college to have mom welcome me with all the new changes and additions to our home's interior have ingrained in me a love for showing off my decorating (whether my roommates care or not!). And every time I cook (so, once a month maybe), I feel like I need to tell mom so we can both believe her fab cooking skills maybe might've rubbed off on me finally (they didn't, alas).

More importantly, though, I also learned how kindness and a willingness to listen to someone talk can make such a difference to them. I feel like mom was really great at listening and engaging with people - the ladies at church just seemed so comfortable around mom, and I find myself constantly striving for that same effect on the people around me. She wasn't aggressive in her friendliness or in need of any spotlight - she just wanted to be kind and people felt noticed by her. I don't think I realized that impact until long after I moved out of the house, but I definitely appreciate it now.

I know I'm a strong, independent, confident woman because of mom (and dad), and I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize the impact of Nana and Grandpa Bill in rearing a strong, independent, confident daughter who would then become my example - they're both so thoughtful and kind, and I've grown up totally spoiled in knowing that they love me completely. I love visiting them - they both show such interest in what I'm doing, and just knowing that they take the time to keep track of me among all their other posterity makes me feel so loved. So thanks, Nana and Gpa Bill, for loving me, and for raising an amazing daughter to love me as well!

(and thanks Jodi, for sending these pics!)

xoxo!

Day 14: CLAIRE

Oh Claire, my sweet. Claire loves reading, so obviously that's the most important thing for me to highlight here. I love that she loves to read - and I pray she never becomes susceptible to easy carsickness so she can always read in the car.

I also really love how much she loves animals. Claire is sweet and gentle, so her love for animals makes sense to me - she's a calming presence to them, like she is to me. Also those big brown doe eyes totally melt me. I love how she gets along with her sisters - as a middle child of 3, she has a special relationship with being the next-in-age buddy to both her older and younger sisters. Watching her with Emilie and watching her with Grace, she has a unique bond with both of them and it's fun to her love them both in different ways.

One of my favorite moments lately with her was when I last visited and we went bowling - it was so fun to watch her get better and better with every frame. I loved helping teach some basic mechanics and go up with each bowl to see what our next strategy should be. And one frame, when I distractedly stayed in my seat, she got up, went to the lane, and then looked back at me, like, "uh, hello, are you coming or what?" and I bounced up and joined her. I just really like her, and I like that she likes me and lets me be around her to do fun things.

xoxo, claire bear!

Day 13: BEN

Happy Birthday, Ben, my fellow ferroequinologist**!!!

Ben is so great. He's super tall, super funny, and super kind. Ben has always believed in my potential to do great things, and he's been super supportive of any major or minor step I take in life. I love talking to him about the happenings of daily life, and I love sitting and watching sports with him. We've watched a lot of football and basketball together, and a lot of other sports as well - I attribute a lot of my ability to watch and enjoy almost any sporting event to all my time watching whatever is on espn with him.

I've also watched a number of obscure, random movies with Ben, all of which have become our favorite for the next few months, and which we try to track down all the information on it so we can love it even more. Between Shaolin Soccer and Mothra 3: the Return of Mothra, I think we've picked some real winners over the years.

I think one of my favorite things about Ben is that, in a family of big heads, he's really quite humble. He's really good at A LOT of things, but I feel like he's never the one to tell us all about it. If I was being inducted into any type of Hall of Fame, I'd be telling everyone - humblebragging whenever and wherever I could. But Ben almost completely hid his induction to our high school's athletic HoF and made very little fanfare of it, even as we piled on our own pride of just being related to someone in a HoF! It was so fun to celebrate someone who would never ask to be celebrated (and really doesn't want all that attention on him anyway - too bad, Ben, you're getting it anyway!)

I have a lot more good I could say here, but I sense his cheeks crimsoning at the thought of all these compliments, so perhaps I'll stop. But I'm super glad you're my brother. Can't wait to talk over life's mysteries on that 8-hour car ride to Missouri in a few weeks!!

xoxo!


**train enthusiast

Day 12: ABBY

Uh, what do I say about Abby? Our relationship has grown quite a bit of the many years of knowing each other - from me following her around everywhere she went like a puppy, to her following me around and wishing I'd live closer so we could be around each other more (for the record, I'd like that as well). From her borrowing all my clothes, to me borrowing all her leftover clothes after she went to college, to us buying the same clothes and matching more often than not (I've come to terms with that, for the most part). She's my advisor, my confidante, and my buddy.

I've helped her move from Idaho to Arkansas, and from Chicago to Philadelphia. We have a really amazing roadtrip playlist and, man, do we just crush those songs. Indigo Girls, watch out, we're coming for your guitars. Abby lets me tell her all my stories with all the details, and I'm eternally grateful for her patience because I like to include every. single. detail. possible. We have matching wrinkly foreheads when we lift our eyebrows, people always know we're sisters even if we're not sitting next to each other, and I cry the most when I'm laughing about something with her.

One of my favorite recent memories is probably around last Christmas, when we stayed up ridiculously late my first night in town - we had thought to be reasonable and go to bed at a decent hour to start the holiday...and 2 hours later, Maddie's snapchat was completely spammed with dozens of pictures of us, and we couldn't stop giggling thinking about her waking up to all these pictures out of nowhere. So then we spammed the rest of her family as well, because it'd be even funnier to have THEM ALL wake up to so many pictures of us! Perhaps we're only funny to ourselves, but dangit we're hilarious to us.

xoxo Abs!

Day 11: MAX

Oh Max. I love this guy. He is growing so much faster than I was prepared for - he's a teenager, you guys, and totally becoming his own person. Last time I visited, I got to catch a scrimmage game for his football team and it was so cool to see him in his uniform, just hanging with his teammates, looking totally legit. Chris facetimed me the other day, and it was such a treat to have Max join the call, I don't get to chat with him enough. I like when I can be knowledgeable about one of his interests because he's so fun to talk to about the things he likes - he just really knows his stuff, so you can have a great conversation with him and go more in depth with him than with a lot of other people. And I really love when he doesn't seem to be interested in doing something, but gets talked into it and then totally gets into it - like the Walworth County Fair this last August. You can say what you want, Max, but you enjoyed that caterpillar ride with me screaming in your ear right behind you!!

Max is such a goof, and he doesn't love posing for photos, so when he does take them, he makes the funniest faces! I think most of my photos of him are either candids or him totally mugging for the camera. 

But one of my favorite pictures is below. When I first moved to DC, I flew to Wisconsin and after loitering for a few days, Chris drove me and my belongings to DC, with Caleb and Max in tow. They were such great companions for this trip - they made the drive easy, and then they played tourist with me for a few days. DC is a big city that's meant to be walked, so we walked all over it, and one day we collapsed onto the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial and stared at the reflecting pond down the Mall. And I got this little shot, which I just love, because I love the bond of the WI Barlow boys - seeing Max stretched out, with that cute smile of his, while they cooled down for a minute. He just was fun to be with and I'm so glad he came with us on that trip. I see a lot of Chris in him, and I love his relationship with Caleb, but I'm really enjoying seeing those parts of his personality that are uniquely him.

xoxo!