Props to Grace

Wow, I never even noticed the connection between that picture of me, Lisa, and Matt at the game and my cousins Lisa and Matthew until Grace pointed it out in her comment on my last post. Yes, I do have 2 cousins named Lisa and Matthew, and they are the two out of my grandparents' twenty-one grandchildren that just happen to be exactly my age! The three of us have been joined at the hip since we were young, and we are still very close.

Lisa lived in PBG for about 4 years, and we were in the same 2nd grade class together. It was the first year for both of us at St. Clare School, and we definitely took it by storm! I snatched up the "Student of the Month" award in September, and she took it in October. We spent tons of time together playing Barbies and "hotel." We always played Barbies at her house though because she had the Barbie house and Barbie car, plus, my aunt and uncle bought her a Ken doll, which my parents would never buy us. I never figured out why that was, but playing Baribies was much more fun with Ken. Lisa and I also went through the major 2nd grade milestones together, like 1st confession and 1st communion. Being the competitive brat that I am, I can remember being happy about being the shortest one in the class, which meant that I was first in line to get my first communion, ahead of everyone, including Lisa. Ha! I was horrible. I actually don't think I've ever told anyone that before. Anyway, One of my favorite pictures was taken that day. It was of me, Lisa, and Grandpa, who gave us both first communion since he was a permanent deacon. It was the cutest picture ever! Two little girls in white dresses standing with their grandpa. If I get my hands on it, I will put it up. The tag-team duo was only to last one year, however. I left St. Clare for snobby Rosarian Acadmey in third grade. Lisa and I still hung out all the time, but she moved back to Ocala in 5th grade. I was very sad, but we still saw and continue to see each other at the frequent family reunions that our crazy Polish family has.

Now on to Matthew. Wow... I think I should stop now before this post becomes as long as one of Grace's. I'll write more about him later, but right now I'll just say that Matthew is one of the greatest pals I've had over the years, and we've remained close mostly due to the wonders of instant messaging. We'd spend summers at each other's houses and on the beach in Ft. Pierce with all the rest of the cousins. I call on him whenever I'm having problems with my computer or cell phone, and he ALWAYS knows how to fix it. Also, I always say that he'll be the greatest husband to the girl he marries because he absolutely LOVES to clean! He's what you'd call a white tornado.

So here's to you, Matthew and Lisa. I guess we are what they'd call the 3 Musketeers or something like that... #'s 10, 11, and 12 in the long line of grandchildren, and the coolest ones too if I do say so myself!