Thankful Thursday

I don't really remember a time in my life without this lady in it...

No one believes us now that Jenny was my dance teacher when I was a kid.  It's true, she looks amazing for being old enough to have taught me my entire dancing career, but it's true. 

As time has gone on our relationship has changed quite a bit.  When I was 7 she taught me dance.  She was always such a great teacher... very hands on and fun.  When I was 13 or so I became more then just her student.  She somehow conned me into being her personal assistant... aka I got to spend like every weekend doing Christmas shows at nursing homes, going to perform Luau's at a resort in Ottawa, IL, helping with the production of the Miss Iowa pageant, and pretty much any other crazy idea Jenny came up with.  At the age of 18 our relationship grew when i became her personal attendant at her wedding.  She convinced my mom that I should skip school for a day and go with her to do last minute things.  I'll never forget her looking at me in a panic screaming "I forgot Mary's flowers!!!!"  I also can't name too many other people that would go out in a monsoon on her wedding day to find umbrellas for everyone... At 19 Jenny gave me my first niece and our relationship blossomed even more... Between planning her entire baby shower and getting that phone call from Mike right after she was born I realized that this family was part of my life that I was so thankful for.  I got to watch Emma every Thursday until she was almost 4 years old and those were some of my favorite days ever :)  Somewhere between the age of 19 and 21 Jenny and I became more then teacher/student... she became one of my friends.  As I was choosing my wedding party one of the people I had planned to ask fell through so I came to Jenny crying- I needed another person in my wedding party and of course Jenny was more then willing. Over the next 3 years of my wedding, having my children (where I called her at all hours of the night to make sure I wasn't the worst mom on the planet), and finally seeing her get pregnant with Aiden,  Jenny and I became like sisters.  I think back to that day begging her to fill in for my wedding and now can't imagine for a moment her not standing up with me on that day. Our kids are convinced they are cousins, we write "aunt" next to "relationship to child" on our kids' emergency forms, we go on vacation together, we understand what the other one is thinking before they even think it, and we would do anything in the world to make the other one happy... what in the world could I be more thankful for? 

So today, I'm thankful for both of my sisters :)






All of the "Dettlaff" kids.  They're inseperable :)