Nat Scat, Could Eat No Fat

My cute friend, Patty, did this thing where she spotlighted each of her sisters on blog posts, and I thought it was a cute idea. So I'm going to start with Nat, the second oldest. (I'm the oldest.)

Nat is one of my best friends, for sure. She is very easy to talk to; whenever I call her, she and I end up talking for at least an hour - we never run out of things to say, and there are never any of those awkward phone pauses. I know that she and her neighbor chat while they're waiting for their kids' bus, and they end up spending hours standing on their driveways, talking, because Nat is just an engaging conversationalist.

Nat was always a quiet homebody, but then she hit high school and BAM! She became a party animal. But not in a bad way. She is as straight as an arrow; she has never deviated from what's right. She just loved to play. Especially in college. I'm so jealous of how much fun she had in college. And she was the biggest flirt I have ever seen in my life. She says she wasn't, but Pete and I know better. I would always go visit her, and just watch in awe as she worked the room of 20 or so admirers. Pete called her a "flocker." He says that means that all the boys "flocked" around her all the time. It's true. They did.

I call Nat the Genetic Lottery Winner. She is still a size five, after four kids. She doesn't have to jog her guts out, like me. She is really good at English, like me, but ALSO good at Math, Science, everything. Usually, if you're good at English, you're bad at Math and Science, but not Nat. She can do everything. Smart, smart, smart.

She is also very pragmatic and logical. I've always envied that. I tend to be kind of passionate and emotional. Nat can stand back and look at a situation impartially. She's also extremely practical. She didn't register for china when she got married, because she knew she wouldn't use it. Mom and I invite her to make Christmas cards with us every year, but she prefers e-cards, wondering why we would put so much work into something that just gets thrown away.

She's really, really organized. She used to make lists when she was little. And they included everything. Like, "Wake up. Go to the bathroom. Brush teeth." The lists were very, very long. And she would check mark everything off as she did it. She loves to organize things. Mom asked Nat to help her de-junk when Mom and Dad moved to a new house a few years ago, and Nat was actually really, really excited to do it. Her favorite TV show is "Clean Sweep," on TLC. I think she could be a professional organizer. You should see her storage room. Everything is labeled and in the proper box, on nicely-organized shelves.

She is a minimalist. She doesn't have lots of knicknacks or old junk lying around. She's famous for DI-ing stuff that Pete has sentimental attachment to. Pete wouldn't get rid of his old mission suits, so Nat actually made a blanket out of them. True story. In high school, she decided to help Mom get rid of her sewing scraps by making a big blanket out of them. The blanket had red velvet squares, satin turquoise squares, etc. It was quite the eclectic blanket. Nat took it to college with her.

Nat has a very gentle touch. Cats love her, because her touch is as light as a feather. And her kids love to cuddle her. And she is an amazing mom. She is extremely patient. Funny story about that - I used to like to eat cherries in the summertime, and I would spit the pits at her. I thought it was hilarious, and obviously, she hated it. But she didn't ever yell at me, or spit them back at me. She just would sit there very calmly, with cherry pits sticking to her shirt and falling off her face, saying, "Stop it, Karlenn. Stop. You need to stop right now. Stop it." Soooo funny.

I love, love, love the Natalie-meister.