Marla had tagged me and here are the rules.

Link to the person who tagged you.
Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit your.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post.
Include links to their blogs.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I’d like to put a little twist to this Meme. I am going to share 7 random and/or weird facts about myself that somehow pertains to one of my sisters.

Since I started this blog in September 2007, I have tried to say Happy Birthday to members of my Philippine family via a blog post in their honor.

My Ate
My mom, Mary’s Mama Mer
Little Sis

Today it is my younger sister, Gina who is having a birthday.

Happy birthday and let me share 7 facts about us.

  1. My parents had originally planned to have 5 kids every 2 years  have 5 kids, one every 2 years.  I am the fourth and when I was a year old, they went ahead and got going with the fifth kid.  Exactly 9 months later, Gina was born.
  2. Turned out— she was the cuter one.  She got to be “flower girl” at a lot of weddings while I got to watch in the sidelines.
  3. I got to be the smart one and the one to take advantage of Gina’s generous nature.  I remember when I was in second grade and she was in Kindergarten, waiting for her at Recess so I can ask her to “lend” me her allowance.  I managed to convince her that she did not need any treats and that I have forgotten MY allowance and really needed to buy something.
  4. For a few years there when we were young, our Mom would buy material and get dresses made for us.  She would get the same material for the two of us and the modiste would fashion almost identical dresses.  That practice stopped once we started protesting too much about being almost twins.
  5. Our mom tried hard to marry off her kids from eldest to youngest, in order.  My Kuya, the eldest, went ahead and started early, when he was 19.  Then, my Ate, quite a few years later and then Diko got married, too and started his family.  It was my turn but I was taking too long to find Mr. Right.  Gina found hers so she went ahead and did the deed, with my blessings and my mom’s reluctant one (only because Mom wanted me to get married BEFORE SHE DID) and a token payment to me for the privilege to do so (according to tradition, if a younger sibling gets married ahed of the older one, then the younger is taking good luck away from the older.  To counter this, the younger “pays” thus no good luck is just taken away but was bought. )   I can’t remember how much it was— Gina, do you remember?
  6. Gina provided my parents with Grandkid No. 6 (Richard Zacharie) and Grandkid No. 7 (Diane Therese).  Mary is Grandkid No. 9.
  7. I migrated to Canada in 1997 and nine years later, Gina and her family left the Philippines for Canada, too.  Only I was in Colorado, by then.  Gina and her family has since been carving out their life in Calgary.  We share the Rocky Mountains! 

And here’s the second twist to the Meme. I am only tagging my ever lovable little sister, Val who I know is just looking forward to another tag from me. :)