She's Mandilicious.

My senior year of high school, my amazingly awesome parents took me on a trip to London, Paris, and Versailles. It was amazing. Literally the best trip of my life. Anyway, at the airport before we left for London, we met the rest of our tour group. Since I was traveling with my parents, I was happy to see there were other families with kids/young adults around my age there. And in one group in particular, I found friends. Mandi, Allen, and Rodney (and his sister Ashley and her friend Melody) were all around my age and had around the same interests. So, I hung out with them most of the time. At the time, Mandi was dating Allen (I found him very handsome - but I have since changed my mind). Anyway, maybe it was me attempting to separate Mandi from Allen, maybe it was because I wasn't too fond of my brother's girlfriend at the time, or maybe it was because I honestly thought they'd be good together, but I thought Mandi and Ben would get along great and told them both so. After the trip was over, I stayed friends with Mandi and Rodney (and continued to try to get my brother and Mandi together). I went down and stayed with Mandi in Texas twice and had a blast. And somewhere along the line, my brother and Mandi started talking. I'm not real clear on the logistics here, but at some point Mandi decided to move up to Iowa to live with me when I transferred back to ISU in the summer of 2007. And so she did. We lived together and had some of the best times we have ever had. Very shortly after moving up here, she started officially dating my brother. At first, I will be honest, I had a hard time with it (and I had hard time that I had hard time with it - if that makes sense). Here all I wanted was my brother to be happy and to have Mandi as a "sister" - and it was happening - but for some reason I felt strange about it. In all honesty, I was being selfish and didn't like sharing Mandi with Ben, and I didn't like sharing Ben with Mandi. But, eventually, I got over it and things were all hunky-dory.

Here's where things got a little "cloudy". One of my goals for myself is to try to be more positive - so I'm going to skip over this part for the most part. Let's just say there was a lot of stuff going on, and it ended with Ben as single, Mandi in Texas, and me being upset, shallow, close-minded, and not nearly as friendly as I should have been.

So, flash-forward to November of 2010 (I think it was November). Mandi and I had talked here and there - but not a whole lot. Ben and Mandi were either getting back together or back together again (can't remember which right now). Mandi came up to Iowa. I didn't get to see her much because I was busy while she was here, but when I did, it wasn't as natural as it should have been (mainly my fault there). But, deep down inside, I knew I missed her. She eventually moved back up to live with Ben in March of 2011. Things started out a little rough - I'm not going to lie. We had some unresolved business, I suppose. But, eventually, things worked out, and we got back to being the best friends we once were. I couldn't be happier. Now, my brother really is the happiest he's ever been - and, starting on March 23, 2013 - Mandi really WILL be my sister!

Just like with Jenna (who I also had a "falling out" with), I feel that some of the strongest relationships I have are the ones that have, at some point, fallen apart. My theory, we just built them back even stronger than before. : ) Mandi is hilarious. She's fun. She's beautiful. She's a great mom to my niece Claire. She's wonderful to my brother. She's creative. She's fashionable. She's awesome. She listens. She cares. She laughs with me when I need it. She's there for me when I need her. She understands me. She is truly a member of our family. She's not only one of my very best friends, but my future sister. Despite anything that has happened, or may happen (sisterly disputes maybe? Ha ha!), please know that I am so extremely happy that the one and only "official" sister I'll ever have will be you. I love you to the moon and back. I am so happy to have you stand by my side, and unbelievably honored to stand by yours. And, just so you know, those times in 112H - whether it was just you and me, or you, me, and Jenna - were some of the best times of my life.

Love Always,
Your Katie-face.