Turtlee, T-Lee, Sparky AKA Taralee Porter

Everytime I have written a post about a family member, Taralee will comment and say "be gentle when its my turn". RIGHT! Here it goes.

Taralee was born August 30, 1983 in Show Low, AZ and had two older brothers that were gonna teach her a thing or two. Resulting in the Tara we know today...stubborn, onary, fiesty, strong, competitive....yet really sweet and kind and a fun loving personality.

My dad didn't even know girls tooted until one day in sacrament meeting Taralee did when she was real little. She opened a whole new window for the rest of us. Thank you.

She made sure I knew she was laughing at me when I ran the mile for track in like 5th grade and she was in 8th. I came in dead last by like 30 minutes and Tara laughed. I was so pissed...even writing about it makes me feel embarassed again.

When we lived in Vernon and shared a room she always blamed the messy room on me. When we moved to Show Low and had rooms of our own, it became very clear within a few days who was the pig.

Taralee loved cleaning buildings as our family job. She never once would complain or throw the vacuum in the back of the truck with a horrible attitude and mumble all sorts of CLEAN words under her breath. It was always so awkward. She would usually slam a few doors too just to show how inconvenient cleaning was. I think I learned before her that it put food on the table and paid for our vacations.

She licks her plate clean. Literally.

When I was in High School and she would come home to visit us....aka her boyfriend...she always talked about taking me to lunch but didn't. I guess she knew I probably didn't want to go anyways. haha.

She was all-around athlete her senior year while I was a geeky freshman who was still trying to grow into my face and ears. I tried to fill her shoes with playing sports but lets face it, I didn't even compare. I'm pretty sure I was there for mere entertainment for the actual players. I just filled the uniform but Tara always told me good job after games....when she acknowledged my existence that is.

Me and her butt heads a few times at Torreon and I think thats when she figured out I didn't take crap from anyone anymore. I always wanted to teach her how to get mad at boys so she could tell them off. She was just too nice.

When she brought home Trace, I rolled my eyes when they told me he was Catholic or something. I just thought, "oh good....another winner." Once they told me he was LDS I knew they'd get married. I basically begged her to!

I curled her hair for her wedding pictures and wedding day. There is 12 hours I'll never get back but I loved that I could. She was getting frustrated at her hair though....again awkward. I actually had to fight a lot of tears on her wedding day because I was pretty sad.

It is awkward when she gets mad because she's so silent but you can see her fuming. She kinda grunts and her face gets all red. But when she's over it, she's over it.

I stayed with her and Trace in Heber one night and cleaned their house for them the next day before I went home. I loved saying family prayer with them in the morning.

I knew when she called me late one night that it was a call to tell me she was pregnant! I was estatic!

One time at Torreon a member was throwing rolled up linen napkins at us and she would want to throw it across the dining room and hit the guy. Finally I picked one up and threw it and pegged an old man in the head and when he turned around I immediately pointed at Tara. It was totally awesome.

Rustin and her used to purposely make me so mad when we lived in Vernon and I would chase them around with stake knives. Psycho.

We went tie shopping before she got married at Pomeroy's in Mesa. She had a stiff leather purse and had her phone on vibrate inside. The salesman was trying to help her find ties and she bent over to look at the ties right when her phone started vibrating against her keys in her purse. It totally sounded like she ripped one and I could not stop laughing. She was so embarassed because the guy looked over at us. She looked so guilty and I laughed FOREVER! I still do.

She didn't listen to my dad one time when my dad told her that her little truck wouldn't make it through the snow. We were all sitting in the kitchen when we kept hearing this high pitch squealing noise outside. My dad walked over to the window and saw she was trying to back out on the ice and was just pealing out. He went and got a black marker and wrote a "s" on his head and went out there. She asked what was on his forehead and he said, "its S for stupid." She looked at him and said, "well you wrote it backwards." I'm pretty sure she gave up on her truck and took my dads meanwhile he came in fuming mad while mom and I were laughing SO hard at him for writing a z instead of s. I think he really did feel stupid but it was classic!

She has a cute cute family and is an excellent mother. I'm waiting for her to have another baby! I love Tara so much and glad she taught me to be tough but also to be loving. I'm glad her and I are sisters!