My womb-mate.

Go ahead and tell me how cheesy that term is. I know. Cheesy is how we do around these parts.

My new blog friend Janae e-mailed me in shock when she found out I have a twin, a literal twin. I know I've mentioned him before, but apparently he needs a more formal introduction. So I'll go ahead and compose an entire blog post about him for your enjoyment.

Yep, I have a twin brother. His name is Joshua. We look nothing alike. And, of course, we are fraternal twins. Hence the different sexes. I can't tell you how many times people -- even adults! -- have asked me if we're fraternal or identical. I'm not one for confrontation so I always just smile and politely say, "No, we're fraternal." Even though I really feel like going on a tirade about how identical twins have the same DNA and are therefore ALWAYS the same sex and ALWAYS look alike and how did you manage to pass the eighth grade??? Yeesh.

Where was I? Oh yes. I have a twin named Joshua and we look nothing alike. See?

Our baby blessing day

12th birthday (it looks like I have really long hair, but it's actually my sister photo-bombing the picture)

On my wedding day in 2005. Yes, he wore a cream-colored suit. Don't ask.

At his wedding luncheon, July 2009.

So there you go! Twinners.

As a kid, it was fun to have a forever playmate. We did some weird and crazy things, though. I hear when we were toddlers, we dialed 911 -- twice in one day. Of course the cops showed up both times and they weren't too happy about it.

Another time, when we were 11 or 12, he and I were taking turns timing each other on our bikes around the cul-de-sac . It was my turn to go and Josh was timing me. I obviously wanted to beat his lighting-fast time so I was riding my Huffy just about as fast as it could go. I was really hauling along. Suddenly, something in my peripheral view distracted me. I looked away for a split second and then totally crashed into a fire hydrant. Head on. (In case you were wondering, fire hydrants do not yield in the slightest.) Somehow, I managed to walk away with a minor scratch, but I jacked my bike up beyond belief. Josh didn't even laugh at me; he just helped me get my completely bent bike home (he probably laughed at me later, though).

Having a boy twin in junior high and high school was straight-up awkward. So many people were like, "Who's that booooooyyyyyy you were walking to school with today? Huh? *wink wink nudge nudge* Uh, that was my brother. Nice try, though. And then a few of my brother's friends developed crushes on me which was extra-fun. "Dude, you like my sister? SICK!!!" And that was the end of that dating prospect.

Joshua and I are nothing alike, even in personality and interests, except for one thing: we are both musical fiends. Josh is an amazing drum and guitar player. Totally self-taught, too. He's got a really great singing voice as well. He needs to move back to Arizona when he's done with optometry school so he can join EVMCO!

Josh can build ANYTHING. In high school, he bought a whole bunch of different bike parts and constructed his own supremely awesome BMX bike. In junior high, we were in the same life science class and we had to dissect owl pellets. Part of the assignment included locating all the mouse victim's bones and gluing them to a paper which had a mouse skeleton on it. Naturally, Josh not only found every bone he needed but then glued them together to create a little standing mouse statue. I am not even kidding.

I haven't seen much of Josh since I got married. He served a 2-year mission in Brazil and then went to BYU for his undergrad (he and his wife Lisa just graduated in April). We did overlap for a semester at BYU so we hung out a few times before I moved back to Arizona. Now he's just beginning optometry school and won't be done for a few years, and at that point, he'll have to go wherever a job can take him. I hope it's back to Arizona so I can see him more often ... and so he can take awesome pictures of my kids and me (oh yeah, he's a photographer, too).

And one more thing: Josh and I are not the only twins in the family. Our dad has an identical twin brother, and their dad (my grandpa) has a twin sister. Pretty hilarious. I'm just wondering if twins are in my future ... ? If so, I'm in trouble!