One day, if you're lucky, your first cousin {who feels and looks more like a sister} will travel all the way from New Jersey to visit you.

You'll breathe the warm middle-of-spring air and feel the morning sunshine on your olive-skinned faces while sitting on the cushy grass at one of your favorite places, the SMU campus.

While there, you'll get to witness the antics of a toddler who unabashedly soaks up life with all of her 22-month-old naïveté.

You'll get to play in the cushy grass and twirl and smile stronger than you have in awhile.

For a snack, you'll savor the sweet, sticky juices of a white Texas peach, fresh from the farm. You'll both be such lovers of food that you'll have no problem slurping peach juices loudly in an industrial parking lot outside the Farmer's Market, with the car still running.

Later that afternoon, you might have the opportunity to pretend you're 5-years-old again and drink the perfect green smoothie through color-change straws while sitting on the floor in the living room.

You might then convert your cousin into a green smoothie-lover and gift her with her own pack of straws to take home.

Later that evening, your husbands might join you to share an incredible meal together at a local restaurant that is kinda like Houston's but way better.

Under the dim lights and over the din of many other voices gathering on Friday night, you might play clapping games while you wait for your table, to entertain the toddler of course.

You might then be so enamored with the beautifully-piped deviled eggs topped with salmon and crunchy coated meatballs on a stick and house-made tagliatelle and tall, thin, chilled glasses of Prosecco that you'll act like a tourist in your own city and take lots of photos.

And then, if you're really really lucky, you'll cap off the weekend with a spa-like afternoon at your cousin's hotel downtown. Because it's not often you get to stay at a fancy Sheraton, especially in your own city.

On a warm, breezy day with a few clouds, after bouncing around the pool for an hour with a toddler clinging to your back, you'll lounge on one of the ultra-relaxing queen-size rooftop pool cabanas and dry off in the sun.

For a split second, you'll wonder where everyone else is on this particular lovely Sunday afternoon, but wherever they are, you'll be grateful they're not taking up space at this very pool, so you can have it all to your tired mama self.

You'll be overjoyed that your toddler has quickly warmed up to her second cousin, who she doesn't get to see often.

Yes, just when you need it most, your cousin will come to town to brighten your entire weekend, and you'll be thankful she understands all the sides of you - believer in God, artist, mother, wife.

You'll be reminded that family who are like friends are a double bonus.

And you'll be counting down the days until August, when you can see her again.