Birthday season has hit our house. Last week it was my Dad’s birthday. Today is my brother’s birthday. In 2 weeks, it’s my nephew Cappy’s birthday. Then my Mom’s birthday is a few days after that. Then 2 weeks after that is Juice’s birthday. 3 weeks later, the boys’ birthday. And 3 weeks after that, Butterfly’s birthday. Whew! Talk about packing them in. I switched my calender over yesterday and almost every single day this month someone in our family is celebrating something. (Birthdays or anniversaries for my cousins, aunts, uncles, Juice’s family, etc)
Since today is my brother’s birthday (Happy Birthday Bro!) I thought I’d share a story about him, MusicMan. I’ve been trying to think of my earliest memories with him. I vividly remember running after his back at my first elementary school. So I must have been in 1st grade maybe. We were at the bus stop (which was a park) and we were running for the bus.
I remember playing Voltron in our basement. He always made me be the pink girl but I wanted to be the blue boy. My parents had a big folding extra bed that we used to climb into and that was Voltron’s cave. It was a favorite hiding place. Also in the basement, I remember the storage room being locked near Christmas time. We tried to plan out ways to pick the lock or look through the wall some how because we were sure our presents were in there. (We were right, the year we got bikes we saw them. Sorry Mom.)
As we got older, I remember playing a lot of Nintendo with him. Well, I did a lot of watching. He was very good at Nintendo. Especially Final Fantasy. I can still vividly see him fighting those three sisters over and over. They were hard!(Us in 1989 with our dog.)
In 1990 in the Mountains in Colorado.
When I was about 10, on Easter Sunday, MusicMan and I were alone in the pew at church. Both of my parents were singing in the choir and were on the stand. So MusicMan and I were alone for that hour (or so) of service. He was about 12. About half way through, he and I were fighting over a hymn book. A full out fight (as much as you can in church) with lots of hip checking and trying to rip the book out of each others’ hands. I looked up at my mom for some support and she gave me “the look of death”. You know, the one you got when you were in trouble and your parent can’t yell at you. Then I glanced at my Dad and I could see him glowering at us too. So I poked MusicMan and pointed up at our parents. We both stopped fighting and smiled angelically up at them. We weren’t fighting! No! MusicMan even had the dramatic flair and put his arm around my shoulders to show that we were friends. That satisfied both my parents and they looked away.
That’s when he swooped in with the attack. He swung his hand around my shoulders at my face and caught me right on the nose. Which then started to bleed. Badly. I was no stranger to nose bleeds as a kid but I didn’t want to get blood on my dress. I remember getting up and trying to get out to the bathroom as fast as possible. MusicMan saw what I was doing and followed me out of the chapel with his arm around my shoulders again.
(Us again in 1991. These are all Christmas time pictures.)
My mom said she knew something was wrong when we walked out like that. And then the Relief Society president followed us out as well and followed me into the bathroom to make sure I was okay. I was fine a few minutes later and no blood on my dress.
I do remember getting into a lot of trouble for fighting in church that day. But probably not as much trouble as MusicMan got into for hitting me in church.
As teenagers, he was ALWAYS late. He was also my ride to school. His first period was drama. No one cared if he was late. By my first period was English. And I was late every day for almost a month. I got detention at least 4 times that year because of tardiness. Which was totally not my fault! I even resorted to pouring cold water on him in the mornings to wake him up. Seriously didn’t phase him.
Even with all the trouble that we got into with each other, we’ve always been good friends. I never worried about being bored at family things because I knew that MusicMan would always be there to talk to or hide out with. Vacations were fun with him. I knew what he liked and he knew what I liked.
I wished we lived closer so that we could be closer but such is life. He is my only sibling and I know that we will always have a connection. I’m glad he’s my brother!
Professor woke up super early this morning. They are normally not up until 7:30am or even 8am. Today he was up at 6:30 ish. Ugh. Juice brought him to me in bed because he was headed off to work. Professor smiled behind his binkie and pulled it out to talk to me. He looked like he had been eating chocolate. Guess he had a bloody nose in the middle of the night and it got caught between his face and his binkie. Poor kid! He was not happy to be washed off. But I was not happy to be up so early!
Once everyone else was up, I changed every one’s sheets. The kids thought it was so fun to be in their beds after they had been pulled apart. But changing 3 sets of sheets is exhausting. I think it’s worse because I am getting a cold and I am tired.
I thought we could all use a day at home. I had a ton of laundry to do. I had a house to pick up. So I get going with all of that. Then I notice that I had not seen Pirate in awhile. Huh. I wonder where he is. I sent Butterfly upstairs to see if he was up there and he wasn’t. So I went looking through the house. No luck. I start calling out his name. I check outside.
No luck! Now I start opening closets and checking under beds. No luck! I sent Butterfly outside to check and see if he got stuck out there. Nope. I am starting to panic! What if he went outside and somehow got out of our fence? What if he went outside and someone took him out of the back yard?! What if he’s stuck some where, hurt, bleeding, and unable to come when I call him? As I’m standing by the back door looking around I heard a noise. In a tiny tiny corner. There he was! He found a coloring book of Butterfly’s and was quietly playing there all by himself.
Talk about giving me a heart attack!
In other good news, today is my Dad’s birthday. We got him a bendable tripod for his camera. We had a good time talking to him on the web cam too. I had to run off because of a church meeting, but it was good to see him. Happy Birthday Dad!
Now I’m going to take some decongestant and go to bed. Ugh…I hope this is not going to be a bad cold and I hope everyone doesn’t get it!
I think I figured out how to publish movies. So here you go. This is Pirate crawling in the cast.
Okay, so it’s just me trying to get him to crawl. Try this one.
And yes, I realize that I use their real names in the videos. Because unlike most of you, I can’t call them by their internet names without having to stop and think about it first. And I don’t have time to stop and think some days!
At the very end you heard Butterfly’s question for EVERYTHING. WHY??? It’s okay most of the time, but after about 200 whys in a day, I’m pooped.
Happy Birthday Dad! My Dad has been generous enough to have his birthday on National Pancake Day and decided to celebrate with free pancakes from IHOP! Yes, it’s true people. You can get free pancakes at IHOP today. Think of my dad while you eat them.
I think I figured out how to publish movies. So here you go. This is Pirate crawling in the cast.
Okay, so it’s just me trying to get him to crawl. Try this one.
And yes, I realize that I use their real names in the videos. Because unlike most of you, I can’t call them by their internet names without having to stop and think about it first. And I don’t have time to stop and think some days!
At the very end you heard Butterfly’s question for EVERYTHING. WHY??? It’s okay most of the time, but after about 200 whys in a day, I’m pooped.
Happy Birthday Dad! My Dad has been generous enough to have his birthday on National Pancake Day and decided to celebrate with free pancakes from IHOP! Yes, it’s true people. You can get free pancakes at IHOP today. Think of my dad while you eat them.
On Easter, my grandpa turned 8o years old. The Monday after, they had a huge party for him at a restaurant and everyone got to go. Everyone except me and Juice and Butterfly. And my cousin who is on a mission. All of my aunts and uncles and cousins got to go, along with some of my grandpa’s siblings and cousin. Monday night I was thinking of them all night long and wishing I could be there. Granted, growing twins is a big job and since I’m about 30 days away (eek!), there’s no way I could get on a plane. There’s no way they would let me on a plane. Okay, I have to say that there is no way I would want to get on a plane. But I would have loved to have been there. My mom has sent me a few pictures but it’s still not the same as enjoying it in person, you know?
However, my Nana is so thoughtful and sent us some money to go out to dinner that night so that we can celebrate the same night as everyone else. (She also sent money to my cousin on a mission so I hope he and his companion had a good dinner out too!) Since I’m no longer allowed out, we called take out at our favorite restaurant. Juice and Butterfly went to pick it up, and we enjoyed it. Juice got a pot pie, Butterfly shared his potato soup and my crispy strips, I got a salad and some kind of southwest egg roll thing that was very good. We sang happy birthday to Grandpa before we ate and chowed down. Yum!
The next day, the phone rang while Butterfly was taking her nap. She was still awake and I hear her pipe up “Hello Grandpa-Great! Happy Birthday! It’s your birthday and we had soup!” So Grandpa-Great, you were thought of all the way out here. We hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Last night we had London Broil for dinner. When I was growing up, it was my favorite Sunday dinner. Juice asked me why, and I couldn’t tell him. It was just so good. I found an awesome recipe for it (well, it’s a recipe for flank steak and I just switched meats) and it was really tasty. Butterfly loved the vegetables and had a small nibble of the meat. When we were done, Juice asked her if she’d like a bite of his meat. She said yes!
She took the meat. I told her that was good! She looked at me with a face and said,
“Except it isn’t.”
She cracks me up!
Safire
Happy Birthday yesterday to my Dad! Hope you’re getting over your jet lag from Japan.
