Meet Rick still the cute, chubby, blond baby.

  I fell in love with this little guy from the moment my mom brought him home from the hospital. I was four years old and though he replaced me as the baby, he was so sweet, I didn't care. We connected from the start and he has been my best friend even into adulthood. I remember my mom called him her little Toe Head and I was mortified! How dare she compare my baby to someone's ugly old toe! It wasn't until I was an adult that I knew what she meant, I decided to forgive her then.
   Rick was a little accident prone growing up and he bares the scars of proof. I think it might have something to do with having five older siblings, we did some pretty stupid stuff and because he always tagged along he was the one that got hurt. I remember like it was yesterday Dave, Chuck and I watched him tumble down a flight of stairs like a chubby white sack of potatoes. Boy did we know we were in trouble! He is also the reason there are those "Do not climb" stickers on the industrial garbage cans, he was doing just that and it flipped and crushed him. We almost lost him that time, but the up side is he has a terrific scar that runs down the full length of his belly and turns a beautiful shade of purple when its cold. (your welcome Rick)
  When he entered his teen years he became one of those long haired, ear pierced, head banging teens that wore muscle pants, tank tops, high top tennis shoes and drove fast cars. I on the other hand was like June Cleaver, married and raising a family. Even though we were worlds apart we were still close and he graciously accepted the Mickey Mouse name plate I sent him for his seventeenth birthday.
Now that Rick is grown I still call this six foot four inch man, my "little" brother. He moves pretty fast for being so tall, just flick a spider on him and you will be amazed.
 He is a superior tile man, creative and  hard working. ( I have benefitted from this, thanks Rick)
    Let me just say, I love spending time with Rick. We laugh uncontrollably, tearing up and sounding like wheezy old men over nothing in particular. He is by far the most generous person I know and he genuinely cares for others. His whole family has benefitted from this. He is the perfect ending to this group of fabulous men, I know we would all agree on this.

  This is my favorite picture, best buds forever.              A few more for fun
  

Meet Dave, The Artistic Buddy

   Closest to me in age, Dave was the perfect play mate. He is only a year older than me but if you ask him he will tell you it is actually thirteen months.
   We were definitely partners in crime and had loads of fun. He, of coarse, was always Godzilla and I was the screaming Japanese running down the road. He was The Creature from The Black Lagoon and I was the helpless swimmer in the neighbors pool. We made blanket forts, danced to Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons in the living room (he was the king of the double arm swing and the white man overbite), we tore up the neighborhood in our black boot, steel wheeled roller skates, and I fit perfectly on the handle bars of our super boss bike with the banana seat and twenty six inch sissy bar.
    He has this great finesse with kids, they absolutely love him. Having seven kids himself, I know there were plenty of fun times building Lego villages, playing video games, and wrestling on the floor. He's really just a big kid at heart and his kindness and broad smile draws those little people to him. 
    Dave has always been great at drawing and entertained us with his action hero comic strips as we grew up. Little did we know this fun entertainment would develop and he is now a very talented artist.
   Having such a fun play friend growing up makes me wish the years did not fly by so fast. Maybe someday, with the curtains closed, we can put the vinyl on the hi-fi, crank up the volume and dance to Big Girls Don't Cry, till the sun comes up. That would be so BOSS.




This is the suave Dave of olden days, nice pose right?

 

 This is the Dave I know today, hmmm, is that because of seven kids?

 

                                                                                           

Here's a little artistic example.

 
 

 The Family, hmmm, where is Anna Lisa?

Meet fabulous number three, Chuck the fearless adventurer.

   Let me introduce you to Chuck, the most adventurous of us all. For as far back as I can remember he has always been the "cool" brother. Being a student of life, he has traveled all over the world. From digging up fossils at archeological digs in Australia, sun bathing on the sands of Italy, riding  camels in Egypt and going "walk about" in the forests of Tasmania, he is a mixture of Indiana Jones, Bruce Lee and Pig Pen from the Peanuts cartoon.
   He is the one who opened the door to our family genealogy, going back hundreds of years only to find out our family tree lost branches somewhere along the line. There was only a "family trunk" for a number of years, that explains a lot.
  Chuck has always been a romantic at heart and even writes poetry. Just this year he found out he could paint, he is a fantastic artist. Chuck loves to laugh and when he does, it fills the entire room. He never shrinks away from the opportunity to play a practical joke and he can take just as much as he can dish out. I have put shaving cream in his tooth paste, tooth paste in his Oreos, and set his alarm so he gets ready for work at two a.m. instead of six a.m. and he thought I was pretty funny. Maybe not at the time but I'm sure he laughs now.
   I have to say he holds a good chunk of my heart and we will always be friends as well as siblings.
He can eat more than anyone I know and still look- well you can see for yourself. This can be quite infuriating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet number two- Kar Krazy Ken

Second in line of the fabulous five is my brother Ken. The only way I can think of to describe him is " tough as nails, soft as butter."  He left  home at the age of fourteen, and we often wondered if he would make it to twenty. To say he is a bit of a dare devil is putting it mildly. For as long as I can remember he loves cars and he loves driving fast. I learned early on that if he offered me a ride anywhere to respond "NO thank you,  I choose life." He is a very talented mechanic and could probably tear apart and reassembled a car blindfolded.  I've spent most my life scratching my head at his antics and  not understanding his need for speed. I'm not sure what the count is to date but he has had more than his share of crashes and survived them unscathed.  Proof of his lifetime passion is seen in his scarred up knuckels and his permanently greasy fingernails. As a young girl I watched him do amazing things like open beer bottles with his teeth and tattoo his own body with a needle, thread and a bottle of Indigo ink. when you get past the exasperating rough and tumble, you see the soft, butter side. As tough as he is, he harbors no shame in crying at a movie or sappy commercials.  He loves his family dearly and would be first in line at our  defense. I dont know how many times I have felt like slapping him silly only to have my heart melted when, with  tears in his eyes, he says," I love ya sis." It can be quite frustrating. I have to admit I spend a lot more time praying for him than I used to. He loves to laugh and generally loves life, but its certainly on his terms.

Mistakes made, that's life.: Meet the first born, Larry the Leader.

Mistakes made, that's life.: Meet the first born, Larry the Leader.:       For as far back as I can remember Larry has been a serious man of business. He is a  "jack of all trades." I'm not sure ...

Meet the first born, Larry the Leader.

      For as far back as I can remember Larry has been a serious man of business. He is a  "jack of all trades." I'm not sure there is anything he cannot do or has not tried at least once in his life.
      From butcher to photographer, landscaper to building contractor, he is a self made man. He quit school in eighth grade to make his way in the world. I was so proud of him when he went back to school in his forties and got his diploma with honors.
      Being around such an over achiever has not always been easy. When I was about six years old I remember a competition between him and my brother Ken as to who was the best babysitter. When he asked me my opinion I panicked. It was one of those "deer in the headlights" moments. Do I run or faint right here on the spot? Of course I didn't think either one of them was worth their salt in babysitting but out of self preservation he got my vote.
     When we vacation with him and his sweet, southern bell wife, its usually goes like this- "lets cram five days worth of fun into three days of vacation. Who cares about sleeping or rest, you can do that when you get home." I have never ran through a theme park before until I went with him. Throw in the hot, humid Florida weather and you pretty much have a day at "Hades Land."
     My kids just absolutely love him. He's one of those uncles that you don't see very often but when you do its a whirlwind of fun and presents.
     He has slowed down a little now that he is older. He is an adoring grandpa and has conquered the art of fishing. I recently had the joy of finally beating him at something by catching more fish than him and it felt awesome! I'm sure that will be the last time I best him at anything, but at least I have that memory to savor.
    He's always been at the top of my favorites list and knows how to make me laugh. I included a few pictures just for fun.
   

 

 

This is me, besting the best! 

 

   

Oh brothers!

I decided to blog about my brothers, did I mention I have five of them? Before you start feeling sorry for me let me introduce you to the fabulous five.
From oldest to youngest we start with Larry, Ken, Chuck, Dave and last but nowhere near least is Rick, I fit in between Dave and Rick. Growing up with four older brothers wasn't easy, it certainly had its drawbacks and its perks.
Perk #1. I never had to wear hand-me-downs from my brothers.
Drawback #1. Since there were no hand-me-downs I often had to wear too small clothes ( I would not be caught dead in a pair of pants!)  Wearing shoes that were too small actually resulted in corrective foot surgery as an adult.
Perk #2. I always had someone to play with.
Drawback #2. I had to play things like Godzilla, crawling on my stomach like an army man and run from the creature from the black lagoon. I also learned quickly to keep all babies and Barbies out of sight or they came up strangulated and missing limbs. Not to mention they ate everything from my easy bake oven mixes to my flavored chap stick!
Perk #3. They taught me self defense.
Drawback #3. I learned self defense by being an involuntary sparring partner when they decided to take up karate, how to dodge an arrow when they took up archery and how to out run even the fastest of them.
Perk #4. There was never a shortage of boys around the house. ( hey, I'm a red blooded American girl that liked the scenery)
Drawback #4. There was never a shortage of boys around the house and they were just plain mean!
Perk #5. I learned to share and be generous.
Drawback #5. They ate EVERYTHING! I had to hide anything I wanted to keep for myself. If I was discovered eating something like a candy bar  and they asked for a bite, I learned early on to position my fingers for bite size portions or the whole thing was gone in one bite. (This was tricky because it was possible to lose the skin off your knuckles if you weren't careful.)
Perk #6. I had a little brother I could blame things on.
Drawback #6. He was the "baby" and he was just so darned cute that he really never got in trouble for anything. We, on the other hand, were older and should have known better. (dang, cute, chubby, blond baby!)
There are many more and we will discuss them as I give you the run down on each fabulous brother in later blogs. I thought it would be fun to include one of the few pictures of us all together, its one of my favorites.

Promises from an eight year old.

My son moved out this month and I am learning to adjust. It's funny how quickly time goes by. Before you know it, they are kicking at the gates of the stalls ready to run free and fend for themselves.
    On Saturday I was totally ready for him to be on his own. Thoughts like, "I cant wait until he has to clean up his own mess." or  "When he has to fix his own dinners he will appreciate all my hard work." flooded my mind.
    On Sunday as he packed his stuff I suppressed any thoughts of grief and helped him cram his car full of electronics, blankets and clothes. I graciously donated our micro wave oven, space heater and lots of safety tips and sent him on his way. I felt a sense of accomplishment that I had successfully raised a "man child" to the age of twenty two without too much collateral damage.
    On Monday morning I was a mess! As I sobbed on my husbands shoulder the sense of an era passing got the best of me. Memories of his younger years flooded my mind. I will miss his loud singing in the shower, I will miss his loud, contagious laughter heard throughout the house and, like all sappy mothers, I will miss his messes.
    To my delight he has been back home several times in the two weeks since he moved out. He has been back to borrow a vacuum cleaner, he has been back to get some curtains, he has been back to get some fire wood and yes, he has been back to get some food.
    As I adjust to my nest being a little emptier, I am thankful for our time we had and the beginning of a new era in life for us both. I knew this time was inevitable (there were times I wondered). I know he will be just fine.They all leave and make their way in the world but I can still hear his little eight year old voice promising me he would never leave and I wonder were time went.