In honor of my brother Jeff and it being his birthday, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane. 

Let me give everyone a bit of background.  I have 2 older brothers, 1 older sister and 1 younger sister.  Yes, there are 5 of us.  We are all J’s.  John, Jeff, Jane, Jody and Jerri.  We are all within 7 years from eachother.  My younger sister and I are only 10 months apart. 

My brothers were true boys.  I remember them in their cowboy pj’s, playing with their cowboy toys and their GI Joe’s.  They always got a gun for Christmas.  Not sure what year it turned into real ones.  They even had cowboy curtain’s in their bedroom.  They were the kind of boys that played in the woods with their rabbit traps, dragging nasty snakes home, (I could barely get that word out I hate those sssssnakes) and played baseball every summer.   I have lots of memories of them and their little boy ways.  When they became teenagers I would think, do they ever really grow up? 

With it being my brother’s birthday I thought I would take a moment to thank him for being my brother.

• Thank you for showing us the dead rabbit you caught.  Me and my barbie cryed.
• Thank you for babysitting us girls and tying us up in chairs back to back and playing cowboy and Indians. 
• Thank you for going with us to Kmart.  Jer and I really enjoyed the “crash the baskets” game that you John loved playing.  John pushing Jer in one basket and Jeff pushing me in the other.  Then crash!  I think I still have whiplash. 
• Thanks for helping me get my hand stuck in the bubble gumball machine.  And YES you did.
• Thank you for babysitting us and making Jer and I wrestle.  My head still hurts from Jer flipping me back and hitting the back of my head on the hard floor.  I never realized that 20 years later my Chiropractor would be adjusting my back and neck and asking me if I had ever hit my head.  The memories came rushing back.  Did I really want to explain that my brothers would play the “wrestling game” and make my sister and I torture eachother.  The words just came out of my mouth as “Ummm No, Never”.  Thanks for the cranium problem that won’t move and should. 
• Thanks for blackmailing me into those tequila shots.  It was only 6 not 8.  And by the way, was it necessary to rat me out?

One memorable moment I will never forget.  I think he was 16 or 17.  He said a bad bad word.  My mother came storming down the hallway and washed his mouth out with soap.   This was a boy I considered a grownup.  You know those days when parents controlled their kids and made them have respect. 

I really don’t think he learned his lesson though.  He still uses those bad bad words.

Have a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

FROM YOUR MOST FAVORITE SISTER.  You know the prettiest and smartest one. :)

            The Cowboy’s                                                The Poor lil Indian Girls

            John & Jeff                                                         Jane, Jer & Jody