It was nice growing up with someone like you - someone to lean on, someone to count on...someone to tell on! ~Author Unknown

In light of my recent trip to see my brother and the time we had together, I have been feeling sort of sentimental and nostalgic...

My brother

You make me laugh. You worry me. You make me proud.

You hate talking on the phone. I always know when something is wrong because we talk forever. Or at least more than the typical 10 minute conversations.

I remember you throwing a micro-machine at my head. You barely missed my eye. Making mudballs and playing mudball in the backyard until mom told us we had to move away from the house so we retreated to the alley. "Camping" in the backyard.

I remember late night conversations in the dark (lots of them). The fun of your 21st birthday...I'm still surprised you wanted you big sister to visit for that. Dueling pianos are a blast.

I'll never forget the adventures we've gone on. Climbing the mountain of snow in the park on the way to school. Sledding down the hill behind the house...you saved me that one time. Remember? I had punctured a hole in my leg. Pretty sure I still have that scar. You loaded me up on the sled and took me home. The wrestling we did on the living room floor with mom yelling at us to stop or go outside. You would encourage Max to eat my hair. I would hold you down so that he could eat (or at least lick) your face.

I'll never forget when I was home sick with chickenpocks and you had the duty of hauling all my school books home for my make-up homework. I think I yelled at you in my delerium one of those afternoons...only because I was feverish and thought it was MUCH later than it really was-forgive me?!

We had all kinds of pets...dogs, cats (in the garage--we weren't supposed to take them inside--mom would kill us if she knew--hi mom! good thing we are both a long distance away), anole lizards, hamsters, turtles...we had funerals for those pets who departed also. If anyone were to dig on the south side of the house who knows how many little bones they'd find, if they haven't disintegrated by now.

The paint is still on the tree down the street from the house from that summer when we would play with Mandy and Bubba and we were pretty sure that by putting paint on the tree trunk we could change the color of the leaves- I would have bet money on it if I had had any at the time. Do you remember the fort that wasn't really a fort, but just actually really tall grass that we patted down and were surrounded by more really tall grass. And grandpas hammock?!

There was the occassion when mom was gone and we had a party...mom don't read this part. Actually, you can read it. Grandma was also out of town and a week later Grandpa asked us both if we had heard "all that racket the other night?" Our "party" consisted primarily of friends hanging out...it was the most mild "party" you could imagine. It was still daylight out. It was drama kids from high school. It was lame, actually.

You tried to teach me to throw a baseball and a football, and well, you learned it just wasn't going to happen after that. We used to walk down to the convenience store...I don't know what we'd get. I'd sit and work on homework while you were at baseball practice. I consumed massive amounts of sunflower seeds when we'd be at your games though all kinds of weather.

We spent hours jumping on the trampouline at Aunt Diana's and Uncle Marty's. Digging tunnels through the snow. We also spend hours crawdad fishing in the pond by Dads shop. Then we watched Pete eat them....gross. Awful really. We'd climb rocks at the waterfalls and Horse Tooth Resevoir. We went on all kinds of adventures in the park and we'd play basketball on the school playground. We'd spend hours shoveling the driveway out, only later to slide down it and hope we didn't slide into the street and all the oncoming traffic.

You have graciously accepted visits from me as you've lived in different parts of the country. We always have lots to talk about in person, for hours actually. I always wonder if we will be like Mom and Uncle Ron and still talk on the phone weekly and meet up every-so-often somewhere around the country for some common interest event? I hope so. Like I said before, you make me laugh and you make me proud, and sometimes you even make me worry, but it is a good sisterly, I love you worry. Thanks for being my link to childhood and who I was then. It is true what they say about family, they are your links to who you were and stay with you as you become who you are destined to become.