In the Meantime

"No Mom Talk Monday?"

I'm not a Mom, so I have no problems with this, considering the only Mom I ever talk about is my own.

Anyways, the premise of Courtney's "No Mom Talk Monday" post today was about some of her most vivid childhood memories. I think that's pretty cool, so I thought I'd relive some of my own...

This is a long one.

We had a baby-sitter named Michelle, who had a little brother named Woody, who was my brother's age. Our families were/still are very close. Whenever Michelle came to baby-sit us, Woody would come, too. Woody and Wes would disappear into Wes' room, I'm sure to play video games (or was this too long ago for video games?) or something...not this night.

Michelle and I were in my room (I'm sure playing Barbies or school or the like) when we heard this *CRASH* and a few screams. We ran into Wes' room to find blood all over the floor and Wes holding onto his face and Woody...crying.

Michelle rushed Wes into the bathroom and held his head over the toilet so the blood will drip in, trying to get the story out of a tearful Woody, trying to get in touch with my parents who were at a church banquet (before cell phones, mind you), and consoling a little sister who literally thought her brother was dying.

Turns out, they had been playing football in Wes' room and threw the football too high. It crashed into the dome light and busted it into a million different pieces...one of those pieces went right through Wes' cheek. Several stitches and a few scoldings.

Or the time that he jumped off the roof of the house (he did that a lot) and pretended to be dead. He scared me so bad he promised never to do that again, as long as I didn't tell on him.

Or the time that Wes and I got in a huge fight over who would sit front and center of the TV. I ended up cracking a broomstick over his back and he dragged me around on the carpet on my stomach and gave me carpet burns. He got a big spanking for that one.

WHY DID OUR PARENTS EVER THINK IT WAS OK FOR US TO BE LEFT ALONE WITH EACH OTHER?!?!?!?!?

It wasn't all violent, I promise.

There is a really embarrassing home video of us and our "circus."

It was some sunny Saturday and Wes and I had been spending the day in the backyard. We decided to put together a "circus" for our parents. The "circus" consisted of Wes sliding down the zip line he and Dad had made from a crowbar handle and old wires and me...well, not doing anything talented but jumping off the 3 foot fence because I was MAYBE 6 years old.

We shared a playroom at one point. My half was COVERED in Barbies. We're talking giant house (built by my Uncle Bill and Grandaddy), at least 3 cars, furniture, clothes, dolls... He and his friend Blake liked to rip the heads off my Barbies and switch the heads around. (Have you ever seen a Barbie with her head put back on? She has no neck.) I would also find Barbie and Ken in...ahem...compromising positions.
He loved Erector and K-nex sets. The other half of the playroom was full of that stuff. He made a giant rollercoaster out of every. single. piece. of. Erector. set. We would get under it and pretend it was a spaceship/airplane/jungle jeep and go on adventures together.

We got to attend the same school when he was a senior and I was a 7th grader. We had the same lunch period. He embarrassed me on a daily basis...the only senior who would talk to his younger sibling.
He decided to entertain the lunch period by getting on stage in the cafetorium (look it up) and singing Limp Bizkit while his friends made a mosh pit below. I'm pretty sure he stage dived.

Then when he decided to run for Student Council president, he made ME his campaign manager to get the younger votes. I passed out these hysterical buttons with WCW wrestlers and stupid sayings on them that he and Dad had made. He won by a landslide.
You could purchase a "Candy Gram" for Valentine's Day for anyone in the school for $1. Mom made us buy one for each other. When they delivered his to my desk, it sat there on the corner of my desk, wrapped up in cellophane and curly ribbon. I took it home to him and presented it with glee. He turned red and admitted he'd eaten mine when he got the munchies in 3rd period. Mom made him march down to the drugstore (it was a very small town...one drugstore, one block away) and buy me LOTS of candy and a cute little dog stuffed animal with his own money. I still have the stuffed dog.

All in all, my brother is pretty awesome.

I lost my keys one weekend in Tuscaloosa, and Wes drove all the way to Montgomery from Dothan to bring my extra set, all so Mom wouldn't know. She does now, no worries.

He took me to lunch the day before I graduated high school and explained to me all the things I SHOULDN'T do in college.

He gave Ben a really hard time when he first met him. Kind of a "If you mess with my sister, I have really big friends and we will stalk you down and kill you" talk.

He spent my 21st birthday with me, which is the night that Ben asked Wes for permission to marry me. The next morning, he told me that Ben was a great guy and he would love for us to get married.

And then he walked me down the aisle.

Wes and I have been through so much together. We are 5 years apart and are just now getting to that "friendship" level, rather than just a big brother/little sister annoyance.

I love my brother and I consider him one of my heroes.

Thanks for being the greatest big brother in the world, Wes.

Even if you did put my Cabbage Patch doll, Fletch, on the blade of the ceiling fan and then turned the fan on.

Oh, and I apologize for locking you in your room in the house in Columbia so many times. I'm glad that you figured it out and switched the locks around.

RANDOM MUSIC MONDAY: This song will always remind of me my brother because every time we went to Pizza Hut, he would play this on the jukebox. :)