Friday Flashback

Because it is so HOT and ice cream sounds so good right now I decided to "flash back" to my husband's teenage years when he worked at Baskin and Robbins ice cream shop. Just looking at the picture, imagining the super cold air conditioning and a giant scoop of raspberry sherbet (my all time favorite), makes me feel cooler! He still scoops the ice cream at our house!

Brothers

I am feeling a little nostalgic tonight for Jacob and Jeremy. They have been out of state with their grandparents for five days, and I miss them.

When Jeremy was about seven months old, I looked at him and worried. He was getting so big, growing up so fast. "We need to have another one!" I told George. Ten months later Jacob was born.

I think having the two of them close together is the best thing I ever did for them. I don't remember even a bit of jealousy between the two. Jeremy fell into place being a great brother right from the beginning. When Grandma came over with a baby she was tending Jeremy ran over to Jacob's bassinet and pointed excitedly to show that he had a baby too.

He was a good helper and a good boy when Jacob was a baby, and has always been a loving big brother. Jeremy was great entertainment for Jacob. Jacob loved to watch Jeremy play and was soon playing right along side of him. When they were little they shared the same interests, mainly trains (below they are studying a toy train catalog), and they did just about everything together.

Below:Playing in the flour, back when I was a nice
mom and let them get away with that kind of stuff.

As they have grown (they are now 11 and 12), some of their interests have begun to differ, but what I love about them is that they listen to each other talk about what they are interested in. When one of them gets to participate in an activity the other does not, in school, scouts,etc., they come home and eagerly tell the other all about it.

Occasionally one of them will ask if they are ever going to be able to have their own room, and sometimes I wish I could give each of my kids a little more space of their own. But then I hear these two boys laughing and talking way past the hour when they should be asleep, and I wonder what would be the point? They would just be in each other's room all the time anyway.

Once the two of them asked me if I knew where they wanted to live when they grew up. "Where?" I asked. "It doesn't matter, as long as we live next door to each other," was the reply.

I am so thankful for the sweet relationship that these brothers have and hope that it will continue throughout their lives. And I hope I can live on the same street as them too ;).

I have been going through old photographs and thought I'd record some of the memories that go along with them before they are gone forever. Welcome to my:

Here am I, about 13 or 14 acting silly and sporting one of my mom's hats. Actually, I think is was her only hat. I remember retrieving it from wherever Mom kept it and wearing it in play through out my childhood, and apparently into my teen aged years as well. It was an off white crocheted beanie with quarter sized sequins stitched all over it. Kind of like a porcupine dressed up for a ball.

I could never imagine Mom wearing it, and I never actually saw her do so, but I think she must have somehow loved this hat; it hung around the house for many years. Maybe she held onto it so her daughters could dress up in it, or so her teenagers could mock it, or because she just really loved it. Perhaps she had made good memories wearing it, or someone had made it for her and she just couldn't get rid of it. Kind of like the green sweater my husband bought me for our engagement picture that wore out, went out of style, and yet I sentimentally kept it in my closet for way longer than I should have.

Seriously though, who could blame her for keeping such a cool hat? When it wasn't being worn as some sort of crazy crown, I loved to brush my hands across the sequins and feel each little piece of plastic flick off my skin. Occasionally one would come off and I would look how the others would almost camouflage the place where it had been.

My kids don't dress up in many of my clothes, except a pair of ankle high black boots that they like to tromp around in. I have thought about getting rid of them, but the kids do like them, and it keeps them from playing with my other shoes. Perhaps one day we will be looking at a picture of the kids in those boots and they will say, "Remember those funky old boots we used to wear? What was Mom thinking when she bought those?"