Brothers Dear

A good friend, who's blog I adore, is always so good about wishing her family "Happy Birthday" on the right day on her blog. Me...not so much. I'm working on it though! And in the spirit of recognizing b-days, I wanted to blog "Happy Birthday" to both of my awesome brothers before their b-day month of March is totally gone.

Kenny, the youngest of all four of us, had his birthday first this month. As the youngest, he has exuded an incredible amount of patience with his older siblings...err sister...who always thought we knew best (I mean, how can an older sister's advice steer you wrong? It's the best thing since sliced bread!). Whether he agreed or not (and often he hasn't), he has always been very good-natured about our wishes and found his own little ways to quietly disappear from the scene when needed to preserve his sanity. However, he usually came back with some type of robot. He is an amazing handy-man who likes not only to fix things up, but make them better. I remember one Christmas when Kenny was about ten that my older bro and I came home from school to find that he had rewired the non-blinking Christmas lights using one of the servos from a toy remote control plane he had to make the lights blink by remote control. He has made countless robots since then and done very well learning the more intricate details of CNC work. He is currently studying mechanical engineering and working with a company using a CNC. I am extremely proud of him and all the effort he has made to be so successful.

Kenny has always had his own brand of humor. He loves a good joke and we have had many a laugh at his jokes over the years (sometimes just laughing at the fact he was laughing!). I recently came across this picture that depicts some of the fun we had messing around as kids.

Skittles: taste the rainbow!

Of course, Kenny has grown to be a strong, handsome man (see - good older sister flattery!). Here's the most recent photo I have of him with Ian from back at Christmas.

Now Mike, my older bro, gets just as many kudos for putting up with me, but in a different way. I was that VERY competitive second child and Mike played along with his easy-going nature. I really admire him for all that he has accomplished. He too has a very strong scientific nature and just this past year got his PhD in Physics. Physics!! I barely got through the first two semesters of physics without losing interest, much less ever thought about taking another course in it that I didn't have to. In this past year, he has also gotten married and started a non-profit business. Mike is always full of entreprenuerial ideas. This wasn't his first business to start. In fact, he and his very creative, talented wife are also working on an educational children's cartoon series. I'm quite impressed with all that he has done and hope I can be like him when I grow up!

My Dad used to say that Mike was the one to get me started. Here he is teaching me to "read". (Again - I was competitive...had to do everything he did!)

Haha - well, whatever his method, it worked. We were both reading quite well before kindergarten. It's because of having such an awesome older brother that I always wanted my kids to have an older brother. We're thrilled Ian gets to play the role.

This is Uncle Mike making sure Ian knows all about being a big brother.

And yes, before you ask, Ian IS reaching for the beer. Uncle Mike DID let him have as much as he wanted. And yes, they DID go to a tattoo parlor afterwards. At least Ian chose "Mommy" for his tat. :-)

Okay - a little more serious now. This is the most recent picture I have of Mike and his wife, Lissie, with Ian. It's from back in August! Sniff, sniff. That's how long it's been since we've seen Aunt Lissie (and since October in the above picture for Uncle Mike).

What can I say? I've been blessed with two awesome brothers. They are amazing and I have learned so much from both of them. I honestly don't know what I would do about my car problems or fix-it-up needs without them. They're great guys and I am very thankful that they have put up with me all these years!

I'll leave with a picture from several years back - possible ten years ago? This pictures just captures Mike and Kenny so well. Happy Birthday month, guys!