....Family

I spent the day with my brother and his family on Sunday. He's getting ready to rent his old house and I offered some help. His family got a little too big for it and they bought another house many years ago. It's been a while since I had been in it the previous tenants had lived there for years. There were marks on the inside of the closet of the boys at different heights and their ages. I remember when my mom used to mark our heights on the wall. It gave me some quality time with them. I helped my brother and Matt & Bryan with the house. Afterwards, watched "One Missed Call" with everyone and got to hold baby all through the movie which was nice. Its almost like holding a baby Bryan but no 18 month old Matt on the other shoulder:( Bryan's girlfriend came over so the house started to get full and noisy. It was kind of hard to follow. My brother said it must not be very good because he tried to watch it ten times and couldn't get into it. I got to drive Matt's new car (well new to him). Red used to be my favourite color when I was a kid. Its in the top 3 now. If you don't count different shades of green as more than one. Otherwise it'd be teal, sea green, emerald, lavender, then red. Its funny how our preference change like that. I think red was my favourite color as a kid because my brother said it was his and it just stuck. I still would've loved that car as kid. Did I tell you Matt was most like me of my nephews and nieces? He is.
Okay time for the trip down memory lane....
My brother and I did some reminiscing about growing up which we tend to do a lot of these days when we're together. Lexie likes to tell me how she wishes that we weren't poor whenever I tell her I can't afford to buy her something. The economy is hitting most people hard - that doesn't make us poor. I tell her that she doesn't know what poor is. We used to pick our own food out of the garden and eat the same thing everyday for a month because it was whatever was 'in season.' I think sometimes Lex doesn't appreciate how good she has it. She has a tv in her own room with cable. I would've loved THAT as a kid. Other people had cable. They were rich; WE were poor. My brother and I did have a tv in our room it didn't get any channels we could only play atari on it. And being 10 years younger I always got beat. At everything. Atari, cards, checkers, arm wrestling... it sucks being little. And when my brother let me win stuff it was so obvious he was letting me win it wasn't even fun. It also sucks sharing a two-bedroom house and one bathroom with four other people & only one television (that only got 3 channels and 2 of those not very clear) . But I think it made me appreciate things more. Sharing a small house with them made me closer to the two people I loved most. These days I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
The tiny house with five people.... (approximately 1982.. lest you think it was longer ago than that because of the truck)