Showing posts with label jill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jill. Show all posts

11.26.2009

With My Favorite Red Spoon

Bret Does Jill's Hair

When I was little, there was always room for everyone at Mamo's dining table. Jill and I always sat together so we could continue our non-stop streak of holiday giggling.

One holiday, we thought it would be hilarious to fling a piece of corn across the table. We hid the spoon between us and put a piece of corn in. We held the spoon together and prepared for launch.

But we would never do it. We were good kids. Or rather, we just didn't want to get in trouble.

I'm not sure what happened. Maybe we were laughing so hard that we were convulsing. Perhaps our subconscious desires took over.

Somehow we let go of the end of the spoon and suddenly it was all slow motion. The corn sailed over the table and onto the floor. Our mouths dropped open in horror as we knew we'd get in trouble.

We looked around the table. Did our mothers see it? No! They're gabbing away! Our dads are busy chowing down! We got away with--

And then we saw BJ's face. His eyes were open wide, a forkful of food stopped just short of his mouth.

In a stare-down that lasted a few seconds but seemed like forever, we fretted. Would he tell on us? We held our breaths.

And then BJ just shook his head and continued eating. We could breathe again! And stop playing with our food.

I didn't fling any food today, but only because Jill wasn't there to trick me into doing bad things!

Happy Turkey Day!

11.17.2009

Crosses Up My Mind

Tricks of the Eat

A few weeks ago, Jacque told Evan she was thirty-one. He disagreed.

"No, Momma. You're eleven."

Jacque was a little confused, but tried to set him straight. "No. I'm thirty-one."

"No! You. Are. Eleven!"

And then it dawned on her. "You mean twenty-eleven?"

"Yeah! you're twenty-eleven!"

You see, when I turned thirty, my cousin Jill, who had recently also turned thirty, really showed her brilliance.

"We're not thirty. Were twenty-ten."

Ever since that moment, I've been assuring people like Jacque that she's really only twenty-eleven.

So I think I'm going to have to start being more careful about the things I say. The poomongers are listening and remembering more than I thought they were. Like maybe I shouldn't have told Sophia to say "Stuff happens!"

Hey, I could've had her say the naughtier version! Restraint!

8.19.2008

And I Know I'm Countin' Good Times

Jill and Me

Twenty five years ago today, I was the cutest flower girl ever.

Okay. So I might have had some competition from my cousin Jill. No really! It was a serious competition!

Our mothers made our dresses and when I saw Jill's, I was crazy jealous. Hers was longer! That made the pink ruffled dress so much more sophisticated! I was so mad at my mom!

Someone pointed us toward our flower baskets and we rushed to them. Jill beat me to the table. I'm sure it had something to do with her long dress and nothing with the fact that she has always been a way better athlete than me.

Jill grabbed a basket and of course it was the best one! The ribbons were better, there were more flowers . . . why does she get everything?

But, being the experienced flower girl I was, I sucked it up and put on a stellar performance.

But who was the happily-getting-hitched couple?

Christmas at Grandma's 2005

Oh come on, kids! It's no laughing matter! You've made it twenty five years! That's a freaking miracle!

If you know BJ, you totally know what I mean.

Happy Anniversary!

7.28.2007

I Throw it Back to Quench This Thirst

DSCF1526.JPG

My uncle BJ is a bit anal at times. Other times, he goes completely opposite.

For example, lets talk about his issues with littering the yard.

One day, I was hanging out at their place. I drank a can of Dr Pepper and set my can down beside me.

"You'd better throw that out!" BJ ordered.

Too lazy to get up right away, I brushed him off. "I'll get it later."

As the afternoon went on (which means, every five minutes), BJ would remind me that my can was still sitting there.

"I'll get it!" I kept telling him as I rolled my eyes.

He's like that. He'll keep badgering you until you give in to his demands. But I'm stubborn. So anything he asks me to do usually doesn't get done until just before I leave.

After I got home that night, I called BJ. "I forgot to throw out my pop can!"

"I know! I'm gonna kill you!"

"I can't believe it! I meant to get it! I just forgot!"

"It was like a movie! i saw it and it's like I zoomed in on it!"

No really. He was that angry. He still brings it up several years later.

But then he takes the other road. Like during my first Fourth of July in Wichita.

I was trying to be a good girl and got up from my lawn chair to throw my bottle in the recycling bin. BJ stopped me. "Throw it in the yard like you're supposed to!"

I did as I was told and continued to throw my bottles and cans into the yard for the rest of the night. At the end of the holiday, the yard had quite a display of used fireworks and litter.

You can see, now, how it's hard to tell where BJ will stand when it comes to litter.

At Mitch's graduation party, our family mostly hung out in the back yard. When we would finish a drink, we'd toss the bottle in the corner of the yard. When BJ came back, he flipped out and started picking them up.

Of course we laughed and as soon as BJ turned to walk away, another bottle flew by him. "Who threw that?"

He left to mingle with people in the front yard and we continued to litter the back yard.

Jeremy must be getting old. Instead of joining in the fun, he would pick up our trash and throw it away. Luckily, he couldn't keep up and eventually surrendered.

As the day went on and Jill drank more beer, the more obsessed she got with throwing bottles. She was a maniac! She would zero in on a person getting ready to finish their drink and hover until she could snatch it away and toss it clear across the yard. If anyone left their bottle around for more than five minutes, she'd claim it. And if neither of those opportunities were presented, she'd chug her beer and toss it.

All through this, BJ would yell "Who threw that? I'm serious . . ."

The way he yelled and crouched down to pick the bottles up brought glee to our evil hearts.

I went to the garage to grab another drink and noticed the bottle and can bin was full. I hatched a brilliant plan and shared it with Jill.

"We should go grab the bin and dump it all over the yard!"

Of course Jill was all into the idea. Joe, not so much. He and Jeremy must think they're mature or something. Joe kept trying to talk us out of it.

Like we would listen!

We hurried over to the garage just in time to see BJ bagging the trash. But we didn't give up. We decided to wait for him to bring around the bag and just pull crap from that.

Jingle. Giggle. CLANK! We weren't very quiet about getting the bottles. We grabbed as many as our little hands could hold and rushed off to scatter them in the yard. But that wasn't enough. We went back for more.

As we clanked and clattered with BJ standing just a few feet away in the garage, we laughed our bums off about how clever we were.

"What's that noise?"

We were caught! Somehow BJ had heard our bottles clanging at eleventy billion decibels.. "Who's back there? What's going on?"

Jill and I ran for our lives, still clutching some bottles. We rounded the corner of the house and I, thinking Jill would take the same rout she had before, got rid of the evidence. I dropped the bottles one by one as I ran.

Turns out Jill hadn't gone her old route. She stayed right behind me and as I dropped each bottle, she had to hurdle them to keep from falling. She thought I was trying to pin everything on her.

"Who did this?" BJ demanded to know. Apparently, he couldn't figure us out as the culprits even though we were laughing and peeing ourselves like we did when we were three.

He was pretty grumpy at us when he put it together. "I'll remember this. I won't forget how you treated your poor Unckie."

"Oh please. You'd think it was hilarious if it wasn't your yard!"

Very quietly, BJ admitted "Yeah. But don't do it again!"

This weekend, my dad's side of the family is getting together for the first time since that fiasco. My cousin Chad got married last weekend and we're celebrating this weekend.

Do you think it will be rude if we throw our finished drinks on the Elks Lodge floor?

2.27.2007

Just a Reminder to Help You Pave Your Pathway

Jill and Me

Last week, my cousin Jill celebrated her birthday.

I was doing some "computer work" for BJ. He was hovering over my shoulder when we decided to send Jill a text message to wish her a happy birthday.

>Happy birthday! BJ says you're old!
>Thanks! But I'm only twenty-five, right?
>Sure! If that means I'm still twenty-four!
>No matter how old we are, BJ will always be older!
>Much MUCH older!
>Grandma just called.
>At least she remembered. She forgot Doll's birthday a couple of weeks ago.
>Poor Doll! She has always managed to remember mine.
>She could never forget mine . . .
"Don't say it's because you're Momma's favorite," BJ said. "Don't make her sad on her birthday!"

"You're the one who said she was old! I wasn't going to say that anyway!"

> . . . because . . .
"She couldn't forget your birthday because you start reminding everyone six months in advance!"