Birthdays & Brothers

Yesterday was my brother, Beau's birthday. I had already planned on cooking lasagna for dinner, which was kind of funny because growing up, that was always Beau's request for his birthday dinner. (Well, when he got a little older, his birthday dinners turned into our very own Wild Beast Feast... mom and granny would fry up all the game Beau had killed, cleaned and loaded the deep freezer with that year... we'd have everything from deer, rabbit, and quail to dove and SQUIRRELS... yep, SQUIRRELS... have you ever seen a fried squirrel leg? Only in the deep South for sure... :) Anyway, back to the point in hand, it was Beau's birthday!

Time certainly flies and it's hard to believe that my brother and I are full grown adults with families of our own. It seems like only yesterday we were sumo-wresteling in the living room, or Beau was holding me down doing the "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" "shum-da-gum" heart removal ceremony or he was chasing me in the yard on his 4-wheeler... sounds like torture and it really is a miracle one of us never got hurt (besides that time my sophmore year when I punched him in the face and bloddied his nose.. not my most lady-like moment, but it was totally self defense.. ha ha) anyway, fact is that growing up with Beau was an adventure. It was ALWAYS something... he was either dragging home some random animal or trying to tame snakes (if Ellie Mae Clampett had been our neighbor, she'd have been his heart-throb for sure)! Of course, if she could fight off all my friends, who ALWAYS seemed to have a crush on him...

He never took much too serious and you could always count on him to crack a joke and make you laugh. He was notorious for bending the rules, sometimes not his best attribute, but in those minor rule bending events, a good time was always had by all...His Sr. year of high school, he got the big chain that was in the back of his truck (which by the way, I never understood why men always have a chain in their truck until this past October, when my SUV was stuck in the ditch on THREE wheels in the mountains...where was a man with a chain that day?!?!?) anyway, he took that chain and he chained and locked the main hall doors of our high school...for sure a fire marshall violation, but it was pretty funny when the bell rang and no one could get in or out of the main hall... Beau was definatley a boundary tester, I am sure my parents would testify to that, but I know they'd also agree with me, in that life with Beau was and still is NEVER dull, boring, or "normal"... it's always an adventure... an adventure I am glad to have been a part of.

For the past seven years, Beau has lived in North Georgia and come to think of it, he hasn't been home to celebrate a birthday since then. So on January 13th, we all make sure to make that call and wish him a happy day... and when I made the call yesterday, I made sure to tell him I was cooking lasgana for his bday....

Here we are when we were little...and then at my wedding, May 2003. Sadly, I dont think we've had a picture of just the two of us since then! We'll have to do that next time he comes to Fla.

Here's to you and your adventures, Beau....

~Annie~