brothers

I decided to go ahead and write a whole blog post dedicated to my three little brothers: Corey (almost 16), Michael (11), and JD (6). I don't really see them all that often, so we aren't as close as we could be.

Corey and I spent every other weekend together until he was about 7 or 8 when they all moved to Connecticut. About two years ago that whole part of my family moved back to Virginia and now live an hour away. Corey has become quite the sports star, especially in track. it amazes me that the little kid who I used to be able to beat in our backyard races can now run faster than a lot of college athletes while I am still struggling for the sub-10 minute mile. He's grown up to have a witty sense of humor too. I was told on my last visit that during the anesthesia process of his last surgery, the nurse asked him if he'd had any other surgeries before. His reply: "no, but I've been shanked in a prison yard." Clever. Then right before he finally conked out, he murmured, "Oooh... Kool Aid..." The kid is pretty funny. The other astonishing thing - he's at least a foot taller than me. I guess that's not that astonishing since I am only 5'3" but it still makes me feel tiny.

Ok now onto Michael. He may be one of the best artists I have seen in a while, and I don't just mean like "for his age." He loves drawing stadiums and houses and other forms of architecture. I saw a house he drew recently and it was complete with stone work on the front, siding, hanging plants on the porch, a bay window, and a garage. He is really talented. He got a camera phone this summer since they don't have a house phone and all weekend he was busy making little videos and taking abstract artsy pictures of peoples' eyes and corners of tables and interesting patterns. If he pursues that, he will be really impressive one day. On the sports note - he pulled a muscle in his neck putting on his football helmet, so maybe sports should be left to Corey.

Lastly JD. The baby brother. He is something else. He really is adorable and pretty sweet most of the time, but he can get bossy. His sixth birthday party was this weekend, complete with a cousin camp out and relay games. It was fun for me to watch, but being the oldest by almost 6 years, I was not forced to participate. Out of all 8 children, the 6 year old, the second youngest next to 5-year-old Izzy, was in charge. I don't know how he does it, but it's proof he has Rodriguez blood in him. As for sports or arts talent, we have yet to see where JD will go.

So those are my brothers. Visiting with them is like visiting with people that are strangely familiar, but that you don't really know all that well. I hope as we grow older we don't forget about each other and move on with our lives. I look forward to seeing each of them grow up into the men God wants them to be, which will be sooner than I think, I'm sure!