Bradymus

I have the greatest "little" brother. Yes, to this day there are moments when he drives me up the wall. But he and I have an awesome relationship. He just finished calling me because he drove an hour to work, only to find out they aren't dealing with the barge until tomorrow. No worries... he still gets paid. But he just decided to call and harass me (his words). So, I told him about my journal-reading weekend. He laughed at me. But what can I expect from him? He is, after all, the laughing-kid that I told you about in the slapping story. So I have included a few pictures of Brad and me through the years. He and I are only 13 months apart in age, so we grew up very close. Brad is the one who will call me out of the clear blue just because he remembers some hilarious thing from our childhood that he knows will make me laugh. While he was in the Air Force, he even called me from Turkey to do this. And when he was in Germany with the Reserves about a month or so ago, he did the same thing. So let me tell you a few stories about Brad... (I guess I should apologize for all these "remember when..." stories. I have just been in a big reminiscing mood lately).
Okay, when I was in 5th grade, I wanted to write a story. So, I started one. I was going to write a suspense-filled story. So I titled it Murders on My Street. I didn't get very far with the story line, because when I told Brad about it, he laughed at me and told me that that is the dumbest title he'd ever heard. So, the other night (Friday), I told my dad about this. And then I thought, "You know, I need to call Brad and remind him about that story title" and so I did. He answered the phone and I said, "Brad, I'm going to write a book called Murders on My Street." He sarcastically replied, "Yeah, and I bet it's going to be a best-seller too." And then he started laughing. What a dork.
When The Lion King was huge, Christina had a bunch of the "jungle friends" toys. One night, the three of us (Brad, Christina, and I) were in my and Christina's room. Brad picks up one of the toys and looks at the bottom of it. He says, "Hey Hila, did you know they gave these animals names?" And I said, "No." And he said, "Yeah, this one's name is Hip Pop Atamus (pronounced a-thomas)." I said, "Nuh-uh. Let me see that." Well, that's what it said on the bottom of the toy, so I was like, "huh. how about that, they sure did." Okay, it only took me about 30 seconds to figure it out. I said, "Wait a minute, give me that." I turned it over and studied it again. I looked at Brad and said, "You dummy. That says hippopotamus." Funny how, when you look at a word with a specific pronunciation in mind, you see it that way. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. Ah, the stories are endless, and I will have to save some for another day. I hope you won't mind :). I really love my family. I love to tell stories with them (and about them, if you can't tell). So, here are the pictures of Brad and me over the years.... How cute of kids were we??? Oh, and I'll have another one to add tomorrow morning. One from when I was in WA in March.