Pumkin

By the time I was 11 my sister had already moved out and was on her own. But for 10 years I got to grow up with a big sister at home. My mom was dead set on not having another child after my sister was born, but after 8 years of my sister begging she finally gave in and decided to have another baby. That would be me. My sister and I were always cool with each other. I never remember us fighting and she always included me in anything she was doing with her girlfriends. Sure my sister dressed me up like I was born to be her own personal baby doll and luckily I am not scarred for life from it. Probably because I don’t remember much. I don’t remember when I started sleeping in my own bed because at 11 years old I was still sleeping on my sister’s floor on a mattress. She was trying to have a social life while not going out past 9pm on weekdays so that I could drag my mattress in her room and go to sleep for school.  She could have easily said no. She could have easily have told my parents that I couldn’t sleep in her room anymore, but she never did. She never said a word. Never complained about it, and always left a space for my mattress even when she rearranged her bedroom furniture. I tried on the night of my wedding rehearsal to let everyone there know how great of a sister I have and tried to say these same things, but I couldn’t really get the words out.  I have only met one other person who has a sister willing to let them sleep in her room while still trying to have a teenage life. That would be my sister’s daughter. She learned how to be a big sister to her little brother by watching the best example possible. My sister.

Wishing my sister Pumkin a Happy Birthday. Just want to tell you I am forever grateful for all the years of mattress dragging you allowed me to do and how I can never thank you enough. Love your little brother.

One Love All
JCP With the Meat

Big Wheel and Triple OG

The Big Wheel and Triple OG

My Grandparents on my mom’s side, Johnny and Jeanette. Or as we like to call them Maw aka The Big Wheel and Paw aka Triple OG Triple Triple. Until a few years ago I remember calling them Maw Nette and Paw Nette. Poor Paw didn’t even get called by his own name. Worked his whole life busting ass on a trawl boat and then all the grandkids called him Paw Nette. Nette short for Jeanette.  Can’t believe they let that slide. July 2, 2011 will be their 60^th Wedding anniversary. 10 years ago at their 50^th anniversary party I brought my wife, then girlfriend; it was one of the first family events she came to. Being married for 1 year is showing me how great of an accomplishment 60 years is, and how great it will feel when my wife and I reach that milestone, Jesus permitting. But when I look back on 28 years of having them as my grandparents and even after they will have passed it won’t be their marriage I remember the most.  I am sure I am not alone when I say what I will remember the most is the Christmas Eves at their house as a kid. I remember as far back as ’89 at 7 years old through ’97 their last year in that house.  It was the same routine, gather together to go to church, come back and eat, then open presents. Starting with the youngest working its’ way to the oldest. It wasn’t the toys, it wasn’t opening the presents, it was that feeling. An indescribable feeling that only came from that house, that night, and that family. Christmas Eve in that house was better than Christmas morning at my own. After ’97 they moved to their new house and Christmas Eve moved to a different house. Everything had changed. We still gather Christmas Eve at different houses, but it’s not the same. I had tried to capture that moment for the 11 years and I don’t think I will again. A couple of years ago my aunt gave me a box for Christmas. I had no clue what it could be but when I opened it I knew. She was at every Christmas Eve when I was a kid holding a video camera. This box was all the videos. Every video from my childhood Christmas Eves in one box just for me.  I can relive each year anytime I want, and remember how much I looked forward to those nights every year. Watching these tapes at my house gives me the same feeling as when it was actually happening. It is like a time machine going back to the 90s. Greatest Christmas Eve present ever.  I  hope one day my wife and I start a tradition with our kids at Christmas that they pass down to our grandkids. So that they will remember that feeling forever after we pass away just like I will remember the way I felt on those Christmas Eve nights long after my grandparents have passed.

Thanks for the greatest Christmas memories of my life Maw and Paw.

One Love All

JCP With the Meat

Bean-o

One of my greatest fears in life is being a parent.  Not the actual fear of having a baby, but the fear that I won't live up to the standards my parents set by being the greatest mom and dad ever.  My mom will be turning 59 on July 3, 2011 and has two grandkids that have slowly turned into grandteens. She would love for a new baby to be around and one day I hope to give her that gift. By the time I was 10 my sister had moved out and for half the year it was just my mom and I, with my dad working 7 & 7.  I don't recall a morning when she didn't have breakfast cooked or was waiting to ask me what I wanted her to cook.  Today I don't even know if I had time to fix my own breakfast much less a kid's. But she did or found the time to do it. Bringing me to school, picking me up from school, class trips, field trips, after school functions she was there. Birthdays, Christmas she always got me what I really wanted. Legos. She let me pick out my own clothes, let me get the baseball bed sheet set with curtain. Let me nail posters to the wall. I got her a birthday card and couldn't figure out what to write in it. I was remembering all these things in my childhood and trying to write something to sum it up. I remember hearing her say once that she sometimes wished she would have been a career woman after I was growing up. She worked at Stone Motors currently Golden Motors until she became a full time mom. Which is the most stressful underpaid job on the planet. So I am writing this.


You got what you wanted. You were a career woman your whole life. You worked the toughest job ever, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for 28 years. You were under appreciated, underpaid, and overworked. You were and always will be much more than a stay at home mom. When I look back on the life I had growing up, the life I have now, and the life I will have in the future it is all because of you. I am forever grateful. Hope that makes up for not getting paid for 28 years. 


One Love All
JCP With the Meat