meet christian and jon erik, my brothers. i didn't grow up with sisters to teach me how to do girly stuff like hair or make up and shave my legs, and there was no sister talk about boys and dates, and no sister's shoulder to cry on about being made fun of or called names because i had a boy name...but did i feel like i missed out on anything? nope! i grew up with two awesome brothers who taught me survival (and my mom taught me the other girl stuff). with one brother older and one younger, i fell comfortably into the middle of brother adventures and being-the-only-girl-so-i-get-a-different-sort-of-attention. i have to say, after all the debates, bets, and challenges, i am fairly certain i am my mom's favorite child, simply because i am her only daughter (being blonde probably helps, too). exploring and "getting into scrapes" was much more fun than being girly, let's say dating was a learning experience for me (there were no brothers to beat up the first kiss--i think they didn't want to think about their sister dating anyone, so they stayed out of that picture)--most boy/girl talk was christian asking me what girls meant when they said abc or did xyz, and i got called my fair share of names at home (i eventually learned crying just wasn't worth it). we made it through an unstable childhood of every-other-weekend visits and holidays, an emotional adolescence of growing up too fast, and now we're exploring adulthood within cell-phone reach of each other.
this is halloween, 1983. this is what we look like when mom's in charge of costumes--a clown and a mouse. i won first place for funniest costume from the herndon parks and recreation center where we paraded around. here we are 20 years later, halloween 2003, what we look like when we are in charge of our costumes. christian agreed to display his svelte legs dressed up in my waitressing outfit from when i worked at baby's, a 50s diner, and i was a bunch of grapes. i don't remember any awards that year. our favorite halloween activity was playing black jack or poker with our halloween candy. christian and i aren't dressed up in swim gear for halloween, but i love this photo all the same--it says 'just try and take out this brother-sister team'!
one thing i will never understand is how jon erik grew to be bigger, taller, buffer, scarier, and in-the-marines-ier than all of us. he was such a cute little brother!
we were the best of friends growing up. our birthdays are 5 days apart (and 3 years), so we always celebrated them together as though we were twins. jon erik and i always teamed up against christian for everything (christian was always the conniving bad guy). even so, we rarely defeated christian's tricky wilyness. jon erik was so sweet and innocent. i remember tricking him once into believing i was running out of oxygen, and i couldn't breathe. of course he wanted to help me so i told him to go get me leaves from a plant that i could more deeply inhale the oxygen from. ahhh, the sweet little boy complied. i dare say he wouldn't fall for that now. he's been to iraq and back twice with the marines, works with marine machinery, and holds marine guns. yeah, i don't think i'll be tricking that little guy anymore.
my heroes. jon erik saved me from boredom growing up, and christian was always my fall-back date (halloween parties, weddings, office parties). christian is quite the dancer. he's made up a number of his own moves and makes us all laugh (i'm sure that's what wooed robin--my wonderful *sister*-in-law).
this was jon erik's favorite napping spot--on the bookshelf next to the world book encylopedias. 
don't you love this sign?! we made a fort in the woods behind our dad's house one weekend and there were a couple of boys who wanted to take it from us. so we declared an all-out war on them. the only problem was that they lived there and we were there only every other weekend, so in the end i think they did end up with the fort.
i love the fashion. one of the best parts of having an older brother is that i got all his hand-me-downs...i'm glad that phase didn't last very long.
this is a great photo, too. jon erik looks very 007 daniel craig and christian looks like he just got married. it's few and far between we get to hang out anymore--we grow up and lives take us elsewhere. i love looking through our photo albums and remembering the good old times. these are two guys i will fiercely defend until the end. i know, i know, you guys don't need to tell me--i'm your favorite sister. 
