My brothers Todd and Mike

I have been very blessed to see all of my seven siblings except for Mike in the past month.  That is a great thing for me as often it is only every three years when I see many of my siblings at our Giberson reunions.  I love them all and am so grateful that we have shared life together as siblings.  Although this post is dedicated to Todd and to Mike, I love all of my siblings and love our relationships as individuals and as a group (does that make sense?).

When we were in Texas, we picked up Todd to take him with us to Scott's for the Monday Game Day.  When we walked in to get him, he was gathering game pieces for the game they were going to play.  I recognized it immediately: "Win, Place and Show".

This was a game that we played when we were kids.  I am not sure how many times we actually played it but as soon as I saw it, it just reminded me of growing up.  It is a horse racing game.  My brother had gone on line and gotten rules and then developed all of the needed playing pieces (horses) and betting sheets for them to play.  Isn't he amazing! It seriously brought tears in my eyes when I saw it on his table.

When ever I am around Todd and Mike, I so appreciate how much our childhood memories are similar yet different.  They remember the same vacations, the same family events, at some what the same time period of their lives.  They loved Richland and went to the same schools that I did..in the same buildings (our elementary school was rebuilt when my sisters were going there so although they still went to Marcus Whitman Elementary, it was not the same.).  I am the only one who can remember Grandpa Owen, but the three of us were loved and cuddled by him.


Todd and I
All of our Owen relatives had these two pictures
somewhere in their houses until we were teenagers,
it seemed like it.

Mike

They were  the ones who sat in the peach trees in our prefab out on Longfitt and ate peaches with me.  My first spiritual experience occurred because of them.  We walked to George Pratt Memorial Pool together and swam the hot afternoon days away. 

I am sure we fought but I only remember one time.  When I was 16 and in charge of the younger kids when Mom and Dad were gone--Todd was teasing Robin and causing problems.  I can remember sitting on top of him and yelling at him to leave Robin alone and stop causing problems.  To his credit, he didn't get mad at me and left Robin alone.  That was not one of my better moments and I am grateful that Todd just let it all go.

In our family, we were the big kids (my three sisters were "the three little girls" and then Rick and Scott were the "little boys").  As big kids, we did things with my dad like go to baseball games or play ping pong together.  We were the right number to play lots of games together.  My dad taught the three of us how to swing a bat and throw a ball.  I didn't know I was good at sports until I was in 7th grade because my brothers were just better than me (and I do not throw a baseball well even now--my sport skills were in other sports than baseball) and we did it together as kids. 

They became more Texan than I as they both attended college in Texas and now they are both working there in their chosen professions (although Mike did spend 20 years in Virginia in the middle of his life.) The times we are together are very important to me and I hope as we grow older that we will have more times to be together in the future.

Todd

Mike

This is their birthday month.  Happy birthday to my brothers, Todd and Mike!  I love you and am proud to be your sister.