Happy Birthday Baby Brother

Happy Birthday Rob

This is my baby brother Rob. Born this day about 39 years ago (I think). He has always been very special to me for many reasons. One is the obvious, he is my baby brother. Two, I took care of him a lot, he was my BABY brother. Three, he is just really a neat person and so handsome. I love my baby brother.


Rob played soccer as a kid. He was pretty good at it to. I was out of the house by the time he was playing soccer as a teenager but as a young mother I decided I had time to volunteer as a coach. So I signed up having NEVER played before. I taught the very young kids thank goodness, so rules didn't matter a WHOLE lot. I read a book or two then when all else failed... I called Rob. Help I would scream, what do I do? He was very patient with me and would give me some ideas. I usually tried them too. We even had many winning seasons thanks to him and some talented kids. It was NOT due to the coachingI can assure you!
Rob always has so much patience with the kids. He does a great job explaining things to them and gives them examples that they can relate too. I was taking pictures this year for the kids but would get caught up listening to him coach the youngin's.
A great daddy, he was in my son's wedding with his own two kids. I like taking pictures of him with his children. He acts so tough at times, that I just love catching his "softer side". There he is with his little princess. He would do anything in the world for her or Trent for that matter.

Here he is with his family at TJ's wedding. The date on the picture is not correct, it was really 8/12/06. It was posted in military date. Silly me! But anyway. Here he is with his little family and they are so cute together. I hope that they are together always. Rob and Steph were high school sweethearts and had kids in their 30's. They are great parents. Rob is a firefighter/paramedic for Broken Arrow. I am sooooo proud of him and all his accomplishments in life. He is a great husband, father, worker and brother. I have so many stories on him as a kid! One time he kept asking me to get him some tea. I didn't want to get up and get it for him but my mother yelled at me to get up and do it. So fine, I will get him some tea then. I got a cup that was not see through and poured brown vinegar in it. I told him I had his tea but it was "special" tea. I told him he had to hold his nose and drink it all down. He said ok. He was probably about five or six. Well I held his nose and poured the tea down for him. Have you every tasted vinegar? It is pretty nasty I guess by his response. I don't know, I have never drank vinegar. Kind of stupid if you ask me to drink it. Pretty nasty too. Boy did I get in trouble for that.

Another time he was pestering me ( or maybe I was pestering him I don't know) but he started chasing me through the house. So I ran out the house to the garage, out the door and shut the door behind me. Rob was hot on my trial and went to grab the door and broke the window pane cutting his hand. I got in trouble for that one too. He was bugging me another time and I had a bucket in my hand swinging it back and forth. Well he ran up behind me just as the bucket was in a backward swing, I got him right in the mouth. Busted his lip real good, might have even loosened a tooth or two, I don't know. I got in trouble for that. The bucket swinging was in the house. I don't know why I had a bucket in the house.

But my favorite memory with my little brother is this. My older brother and his friend were two guys that Rob loved to copy. To emulate (good word huh?) Well Mike and Dale were in high school and dipped Skoal. Of course that was cool and Rob wanted to do it too. I told him I would be glad to help him learn how to do it. I got a can of Mikes Skoal and told Rob to pull out his little bottom lip. Now he is only about 7 or 8 and does what I tell him. I took about 1/4 of that can and crammed it/packed it tight/ into his little lip. I told him to work up that spit but he could not spit it out. That he just had to keep it in there for a while. To work up some really good juices and later he could spit like the big boys. I might have even said something about swallowing the spit for a bit. Don't remember for sure how it exactly "went down", but that is the story how I remember it. Well we were out behind the tool shed because we didn't want mom and dad to catch us dipping. I mean Rob dipping. Don't know if you all know much about dipping, honestly neither do I, but I do know that if you are a little boy, with a lip full of Skoal, a mouth full of spit, a sister egging you on to not spit but just swallow it, you turn several shades of green and spew all kinds of junk for quite awhile. We never told mom and dad about that one. But Rob still dips to this day.

Happy Birthday Baby Brother, it is truly a miracle you have made it to 39!!!!!