He that is not jealous is not in love. ~St. Augustine

And I am SO infinitely in love.

Not romantically, this time- but I am no less in love.

I know that there are a lot of close families out there- that there are brothers and sisters who consider theirs the best, and the best of friends.

But I have to stand and say: "My family is better than yours!" ~Raspberry~

Well, it's the truth. I have never made better friends than the ones who I was born to (or who were born to me, as I'm the oldest.) and I would choose a day with my family over most things.

I have to admit, in my childhood, I wasn't as close to them as I am now. My closest brother is 3 years younger than I am. So when I was in junior high and high school, he went to a totally different school. We were never even close to having the same interests or the same friends.

My sister is 9 years younger than I am, and my youngest brother is 11 years younger than I am. It's like we were two different sets of kids. Almost a different generation. Often, it was my responsibility to babysit the two of them, and I have since learned that my sister was terrified of me, which actually breaks my heart. I never knew that she thought i was mean, or that I scared her. I probably did scream a lot, but that was mostly at my brother Biege, the older one, who would tie Boz, the younger one, to chairs, and steal Bergan's dolls. I went to college when Bergan was just 8 and Bozton was 6.

It actually wasn't even until I moved home to Utah from Alabama almost 2 years ago that I got really close to them. I was always close to Biege.

In December of 2008, Biege married a lovely girl named Shalynn, and I adore her immensely. She is such a perfect addition to our family! And let me tell you, I am so glad he married her. As Biege is one of my best friends, and i felt privileged that he would often call me for advice on just about anything, I worried that when he got married, it might be to a girl who didn't like me, or tried to push me or the rest of our family away. And in my heart, I always promised that I would never ever do anything or say anything if he married a girl i didn't like, because i would rather swallow bloody band aids than let anything come between my brother and i.

So I'm going to be incredibly selfish and make it all about me when I say that i feel both blessed and lucky to an immeasurable degree that he married the girl of my dreams.

The thing is, I am SO jealous of all of them! I mean, not so much in a self deprecating way as in a really proud way. I happen to be the older sister of three very talented and intelligent individuals.

My Brother Biege has got to be the most hilarious person on this planet. He always has a story about boy scouts, or some joke about 'yo mama'. Just ASK him about Bergan, and 'the walk'. Or ask him how to avoid getting mugged on your way to your car. (Biege, I need a video to insert here.)

My brother is my go-to tech guy. He is just so amazing, that even after I deleted my ENTIRE blog- followers, buttons, posts, pictures and ALL, he still managed to get it back. When my computer bit the dust, crashed and burned, and kicked the bucket, all in the same day, he still brought it back to life and saved all the pictures from my children's entire lifetimes.

Of course, he made my home page his blog (which would be okay if he updated it once in awhile- HINT HINT) and puts passwords like "Set up us the bomb" on everything. I'm not a game junkie, so he always has to explain such jokes to me, and then they're not funny anymore, but oh well.

Brilliant, I tell you. And clever, and sarcastic as all get out. I snort when I laugh when I'm around him. His blog is amazing, and funny, even to me, and I don't understand anything about computers, or his beloved x-box and it's terrible "Red Ring of Death".

As for my sister, Bergan, well, I pretty much wish i was her. First of all, she's effing gorgeous. I mean, check out those giant blue eyes, and long lashes, puffy, pouty lips, and, well, the list could just keep going.


On top of that, my sister is genuinely good. I know, everyone has their problems, but Bergan seems to just have it all under control. I have very little ability to control my emotions and passions, let alone my sass-mouth (wonder where Lilly gets it?). Bergan always has seemed like this statue of inherent strength.

She's headed out to France in the fall for a semester abroad, and I am insanely proud and insanely jealous. I never had that kind of guts.

Furthermore, Bergan is brilliantly smart. And she's a better writer than I am- which makes me, again, insanely jealous and insanely proud. Writing was always my 'thing'- but she has surpassed me.

My brother, Bozton, is the youngest. And he does things like this:

I don't think Boz has a blog, but he honestly should. Another writer in the family. (Maybe we get it from our mom???) Like Bergan and I, he is on the literary magazine crew- though he started out in it.

Boz is the goofiest person I know (aside from Biege) he definitely marches to the beat of his own drum, and is my kids' favorite uncle. My little Scarlet- well, uncle or not, I think she has a little crush on him. (And she's afraid of Biege as of late- because he grew a beard...something about his blog...but who knows, 'cause he never updates it. ~HINT HINT!~)

I was totally flattered when Boz asked me to dye his hair blue. ~Wink~ I honestly don't think there's anyone more loyal than Boz is.

So, as cheesy as this might be, and as mediocre as the writing might be, well, that's that. My family surpasses them all.