Growing up with siblings

For the first time in a very long time, all the Beerman siblings were together without Mom and Dad this past weekend. My brothers, Jason and Trey, came up to Julie's (our sister) for the weekend. We haven't all been together without our parents for a couple years at least. It was a blast! Jason is 36, Julie is 32, I'm 27, and Trey is 8. As we sat around the table Saturday night playing a heated game of Spades, I couldn't help but think of how far we've come from the days of giving each other hell growing up. I remember Jason and Julie always fighting and Jason chasing Julie around the house because Julie would take one of Jason's sweatshirts without asking and not return it. Or we'd be downstairs watching t.v. all calm and quiet and Mom would be upstairs all of a sudden Julie would shrill out of nowhere and yell to Mom that Jason had hit her when in fact Jason was just minding his own business...and Jason would still get in trouble. Of course there was the time Jason rubbed my head in the carpet and literally burned the front part of my hair off, the day before school pictures. Man, Mom was UPSET! Or when Julie would dig into the edge of my fingernail in order to get me to do whatever she wanted me too. Then there was the neighborhood gang. I remember when one boy hit Julie in the nose so she gave him a black eye. Or when Jason and Cort hung me up by my belt loop from the top of the swing set. It was awesome to think of all torture we'd do to each other for so long and now we're all sitting around the table, talking about jobs, married life, and whatnot. I think it all started changing when Julie and I were in high school. Mostly because we could call Jason and ask him out to get out of trouble or get away with something because we knew he'd done it all before. Whether it was Julie calling him to find out how to break into the house after she broke curfew or me calling him to find out how to handle mom and dad when I got my first speeding ticket. Of course, once we all were out of high school, we took it another notch up. Julie and I went to same college and lived about 8 blocks from each other. We spent the night of 9/11 at her apartment just watching. Jason called me with re-assurance when mom and dad busted me with alcohol. Jason and I lived together for a year and half when I moved back from River Forest. Whether it was Jason trying to teach me how to budget, me giving him rides when his license was suspended, or working out...that was our bonding time. Then when Trey came along, it all changed again. When our parents were going through the court process with Trey's biological father, we three older siblings had a sit down and pretty much said, "this is our brother no matter what and we will do anything necessary to care for him". It didn't matter that he wasn't a true blood brother, he's a love brother and love is always thicker than blood. And I'd like to think we've done that to the best of our abilities. Although it is fun to give it to mom and dad about how much softer they've gotten since we grew up...Trey gets away with everything!!! J/K, but it's fun! Now that Erin and I live in Bourbonnais, it's fun to get to see Julie (and Mike) all the time. Julie and I are getting that closeness that Jason and I got when we were living together. I can talk to her about being married and what to expect and also family. It's great! It was just awesome to be sitting there, enjoying each other's company, playing cards, watching Trey play with Jaydon (our nephew). And then Julie said something interesting. As we were playing Spades, Jaydon and Trey kept coming up and interupting for one thing or another and Julie was trying to feed Carter (our other nephew) and she said, "now we know how mom and dad felt when they were trying to play cards with the Pointers" (our neighbors growing up). Holy cow, I never realized it till then, WE ARE OUR PARENTS!!!! But they raised, what I think, are 3 great kids and are raising a fourth and if I can be half the parents they are, I'd be beyond happy! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!