Back to Bite Me

Ok, so this blog has actually been a few days in the making.

Well, in my head it has. I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and write it all out until, umm, now. And there's an add-on to it since I originally decided to write it. So here goes.

As I've mentioned previously, I live in a different kind of household. We're family, flesh and blood related, but we're different. KBug and I live with my grandmother, GMa, and my brother, PJP.

Now, GMa has been a part of my life since the day I was born. I lived in her home for the first couple years of my life, and then my parents moved out, only to move back into her house about two or three years later. So, out of my 23 years, I have probably lived with her for about 19-20 years. She's an amazing woman. Kind hearted, patient, loyal, encouraging and maintains an incredible faith in herself, other people, the world and our Lord. She's truly an inspiration to me and if I can grow to be even half the woman she is, I will be a happy woman.

My brother, PJP, is, well, my brother. He's 18 years old. And he is everything a little brother should be. He's annoying, he's exhausting, he's frustrating, he drives me up the wall. No joke. But he's also a pretty decent guy. And I feel very lucky to have a brother who loves me as much as he does. And I feel lucky to have a little brother who looks up to me the way he does. It's wonderful to watch him grow and help guide him into the respectful young man I know he can be.

 

This past weekend, PJP and I woke up and made breakfast for everyone. Typically Saturday mornings are a feed yourself, free for all type morning. But we decided we wanted to do something different. And we did. We made breakfast. And we got KBug and GMa and we all sat down together and ate breakfast together.

And it was perfect.

We laughed, we talked, we enjoyed each others company (and we spent a fair amount of time trying to convince KBug to actually eat). It was awesome. And I loved every minute of it. So much so that PJP and I agreed that we were going to start getting up and making breakfast EVERY Saturday morning. And I can't wait for this Saturday so that we can have that dedicated family time.

Family has always meant a lot to me. I would walk to the ends of the Earth for my family if they asked me to. I would do anything for any of them. They are my world and they have made my world as amazing as it is. They have given me everything.

Support, encouragement, love, happiness.

They've been there for me when I felt like I had no one. No matter what.

Happy, sad, angry, frustrated, lonely, frightened.

It's pretty incredible to think about how lucky I am to have such amazing family members.

But back to that "do anything for any of them" thing I said above........

Yeah, I definitely did that with my brother today.

And it came back to bite me.

Literally.

PJP has a lot to learn about being a functioning adult. And it's a lot of little things that, when they're put together, add up to a huge part of life. So things like throwing away your trash, putting your soda cans in the recycle bin, putting your laundry in the laundry hamper, changing your sheets and brushing your teeth (yeah, at 18 years old I would have thought he had that one down, too...). PJP is good at none of those things. So he's "in training".

Well, to get his training off to a good start, I had him clean his room. And I had him change his sheets. And I had him bring down all his blankets to be washed. And I had him bring down all of his laundry to be washed. And I started in on it all.

I washed him blankets yesterday and it went smoothly, no problems at all.

Today I started washing his clothes. And it was the ONLY thing different that I did today from any other day.

And we learned one very important thing in this whole cleaning exercise.

Because apparently PJP has mites or bed bugs or tiny little spiders or SOMETHING living upstairs in his room.

And they bit me like crazy.

Talk about frustrating! And itchy!

But, ya know what? I'm a good big sister. And I had him go up and bring down ALL of his laundry so that I can wash everything and hopefully kill off whatever little bugs are chewing on my arm.

So that's my plan for the night. Washing my little brother's clothes. And folding them. And then tomorrow morning (after I drag him to the gym) I'm going to help him put all of his clothes away.

Basically, I'm going to be very tired tomorrow. But it will all be worth it because I love my brother and it's totally worth it to help him out a little bit.

And it's not going to keep me from running my 2 miles tomorrow morning, either.

Great Glow Run, here I come!