|
|
About my brother |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My Family: Home Page My Immediate Family My Nuclear Family Extended Family: Sundholm Arlington's
Family page Pauline's Birthday Celebration 2007 Extended Family: Dietzler |
My Baby Brother Sean is my little brother. He's 3 years and 8 months younger than I am. Technically, we are only half-siblings, but we have never thought of ourselves that way. As kids, we fought like cats and dogs, but I think it's just because we got bored. Sometimes I taunted him until he cried, and even at times treated him like a ragdoll (remember, I was three years older and much bigger) but many years later, feeling guilty about my obnoxious behavior as a pre-teen and teenager, I begged for his forgiveness. He claims he only remembers our childhood being good. Deep down, we were as tight as two siblings could be.
Sean was one of the funniest kids ever born. He kept us in stitches....pretty much for all of the 70s and 80s. He had a habit of playing Hide-and-seek, but neglecting to tell his mom (or in one case, our 8-and-a-half-months-pregnant babysitter) that he was going into hiding. And then, he'd fall asleep. Hours later, when we were all in tears and had the entire community searching for him (fearing he'd fallen into the river or been abducted), he'd emerge, sleepy-eyed, from under the bed, or behind the bleachers at school, and say, "Haha, suckers, I GOT you guys!!!!" (usually followed by "I'm hungry.") Sean works for the State of Michigan, like our Mom. Here's Sean on the day of his graduation from training:
Love & Marriage On May 19, 2001, Sean married his longtime sweetheart, Celina. I was thrilled when they asked me to be in their wedding. I love Celina as if she were my own flesh and blood.
Celina earned an Associates Degree in 2005 that licenses her to assist in classrooms with special needs children. She has tried a few different possible careers, and this seems to be the right match for her. She graduated in May 2005 and was working in the field before she even got her degree, but once Elayna and Shawna get a little bigger, she could continue to take classes toward her B.A., which would increase her earning potential. She loves her job!
I'm an auntie! Sean and Celina had their first child, Elayna Elizabeth, on January 4, 2006. I am so excited to be the kooky aunt! (Also, this takes the heat off me for not wanting to have kids--Whew!). Daughter #2, Shawna, came along exactly 18 months later, on July 4, 2007. Click here to go to an entire page of pictures of my nieces.
Celina's family Celina has a really big family too--enough for a website as big as this one--but here are two amazing facts about Celina's family: Factoid #1: Five generations of women were alive and well for over a year! This photograph was taken in November 2006 at Celina's great-grandmother Esther's 90th birthday party (click to enlarge). Left to right are Celina (4 of 5), Esther (1 of 5), Elaine (2 of 5) holding baby Elayna (5 of 5), and Julie (3 of 5). Esther passed away in February 2007, but was able to share 14 months of life with her only great-great-granddaughter, Elayna.
Factoid #2: Celina's only brother, Orv, and his wife had their second child on the same day as Sean & Celina's second child, Shawna. They were born literally just minutes apart, one in Michigan and one in Indiana. Celina says the girls even look alike! Racin' and other hobbies After attending a few races with Mom & David, Sean started to race his '68 Camaro. Sean runs a quarter-mile in about 12.5 seconds, and is continuously working on his car to get that time lower. If I recall, David once told me that after you get down to 11 seconds, every additional tenth of a second that you want to shave off your time is about a $10,000 investment in high-performance auto parts, plus countless hours of installation and fine-tuning.
Sean and David are both continuously working on and sinking hard-earned money into their hot rods. Both have had many successes. Although he is relatively new to the sport and doesn't have much time to spend on the car since his daughters came along, Sean performs very well when he does make it to a race. In his first race at Joliet, Illinois in August 2001, he finished in the top 10 of almost 200 drivers! Here are some pictures of muscle cars at that show, which Derek and I attended:
I have one very big regret about that trip, and about racing in general. I have never seen Sean race. Stupid, I know! I have attended his races (just twice I think), but something--either my own stupidity or mother nature--always seems to prevent me from getting to the line when he's up. Once, I arrived too late. In Joliet, I got sick just before his first run and had to leave the bleachers and find a trash can. It was over 90 degrees, and on the black asphalt, I was miserable....so miserable that I lost my cookies. Later in the day, after resting under the shade of the tent, it was almost Sean's turn again, so we headed for the bleachers. We waited and waited for over an hour, and suddenly I realized that I'd left my purse unattended at the tent. I dashed out of the bleachers again to save my purse, and of course, that is when Sean hit the line. Finally, he drove from Joliet to my house in the summer of 2004 with the intention of racing at Milan. That time, his car broke down. It just isn't in the cards apparently! I did get to witness him race on a circle track though. (Circle track racing and drag racing are two entirely different sports). Sean started racing his 4-cylinder "hound" at the Dickinson County Fairgrounds on Fridays in the summer of 2004.
Seanie Baloney:
I said that Sean was a funny kid. Really, you
have NO idea. But I have to indulge myself here, and share with you an
excerpt from my March 2004 newsletter, where I wrote about my bro and his
strange ailments. This is some of my best literary work, if I say so
myself: That Kid gets into EVERYTHING! Sean, my brother, got in head-on collision in
December. It was very early in the morning, and he was headed for a training
course. As the two cars met each other, the
slushy snow pulled them both toward the center line, and they crashed. This is one of those "only in a small town" situations:
the
driver of the other vehiclewas his co-worker, on his way to the car
pool before heading to the same training session as Sean.
Sean was
one of those kids who was into everything.
Mom couldn't look away for 30 seconds because he'd cause major
turmoil if left alone. When he was
a toddler, he fell and cracked his head open a half-dozen times in a 7-month
span. Pointy objects and edges of
furniture seemed to magnetically attract his skull. This
was long before all the kid-proofing gadgets available now.
Mom's idea of kid-proofing was to keep a steady supply of rubber bands, outlet covers, and gauze.
He was having extreme difficulty swallowing for a few days after the
uvulectomy (I'll bet that's a word in some medical dictionary) surgery, so I sent him a care package of soft foods
like pudding, oatmeal, and other squishy
stuff.
His wry response when he opened the box was, "Um.....honey, I think Betsy went grocery
shopping for us." You gotta love my bro. People tell me I'm funny, but that kid has an unparalleled sense of humor and quick wit. He always has, and (I suspect) always will.
|
