Monday, January 19, 2009

MPG Pizza Louie

Today is my brother Michael's birthday. He's an OLD 27 today! I was 8.5 when he was born and I liked pretending I was his second mother.

FYI: The ugly little girl in the next picture is NOT ME. She's my 80's stunt double. I never did like touching sparklers and always paid a local girl that looked like my twin to stand in for photos. Really. She even had the same HUGE glasses I did and flood pants/bad shoes.

Michael's always been a kid that wants to do EVERYTHING the big kids are doing! And he does do it all. You know that song from Annie, Get Your Gun that goes, "Anything you can do, I can do better?" That's Mike. He's smart, good looking and talented.

Look at him lifting a rock that weighs about as much as he does, in this photo! My mom is very close, taking pictures of him. This photo is a testament to her parenting skills . . . the same parenting techniques that I try to use. She always parented us allowing us a lot of freedom and she had a lot of faith that we'd be OK. Definitely not one of those moms that says "NO!" all the time, "No, you'll get hurt. . . OH, be careful, get away from that RAGING RIVER, you could die!" No, that wasn't her style. You have to understand that she wasn't a strong swimmer until I was in High School so even if he had fallen in, there would have been nothing she could do.

Wait, maybe that's not parenting with faith. . . maybe she WANTED to get rid of you, Mike?! ha ha . . . I SO love torturing my brothers. I've recently tried convincing Eric (the 18 year old) I'm his biological mother, a product of a teen pregnancy. Another story for another time. Back to the birthday boy!

I loved Mike's curly hair. What a cute little blond afro he had. He was the kind of kid that always had funny things to say. Weird pronunciations and quirky statements. I wish I could remember more than this:

He used to introduce himself as, "Michael Prince Goold, Pizza Louie, also me am 3, Michelle ma Belle!" He was a cute, afro-ed little punk. This is my favorite photo of him. He looks so innocent and sweet.
That look was just an act, trust me. Michael was a wild man baby. He could wreak so much havoc that my parents turned his crib upside down like a cage. I remember having to get help to get him out of that contraption, when he woke up from naps; one person to push the bar and one to lift the side of the crib UP. When I saw "Baby Jack Jack" on The Incredibles it made me think of Michael. Except Mike's head never spontaneously combusted!

When Michael was in about 6th grade my family moved from Alaska to St. George. He remembers quite a bit about growing up there . . . like on a warm July day how we might go down to the river and "sun-bathe" The air was probably around 68 degrees and the "sand" is glacial silt. Lovely snow-capped mountains in the distance and WHITE bodies that give off almost as much light as the sun itself. Cute photo! Good times!

I can't remember if I've put this photo on the blog or not. I think Michael looks adorable. He's the last one on the right. Again, my stunt double is the ugly girl in the purple shirt. Then, my adorable sister, Briana and Paul and Jonathan, with the nerdy glasses. We were on a family trip to Hawaii.

OK, enough with the photos, now for the MOOSH:

Michael, I love you. I'm so proud of the fine man you are. You are a great brother and fun to be around. Never a dull moment when Michael is in the room. A person doesn't even have to talk at all when Michael is in the room, if they don't want. He can keep everyone entertained for hours. Mike, you are a good husband (of two months) and I really love your wife. She's made you a better man, if that was possible. You really picked a perfect woman. I am proud of how hard you're working in school (he'll be taking the MCAT soon and heading for Med School next year sometime!) I love you! I hope you're birthday is great and don't wait for a card in the mail. This is it! Oh, and I'm buying Becca a ticket to come visit us for her spring break. You can come, too! xoxoxox, Sarah

If you don't know and are wondering what Michael and his hot wife look like NOW then Click HERE.

8 comments:

Andrea said...

Happy Birthday Mike!!

I am glad that you share cute baby pictures with all of us, they are fun.

Jennie said...

Oh sarah, I wish I remembered that much about when I was growing up. How fun. I can't imagine sunbathing on glacial silt! I guess that if I had THOSE kind of memories, I would never forget them, either.

youreprettytoo said...

What a great tribute to your brother. Like I've said before, anyone would be lucky to have you love them! My parenting style is similar to yours and your mothers. I thought I would be more uptight, but the more kids I have- the more I believe in natural consequences. "If you don;t want to wear a coat when it is 20 degrees out- fine. Just don't whine to me about it!"

Beka said...

I love reading your posts, Sarah. I think you need to take all of your posts and make them into a book each year. What a great family history! BTW: I had similar glasses to yours. I'm so grateful that the glasses I have on now are a third the size of the ones I wore when I was 8-14 years old.

Unknown said...

cute photos Sarah! you are a great big sister-I am enjoying your posts! missed them!!

Elaine Goold said...

Oh, what a cute tribute to your wonderful brother, Michael. (I don't think he was ever in an upside down crib though. That was Daniel.) But Michael was a wild baby. He was the one who rocked to go to sleep and banged his head, so we had to put crib matresses all around his crib and bed so he wouldn't hurt himself banging his head on the walls or sides of the crib. Also he would crawl at 6 months of age and go kama kazi style down the stairs head first and then laugh! He also didn't talk until he was 3 and then he talked in complete sentences. I worried a LOT about him when he was a baby. Of course, the baby psychiatrist asked me if he had had any trauma in his infancy such as: being left with strangers, moving into a new house, or being weaned early. Yep! all three. We moved into a new house and I left him with strangers (friends of ours - Mama Dustin) and weaned him early so I could go to Mexico! Talk about mothering styles! Mine was on the verge of being negligent!

Mike Goold said...

Wow I really have a big head now!! And here I was thinking Becca and I were the only ones who saw how amazingly awsome I am!! HA hA I'd say just kidding but no one would believe me anyways if I pretended to have humility!! Thanks for the post it made me laugh and I had a good time reading it!! You were like a nerdy protecvtive sister 'hen' when I was younger!!! I loved having such a fun involved sister growing up!! Love you Sarah!

Krystal said...

Happy Birthday to Mike! I love all the cute baby pictures. Mike's curly hair was so cute!