Looking back on the other evening when I had hoped to do some writing, discovered my blogs were all trashed, spent an hour feeling sick to my stomach about it and wringing my hands, then buckled down, found the fix and managed to still post to both blogs, I realized I had created a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Poor Rich was dragged along for the ride as I lamented to him about my blog being broken and by the time he was starting to have sympathy pains and came over to my office to share some “yeah, screw those guys” over the bastards that hacked my sites, I had fixed it and was all giddy. He had some sympathy whiplash from it all.

As angsty as I was about my blogs being brokenBrokenBROKEN, in the end, I was pretty pleased with myself.

That planted a seed of thought for what kinds of things give us a sense of accomplishment or make us happy. And it reminded me of the “ice-breaker” I’d heard of that asked everyone in the room to name something they were proud of.

So let’s try this for our next Living Out Loud. Tell us something that you’re proud of. Ideally, it would be something about yourself that you’re proud of and not that you’re proud of Alberto Contador’s performance in the Tour de France. It could be a specific accomplishment or a particular character trait of yours. It could be one thing for a combination of events/factors that make up the magic of you. I recently read an article about someone saying he wasn’t brave for writing about one of his shortcomings on the Internet because he got plenty of the expected sympathy and hugs but that it took more courage for him to brag about himself online. (Ironically, he took the bragging post down or I’d link to it.)

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each prompt above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I’m just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org. Remember, if you don’t email me, I’m likely to forget to include you in the recap!

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, August 1st (the first Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

So let’s hear it. Pat yourself on the back. Toot your own horn and tell it like it is.

I’m woefully behind. We had house guests this weekend, which was lovely but left little time for writing by Sunday evening. And then yesterday I was all ready to compile our entries but work kicked my ass and then this head cold finished me off at 8pm when the boy and I both went to bed at the same time. Oh, and I have a squirmy baby that rarely naps and doesn’t go to bed much before we do.

But enough excuses, let’s check out our entries!

Kimz’ The only only child
I’m always fascinated how some single children can grow up as “micro-adults” because they interact with so many adults. And one of my co-workers talks about the challenges of parenting siblings when you’ve never had to yourself (he and his wife are only children).

Ruth’s He ain’t heavy
Love the squinty photo! Having the shared memories but from other perspectives is a rare treat.

Megan’s Big brother
I had two older brothers and I don’t remember a lot of hair-ruffling. I have always wondered what it would be like to have a sister. I look forward to hearing how my kids feel about each other once they’re adults (and more than one of them).

Peg’s Family Matters
Wow, you really were the middle child and then some.

SuziCate’s I Am My Own Keeper
Six kids over 12 years is a lot. I have a hard enough time relating with just my two brothers let alone all those others. Everyone’s perspective is very different even on the same events.

Rachel’s The little sister
There are lots of things I didn’t have to endure as the youngest baby. Part of that was being a girl and part of that was loosening standards by that time. But there’s a chance to change that behavior as adults. We just have to work on it.

And my own Siblings

As I said earlier, I’ve been behind. I haven’t reminded folks about the LOL deadlines and I’m barely able to get a topic out “on time” (with some leeway given to the on time part). But you all rallied for me. And then when I sit down to read the entries, I’m still just so pleased at the thought you put into them. It makes me proud.

This month I choose Rachel as our winner. Maybe it’s because I feel some commiseration about that whole youngest child thing. But her entry struck me as the definition of writing something you wouldn’t normally have for the world to see. Thank you so much for sharing!

Rachel will receive a $25 Amazon gift card as her prize but all participants earn my unending appreciation for your writing. I have picked a theme for this month but just have to figure out how to explain it, so hopefully I can do that this week.

Whenever I describe my brother Perry, I always say “he looks just like me only 6 inches taller and much more bald.” We are very similar in many ways but not quite identical.

Perry is six and a half years older than I am. When Mom was pregnant with me, Perry took my ultrasound picture to show and tell to show everyone his little sister. When we were little, everyone said we should have been closer together so we could have played together. We still managed to play just fine.

When I was six months old and Perry was seven, we went to have our pictures taken at Thalhimers. Perry was in charge of making sure I stayed sitting up and getting me to smile for the camera. He would perform all these antics and when I would grin back he’d burst out, “that’s my girl!” I’m not sure the photographer knew what to think of us.

I’ve always said that I know I won’t have my father forever, but when he’s gone I will always have Perry. In many ways he is our dad on a 30 year delay. This can be charming and frustrating, but at least we know where it comes from.

I have many other people in my life who act like siblings to me. Mr. Smith is one of my oldest and dearest friends and I feel like our families are intertwined on many levels. It was amusing to me when my co-workers commented on my sister at our wedding (last I checked I didn’t have a sister). My “sister” was Laura, who had just finished a reading during the ceremony and was walking over the straighten my wedding gown before photos. Ah, right. Maybe I have a sister after all.

But they are not the same as my brothers. We share a sub-culture. We’re roadies from the same circus. We know each other’s history. We are all actors in the same play, though with our broad age differences it may be that some of us had larger parts in different acts.

That relationship can be difficult to explain to others at times. I’m grateful that Rich is so close to his brother Lee so he understands the importance of it.

In the last month I’ve sewn curtains for my brother, helped him order his new cell phone and edited several emails intended for a lady friend. He’s delivered Pyrex dishes and a million fleece blankets he found on clearance.

We’re six and a half years apart but we still manage to play just fine.

Ian is a little over eight months old now and the ladies at day care have started asking if he’s going to have any siblings. There are several other babies in the room who have older brothers or sisters in the neighboring classrooms and I could see that in some cases they are that close together. And while we’re interested in Ian having at least one sibling, we’re not really ready to start on that quite yet.

Both of us have brothers that are at least five years apart from us (his younger, mine both older). It seems normal to us. But as I look at my own life I’m not sure I want to be 38 with a newborn.

Both of my parents have siblings and it’s been interesting to see their relationships as they’ve all grown up and now become of old people. They share a common bond of family and even in their adult interactions you can see currents of how they were as kids. There’s the bossy one and the whiny one and the smart ass.

I’ve even heard someone ask, “do you think I could buy a brother?” after dealing in frustration with the brother fate dealt.

So this brings me to our theme for Living Out Loud. I’m way behind and I’m sure some of you wondered if there would even be an LOL this month. But I knew we wouldn’t want it due on July 4 anyways, so I kinda knew I had an extra week to procrastinate. Forgive me, I have a clingy eight-month-old at home so I have to go to Panera to write blog posts.

Tell us about your siblings. Do you wish you had more or less of them? Has your relationship with them changed over the years? For better or for worse? If you’re an only child, are you happy about that or do you wish you had a brother or sister around? In either case are there those who fill the space of a sibling you “never had” within your circle of friends? Did your relationship with your siblings affect your ideas on kids of your own? What qualities do you think that make you a good sibling to your family (either actual or chosen)?

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each prompt above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I’m just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org. Remember, if you don’t email me, I’m likely to forget to include you in the recap!

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, July 11th (the second Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

Whew, another month has flown by and this one has been particularly busy for me (note the distinct lack of updates lately). But it’s always good to see my gang of LOLers still pull through for me. These were all a joy to read!

Rachel’s The rascal’s family
I love that nickname, very clever. And it’s amazing how history can repeat itself.

Peggy’s It’s All Relative
I love looking at pictures of kids and comparing them to adults. My brother and I look almost identical, I think. I keep meaning to get baby pictures of me and Rich and our brothers to see who Ian favors.

Candice’s Learning how to love and cry
Ah, postpartum hormones. My parents have never been overly emotional until recently so we’ve never had to deal with “fuzzy screens” but I’m finding myself more empathetic to them every day now as a parent.

Ruth’s Chew It Up Good
There is a famous family recording of my yelling “LOOK WHAT HE BRANG ME!” on Christmas morning, and yet I still manage to command the English language now. And yeah, heredity can sometimes feel like a trap and other times like a warm blanket.

Megan’s Too Much Fun? Not Mom
I laughed about her collecting ex-boyfriends. I tend to collect Rich’s ex-girlfriends so I can empathize. And now I want to hang out with your mom.

SuziCate’s Does The Apple Really Fall That Far From The Tree?
Wow your parents really do look alike. And my mother always used to hear how beautiful her sister was and how she had such a sweet personality. So yeah, we understand that whole ugly duckling thing.

Jessica’s Family resemblance
I’m fascinated how you and your sister look so different but I can see both of your parents in you, both temperament and features. As for Tommy, I have a hard time pinning any particular features to one or the other of you. He’s a little potpourri of you both.

And my own Nurturing my nature

I found this topic to be really fun to read, if difficult to get started writing about. I attribute that to my own writers block of sorts these days, though. I love looking at pictures of people and many of you offered up a ton to peruse. I also love to see physical characteristics and personality traits grow in people.

This month I choose Candice as our winner. I admit to having a soft spot for her as a new mother and seeing how she’s found a new quality in herself she didn’t think was there really stuck with me. Candice will receive a $25 Amazon gift certificate as her prize, but you all receive my eternal thanks for playing along with me this month.

I’m already churning up an idea for our next theme (as well as several other blog posts that have been percolating) so stay tuned!