4th of July Cook Out!

This is my family. Left to right is my little sis, Toni, big brother, Shane, ME, and my little brother, Richard who will always be "Ricky" to me. They all live about 2 hours away from me, so getting to spend the 4th of July with them was really nice. Toni will be 23 in September. She is a part time college student and full time hard workin' woman! She is the center of her little universe at work where she keeps customers returning with her light hearted personality, energy, and humor. Shane is what you'd call an extroverted introvert. He's actually very private and introspective, but you might not expect it if you only saw him at a social event. He likes to draw a crowd with his quick wit and entertaining stories. He likes to race motorcycles, or "crotch rockets" as he calls them. He gave me a ride on one once. Let's just say it's not an experience I want to EVER repeat! Ricky is my "long lost brother" of a sort. A couple of years ago he contacted me out of the blue and told me that he was living in my state. I hadn't seen him since he was 5 years old! From the moment we met I felt like we'd been close forever. He's taller than me, so I think he treats me like a little sister sometimes, but that's okay. He is married and has a little girl the same age as Danya with another one on the way. He is my only sibling that can relate with the whole "parenting" experience with me. I was so excited when he told me not long ago that he had excepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. I've prayed for all of my family for about 10 years now, and I literally wanted to shout for joy when he told me the good news! God has blessed Ricky tremendously recently with the startup of his own power washing business. I am so proud of him and happy for him. Not shown in the picture is my youngest brother, Patrick, who couldn't be there that day. He re-entered my life around the same time as Ricky did. He works really hard and we hardly get to see each other. I really wish that he'd come visit for a weekend so that we could spend some time getting to know each other. I still tend to picture him as my 3 yr old baby brother and barely know him as an adult. It's hard to imagine that 20 years has passed since then! I hope my family plans more events like this. If they do, I'll be sure to add more pictures of them to this website! (See, Toni, I added this right after you called!)