Sassy Britches

Susie and I met back in college and instantly became best friends. She is one of those people I mentioned in my previous post whose whole extended family has adopted me as their own. Her mom is actually the person who grocery shops for me and makes me incredible food when I ask her to... she's my personal guardian angel. And I loved her dad, Jack. He was this combination of sweet and ornery, and loved to stir up trouble. My favorite look on his face was when he would glance at you out of the corner of his eye and get a half-mouthed grin because he knew he had just gotten under someone's skin. He was good to me and I know he liked me because he gave me a lot of crap. That's how you really knew you were in.

One of the first times I spent an extended amount of time with Susie's family is when I went home with her for her Uncle Gene and Aunt Mary's farm sale/auction. I'm such an idiot at these things because I totally don't know the etiquette involved. When I saw her brother Mike coming across the lawn I got excited and waved and yelled out to him... and almost bought a vacuum cleaner. Yeah, I was so not subtle. But her parents, Jack and Linda? They were smooth. I stared at them all day as he was up on the stage holding up items and she was with us in the crowd. They would do nothing more than blink their eyes at each other... maybe give a tiny head nod... and before you knew it they had bought an item. It took being in sync to a whole other level.

Susie's dad died in a car accident in September of 2002, which means he got to know her oldest son, Jonathan, but never got to meet Tyler. And let me tell you, he would get a kick out of this kid. If I believed in reincarnation I would say that he should have been named Jack 2.0. That combination of sweet and ornery I was telling you about? It's all wrapped up in Mr. Tyler. He's even got the grin. And being that he's my godson he might have me wrapped around his finger just a little bit.

When I was on the phone with Susie the other night that ornery part of Tyler was coming to the surface and I said, "Boy, he's a little sassy britches tonight." Which made her promptly turn to Tyler and say, "Your godmother is on the phone and said you're being a sassy britches. And she can take away your birthday."

WHHAATT??? I promptly made her take it back and clarify that I would never take away his birthday. And of course she had that funny, ornery tone in her voice during this whole exchange. I could almost see her grin over the phone.

Wonder where she got that from?

:)