Blended Family

What are the full names of your siblings? Could you tell me a story or any memory of your brothers and sisters?

As a child, I found myself drawing a diagram to tell them of my family. I have 13 brothers and sisters, and NO ONE could understand that back then. They still can’t. haha

So I would draw it out. (I had a pic for here...but it wouldn't upload. Will try again later)

I will start from the oldest, David Ray Brown. Oh Dave! I could tell a MILLION stories about Dave, but I will choose just two…..and yet as I contemplate right now, having picked the two out pretty quick, I probably ought to say something good about him. He is a good guy…tons of fun all the time. Anyhow, when we lived in California, behind our house was a play area….a large field with a cement basketball court on it. I’m sure by now the trees are very large, but at the time in our new subdivision, they were very small. They had grown enough to climb around, but weren’t strong enough to really hold anyone. Dave tied me into that tree….hung me upside down. Well, it was a small tree and the lowest branch wasn’t quite as high as I was tall. So my shoulders rest on the ground. He was a pest. He LOVED to pick on us…on anyone. He teased us relentlessly. Another time I remember we were on vacation, I think at Honeyman Beach. My dad and I were throwing the football. Dave kept jumping in and intercepting it. I was getting more and more frustrated, until at last I burst. He intercepted it and I tackled him and hit him. My dad just laughed. He could tell I was getting pretty angry and Dave was not going to last against me too long. I was 4 years younger than him, so I’m sure he was just laughing at me more than I was hurting him.

Bradley Lloyd Brown is two years older than me. Brad is the exact opposite of Dave. He is quiet and reserved and a loyal older brother. I remember once when I was walking home from practice. We lived a mile from the high school. It was winter so the sun had long since set and it was dark. I saw a guy walking towards me. I was pretty smart, or so I thought. I would walk in the middle of the road and sing I am a Child of God so I wouldn’t be scared. You see, if I walked in the middle, I had the same amount of time to see someone jump out to get me and would have time to react and run. The song just calmed me. Well, when this guy got closer, I realized it was my brother, Brad. No, we have NOT spoken of that night since. It is funny that HE was that scary guy from so far away, but he played more of a protector type role for me. Once when we were leaving the elementary school together, some older boys captured us. Not sure they REALLY captured us, but that is how it felt to me as a YOUNG little girl. They wouldn’t let us leave. They told us we either had to EAT or SMOKE the cigarette they had. I was SO scared, knowing I didn’t want to do EITHER. Somehow Brad negotiated my escape and told me to run home. I don’t remember what happened to him….a fight? I think so….but he made sure I was safe. That was Brad. I also remember him buying a motorcycle after high school. He came back home one time and took me on rides. I remember that on the way home from a family activity up in the canyon, I rode on the back. I loved being on the bike with him. But as we talked, a bug flew in my mouth (more than once). I enjoyed being with Brad. I still do. It was a lot of fun a couple summers ago to see him and spend time with him in California – then again at mom’s 70^th surprise bday extravaganza!

I am next in the family line.

Then Eric Reid Brown. He is just a year younger than me…almost to the day. We spent most of our growing up years sharing a birthday party. We had the same friends so it was always fun. Wow, I didn’t realize picking out an experience would be so difficult. TONS of memories fill my mind…..us fighting and me bloodying his nose, riding bikes together, jumping off the train bridge at Canyon Glen. He was so skinny I could see his heart beat in his chest. We were best friends a lot of the time. Maybe I can think of a good story …. How about his orange bug? We drove that thing far too fast wherever we went. We both worked at Little Caesar’s Pizza in high school. We had spent the day at Lagoon with some friends. He drove us home and I’m not sure if this part of the story is another instance or not, but we hustled way faster than the safety limit. Either we took a funny way to cut off time and went through the canyon or (what I think is probably more likely) this same type of experience happened while we were up the canyon and we headed home in lightning speed. This was BEFORE the new road….instead we had the old VERY WINDEY road down the canyon. Oh, I am sooo thankful our shenanigans never got us hurt. Oh, speaking of hurt, I do remember Eric accidently hitting Krista with a hoe as we weeded the garden. We were all ready to go on a picnic or some fun family outing. But first we had to get some work done (or so this is how I remember it). We begrudgingly picked out gardening tools and got into the garden. Instead of keeping the hoe down, like mom and dad had said, he lifted it up over his head to make a strong cut through the dirt. As he brought it over his head, it hit Krista in the head. Needless to say, we spent the afternoon at the ER instead of the fun family outing. We built forts out of wood almost every day. Dad worked construction and thankfully mom let us build and tear down forts daily in our backyard. What a fun childhood I had!!!

Krista June Sproul is next. She is almost 2 years younger than me and my only true full blood sibling. We shared a room for a long time growing up. While I am sad to say I didn’t always like it, it WAS nice to have someone in my room to talk to. We were almost exact opposites growing up. Thankfully, we have become best friends as we have grown up. I can’t believe I have so few memories come to my mind of when we were YOUNG, more when we got a little older. I remember stories I’ve been told about holding her when she was born and teaching her to unscrew the lid of her bottle and dump the contents on the floor. I’m not sure why, but I know I wasn’t very nice to Krista. This haunts me now. I wonder what life could have been like had I allowed our friendship to be strong back then. At least it has ironed itself out as the years have moved on. I helped Krista buy her first car…a little Toyota Tercel. It was a stick shift so I had to drive it home for her and help her learn to drive it. That was a fun little car. I also remember coming home one evening and finding her packing up her room. When I asked where she was going, she began to cry and told me she was moving to Washington or Oregon. WOW! That was NOT what I was expecting to hear. When I asked if it was what the Lord wanted, she assured me it was. So we packed her up and packed her life into her tiny little Mazda RX-7. She bloomed and blossomed in the Northwest. I went to visit her … she was thriving. And now we get together as often as we can. She has always loved traveling, and so do I. She has always worked for some sort of travel industry so she could get discounts. I think she is wonderful.

Scott Lowell Brown is next. He and Krista are just 9 months apart … Krista in Feb and Scott in Nov. Scott was part of the club…he was the youngest for a long time, but we included him (at least to the best of MY knowledge). Whether it was going down to the creek to hunt salamanders and adventure down in the underground (or so it seemed) to playing night games, I believe he was always there. I remember that he always licked his lips and therefore they were always chapped. It looked like his lips were double…both on top and bottom. He was the one that set the playroom on fire, yet made forts without fire inside. One Halloween, Scott and I made a crazy costume. We sewed two t-shirts together, made up our faces and called us the double headed hob goblin. We thought we were soooo sneaky. We would go to each house three times – once in our costume, once with me wearing it and him in whatever costume he had on underneath, and the last time with him wearing the costume and me with whatever I had on underneath. Sneaky? We thought so…but now as an adult, I am grateful the adults in the neighborhood just went along with it and didn’t ruin our fun. We had a great neighborhood…a great childhood!

When I was 11, Gary Shawn Brown was born. I remember coming home from Idaho where Krista and I had spent Christmas. It was on the way to the car that they all let us in on a little (or LARGE) secret. Mom was going to have a baby! WHAT!!! I was sooo excited! In 1979 Gary was born. What a fun little kid! We moved to Utah when he was 1 year old. I remember him sitting in the pail at Aunt Diane’s (where we also lived at the time) with water in it eating watermelon.  I loved watching him play baseball – he was GOOD! But my mom tells me that I would ask if I was ever that bad when he was really little. We played a lot. We would make snowmen and play catch. I remember him climbing up on our roof during the winter to get the football. NOT smart of me to let him. Yep, he slid off and hurt his ankle pretty badly. He was a bit of a dare-devil. I remember when I was driving down to college and he was with me. One of the LONG hills he turned to me and said, “I wish I could ride my skateboard down this!” Because he was only 7 when I graduated from high school, much of his growing up years were spent without me around. I heard a lot, and came to watch a LOT of his games. In fact, I came to his high school state baseball game where they won!

Nicole Michelle Brown Cassity is the youngest of us all. She was born when I was 16 years old. I loved having a little sister at that time. She was precious and I took her everywhere. After I graduated, she and I would spend most days together when I wasn’t working. She was two and a lot of people thought she was my child. In fact, once we went to get our pictures taken and they told her to sit on her mother’s lap. She turned her head all around looking for mom. That summer we did everything together. I took her swimming and to games and everything. She was paddling around in the pool one day in her floaty thing. I was sunbathing with my body in the pool and my feet on the pool deck watching her. I closed my eyes, she was getting pretty good at this. My ears were under the water and I heard her gulp. It wasn’t 1 second before I was in helping her. She was sooo afraid. Never again did I take my eyes off her. THAT experience cured me. She was my everything! What would I do without her? We played “Make me Laugh” all the time. She was very astute to my feelings. When I was down or sad or not feeling myself, she would sit on my lap and play “Make me Laugh” with me. It was sooo much fun. Although she is a lot younger than me, she and I continue to have a close relationship. I love having her as my sister.

And now…this is where the diagram comes in. I also have another family in Idaho. Krista still counts as one of the eight children, so I have six more siblings here. Again, I will begin with the oldest.

I am the oldest here.

Then Krista.

Michael Bruce Goodsell comes next. He went by Bruce. He and I were partners in crime growing up. We played baseball together all day every day during the summer. Well, maybe not ALL day, but every day for sure. Adventure was our middle name. We lived up on a hill and were known to wander off in search of treasure or anything fun. We made up games and stories. One year I remember painting the cacti gold and selling them. Well, we ATTEMPTED to sell them. For one, who in their right mind would buy them and two, we lived way off the beaten path and NO ONE ever stopped by. We got in trouble a lot but had a ton of fun. Whether I was there in the summer or the winter, we would play outside.

Zona Cherie Sproul Nelson was born a few days before I turned 8 years old. She was SOOO cute…I remember the night she we were all jumping around and rough housing. She was just LITTLE and was jumping on the bed with us. She jumped off and hit her face on the bed frame, gashing the bridge of her nose in between her eyes. Boy, that scared us all to death. It is a wonder we all live through our childhood! She used to call me Denny….she couldn’t say my name.

Jerilyn Rose Sproul Arriola is next. She and I played a lot of basketball and sports together. It was fun to get play with her too. I remember when she was in high school, the little truck she drove and going to play basketball with her. She came to visit me in Nashville right after I got married. She talked to me then about her liking Marvin and what I thought. I’m glad.

Jerry Kenneth Sproul II was a fun little boy. He was super active and loved to play EVERYTHING. He was fine to play by himself. He was super active and hyper, but super gentle with all his sisters. He impresses me. He has now taken over my dad’s CPA business.

Alisha Sproul Homer is next. Boy, this little girl stole my heart. I was old enough then that little ones meant something different, like Nicky. I didn’t spend a lot of time in Idaho growing up, and after I graduated from high school, even less. But I do remember taking Alisha with me to some softball games. Now I spend time at her house when we go to Idaho. Her kids are just as cute as she was growing up.

KimiLee Sproul Ward. She is the youngest. Not sure if she is younger than Nicky or not….I can’t remember this L Again, I didn’t grow up with Kim so I don’t have a lot of stories to tell. I do remember that she LOVES to cook and would do most of the cooking as she grew up. She was good at it too. She was home schooled and we had her graduation on the basketball court dad made in his yard.

That is my family…my 13 brothers and sisters.

No pics today....I'll try to get some on later.