The Nick Man

Today is the second of three family birthdays and the third of 5 birthdays of people I am close to this week. Yes you have read correctly all three of my siblings were born in the same freaking week of February and I have two very close friends that fall between them. I really hate this week/month even though I love the people with the b-days.

So we know Stephy Lou was Monday, well yesterday was our awesome friend Davids or as we call him Big D's 29th birthday. Today is the older of my two brothers (but still my little brothers)Nick's 23rd birthday. Now you will just have to wait to find out who the other birthday folks are and when there are because this is really Nick Man's day.



I was 4 going on 5 when Nick was born and I remember allot about the week he was born. At the beginning of that week my dad had surgery (one of many back then) on his knee so he was on crutches for Stephs birthday. The following Day my grandma had come over to help my mom do some cleaning and last minute things for the new baby. Steph and I were playing nicely in our bedroom with all her new toys. At the time we had bunk beds and the top bunk was mine but it was off limits to Steph. Our mom and dad thought it was too high for her to be climbing on. Well that day since dad was gone and mom was busy we decided it would be fun to take all the stuffed animals and barbies up to my bed and play boat. I climbed up first and she tossed all the toys up to me and then she started her climb for the top bunk. She got about half way and got scared so I leaned over and told her to grab my hand. Instead of just reaching for me with one hand and holding on with the other she let go completely and tumbled to the floor with a very loud thud! It turned out that that thud broke her collar bone so we spent the rest of the day at the doctors waiting for them to set it.

Of course as luck would have it the very next morning my mom went into labor with Nick (who up until that point was known as Andrea because the ultrasound tech told them it was going to be another girl). Since my mom and dad had only discussed girl names for him they didn't have anything picked out so my mom let my dad name him. That is how Nick Man got the name Nicklaus Hogan Jurden after my dad's two favorite golfers Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. I don't know if he knew how well the name would grow to fit Nick but he has golf in his blood for sure.

Unfortunately for me I do not remember much of Nick during his first year because of everything that happened with my father so I skip forward to when Nick was about 2 and Steph and I would torture him all the time. We made him play barbies with us and we would dress him up in our fancy church dresses all the time. The worst thing we did though was pile up tons of blankets and towels on the laundry room floor and then send Nick down the laundry shoot and into them like a pile of leaves. I'm pretty sure if Steph or I would have fit we would have done it to but Nick was not that excited about the whole thing. He was always such a good sport about everything we did and he never complained about it.

Today Nick towers over Steph and I so we can't really force him to do anything but I'm pretty sure if we ask him to he would do whatever it is because that is just the type of guy he has grown up to be. Nick isn't one to show emotion for much of anything, really nothing at all even when he is excited you don't know. The only times I have seen him show any emotion have been when my two children were born, the day he got married, and then funerals of our uncle and grandfather this year. Allot of people that knew our father say he is just like him in the regards but I think part of this for him was that he grew up in a house full of crazy women. :) Either way Nick is an amazing man and a great brother. I hope he has an awesome day today.

*I'm writting this at work because I don't feel like working at all so later today when I get home I will ad