i've got your back

I have a brother-in-law that lives in Texas. (Actually I have four in Texas, one in Colorado and one in California. That's a lot of brothers-in-law!) But today, I'm just writing about this one in particular, Mark. He's a happy guy. The first to laugh at a joke. Mostly his own. The guy with a big heart for other's (and a healthy one thanks to his doctors). And the guy who likes to tease and pull pranks on anyone he can.

His daughter, my niece, fondly recalls all the times that she would leave the house for school in the morning, only to later find a clothespin clipped to the back of her shirt or jacket. A little reminder that her Dad loved her and would be thinking of her while she was at school! So, while our family was together for the holidays, it was open season for him to show his love. It started with just one or two clothespins on an unsuspecting person. Then, I think almost everyone fell victim to being "clipped". So, it was only natural that the ultimate prankster finally got pranked himself.

While an intense game of dominoes was going on...someone clipped the first pin on him. And that is all it took to get the party started!
One clip after the next. Every time they walked by, they added another clip. And the cameras came out. And we were giggling. And he was oblivious, at first.
Then the kids got creative. Piggy backed the pins. And even decorated them! At some point his keen instincts told him that something was up, but he had no idea that he was beginning to look like a porcupine. It was hilarious. When he finally got to see just how many were on his shirt he was pretty surprised. We all got a big laugh out of it.
And of course, this went on each day. Someone would walk by and we would see that they had been pinned. After that, no one was safe. And he kept it up, clothespin after clothespin.

Later in the week, we went to tour the famous Dr. Pepper museum in Waco. Dr. Pepper is a big thing in Texas. When you first get there and pay your admission fee, they give you a little sticker to put on the front of your shirt showing you paid. We all toured the museum with our "I'm a Pepper" sticker on our shirts. The museum was pretty interesting and I think the crowd favorite was watching some of the old commercials. Go ahead, sing the jingle... you know you want to. The Dr. Pepper floats at the old soda fountain counter were pretty good too.

Later, after we were all back at my nieces, someone decided to put their sticker on Mark's back. And since there are a lot of followers in this family...we all had to give him a little love-pat-on the-back.
At one point he thought that someone had put a clothespin on him. He shook the back of his shirt to be sure and asked Leah if we were clipping them on him. "You wouldn't do that to me again would you?" he asked. With big innocent eyes she said, "nooo...don't worry Uncle Mark, I've got your back." As she gave him her own little love-pat.

"I'm a pepper, he's a pepper, wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?"

Mark.We do apologize for letting you go to the grocery store with stickers on your back. We're sorry. Kind of.