Ooohhh, Tom...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about Tom.

Tommy right before leaving to the MTC!

Tommy and I have been a swell pair for as long as I can remember.  He's a handsome man, a fabulous cousin, a swell chap, a smart son, and a grrrreat missionary, and as I've been missing him and reminiscing this week I've been laughing at the fun and the funny times we've spent together.

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I remember when we were both in Mrs. Carson's and Mrs. Turner's first grade class.  We were oh so grown up and ready for this thing called school, but that didn't mean Tom was above being mollycoddled.  Everyday, when story-time came, the class would gather around the piano while Mrs. Carson would sit on the bench and read to us.  More often than not, Thomas would sit by me.  He'd lean over, put his head on my knee and quietly say, "Abi, pretend like you're cutting my hair."

Haha! At that age, I didn't think it was an odd request, and I was happy to take care of little Tom.  I would sit there pulling sections of his hair up between my left middle and index fingers and gently "snip off" the ends with the same fingers on my right hand. :]

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I remember when his oldest brother graduated from high school.  We were about 10-11 years old, and Ben was graduating as valedictorian of his class.  I don't think I knew what that meant before this time, but I could tell it was something important.  In our eyes, Ben had done something amazing, and he deserved to be honored.  Well, the two of us did honor him... in the form of a friendly competition.  From that time, Thomas and I decided we were going to not only do our school work well, we were going to do it competitively.  One of the two of us was going to be valedictorian at our graduation.  And I couldn't let it be Thomas.  I just couldn't!  I wouldn't let it happen!

This was our attitude when it started, but it soon became something we enjoyed.  While working hard in school and trying to do our best on our own, Tommy and I soon discovered that we would both get further (and beat out the rest of our competition) if we helped each other.  Tom was very good at math (which I could only do with a lot of work and struggle), and I was fabulous at English.  As we went through Jr. High and high school, we often studied together.  Thomas would tutor me in Algebra, Trig, and Calculus while I would proofread his papers and help him understand grammatical concepts.  It was a great system.

When the time came to graduate, we both had a 3.99 GPA.  (We both got Bs in second-semester Trigonometry.)  However, due to his meritorious accomplishments in various other areas and a lot of other analyzing stuff that I wasn't a part of and didn't understand, Thomas was valedictorian.  I wasn't sad.  By that age, I realized I didn't want to speak in front of everyone.  In my eyes, Thomas had more than earned it.  He could have done swell in English without my help, but I never would have passed Trig (or Calculus) without him.  I beamed at him while he imparted of his wisdom to all of the graduates.  I was so proud! :D

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When we were in 8th grade, the Jr. High school decided to start an intramural program, and Thomas wanted to win the volleyball championship.  He put together a rockin' team of sharp, skilled, and savvy boys, BUT alas!  While anxious to play and win, none knew how the game of volleyball was to be played.  So Thomas came to me.  I played on the girls team in 7th grade, but decided not to play in 8th grade.  Thus, I was the best tutor for these athletic boys.

I taught, and we all played--me, the lone girl among this team of boys.  Did we follow the rules?  Mmm...kinda.  There really was only one team that followed them strictly, so it didn't really matter.  Were we good?  Oooohhh yeeeaaahh.  In fact, we made it to the championships.  There we were in our intramural face-off: Thomas's team of boys + me, versus.... the 8th grade volleyball team.  I felt a little like a mercenary.  I had deserted my original sisterhood to play with these rule-breaking boys.  We played; they played.  We were playing for fun (and breaking a lot of rules); they were playing aggressively and by the book.  The ref didn't call our "mistakes," so we kept making them.  The girls complained, and the ref didn't care.

In the end, we won.  We schooled them by at least 10 points.  We laughed and smiled because it felt good to win, but we didn't care.  The girls team, however, were angry at being beat by a rag-tag team.  It took a while to get on good terms again, but I didn't care.  To be honest, I was just happy that Thomas asked me to play.

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Then the time came to leave for BYU.  I, eager to make sure I was in the classes I needed, was awake until midnight to register.  Thomas didn't even know what day he could register or which classes he could take or when or who from.  He came over that night and, confused about what to do, ended up registering for a few of the same classes I was in.  I thought he would change it later, but he didn't.  (Which made me happy.)  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we spent all morning together (until he stopped going to PS100).  ;)

Music 101 followed where we sat together again.  This was great for me because the Madsen was cold in the mornings.  I made him put his arm next to mine on the armrest because that kept me warm enough to think and take notes.  If he moved his arm and forgot to put it back, I would get after him.  He would look at me--laughing, but apologetic--and put it back to keep me warm.  Haha!  He's such a good cousin to me!

Now, I've definitely had my full share of blessings in my life, but Thomas really is one of the biggest ones.  I sure am lucky to have a cousin like him! :)