The Original Sweet

Cody is the second of four children to one of my best friends, Jody. Her oldest, Tyler, turns twenty this November, Alex just turned fourteen on June 27 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEX! And then we have Abbey who’ll be thirteen this September. All four are absolutely hilarious and phenomenal in their own ways, but Sweet Cody will always hold a special place in my heart – a place of course that is just as special as all the others who also weren’t even named in this passage.

Back in 2011 when I began my first period of unemployment (this Coronavirus furlough I’m STILL living with is my third!) I started working with Cody on strengthening his reading skills and helping him with all his daily homework. Melissa and I would meet Jody at Tyler’s soccer practices where I would leave Melissa to hang out with Jody, Alex, and Abbey, while Cody and I went to the Edwardsville Public Library to work on his school stuff.

Cody has always embarrassed easily and one of my favorite memories came as a result of his embarrassment. He and I were downstairs in the children’s section at the library working on his homework when this little girl came around the corner and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of a then nine year old Cody. After a noticeable pause, which caused both Cody and I to look over at her as she just stood there staring at him, she yelled out probably as loudly as she could, “THERE’S A BBBOOOOOOOYYYYY!” before seating herself at the table closest to us. While she had plenty of books out on the table before her, she wasn’t reading any of them as she was much too busy gazing and smiling at Sweet Cody. It was absolutely adorable and made Cody blush so badly that for the entire rest of the time we were there he looked as red as the bullseye in the Target logo; which so happens to be the place where Melissa and I worked with Jody and began our friendship.

Following that day, I always felt like Cody was secretly terrified that we’d run into that same little girl each time we went to the library thereafter, but alas, we never did and it ended up being a one time thing. Something that was far from being a one time thing and instead was an every time thing was that after each library session, I’d take Cody to Annie’s Frozen Custard. He and I would always get the same things each time: me a chocolate shake and Cody a cookie dough concrete. We’d then sit out at their umbrellaed tables and eat our ice cream until we were both finished before heading back to everyone else at the soccer fields. No one ever knew we went and got custard each time after his studies, for if they did, it would certainly give his brothers and sister grounds to accuse me of playing favorites, which we have all well established I do not.

Another fond memory came when I was speeding through Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and got pulled over by campus security. I told Cody to sit there and look as cute and sweet as possible with his little library book in his lap, so when the police came to my window, they’d see him and let me off with nothing but a warning. Long story short, it worked! They told me to slow down and they were right! Shame on me for speeding when I was chauffeuring such precious cargo!

I could tell of countless more memories of Sweet Cody like how he’d always be my ride buddy each time we’d all go to Holiday World or Six Flags; or how when he and I went to see the 3D release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, he decided to leave his hat in the car because he didn’t want to block anyone’s view of the movie who might be sitting behind us (he was ten at the time); then a handful of years later, HE DROVE ME and Alex to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi; or that he’d play restaurant and cook and prepare dinner for his younger brother and sister time and time again; and it should be noted that Cody is the ONLY ONE of the eight in contest that has never used the terms: “The Originals” or “The Replacements” because he’s just that sweet. In the sixteen years I’ve known Cody, I’ve never once heard of him ever doing anything bad, which I know has been a real blessing for my dear friend, Jody, given how alternatively amazing her other three have been. I can only hope that should Melissa and I ever have a son of our own, he turns out to be even just 1/100th as perfect as Sweet Cody because he really is the best – better than all the rest.

Understand that last part to be nothing more than just Tina Turner song lyrics and not an endorsement of Cody as my absolute #1 favorite.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY! I hope your eighteenth year is every bit as phenomenal and amazing as you are and I cannot wait to create a whole slew of new memories with you as the years play on!

I need everyone to know this now: Spring of 2021 is going to be an unbelievably difficult time for me emotionally as Melissa and I have seven of our kids graduating high school. Our niece, Madison; our could-be nephew, Sweet Daniel; Colsen and the triplets: Gabby, Sweet (Baby) Garrett, and Logan; and lastly, Sweet Cody. I’m tearing up now just typing all this out and these graduations are essentially a year away! Just know that I’ll be spending all of next May and June wallowing in my emotions. There better be a vaccine for COVID-19 by then because after all those graduations, I’m going to need an emergency vacation to Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii!

As always, thank you all for reading and please feel free to leave a comment below – unless of course it happens to be your misconstrued version of a time when you believe I showcased favoritism because I think by now we have all established those times simply do not exist! I’ll return next week with an all new post, but until then, I hope each of you has THE BEST week ever!