The best punishment ever!

Having my 19-year-old brother live with us has been interesting for all of us, probably most interesting for Brian. We have never "raised" a teenager and are still working out the kinks in our relationship and the "rules" of the house.

For example, now that Brian has a job and a few friends here, once in awhile he will go out to do something. This Friday he went out to see a movie with some friends. We had previously worked out the agreement that Brian would be home by midnight and call us if that was not going to happen. So there it was, two minutes before midnight and still no Brian. Jeff and I were sitting there fuming and deliberating about how we were going to "punish" him. My idea was for every minute he is late is a day he is grounded. Jeff thought that was a bit harsh. He thought we should take away the Wii or his laptop. I thought that would not work because then I have to entertain him throughout the day and I am just too tired and busy to do that. So we agreed that we would let Brian decide.

At exactly 12:00 midnight, Brian calls to tell us he is on his way home and should be there is ten minutes but had to drop someone off. During that ten minutes, Jeff and I fell asleep and I mean ASLEEP! I woke up around 4:30 a.m. and went into check on Brian and Maddox only to find Brian wasn't there. His bed was still a heap clean clothes that were waiting to be thrown onto the floor. To put it lightly, I was livid. I stormed back into my room and woke up Jeff and told him that I was going out to find him. As a side note, Brian has no phone out here. He just uses his friend's phones, so I could not just call him and get a hold of him.

As I got ready to go out into the freezing cold, I thought I should probably pray because something could actually be wrong with him. I knelt down and very un-humbly offerred a prayer that he would be okay and that I wouldn't kill him if he was still alive when I found him. I asked that I would know where to go.

I walked out to my car and had the impression that I should drive around the apartment parking lot. I was planning on driving over to his friend's houses, so a short detour around the parking lot shouldn't take long. I drove around and didn't see him. Then I had the thought to drive around again and look over in the back near the dumpsters, which I had previously just driven by quickly because it is dark and scary over there. Sure enough, his car was parked over near them. I drove over and peeked through the window. Brian was sitting in the driver's seat sleeping. He woke up and then I found out that he had gotten home and realized he forgot his house key inside the apartment. He knocked long and loud for nearly 45 minutes to no avail. The neighbors finally woke up and came out and he felt like an idiot and was getting cold so he just decided to sleep in his car. Well, apparently Jeff and I were out cold and there was no waking either of us. As we walked back in, we couldn't help but laugh and I realized that this was the best punishment ever...on accident!