Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and little brothers

We were raised in a good "old fashion" Dutch way. This meant we only had one glass of pop a day (normally this would be coca cola because we don’t have Mountain Dew in Holland). There would be a cookie waiting at us when we came home from school and on Saturday’s we had a private party because we got a little bowl of chips. And on Sunday some candy when we visited grandma… But that would be IT as far as the sweets went. An apple, a pear, a banana, as much or as many as we wanted BUT NO SWEETS!

In the summer sometimes my mom and little sister made popsicles out of water with usually a strawberry flavor. They were really tasty but if you would suck hard enough the strawberry flavor would be gone and all you had left was frozen water.

But sometimes my mom would buy some REAL ice cream! And yes this would be vanilla (hehe) and she would make us little bowls and then we could put sprinkles on them or wiped cream (my dad’s favorite). And if it was a real real special occasion we would have the popsicle faces with a gumball as a nose on it or those really fancy looking Magnums that were huge!

It was a beautiful day and we were all playing outside. We had some great swings and a sandbox behind our house in between the two pig barns. I vaguely remember it was a Saturday or Sunday and me and my sister were playing with our dolls and bears in the sandbox (yes I know, dirty dolls) and my little brother was driving around on his “skelter”. This is a little four wheeler but you have to paddle with your own two feet instead of having a little engine doing all the work for you…

Our mom came out and brought us an ice cream (so it defiantly must have been a Saturday or Sunday) and while my sister and I enjoyed our ice in the sandbox, Jan Willem was pretty content sitting on his skelter, licking and driving at the same time. After 10 minutes all of a sudden we hear a scream! Not the same kind of scream as when my little brother decided to see and FEEL what would happen if he peed on the electric fence .......... but similar…………………………….

My sister and I run over towards where our little brother had stranded and he was just holding his head and screaming his lungs out!?! We were is serious panic mode and while my little sister ran to fetch my mom i was holding my brother.

Mom hurried down and started to check all his vitals and trying to get him to come inside. After we got him inside and on the couch she called our doctor. The doctor asked all the standard questions but we really did not know what was wrong with him! Finally the doctor asked if he ate something. "Well", my mom said, "he just ate an ice cream not to long ago..." And that was IT! The doctor explained that he might have a 'Brain Freeze".

We had NO CLUE what that could be (and yes in Dutch Brain Freeze is still a Brain Freeze). So the doctor explained: It is caused by having something cold touch the roof of the mouth, and is believed to result from a nerve response causing rapid constriction and swelling of blood vessels and that results in you have pain going from the roof of you mouth to the top of your head. In this case my brothers head. The doctor also told my mom that he would be alright in a half hour...

And yes half and hour later, my little brother was paddling along on his "skelter" and me and my sister were playing with our dolls and my mom had recovered from her heart attack! Oh, those good old days, when little brothers could turn your world upside down...

My little brother still LOVES ice cream! And yes, so do I! So when i was asked to participate in the Ice Cream Flavor Face off by the Progressive Dairyman i was really excited! I didn't really know what to do,  but i had to pick a good flavor of ice cream! My flavor is Vanilla Bean, and somehow i managed to get into the second voting round (totally unexpected i might add)!

Sooooo, now i would like to ask you.... please, please, pretty please... can you hop over to The Progressive Dairyman and cast your vote??? We are only in Round Two yet, so there are still some other flavors competing, but as long as you vote for VANILLA BEAN too... I will be the happiest girl in the world!

Thanks so much and if I get true into the next round, i promise, I'll try to write another funny story about ice cream...

THANKS!!!


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