Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Brother Mat With One “T”

Brother mat

 

My Brother Mat is a crack up. A tease. He claims not to like the brocante, though he lives in an old beautiful home. He likes to joke about my blog, and gets a big kick out of reading the comments.

He reads my blog everyday.

Everyday.

And that makes me very happy.

For those of you who have been reading my blog forever, you know my Brother Mat with one "T".

Mat is married to Shelley (Who is saint for putting up with him for all these years.) they have three children: Sam, Joe, and Marie.

Mat has always been a jester. I could write an entire blog about his antics… my other Brothers (Marty, Mark and Zane,) and I are sweet and kind, generous, thoughtful, loving… and then there is Mat. I can say things like this because I am the oldest. I am the only girl in the family, and it is true. Besides, he gives it to me constantly on my blog, big chucks of B.S. and I love it!!

 

 

 

 

Brother Mat with one T

 

My Brother Mat with one "T" loves to give "lectures"; I would say talk, but it isn't that… Sometimes I think he thinks we are in a conference hall, when instead we are just standing in the kitchen… he can talk, and talk, and talk about any subject for hours. Literally. Interesting yes. Can I get a word in no.

 

My Brother Mat I love him, he is my brother, he ain't heavy he is just a pill.

 

 

 

Brother mat with Shelley

 

Just look at that guy! 

Saint Shelley and Brother Mat, not to be confused with a religious order.

Though he is faithful, a church going man, a family man, a good man…

but a pill!

 

 

Family with Mat

 

Know you know his face and his loving wife.

Please give him some heck.

Comments

31 responses to “Brother Mat With One “T””

  1. Rhonda

    Okay Mat, with one T, the brocante is the best thing in life, okay? The Best. Your sister, Corey, is a saint. She shops for herself and all of us and we adore her, we worship her.
    Lecture is over. Rhonda

    Reply
  2. Diogenes

    I don’t think you are featuring enough brocante on your website.

    Reply
  3. Shelley Noble

    Someone’s got to be nutty. (Great glasses, Mat.) And Shelley looks happy so he must be a good man at heart.

    Reply
  4. Franca Bollo

    Choop and his Mick Jagger mouth.

    Reply
  5. Childhood Friend of Rob’s Little Sister

    Hey Mat,
    Remember slam dancing on the makeshift plywood dance floor out at the Knowles ranch? Complete with bonfire. Good times.

    Reply
  6. Star

    Well heck, Mat! You must be good as gold if you are a part of Corey’s family :). It’s fun to see your picture (and Saint Helley).

    Reply
  7. Sue

    Is dear Mat-with-one-T, by any chance, the youngest child? He sure sounds like it. Ask me how I know (my older siblings called me “motor-mouth” when I was little). 🙂

    Reply
  8. Ann

    Hi Mat, I wondered why you don’t like the brocante, and then it hit me…because you can’t train an old dog new tricks! Is this what you meant Corey by giving him heck?

    Reply
  9. An Enchanted Cottage

    I love your family. Your French family and your Willows family and your dear sweet Annie. I think I would like to be adopted (do 61 year old’s get adopted?)… Love is apparent in every photograph you take and every word you write. Oops – I forgot I was supposed to be giving it to Mat with one T. Sorry, Corey, I got carried away on the love bit. Next time I’ll zing you, Mat with one T. Once the family adopts me and I’m your big sister 🙂
    Donna

    Reply
  10. Brother Mathew

    Great. I can’t wait. Enchanted Cottage. I’ve always loved that handle.

    Reply
  11. Brother Mathew

    Yeah I’m the youngest. Take a look at Brother Mark and Zane. I’m sure they love you right now.

    Reply
  12. Brother Mathew

    How could I forget..great times indeed!

    Reply
  13. Brother Mathew

    jumping jack flash it a gas gas gas…

    Reply
  14. Brother Mathew

    Love that comment..reminds me of the line: last time I checked we don’t have a lot of songs that feature the cowbell! Gotta have more Brocante!

    Reply
  15. Brother Mathew

    Call that a lecture, go hang with the quilters.

    Reply
  16. Momof5

    What happened to the other T? My youngest is also Matt wit 2 t’s. when he was learning to write his name we were living in England. There was a cemetery near our house and one day he looked at the row of crosses and said “look mom, dead t’s.” I always get a chuckle out of your relationship Corey and Mat.

    Reply
  17. Mardog

    Seems to me Shelley is raising 4 children.

    Reply
  18. SusieQ

    Mat, Mat, Mat – – as the “victim” of a brother who has teased me unmercifully for my entire life, I am completely on Corey in this. If she says you are a pill, by golly, that is what you are. Yes, you may be faithful, a church going man, a family man, a good man… but pill seems to fit too!
    We all seem to think Corey is a saint, and Shelley looks very saintly too! OK, I will show some mercy and assume this sibling thing is all in fun. Perhaps you are a saint too, just in disguise!

    Reply
  19. Jeannie

    Mat, I think you need to have a blog. You could blog about living in an old house with Saint Shelly. I am married to a saint too and know that they aren’t always saintly. Mat, with one t, what would you blog about that would cause people around the world to fall in love with you? Hmmmm?

    Reply
  20. penelopebi@me.com

    OH DEAR GOD! How many in your family have “DIMPLES”???
    You have no idea. I have been obsessed by dimples since I was 4! The little girl across the street had dimples…….I WANTED THEM IN THE FIERCEST WAY!
    I asked my Granny to show me how to sew a button to a pillowcase. And she did.
    (It has been a useful skill all these years!)
    I slept on the pillowcase with the button hoping to wake up with two dimples!
    No. Just red welts all over my face…..which still showed when I got to school!
    Every plastic surgeon I meet; I ask…..”Can you make dimples yet??”
    NO. It is a “twist of the muscle” Only God can give! (One said….we can give you a cleft in your chin!!)
    No thanks!

    Reply
  21. Patti Lloyd

    A girl who grows up with all brothers on a farm in Willows has got to be a saint or a princess. But, Mat, with the impish grin, how else could he turn out? I don’t think he is a door-mat, a laundro-mat, or a bath-mat..however, one of the definitions of mat is a piece of fabric you put under a lamp… a doily?? And those are always found at Brocantes! Ok, it’s a bit corny, but somehow I have the feeling no one ever gets the best of Mat.

    Reply
  22. Evelyn

    Dear Mat-with-one T: Did you know that on the back of Corey’s birth certificate it states that no matter how big you get or how smarty-pants, she’ll always be able to beat you up? Yup…it’s true. Just thank your lucky stars that she’s never invoked that clause. Beware!

    Reply
  23. Shelley

    When Mat found his ‘t’,
    The ‘t’ said with glee,
    You’re a teasing, brash brat
    And I think just for that,
    This ‘t’ prefers to be free.

    Reply
  24. La Contessa

    Saint Shelley looks like YOU COREY……..a wee bit!You can tell from all these photos he is a fun loving sweet man!Was it not his daughter who WON the hair contest!I willNOT give him a dose of his own medicine,but I will say this………..YOUR SISTER has INCREDIBLE TASTE.I have only seen the apartment,it of course was not finished when I was a guest there but she does not go wild with STUFF………….The stuff she has is GORGEOUS!You wouldn’t like to come here to my house if you do not like the BROCANTE!One might say I have a habit… a good habit of collecting broken bits and bobs that lived in another place and time………I SAY GO TO FRANCE And visit the SISTER IN ACTION!You might just be converted!
    Last words……..YOU have a BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL FAMILY……..LOVE THE BONFIRE!!

    Reply
  25. Kim

    He sounds lovely. And a bit like my own DH — who can talk about anything for a long time.

    Reply
  26. Franca Bollo

    “Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription … is more brocante!”
    Diogenes replacing Chris Walken as Bruce Dickinson
    Thanks, Choop/Mick Lips, for the reminder.

    Reply
  27. BONNIE BUCKINGHAM

    Are you the baby, Corey? I have 4 sons and a daughter. IN that order!

    Reply
  28. Kathie B

    Hey Corey, anyone who’s such an ailurophile can’t be all bad!

    Reply
  29. Kathie B

    Mat, my dad was the youngest in a (Azoreane-Northern Californian) family of 5 boys and a girl. And IMHO, he was the pick of the litter!

    Reply
  30. Toni

    I love Mat.

    Reply
  31. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    Aw come one, Corey, I want to hear all the rascally Mat stories you could tell!
    And it’s fun to see photos of you (with your sainted wife), Mat, as we seem to share a similar sense of humor.
    (Mat = Choop?)
    I totally agree that you should have your own (equal-time) blog, where you can diss brocantes to your heart’s delight (although of course it’s more fun to get a reaction dissing them on tongue-in-cheek) and hold forth to your heart’s delight. Although it sounds like you do that already too? Are you a professor? My professor dad would hold forth to us kids sometimes as though we were a 300-student auditorium. Hopefully you don’t do that. Or people would be stabbing their faces with forks. Lovely old forks with monograms and twirly shit on them, but stabbing nonetheless.

    Reply

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