You Don't See That Every Day

Hello old friend,  I came across this post I forgot to publish way back in July. I decided to go ahead and publish it now and then come back and update ... How have you been? I've been gone awhile. Sorry about that. I think this spring and summer have been the busiest, most stressful time of my life. Ever. So many things have fallen off my To-Do lists and down into the cracks of the abyss, you being one of them. Not because of anything you have done. No, it's all me this time. My mind has been traveling too fast, for too long. over too many roads. Our daughter graduated from high school this past June. We've been through the process once before, so you would think I would be prepared for it. And I was! I had the announcements ordered in time, and her grad party planned out ahead of time. Of course, I put it on a weekend when a lot of people were not in town - Memorial Weekend. Not a smart move there, but we got it done. It still amazes me how much is involved in gradu...

Summer is here. Swimming, grilling, and family reunions. Around our area the temps have been in the 90s for awhile. We had a few cooling off days and now the sun is back on full force. In times like these it's nice to have friends with a pool. A couple of Sundays ago, I woke the Mr from his Sunday nap and said get your swim shorts on, we're going!  And we had a very enjoyable, laughter-filled afternoon of swimming and Marco Polo. This past weekend we didn't have a pool, but we had a lot of fun. My niece and nephew, whom we don't get to see often ... I think it may have been 7 years since they were here ... came and stayed with us. We really enjoyed getting to know them again as adults. And my kids loved hanging out with their cousins. We also had a family reunion combined with a 60th Anniversary party for my aunt and uncle. There were so many people there - many I didn't know, even though I recognized their last name. But first, we started the weekend ...

Family. Most of us don't get to pick our family. I'm fortunate that the one I picked to marry into is one that I really really like to hang out with. For most of our married life, my husband has not seen his two brothers and their families on a regular basis. Unless by regular you mean once a year or less. Because they live out of state, time together is a rare but precious time indeed. As we all age and have kids grow older, and incomes change, our times together have increased. And the fun and memories just keep getting better. Last year for the first married niece's wedding, all 3 brothers and their entire families were able to be together (although the bride and groom weren't there for long) and talk came around to doing this get-together thing more often. So this last month we had what was one of hopefully many to come family reunions. We rented a lodge from our church that is located on the Oregon coast. It was supposed to rain all wee...

That husband of mine ... pretty funny.  So yeah, this week has been hectic, and today I finally have taken a minute to sit in front of the computer and write something instead of sitting and reading or pinning.  Last week, also, lots of fun. We had cousins over, and swim lessons galore. My little Princess M is in morning swim lessons, for the past 2 weeks. It's amazing how just one hour of swimming-watching every morning, can mess up the rest of my day/ week. (We get a break next week. phew!) So our family had their big reunion-shindig last Saturday. This is the cake we entered into the dessert contest - I thought it was a pretty hat. The little girls had too much run playing in the water of my aunt and uncle's backyard. Thankfully the sun was out and my youngest could go around in a diaper until her clothes dried out. She did fairly well without a nap all day too! We had plenty of good food and visitin'  Earlier in the morning my sister in-law...

my parents, my brothers, sisters, some nieces and nephews. A long week has passed since I last wrote here. Sorry about that. But oh what a long and fun week it was.  We had swim lessons every day, along with swim meets for the older two. On Friday, out-of-town family started showing their faces in my neck of the woods, causing unbelievable comments to stream from my 12 year-old's mouth - in a good way. "Oh, what a shame," seemed to be his favorite taunt as they played games together. The cousins took it well and dished it right back at him. The chicken-bacon pizza we had with them on Friday night was heavenly - I even wrapped up the last piece and put MY name on it, so I could have it for lunch on Sunday. No-share pizza, that's how I roll. Saturday dawned extra early for me, especially since it was - gasp - raining. My nearly-oldest brother had (easily) convinced me to run in a 5k race with him and his wife before the family festivities began. It sounded goo...

From this (1975): see that cute little girl on the right, bottom row? yeah, me. to this (2011):

We had a family reunion this past weekend. It's an annual event, started over 20 years ago. Anyone related to my dad's side of the family shows up at the appointed park, with food to share. We have games (and prizes!) and plenty to eat. Usually there is a baseball game later in the afternoon. And then when everyone packs up to leave, the siblings of my family plan some type of pizza dinner get-together. So it's basically another picnic day of food, food, and some more food. With a little activity thrown in to make us feel OK about eating so much!