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My mom is in town for a visit right now. I'll be introducing her to my GF tomorrow night. Taking everyone to dinner for my mom's b-day (belated). That will be interesting...
Mom's can be pretty tough!!!!! I've always tried being the cool mom when my kids brought dates around!!!!They never complained, I can remember how awkward my mom made things at times for me!!!
It's all my immediate family and aunts/uncles/cousins from all across the country. We try to do it every 4-5 years. This is the first time it's only a long weekend. We usually do an entire week.
Each family (4) take a day and plan breakfast, lunch, dinner, & snack around the firepit before bedtime (usually my cousin's husband from California brings his guitar) and activities for the day.
One year we did Holidays. My immediate family did Halloween and it was sooo much fun!! We did a haunted walk and everyone had to wear costumes. We also had each family build scarecrow.
Another year we did board games. My Aunts family did "clue" and the end result was my cousin and her husband getting married and it was a surprise to everyone including her parents.
This year the theme is of course the Olympics. My family has come up with a bunch of water themed games where they will earn bubble gum coin medals. (we have the podiums and the theme music that will be played by everyone on kazoo's). One of them is "bring Grandma home". Each family will put their mother (4 sisters) one at a time into a row boat and they have to pull her across the pond with rope. Mind you they are all in their 70's and 80's!! It's going to be a hoot!!!
Last count there will be 68 people in my aunt and uncles backyard in tents or in the house.
That sounds like way to much fun!!!!How did your family ever get started with the reunion? I miss that from my childhood, since my grandmothers died, I haven't seen half of the cousins! Kind of sad!
mowing the yard putting away the last few boxes from the move cleaning working out hopefully adding some music to my music page doing homework for college planning my schedule for next week figuring out who is watching my kids next week since the summer program they were going to ended last week.
too much excitement huh?
God first, family second, and all else will fall into place.
LOL Seabird!! Very little to No alcohol is there. I think my cousins from California keep beer in their tent though. LOL I come from a family who doesn't drink but only on holidays and special occasions.
I think it started one year just for the heck of it (my son was 3 years old; he's now almost 18) and when everyone had so much fun with it and we were able to catch up with family we hadn't really spent time with since childhood (1970's) it was then it was decided that we should do it again 5 years later.
This will also be the first year that Great Grandchildren of my aunts and uncles will be here. 4 Generations!!
What makes it work is our parents encouraged us as kids to bond with our cousins and we became more like brothers and sisters than cousins. And now our kids get to experience it. We do it BECAUSE of our grandparents too. We know they would love to be here with us do all the crazy/fun things we do.
I remember as a kid not going on elaborate vacations but instead would go to Kentucky, New York, Virginia, or Florida for a month and stay with relatives. We would take turns. And those kids would come up here to Pennsylvania to stay. When I got out of high school I went and lived in Florida with my Uncles family for a year. One of my brother lived in Colorado for a year with my Aunt's family and actually graduated from Colorado Springs High School.
I guess I should start packing the car up and get my kids moving! Have a great weekend!!
Back home from spending day one at the reunion. It was so great to see everyone again. Everyone has aged in looks but underneath they are still the same people. We have such a ball together!!
I guess this morning after breakfast they had opening ceremonies and then a rubber ducky race across the pond and a flip flop toss to see who could fling a flip flop the furthest and then rock skipping contest. After lunch they had an hour and a half to make a boat to sail across the pond. The first one to reach the island was the winner. We laughed so hard and so LOUD! After dinner the boys made 2 campfires and my cousins 12 year old boy got out his mandolin and played for us. Before you knew it two more cousins were playing guitars and singing. A small group of us played Yatzee while listening to the music and eating popcorn.
Hated to leave but my son has an away football scrimmage tomorrow morning. The charter bus leaves town at 7:30 am and game starts at 10:30.
We got a sneak peak of what is scheduled for tomorrow. 6 am Jog for the athletic ones. then they have arranged for a Trolley to come and get half of the family and take them to town for a historic tour and then the Trolly will come back and get the other half and take them on the same historic tour. After that there is a watermelon seed spitting contest and a pie eating contest. And I also over heard there will be RIBS for dinner!! YUM. One year we BBQ'd an entire pig!!
To bed I go!! Been a long day!!
Ronda
P.S. Just when I commented that it's basically a "dry" reunion. I guess my sister and a bunch of cousins were up till 2:30am drinking wine and beer!!! LOL Times have changed I guess!!
Tractor/Truck pull was awesome!!! Very Loud though!!! Fair is in town til next Sunday, lots of stuff, demo derby, concerts and rodeos!!!! Lot's of potential to play quarters!!!!!
Bowling guy was at the bar when we stopped on way home, haven't talked to him since before my birthday, told him how mad I was that he didn't show!!!
Last night we went to look for tarantulas. The neighbour's dog came along and started barking and jumping up a tree. I shone my torchlight up and spotted a slow loris. Its eyes were reflective red, like a pair of alien's eyes up a tree staring at down at us slowly and surely. Three of us were on the ground trying to photograph him. It was quite funny because we could only see the eyes and the forehead each time the flash went off. We were just looking at those eyes, trying to photograph him for at least twenty minutes!
In the morning we visited the tarantula holes again. All of them have eaten and receded deep into their little caves.
I had good food, good weather and good company (my friends, not the tarantulas) this weekend. I feel truly rested and happy.
We went up to the vineyards and wineries up in N, GA. Tabitha was THRILLED with the wineries. We did the tours and tastings of real wines. I bought a couple of bottles for supper in the coming months.
She learned to appreciate GOOD wines and how to tell the difference in them. Quite a difference from growing up in the bayou.
We toured up through the mountains and picniced on the side of the road by the mountain stream.
We dropped by the gold mine that I frequent and Tabbi videoed me panning some gold out and I made her a pendant out of what I got. I know the people at the mine really well as we both have cockatoos so I kinda get a little better treatment and ore.
Anyways here's pix of the wineries and the pendant.
Had a really rough storm up my way last night. I had a tree exploded by lightning outside the house and it was too dark to inspect this morning on the way to work. I konw it got blasted good from all the debris falling on the roof.
Anyways, here's a video of me panning gold up in Dahlonega.
I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
Pariah, That looks like it requires so much patience.
I painted a wall over the weekend, spent 3 hours actually painting, 2 hours prepping, and about 12 hours increasing my anxiety to paint a single wall inside my home. For those who say it's just paint, and it can be redone. I think I'm officially a paintphobic. My greatest fear is having to repaint it.
My blood pressure rose quite a bit.
It was a marriage that never really started. H: Conflict Avoider, NPD No communication skills (Confirmed by MC) Me: Enabler Sep'd 12/01, D'd 08/03. My joys and the light of my life: DD 11, DD 9 *Approach life and situations from the point of love - not from fear.*
Another action-packed weekend from what might be the best summer of my life. Let’s start Friday about a half an hour prior to quitting time when my cell rings with a number I do not recognize. I normally will not take a call whose number is not matched with a name in my phone. I did not take this one and let it roll over to VM. The VM was from Maureen (from Yahoo Personals) and she must have been calling me from her home phone and she was interested in getting together. I should add that prior to this point Maureen has commented more on the content of my profile than anyone else. So I waited until I got out of work and called her from the parking lot. We had a nice little chat and agreed to meet at McGurk’s (very nice Irish bar/restaurant in the next town) at about 18:15. I hustled home, took care of a few items, and then zipped down to McGurk’s and sat at the outside bar and the spectacular weather has continued here. Maureen was a bit late but I was unconcerned as she did not call me. I didn’t even glace at my watch as I know that women take longer to get ready and are perpetually late.
Maureen was attractive to me and has the most mesmerizing and beautiful eyes. We greeted with a hug and I had her sit down as only one seat was available at the bar at the time. I noticed about the first 5-minutes that her hands were shaking a bit out of what I would presume was some initial nervousness while your operator was calm, cool, collected, and devastatingly charming. We immediately launched into conversation that extended for about the next 2.5 hours. She is very easy to talk to and had charm of her own. We have a lot of things in common and I felt very comfortable with her. We finally got to the point in the evening where something needed to happen and she has 2 14-week-old Labs and needed to attend to them, so I paid the bill. But, there was a bit of interesting stuff going on in the background involving someone from my past who showed up the last hour we were there.
It was...my XGF Cyndy! She waltzed in with a group and kept looking over at me. I told Maureen a bit about her and Maureen was very funny in wanting to scope-out Cyndy (she said it was a female competition thing) and said that Cyndy’s hind-end looked big. I told Maureen she was much prettier than Cyndy. It was amusing and uncomfortable for me, but I knew in the first 5-seconds that I was going to be an emotionally mature adult about it rather than telling Cyndy off in front of her people like she might truly deserve. So I walk Maureen out and Cyndy’s whole table is silent and looking at me as I walk by. Funny, funny moment. I wave two fingers and say “Cyndy.” and kept walking. Not a word came from her table. Funny stuff. So I walked Maureen to her car, she said she would like to do this again, we setup a tentative date for Saturday the 23rd, we had a very nice hug, said to her “May I call you this weekend?” and she said yes and then sent her on her way.
It was way too early for me, so I headed to The Dog (The Dog Prairie, world famous local tavern) and watched some of the Olympics and hung with my crowd. I was tired and headed home to bed at about 23:00. I popped awake about 07:30 Saturday and did some housework, read the papers, got cleaned up and headed to Lowe’s after touring 2 local nurseries. I bought 6-shrubs on sale that will go in the backyard and picked up some miscellaneous stuff and then a lunch at Del Taco. I called my best friend while in town, left a VM, told him I was headed over, and then did head over and caught him in his driveway, where he had just listened to my VM. I have joked with in the past that as my emergency contact that I will bleed-out before he gets my VM! I ended up spending several hours over there with his neighbors and I caught him up with my news and had much interesting conversation and beers with his neighbors. I got home late afternoon and took care of a few things around the house, had a quick dinner, and then met Tim (neighbor) at his house at 19:00, and he, I, and Tony (neighbor) went to neighbor Mike’s bachelor party. We had a good time and I met many people and made many connections to other people I know. I already knew quite a few there. We left at about 22:00 and Tony had to work the next day. Tim dropped me off, it was too early, I packed up and headed back up to The Dog, which was relatively quiet at the time. There’s been someone that I’ve wanted to catch-up with for a while, a former alderman who is a very polarizing person and a big-shot wealthy guy in town. He waltzed in and we sat down for about 2.5 hours of some very interesting conversation. The usual crowd eventually showed up and I had more normal routine of circulating around to greet everyone. I left about 01:00 and went home to bed.
I popped awake at 08:30, turned on my radio show, and immediately thought of Maureen as it is her favorite radio show as well. I read two papers, talked to Jim and Pat (Pat wants me to get a check-up from her dermatologist, next door neighbors) and started on some yard projects and ran again to Lowe’s to get 2 more bargain shrubs (not done by a long shot yet) and picked up some mulch and sand and got home and went at it. Chris and Shelly (other next door neighbors) invited me over for lunch and after that I kept going with the outdoor stuff, eventually spraying everything for bugs and pressure-washing the driveway. I then drank a few beers, smoked a couple of stogies, got cleaned up, and headed to the St. Joseph’s parish picnic in Josephville, which is the town that adjoins my town to the west. I know people there including the Father of the parish, so I rolled in there and found that about 1/3 of the people were from my town and settled in with my homies. I had much discussion with many people and eventually went inside for the family-style dinner and sat with some very nice people and their 4-young children. I had the best fried chicken that I think I’ve ever had, not a trace of greasiness and steaming hot. I had a nice conversation with the people at the table and commented on how well-behaved their children were, which from me is a high compliment.
Went back outside and ran into Jill who cuts my hair. We had a long and interesting conversation with details to follow, but one funny aside first. Jill is 22 and gorgeous. Dave (runs The Dog Prairie with his wife Jo Ellen) notices that I’ve been talking to her a while and he walks by and gives me a little thumbs-up sign and I bust out laughing and explain to Jill what Dave did and that he though that I was hitting on her! I’m still chuckling about it. Anyway, almost the whole discussion was about Robin (Jill’s workmate). When I saw Jill on Thursday for my haircut, I did not see Robin as that’s her day off, so I asked Jill to say hello to Robin for me and that I would like to take her dancing. Now this must have precipitated quite a conversation between Jill and Robin on Friday and Jill gave me a huge amount of intel on Robin, her dating history, what she’s looking for, that type of stuff. This is all very interesting to me and where I felt before point that Jill was semi-serious about referring me to Robin, now Jill seems very serious of being my wing-woman on the Robin issue. Jill encouraged me to join them on Wednesday evenings at the other Irish pub. So, I took this as some very interesting developments on the Robin front prompted by some of my casual remarks. I’m going to guess that me not coming on strong to Robin has demonstrated some value to her. I gave Jill some specific intel on me to relay to Robin. So, I will inquire about what’s going on this Wednesday and take it from there.
I had many, many people to talk to at the picnic and ran into several people from Mike’s bachelor party and worked my way around the crowd. I finished with Dave and Jo Ellen and we discussed our upcoming church picnic. Jo Ellen said that I must absolutely wear a Dog Prairie T-shirt for the beer tent so I’ll have to negotiate something with her. Dave asked me what shift I wanted )I'm working the beer tent at our picnic) and I told him that I was working the whole thing. He told me to be there at 11:00 on Sunday the 31st. I should work then about 9-hours until the beer runs out. Dave asked me if I knew how to tap a keg and I laughed and said yes. Of course I know that! I told them that I’m looking forward to it and I have told a million people to come and see me at the beer tent.
I left for home at twilight and stopped across the street after pulling into the driveway as Tim and Jen and Chris and Cara (all neighbors) were standing in Chris and Cara’s driveway and I caught them up on events and we had some Bud Light Limes, which are not that bad (I prefer dark beer). We had fun and Dave from next door came over and we talked about maybe going to a University of Missouri football game. At about 21:30 I said my goodbyes and went straight to bed.
It was 58 when I got up this morning. I did have a nice email from Maureen that she sent Sunday morning when thinking of me.
There is no way I can describe everything in this post. I had an absolute blast all weekend long and was completely positively buzzed about how much fun I had at the picnic.
Me: 48 XW: 44 DD: 15 Lived Together: 7 Married: 18 Total: 25 years W announced divorce 11-3-2006, I moved out 11-7-2006, served papers 11-8-2006. Divorce final 12-19-2006. Life gets better every day.
Pariah, That looks like it requires so much patience.
I painted a wall over the weekend, spent 3 hours actually painting, 2 hours prepping, and about 12 hours increasing my anxiety to paint a single wall inside my home. For those who say it's just paint, and it can be redone. I think I'm officially a paintphobic. My greatest fear is having to repaint it.
My blood pressure rose quite a bit.
You paint like me. 6 months to agonize over what colour. Another 3 months to agonize over how you're going to do it. And in one weekend, it's done. I have some grey hairs especially dedicated to painting and I've only done 2 rooms so far :RollieEyes:.
