Hi Everyone,
This is the wife, and I get the honor of posting in my husband’s blog, how super cool am I? I truly feel special…like I have super powers (although not good at guessing the weather and guessing people’s age). But onwards about my lovely day.
So today I wake up, and think to myself, “I’ve never been to a family reunion. So what do I wear to a family reunion, one that’s not mine?” so I decided on a denim skirt, because I figured okay casual but sort of nice, this’ll match up with Shane’s cool blazer that he told me he’d wear. So I also decided lets wear my super comfy $120 shoes too!
So I get to the car, Shane is not wearing his blazer and says I look cute, and on our way out of town I find out the family reunion is A outside and B might receive massive amounts of rain…so I knew I was already in for a long day. So I’m like okay well lets go….and Shane keeps driving north and I asked, where is the reunion? And he says ‘Iowa’…..Iowa is totally not Missouri, which I assumed since Shane’s from Missouri….
Okay, so I’ll buy new sandals from the Wal-Mart in the town where the reunion is, okay I can manage…….so we get to the town with the reunion…population 600….definitely not going to be able to go to Wal-Mart to buy supplies like bug spray sunscreen and most importantly sandals. There wasn’t even a gas station I was horrified.
So we drive in, find some people that he sort of recognizes as family, walk up to them, they recognize him, and they were really nice. Then I got to slowly meet the rest of them….there were a bunch of them, in all ages from very old to baby it was fun! The food was great, I got to kick Shane’s butt in “golf” my team was leading 18-9…(which Shane will probably protest and edit out later…he probably told his partner to throw the golf balls attached to the sting into the tree so the game wouldn’t finish so he could save his ego ;-) conspiring with an 12 year old…)
We had lots of laughs while trying to get the golf string out of the tree. During that time we had jokes like ‘how many relatives does it take to get two golf balls out of a tree’ and ‘climbing that tree is a one way ticket to the ER’ and about how people getting the string stuck even more in the tree….I didn’t try I just kind of stood back and tried not to get hit because 7 grown men trying to get two golf balls out of a tree by throwing a football, softball, and sticks just can’t be a good idea….
But we had a fun 3 hour get together :-D it wasn’t too bad…I think the only time I was off put was when one of his uncles asked if Shane and I were having sex after we said we weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend....One of the few times I put my foot in my mouth was guessing everyone’s age. So I’m bad at it, I thought Shane’s older brother was 18, and his sister was 17….I was way off, then when I guessed his brother’s wife age accurately she was REALLY offended…oopsies…
So we left and headed off to Shane’s home town, just a half an hour detour (including an ice cream run), and I got the grand tour! It was fun, I saw pictures of Shane as a cute baby, and growing up, (I saw pictures of Shane wearing glasses! If only I brought my camera inside the house I’d totally share) found out his mom is obsessed with Barbie’s and is much better at collecting knick-knacks then I am. I have a lot I can learn and aspire too!
Wow sorry longest post ever, but I’m only half way done.
After the grand house tour we went to his grandparent’s farm and I had a tour over there too, I saw some chickens, blue ducks (which I never new existed), more chickens, geese, and 2 dogs…oh and birds, which reminds me. So we went upstairs in the barn and there was a little basketball hoop set up and all the walls were covered with names of people who have been up there (family members etc) some saying class of ’70 or sokal or Shane (even though he doesn’t think he painted his name there) so we were looking around up there and his grandma was up there talking about the barn, and all the sudden a barn swallow flies in….Shane decided that he had a change in heart about birds and that this one should live, and we called him Barney. Barney the bird, a friend of everyone…. :-D okay so Shane ran like hell and is more afraid of birds than before but the bird did try to poop on me and my cool shoes, and did try to attack his head…..
So we were off on our journey back to the ville. We did stop twice though; we got out at this old abandoned house. So we park it in this driveway to a cow pasture and Shane’s like ‘okay lets hop the fence’ I was like ‘hop the fence’ and I look down at my cool shoes and my denim skirt and I was like ‘…alright…’ so I threw him the non-digital camera before my journey into the cow pasture. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a cow pasture, and I don’t think I have EVER climbed a fence in a skirt, and I know for a fact I have never gotten my cool shoes muddy before today…..so we ran around the house taking pictures and I worried about Shane because he wanted to go up into the second floor which didn’t look so sturdy. And if the house collapsed on him how was I supposed to go get help when he has his cell phone and the car keys? So we ran around, tried to guess which room was the kitchen and took lots of pictures avoiding cow dung and bugs…so after 20 minutes we leave, back over the fence *sigh*, and then into the car….and we hit the road again. Then Shane says ‘okay we’ll hit the next gas station and we’ll check ourselves for ticks’ TICKS?!?!?!
Overgrown, vacant lots, waste farm-fields, and weedy edges of paths and trails are prime tick areas, particularly where wildlife is abundant.Guess what a cow pasture has: lots of tall grass...now I totally regret not owning insect repellant. We looked ourselves over I think I’m clean, although its almost midnight and I’m still looking at my ankles still wondering if I have ticks….
So we return successfully to the ville, 11 hours after we left this morning…it was quite the journey :-D I had a fantastic time and I’m really glad I went.
So the lesson to learn today is never wear nice shoes when you promise to hang out with Shane for a day. Other than poor choice in clothing I don’t think I regretted anything about today :-D
Much love,
-Wife