The summer begins...

Lewis and I went to Anson for the annual family reunion this weekend.


We left on Friday and I had the beginnings of a sore throat. It did not get better over the weekend, and by the time we got home this evening, I felt even worse.


My throat is sore. I have one of those awful sounding coughs. And I feel achy all over. I don't have a temperature, but I feel hot inside. My head hurts, too. It feels like I can feel every single hair follicle on my head and it does not feel good.


Regardless, we had a good time. We had several no-shows, but the people that were there made it a good time. It's like we can all just sit around and talk and catch up or reminisce and they time just flies. Then, of course, the alcohol starts flowing and it gets funny. The men seem to get all macho and dare each other to do shots. We also have a big slab of concrete on the backyard with a basketball hoop, so there are always impromptu games going on. Lewis and I made an after midnight run to Allsups for some burritos and chimichangas...there is no other time of year that we would do that, but it seems appropriate for the reunion.



There are kids of all ages, but seeing the little ones play together remind me a lot of when I was a kid and lived for the times my cousins would come to Anson.



My cousin Stephanie was there with her husband Moses. They just got married in May.

A running memory for us both is when we were little, we would"pretend play" all the time, usually with my brother and her brother. One time, I guess we must have been between 5-9 years old, we pretended we were going to open up a deli/sandwich shop in one of the tree houses. So we all had to come up with names and my mom would vote on the best one. I don't remember what we all came up with, but my mom ended up choosing Stephanie's entry. Her entry was just a plain "The Sandwich Shop". I thought it was so unoriginal and couldn't believe my mom would choose that one over my shop name idea, which I'm sure was creative, original, and would bring in droves of customers. (haha) We even went to far as to make bologna sandwiches with mustard on white bread and cut them into squares to "Eat and Serve" in the treehouse. So for her bridal shower a few weeks ago, I gave her a sandwich grille that was on her registry.

My cousin Chris was also at the reunion with his wife, Page, and their two kids, Christopher and Jillian.

Chris is a year older than I am and when he had just gotten his driver's license we went "riding around" in my Uncle Guad's sporty Mazda. I directed him to a hill we ran for cross country that was called "Thrill Hill", because it was at the end of a road and you could build up speed in your car and then kinda be airborne for a second when you went off the end of it. However, our thrill ride was interrupted by a "rabbit' in the road and we managed to get the car stuck in the ditch by the road. Perpendicular. There as no way for us to get it out. So there we were. Out in the country, no houses in sight, dusk approaching, with my uncle's car dusty and battered and stuck.

So we did what any normal teenagers would do. We began walking. A truck finally stopped alongside of us and offered a ride. It was the brother of my HS principal. He took us back to my house, where everyone was wondering where we had been. My dad had to eventually get a tractor and pull the car out. Chris got the worse end of the deal. I luckily got to stay in Anson with my parents. He still had a 4 hour ride to Amarillo in the now infamous car, ALONE with our Uncle Guad. To this very day, no one believes that we were just trying to avoid hitting a rabbit. And the story is always brought up when Chris and I are together.

It's been a busy travel time for Lewis and me.

The last weekend in June, we went to Dallas for Stephanie and Moses' at-home wedding reception and we also visited with our friends, Spencer and Todd.

Then this weekend, we went to Anson. Next weekend, we get to spend at home. Lewis wants to get started using his router to build cabinets, and I may have to go to work.

The weekend after that, we are going to New Mexico for my brother's wedding.

And the last week in July, Lewis has a work conference in Las Vegas for 4 days and I will be joining him to take advantage of the hotel and the pool. Normally we would go to Colorado that week with his parents, but the dates did not work out this year.

And we would normally go to South Padre Island in August, but my Padrino Luis has the timeshare this year, so Lewis and I will be spending a long weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks with our friends, Robin and Aaron. They were my roommates when I lived in STL. It works out well to do something shorter, as our vacation budget will be stretched enough as it is.

So it's shaping up to be a busy summer. And somewhere in there, we'll need to find time to work on the house!