Family, Gotta Love em



Everyone that was able to make it to the BBQ Shop for dinner.



Julie & Melissa w/ Kacky.

1st Row- Julie, Melissa & me.
2nd Row- Uncle Mike, Uncle Rog & Uncle Tim

First off, sorry I haven't done a good job of keeping up with the blog this past week. It's been a bit crazy/hectic around here. As I mentioned in my last post, I lost a good friend last week, so there was that to deal with. Also, my mom's family has had several "gatherings" so I've been busy doing the family thing. My mom comes from a VERY large, Polish Catholic family. She has 6 brothers & 2 sisters. I love that I have so many aunts & uncles. Our family get togethers are NEVER dull. My mom's brother who is right below her (in order) was in town last week from Denver. We had a BBQ @ my aunt's house last weekend to celebrate him coming to town. Even though we were having record high temps. last weekend, the BBQ was a blast. My aunt literally had an A/C on the back deck that we were all sitting in front of. That's how hot it was! My Uncle Tim (the one from Denver) ended up staying with us for 3 nights so I wasn't on the computer as much last week. (which was a good thing) I'm a night owl so usually once the rest of my house is in bed, I get on the computer. With my uncle here, I actually had someone to stay up & talk to. My mom had another brother come in town on Wednesday night. My Uncle Jeff is back in Memphis for at least a couple of months, so it'll be nice to have him here for a while. He lives in Portland, OR, so he's usually quite a long way from us. I went w/ my Uncle Tim to pick up Uncle Jeff at the airport. We then went to my Uncle Mike's & had dinner there w/ one of my cousins. Thursday night was a BLAST! We got everyone together for dinner at the BBQ Shop... you know Memphis, we love our BBQ! It's always so much fun to get our family together for a dinner at a restaurant b/c they always end up putting us in our own private room off in the back so that we can be just as loud & crazy as we want to. And believe me, we do just that! Unfortunately, that night, my aunt (Kacky... one of the best things about being the 1st born grandchild was that whatever names I came up w/ to call everyone were the names that they got stuck with!!) & her husband weren't able to make it to dinner b/c my uncle wasn't feeling well. But, she did have last weekend's BBQ at her house, so we have been able to spend time with them. My Uncle Tim left yesterday to drive back home to Denver. Always sucks to see people leave! BUT, we have Uncle Jeff here for a while, so hopefully we'll have some more family gatherings soon. One of my favorite things about getting all of us together is that it always feels like my Nana is with us in spirit. She died in April of 2004 & we all miss her like crazy!! I know she'd be SO happy to see that we've all remained close & that we are still keeping certain traditions alive. My family is always there for each other during hard times! They've stood by me through so much since I got sick in 2001. Even when my Nana passed away, I know that 8 of Nana's 9 kids were in the room. I was lucky enough to be there as well. As sad as it was to lose her, I couldn't imagine her leaving us in a better way. We were all crammed in her hospital room, surrounding her bed. It was very peaceful. Definitely one of my most treasured memories. Getting off of that subject a bit, I always find it hilarious that Nana had 9 kids & out of those 9 kids, she got 5 grandchildren.. all girls!! Only 3 of her 9 kids ended up having kids. Perhaps growing up with that many brothers & sisters was more than enough for some of them! I love that I kind of have the best of both worlds... I'm my mom's only child, yet I have a huge family that I can count on. My cousin, Melissa, who is right below me as far as the order from oldest to youngest goes, is only 2 years younger than I am. We spent so much time together when we were young. We're both creeping up on 30 & we still have sleepovers once every 6-8 weeks!! I love it b/c I think it helps keep us young at heart. Anyway, this post is just me kind of rambling. I'm trying to get back in the habit of posting stuff on here several times a week. Unfortunately, my blood pressure's starting to act up again, so I'm not feeling too hot at the moment. I am sure that if I read this post in a few days, parts of it won't make sense to me. My blood pressure's gone back up a bit but so far, it's still not getting as high as it was when I 1st began having issues with it. So, fingers crossed, it won't get back to that point. Also, I have an abscess tooth that I'm dealing with right now. It hurts like a mofo!! I'm on an antibiotic to knock out the infection AND I'm on Vicodin (or Lortab... some form of Hydrocodone) to help with the pain. I already take Morphine twice a day for all of my nerve pain in my legs, so I'm sure having the Vicodin mixed in is another reason this post will sound crazy. I'll do my best to correct that problem on my next post. Hope everyone's enjoying their Saturday!!