Redneckin'

So, I know many of you have been waiting in anticipation for my blog about our family camping trip and I'm a little nervous--hoping I live up to the expectations. :)

I can't even write this blog without starting with a confession: about 8 years ago, my sister-in-law Wendi (shout out, Wendi!) shocked our entire family by showing up to the family camping trip dragging along a U-Haul trailer. I thought I was going to laugh myself silly when I saw my big, bad, redneck brother pull up to a totally rustic (and I mean R-U-S-T-I-C) "campground" (a.k.a. some mostly flat spot in the middle of the forest by a lake) pulling a U-Haul. I thought Wendi was the citiest city girl I had ever met and this just solidified it. Imagine my humiliation when I realized this summer that there wasn't room in our SUV for Mark, Mary, Bailey, Grandma Faye AND Sasha along with all of our stuff. This is what I said to myself: "Holy crap. THIS is why Wendi had to rent a U-Haul! I owe her a MAJOR apology for all the years of mocking and scorn." So, Wendi, may my deepest and sincerest apology live on eternally entombed in the internet! :)

Okay, moving on. The funnest game ever invented: The Redneck Game of Life. http://www.rednecklife.us/ The whole point of this game is to finish the game with the most teeth. True story. Mark & I have played this game several times with several different groups of people but I knew deep in my heart that nothing could have prepared him for playing it with my family. Here are three direct quotes from the game:

Monty (p.s. he had a mullet until not that long ago): (upon turning over the card that would reveal the "house" he would be buying) "Hey Julie, come look at this! This looks just like our trailer!"

Marty (p.s. he lives in BFE Montana): (Upon review of nearly EVERY "Go Redneckin'" card he turned over) "Okay, that one hits just a little to close to home."

Cody (Marty's 10-year-old son): (After Marty got a card that made him lose a tooth because his bat riquocheted while playing mailbox baseball) "Hey Dad! Is that what happened to our frog mailbox?" Yep.

There is a card in the game that requires all the players to engage in a pig calling contest (seriously). Dusty got that card and, for the record, I won. Thank you very much. Later on Dusty got a card that caused Marty to lose his job (which required a 5th grade education, mind you) as the Ciggy Shack Attendent because he was doing donuts in the parking lot and flattened the Ciggy Shack.

My mom landed on a square right at the end of the game where she had "one last roll in the hay" and ended up with a young'un named...wait for it...Mary Jane. Awesome.

I could go on all night recapping that game because it was the funniest thing that has happened in a really long time.

Poor Mark, he's still twitching.

First posting

My first addition to the blog...

It will be largely unspectacular but at least I've started! :-) Bailey was totally awesome today. He more or less screams when he's excited and when we went out to get food for our upcoming camping trip, he was screaming almost all the time. For a little while it made Mary and I uncomfortable, well probably mostly just me. Anyways, eventually I started getting into it and helping everyone get into his excitement too like commenting about what he's excited over the cereal boxes or the lady passing out jelly fruit snacks.

He was just kicking and trying so hard to pull Mommy to the next thing. Apparently he thinks he doesn't get out often enough... :-)

Anyways, he's super cute and plenty of other funny stories to come! (from both of us, even thought they will be funnier if Mary tells them)

Parenting

I think I'm parenting challenged already because as soon as I got home from D.C. (which is another blog for another day that I don't have time to type right now), I discovered that Bailey has a favorite commercial. Yep, that's right: my seven-month-old has a favorite television commercial. When the Sleep Country USA commercial comes on, he immediately stops what he's doing and finds the TV and just smiles and laughs all through that commercial. When it's over, he just goes back to doing whatever he was doing. It's the craziest thing I have ever seen.

Oregon is a big state!

Why is it that when you're on the other side of the country that people from here think that because they know someone who lives in (or has visited at some point in time) Oregon (or "Oreeeegone") thinks that you would know them? I can't believe people still say stuff like "Oh! You're from Oreeegone??! My husband's second cousin Linda lives in Salem...do you know her?" Yep. I do. Weird, huh? UGH.

Our Nation's Capital...

...is SO freaking HOT! And I don't mean that in the Paris Hilton sense of the word! I mean it in a fat girl walking her backside down the street in Washington, D.C. sweating her brains out because it's 95 degrees with freaking THUNDERSTORMS. How do you spell "humidity"??!?!? UGH. Well, this is my second day here and nothing too crazy has happened. I think I'm the only white girl here but other than that. I did see the funniest thing today though...I was walking back to the Metro train (4 stories underground but I'll save that for another day) and I saw this family that were clearly not from around these parts. For one thing, they were white. For another, as I walked by, dad and brother were looking at separate maps and mom and dad were (literally) holding their arms out and pointing in opposite directions. Daughter was so pissed and annoyed with all of them, she just sat on the bench and sweated quietly while letting the other three argue about either where they were or where they wanted to be. Funniest dang thing. The funniest part was that even though you could tell they were arguing, they weren't yelling or cursing at each other. If you picked four of my family members at random (including the children), there would be much shouting and gesturing and certainly more cursing. We would still love each other at the end but if we got lost, boy there would be hell to pay. :)

Can't wait to see what funny thing happens tomorrow...stay tuned! :)