Cousins

Weddings and Funerals. A good opportunity to get group shots of the cousins in your life. One of my favorite photos of my kids with their cousins is from their great grandmother's funeral about 14 years ago. Everyone is dressed nice, and as long as folks aren't bawling eyes out, everyone is looking pretty good. 

Even if it is weird, take the opportunity.

As for my cousins, all my cousins on my mom's side of the family pretty much live in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Save for John who is in Richmond, VA, my sister in NY, and me in Maryland. We do not get together as frequently as we did growing up. The last time we had a big gathering of the Cousins on mom's side was our Gammy's funeral. 

And we gathered again this time for my dad, all but John could come. We took a couple photos after the funeral, after dinner, with my mom. My family is the kind of folks who put the Fun in Funeral. The hysterical laughter after Gammy's funeral, especially from Mike (who maybe farted when they pulled her casket up to carry?) And I can't believe I didn't write about that particular day because it was hilarious.

You can tell by looking at Mike that he's kind of the fun one.

Back row: Mike, David, Thom, Debi (all siblings, my Aunt Carole's kids), Bill (my Aunt Beverly's son, his brother is John, not with us).

Front: Me, Mom, Linda.
We also took a picture with the spouses, without Doug who went to relieve the dog sitter.

My mom looks so small and frail, like she's wearing this giant coat which is a size 6, and she's maybe a size 0 at this point. So small. 

The next night we got together again with 50% of Bill's kids. He has four, Kate, Brittany, Nick, and Becky. We were at Brittany's house. Her partner Jason and their 3 kids were there too. 

Back row: Bill, Ronnie (my BIL), Geoff, Doug, me. 

Middle: Linda and Jay

Front Becky, Laura (Bill's wife), Brittany
Jess took the picture

Jess' friend Molly and my girl C had to have me explain who was who, which Auntie is the parent of what kid. I feel like I need a Miro board to diagram out all the relations.

We always say that we need to do this more often, we always have a ridiculously fun time. Always a lot of laughter, talking about everything under the sun. Even when we can't get every single cousin into the same place (in fact, it's nice not to have a couple folx mixed in because they just don't vibe) it's nice to gather. 

My cousin David was always my mom's favorite. Third born in his family, he was kind of a lil'trouble maker but he also was a lot of fun. Mom always called David "Auntie Shirley's Special Little Man." It was fun getting these photos of them, but also I wish my mom reacted a little bit to Dave's kiss on the side of her head. She just looks exactly the same in each shot. It's a little odd to me. Lin and I will be back up in August, perhaps we can get a little more of this fun cousin time. 

Oh, and a note: After posting yesterday's flower picture I think the little white and red flowers are impatiens just like the single pot that I have. The leaves look the same, and after two days and a couple good waterings they seem to be bouncy and adorable!

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 176
5:30pm: 154
10pm: 164

food:

coffee, water, sun brewed iced tea
10:30am: burned pizza cheese from geoff's pizza bagel
noon: BLT salad; croissant w/turkey & mayo; metformin
5:45pm: wine
6:30pm: 4 small hot spicy sausages from the grill
8pm: hummus+triscuits