Cousins, Christmas, and cows.

Disclaimer: I really don't have much to say about cows, but I really like alliterations , and there are cows in my yard.
And so our adventures continue.  We spent two weeks in Oregon and it was absolutely wonderful.  I am so incredibly thankful that we were able to see everyone and spend more time than we had originally planned. 
One wonderful thing about staying longer was the chance to see my dad's cousin Angela and her family.  Jesse and my mom and I met them at crossroads, and then daddy met us there, Cristin and Austin came, and then her husband Dan showed up after work, and it ended up being a family reunion where we shocked Angela by dropping all the latest news on her at once.  No, nobody is having babies.  Not that much news.  Just marriages and moves and stuff like that.  We don't see them enough, and everytime we do, we start the debate about how we are all related, and which of us are second cousins, and how many times removed we are...we finally decided that daddy and Angela are first cousins, Angela and I are first cousins once removed, Sophie (Angela's daughter) and I are second cousins, and when we have children, my kids and Sophie will be second cousins once removed, and our children will be third cousins.  Now it's on the internet as a reference for all future confusing conversations!  There has got to be an easier way to figure that stuff out.  But I digress...
On the 20th we went down to Mapleton and spent the day at Jesse's grandma Karen and grandpa Ed's house, with a side of the family that I have spent little to no time with.  That made it a little bit of a long day...hanging out with people you don't know during their Christmas is always awkward, even if you are technically family.  But we drove down the road to see the waterfall and it was beautiful.  I felt like my father, so excited to see moss, and mist, and climb around on rocks, and take pictures of trees.  I did slip and almost die once, but that's all in a day's work.
Frank and Vee were spending the night, so we got to cram in the back of Austin (Jesse's cousin)'s mustang that is having problems keeping the headlights on and sometimes over heats.  Nothing new.  I slept most of the way home, and woke up in a parking lot in Woodburn where we had stopped because apparently the throttle was sticking, and then in attempts to fix it, it was flooded.  So we ended up sitting there for an hour and getting home around 1 am, to the best of my memory.  That made two nights in a row that I was out past midnight, and this old lady doesn't handle that very well.
But next morning up we got and to church did trot, because the Chris Cline family was expected sometime after lunch.  After lunch turned into four or five, which became six or six thirty, and it ended up being sometime around 7:30 before they finally arrived.  But absence makes the heart grow fonder, and anticipation leads to restlessness, and restlessness leads to decisions to bake cheesy garlic onion bread, and that leads to another little piece of heaven, with all 23 of us gorging ourselves on spaghetti and bread and thoroughly enjoying everything about our family.  Especially our ability to make awesome food.
We also got to meet our youngest cousin, Micaiah.  He is about a month and a half old and looks exactly like every other Chris Cline baby.  Cousins are like no one else.  I miss being close to my cousins, and wish that I could be sure that my children will have close relationships with their cousins.  They are the only people that truly understand your craziness, without having to go through the trials of siblingship.  They are the only people that can stand in your living room, and follow a conversation on thunderwear (underwear with holsters in them), moving from one's views on heaven, to plans to act in commercials, to visions of shooting competitions...all in matching Cline Family Thunderwear and orange hats.
It brings me so much happiness, many times over, to see us all growing up, moving away, starting our own lives, being driven by the army, dreams of the coast guard, and little towns in Texas, and to all come together and still be just as close as we were when we were all under three feet tall.
Our trip back to Oregon, as my dear friend Rae pointed out to me, will not make being away from family any easier, but it was amazing, and it was something for me to look back on and know that 2000 miles will never be enough to separate us from the people that mean the most.

A Little Piece of Heaven

Greetings from the pacific NW! We flew back Dec. 12, intending to stay a week for a wedding, and decided to stay until Christmas Eve. Since we had planned on leaving on the 18th, we had plans to celebrate Christmas with the Clines on Friday and the Smiths on Monday.
Friday night we had the entire family there, all 14 of us. Crazy that the family has grown by three sons in one year! My parents' little house was definitely not meant for large parties, but close quarters is just a part of our life. Well, maybe not so much in Texas.
I can't even describe that scene to you. There is nothing comparable to the joy of children when they are excited to see you. Friday night, full of pizza and presents and excited children, 14 people sitting on two couches, stories being told, people getting smacked for not being nerdy, tea being spilled, minions and firefighter shirts and fuzzles and remote control cars, kids growing up before your very eyes and creating great works of art, laughter and joy. That is what heaven is going to look like. (Yes, I am paraphrasing what my father said from the pulpit the next morning.) Heaven will be all of us, together forever. The difference is that it won't give us headaches, I hope, and it will be even bigger and louder and more amazing that we can really imagine, but we got a glimpse of it.
One of the hardest things about moving to Texas is the real possibility that my children will not know their cousins and their grandparents. I want my children to experience a booming, boisterous family, descending upon people en masse. I want to be able to look around at my family and see heaven. It will be interesting to see what people God chooses to put in our lives to fill those spots, because I don't believe that He ever desires people to not be surrounded by other people.
If that is God's desire for our lives, we carried it out quite well Sunday night when both families converged up at the Smiths' house, along with Jesse's aunt and uncles and cousins, and an appearance from a couple of my old friends. And James. He's not family, he just shows up when he's hungry. Not really...he came to pick up a bumper sticker thing that Jesse had made for him (Jesse has really gotten into the whole vinyl cutting thing. He's been making stickers for days) and decided to stay a while.
So far it has been a good trip, and I am looking forward to being able to share more of our Oregonian adventures!

Thanksgiving.

"Everyone has to close their eyes and say thank you for three things. Ok, you're up!
-Kian
Our first Thanksgiving away from family.  Let me just take a moment to say how much I appreciate our fellow Oregonian orphans.  Without Jody pushing everyone, without Mel to cook the turkey, without Dave to fund the operation and host the event, it would have been a very lonesome holiday.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have such wonderful people.
About a month ago Jody and I started talking about thanksgiving, and came to the conclusion that he and Mel and I are the only ones that know how to cook.  Last week I stopped by his office and asked him what the plan was.  "Mel is going to do the turkey, since neither of us have done one before, I will do the ham, and you can do everything else.  But I will help you, of course." 
So by 11:00 Thursday morning we had successfully taken over Dave's house.  Annie had been there all morning cleaning and getting everything ready for us.  I do not understand how people manage to serve a hot thanksgiving meal.  I think we need to invest in alot of crock pots and turkey roasters before next year, because I think the only hot dishes were the ham and asparagus.  Although, in hindsight, I probably didn't need to make the mashed potatoes two hours before the turkey was done.  But as our first full blown meal, I would have to consider it a success.  Matt and Nicole and Chris showed up around 2 or 3, and everyone hung out in the kitchen and on the back deck, talking, laughing at Kian's antics, or getting attacked by the fart blaster while watching Planes.  Good, clean fun, as my husband would say.  When dinner was finally ready, and everyone gathered around the table, two questions were raised.  Who will bless the turkey, and who will carve it?  Well Dave was unanimously elected to carve the turkey (despite his protests that he has never carved a turkey before), but flatly refused to pray.  Honestly, we were a little surprised that everyone seemed to feel so strongly that someone ought to pray before eating thanksgiving dinner.  It's strange, to me, how some people observe religious acts on holidays, and feel just as strongly that they ought to be done at those times as they do that religion is not necessary at other times.  For any of my fellow OregonianTexans, I absolutely mean no offense.  You must understand that for me, it is a way of life, and while your way of thinking about religion and holidays is different than mine, I appreciate it so much, because thanksgiving without a prayer would be to me even more foreign.  I am glad that we had the opportunity to pray together, even if it means something different to you than it does me.
I had talked to Annie earlier about the question of who would pray, and had told her of my irrational fear of praying in front of people.  I hate it.  It scares me, it's awkward, I start shaking and often times break out, so I avoid it whenever possible.  At the table, everyone was laughing and joking about it, saying "Jesse should do it!" "Why won't you do it?" "It's your house!" but Dave kept asking who was going to do it, and the subject wasn't dropped, so finally I just went for it.
I still hate praying in front of people.  It still terrifies me, and I'm not super excited that I had to do it, but I'm glad I did, because it needed to be done, and it was getting awkward.
The next morning Jesse and Jody went out hunting and Jesse got his first pig!  All I've been hearing for two days now is "I shot it on the run!"  He is very proud of it, especially since it's the first pig to be shot by an oregonexan.  He also is not one to kill something and not eat it, and consequently my kitchen was turned into a processing plant for a day.  It smelled bad, but it is good to have meat in the freezer.  It takes alot for me to complain about free food.