in which i squawk about my family.
if any of you don't like reading about amazingly fun families, this would be your time to click away from this post. and also reevaluate your lives, who doesn't like amazingly fun families?for those of you that do like that sort of thing, this is your lucky day. if you've been around here for any amount of time, you'll have realized by now that the reason that i basically started this blog is because of family. around a year ago, i decided i needed to start sharing the funny stories that come up with them around, and i wanted to keep all of the many family members in the loop as Mister Man and i started our lives together. (and then it just kept going, for better or for worse. i'm not one to judge the quality of content around here, although i'm hoping that it's mostly good.)
i just really like my family. we had a lot of family time this weekend, and it reminded me how lucky i am to not only have a large and in charge family unit, but to have a family that i actually like and want to spend time with. i can't tell you how often i hear from friends and co-workers that they HAD to spend time with their families over the weekend. or when i mention i'm going to hang out with my in-laws, the grimaces and eye rolls i get...i have to explain to people that i'm excited, because i like my in-laws and don't see hanging out with them as a chore. i used to be under the impression that everyone's family got along like mine, but as i've gotten older, i see what a gift it is.
at family weddings, we are the first ones to hit the dance floor and the last ones to leave it. it is a sight to behold when you have cousins and aunts and uncles all getting down on the dance floor to the latest one direction song. a thing of beauty i tell you.MM and i are in our hometown so often that we seriously thought about buying a house there just so we wouldn't have to drive back and forth so much. we eat at one of our family member's houses or another almost every sunday. it can be tiring, but we just can't pass up opportunities to sit around a table, eating good food and laughing hysterically with some of our favorite people. and there is always laughing. example: my grandpa regularly tips his hat to the side to show off his "gangsta style", and most recently, there was a story told by my cousin who just returned from 3 months in liberia about the time he had to run up a shit-covered hill to get away from a man with a gun. (that story was funny i swear, but maybe you had to be there...?)
many of my best friends also happen to be related to me. i go out with my siblings and cousins a lot, and getting a "cousin night" together usually means ending the night with raucous storytelling and laughing, and dragging ourselves to the nearest diner the next morning to eat greasy hashbrowns and laugh some more. it can also mean getting into sibling-sized fights with your cousins, but hey, you get over it quick because you also love each other like siblings and that's what siblings do. they fight and make up because LOVE.
i just felt like today i needed to squawk about this wonderful part of me and my life and the goodness of it all, because this weekend i got to see so many of these people, and you know what? they make me so freaking happy. for all the dysfunction (and there is dysfunction, i have a human family you know), there is one gajillion times more happiness. and for that i am so thankful.
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i mentioned family weddings up there? here is a little instagram goodie from that event for you kids. this is maybe my most favorite photo ever. and it makes me really excited to start a family with that guy down there someday. i mean come on, the weirdness that is going to come from the two of us is going to be outstanding, no? 
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