THE SARDINE CAN

My brother Paul invited the whole clan to his neck of the plains for the 4th of July weekend. As incentive, he offered golf outings, pool time, a fireworks show, and free meals. So of course most of us showed. And we proved once again that even a nice roomy house can feel like a sardine can when you add 26 warm bodies. But my family will endure any amount of chaos to be together. Which makes us charming and quirky, right? And not scary or weird at all.

Of course, I must admit that the girls in this family have had a difficult time scaring up men to marry them. And since they’re all very beautiful and only a tiny bit loud and obnoxious at times, I have to wonder if maybe the family is responsible for scaring off any potential suitors. Which makes me appreciate all the more the ones that finally say "I do" to this family...they are truly brave souls and I can’t say enough good things about them.

But the whole marrying into this family thing reminds me of that old legal concept known as "coming to the nuisance". Basically, it means that if you’re dumb enough to buy a house next to the town dump, you can’t sue the dump for smelling up your air. Of course, I’m not calling everyone who has married into this family dumb, but the bottom line is that they each CHOSE to join this town dump of a family, and so they can’t now complain that we are smelling up their air, right? And they all seem to understand that concept which makes them even more precious.

Which transitions me nicely into my first wedding post (which isn’t this one, but might be the next) because it’s going to be all about the latest brave soul, Courtney, who CHOSE to marry our Ben...and how we didn’t trick her or anything to get her into the family. Not that we wouldn’t have stooped to that level, if we’d had to, because she’s such a great girl. I can’t say that she completes us, because that might hurt Thomas’s feelings since he’s marrying Betsy in August...if we don’t scare him off before then. But Courtney definitely makes us a better family. Because when she can get a word in edgewise, she smooths out some of our rough edges. Seriously. We seem nicer when she’s around.

I have some great stuff on the kids...but Dave just called to say Emily wants to go for a walk. And right now, when Emily says JUMP, we say HOW HIGH? Because we don’t want to have any regrets come August 21st.

I had a turkey and spinach sandwich for lunch...and too many chips. I knew I shouldn’t eat them straight from the bag but I did anyway. Because my personal trainer wasn’t around to stop me.