So I think I may have not been as clear as I could with one of my previous posts. My family, ALL of my family, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I wouldn't trade them and their bickering for the world. I love them, warts and all. They are my family for pete's sake! I have never known a single one of them to do anything to hurt another on purpose. What they do, they do because that's the way family's are. The bigger the family, the bigger the bicker. I never even realized I had a large family until I met Mark. My Christmas list covers two pages. His fills up a post it note. I never really started to appreciate my family until a couple of years ago. Amazing how you have to practically turn 30 to be able to appreciate your family. Some of my family is older than I and still don't appreciate what they have. They can't see past the negative. I am not even sure they can even remember the positive.

I have one cousin I hope someday can. I can remember playing with this cousin when I was little. I worshipped this cousin. I wanted to be just like this cousin. I miss having this cousin to look up to. There is a great deal of negative now but for the most part, I remember the fun. I remember all the time I spent pretending to ride horses, running around Grandma's house, and playing with this cousin. This cousin was the most fun and the one who gave me the most attention. My other cousins were teens when I was born and didn't seem to want much to do with me being a little kid and all. I kinda laugh when I look back on how they just couldn't see me as an adult once I had grown up. They never realized it I am sure and it doesn't bother me. It's the way life goes. To them I was their "baby" cousin. Even in my early 20's. Not anymore though. It helps that my cousins were kind enough to have children. Younger ones around always help the youngest of the pack grow up in the eyes of family.

This weekend I got to use my new BBQ pit for the first time. It is totally perfect! Thanks to my Aunt and Uncle Bell I have loads of good oak wood for it. This weekend we did tri-tip and linguicia. Next weekend we are doing chicken and maybe some baby back ribs.