Ruckus

This weekend Chris and I visited the farm in Mississippi! We arrived just before a thunderstorm hit. And I am not talking about my nephews, but that too. Chris and I have grown accustom to peace and quiet so when we visit the farm we must be ready to rumble. The boys want to play, the boys want to wrestle, and the little girl wants to sing and dance. What more could dinks ask for?

Please don’t get me wrong. My nephews, Rhett and Reese, are made from the same stock as me! I am loud! I am stubborn! And most of all I am a giant goof ball! On Friday the boys and I were watching baseball. They Yankees were trailing to the Twins. We shared stories on why we loved Derek Jeter and why A-Rod was over paid. The boys really like A-Rod! When Alex Rodriquez hit a two run homer in the ninth inning to tie the game Rhett and I went nuts! Unfortunately my dog, Boo, doesn’t like loud noise. Boo barked and howled at the two of us. This all happened in between efforts to pull out one of Reese’s teeth. Loud doesn’t really describe the noise level. To sum up the night, the tooth wasn’t pulled, Mark Teixeira won the game with a walk off hit, and Boo barked.

Boo doesn’t like commotion! On Saturday we visited our church up the road. We all piled into my dad’s truck. The seating arrangements were Rhett, Reese, Chris, Boo and me on the backseat and mom, dad and Lucy on the front. Yes, we didn’t have enough seat belts. But, it was a dirt road or something like that. We hopped out and left Boo in the truck with the boys and Lucy. If you want to know what terror looks like, trap Boo into a truck cab with my niece and nephews. His ears were cocked backwards and his eyes were as large as golf balls. If he could talk, he would be pleading for deliverance back home!

He survived as did I. But I am not so sure about Lucy. Saturday we cooked steaks out on the grill. Hot grill plus little girl equals burnt finger. Poor little Lucy cried and cried! At first, I thought she had cut her finger on something. No blood, so it wasn’t a big deal. She continued to cry. I can’t speak crying kid so I didn’t understand what was going on. I tried to help with my expert Be Ready Camp skills, but setting up a triage tent was an over kill. When I saw the little blisters on her fingers I almost started to cry. We bandaged her fingers up by using ace bandages as substitute for gauze, but we didn’t use duct tape.

We changed gears from baseball to football on Saturday just as we were changing gears from treating a second degree burn to pulling a tooth. As a child, I felt that parents had a twisted desire to pull their children’s teeth. This was proven when my mother was so determined to pull Reese’s tooth that she bribed him. That didn’t work. She tried inspiration speeches… “Yes, We Can!” That didn’t work. I tried comparing it to an eight second bull ride. Reese loves cowboy movies, but that didn’t work. But my mom did wait, and wait until Reese fell asleep. She tried stirring him to get up and then yanked the tooth with floss looped in his month. As cruel as I thought it was, Reese jumped up, whimpered, and rejoiced! “Cool, my tooth is gone”, he proclaimed as I was having flash backs of my childhood!

The night settled down, Boo cuddled up, and eventually I fell asleep. I love visiting my childhood home. I would say that it brings me peace and refreshes me but that wouldn’t be completely true. I love my family. I love all the little kid hugs and cheers. I love my mom’s cooking. I love showing Chris around my family’s farm. I love it all! It may be noisy and rough at times. But the ruckus is what makes Rhett and Reese special! Lucy on the other hand is just sweeter than a rice-crispy treat! And being on the farm is simply magnificent!