Those were the words that greeted Justin and I as we arrived at the Storm Family Reunion. I was invited camping for the weekend to meet Justin's extended family and Becky's side, the Storms. "Big Bitty" is the name that Mike refers to himself as the third person, he gave us both a kiss on the cheek.
"I am so happy you guys came! My little babe and darling little bondling girl!! Oh how I love you both!!"
Mike has nicknames for everybody, thats where Justin gets it from. Justin, being the baby of the family, his dad has always called him his little babe, and I don't really understand my nickname, "Little bondling girl", I asked Mike one time what he meant by calling me that, and he said its like what a cute little baby duckling is, just precious! He says. Well, if that were the case, wouldn't he just call me little duckling girl?
Becky is amazing and she prepared all the meals for the week, I ate very well. I learned about some new foods too that I have never tried before. Crab bread was one of them. Very good. Fresh crab, (not that imitation stuff), sour cream, mayonnaise, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, swiss cheese and butter on a baguette bread. Delicious! I found out that Justin loves this stuff and ate like 18 pieces of it...and I'm not exaggerating! Also, I learned a way to make omelets for 30 people successfully. You take two eggs and and place them in a plastic bag. Then you put all the ingredients (which were laid out for us beforehand: tomatoes, cheese, ham, spinach, turkey, avocado, peppers, etc) that you want in your omelette, and you write your name on it.. (this would be a good idea to do before you start putting ingredients in your bag). We then boiled all the bags in hot water for about 14 minutes...and voila! A gourmet omelette! it was so good..I was fascinated with the process which I have obviously never tried before. Beforehand, I did attempt to help Becky in the madness of preparing for 30 people. I found out I can whip up blueberry muffins ( from blueberries that her and I had hand-picked earlier that afternoon), snicker doodles, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies in one night fairly quickly, with all the ingredients in front of you and two ovens.(and help from Becky). Exhilarating! The best part of camping is by far every meal, I look forward to the announcements that the meals are ready. I also heart coffee in the morning, because no matter what anyone says, coffee heals. Especially after the first morning I had there this last saturday...
I slept in a tent with Justin's parents and his nephew Zion. Well, about 5 o'clock in the morning it decides to rain, pour actually, and not soon after all of us sleeping in the tent are being woken up by drops of water on our faces. The tent was flooding and it was raining outside and their was absolutely nothing we could do about it. Jodi, Justin's sister, was in a tent also with her husband, Chris. She had of course woken up from all the commotion and yelled over to our tent, "Welcome to Oregon Melissa! I bet it doesn't rain like this in California". Actually, it doesn't, but that's not the point. The point is, it was raining and no one had planned on it and at 6:00 am we were stuck in a wet tent with wet sleeping bags.
Zion, at 6 years old, was very confused at the feeling of drops on his head as he woke up, "Gamma Becky..um..is their a hole in this tent?"
"No honey," Becky responded, "Its raining outside."
"Well, when is it gonna stop?" Zion asks as he has a concerned look on his face.
Mike had woken up now as sunshine-ey as ever (because Mike is a morning person). He was in a cot, as was Becky, and I was in a sleeping bag on the ground at the foot of his cot. Well, his face was looking down at me as he smiled and yelled, "Hi Honey!!" In his booming high pitched voice of his. I couldn't help but smile despite the rain. "Don't wake her up Mike," Becky said to her husband as I was still cuddled up in my wet blankets. Zion had completely gotten up now and kept asking Mike what the plan was. Zion saw this situation as a problem that needed to be solved as soon as possible (he is just like his daddy).
"Papa Hi Honey...um..what is the plan?? What are we gonna do?"
Zion has been calling Mike papa hi honey ever since he could talk because that is what he always heard when he was greeted by his papa, "Hi honey!!" In that voice of his.
I went to check my phone to see what time it was, only to found out I didn't have it. I couldn't find it anywhere! I retraced the steps in my mind of when I had my phone last. I remembered I had left it outside the night before! I left the tent in a hurry and ran through the rain to see if it was still where I had left it, on the picnic table. Well, to my dismay and utter disappointment, it was gone! Along with my digital camera as well! I was thinking that if I were in California it would have been stolen, thats what I thought at first. I told Becky and she had insisted that it was not stolen. "I'm sure it wasn't stolen, someone must have picked it up for you when they found out it was raining". Well, she was right. I had found out a little later on that Jodi had picked it up for me and placed it in a dry spot when she had went to the bathroom earlier that morning when it had started to rain. Oh how thankful I was!! Thankful that I lived in a community that didn't steal other peoples things, and thankful that my phone had only been slightly rained on. My phone, after a few minor scares of it not coming back to life, now works just fine. So it rains 75% of the year in Oregon, so what? I can handle it.
Once the sky cleared up and the sunshine peeked through we all decided to go out on the water. Some rode jet skis, others Kayaked. I rode in the fancy boat with Justin, his cousins Clint, Katie, Rosie, and Cody, his Aunt Cindy, Becky and DJ's Sister, Joy (DJ is Jeremy's wife, who is Justin's brother). Katie, who is 10, was attempting to try to convince me to go tubing with her. I was scared out of my mind as I watched her, Joy and Cody try it themselves. It looked like they were almost gonna tip over! Never trying it before, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity for me to go for it. I pushed past my fears, talking myself through it, it didn't matter that Justin said he would go with me and not let anything happen to me or that his 6 year old cousin Cody was more excited than I was.
"Melissa," I said to myself, "You are a very good swimmer, if you tip over you can swim to shore if you have too..plus, you will be wearing a life vest..that allows you to float, what is there to be scared of?"
As I talked myself through it I got on. Cody was in the middle of Justin and I, we went so fast that I popped up and slapped my legs together! That wasn't a very good feeling. Cody was laughing yelling, "Go faster, Go faster!!" As his mother was telling Clint to slow down. I was yelling but what I was saying didn't make any sense at all as I was just screaming noises to get myself to calm down as the adrenaline was racing through me. When I looked ahead wind was hitting my face so fast that I couldn't make out anything in front of me as my eyes were tearing and my hair was flying out of place. BUT when I looked over on the sides of where I was the trees were beautiful as they were passing and the water rushing by, and my boyfriend's face smiling at me and constantly asking me, "Are you ok, baby?"
Getting off the tube, Joy was very proud of me, as was Becky who had had Clint stop the boat to check on the 3 of us. I thought maybe she had heard me screaming. Joy did tell me that if she did it, (it was her first time too), then I would HAVE to do it. That was the deal, so you see, I HAD to go through with it. I am so glad I did.
I love the talks around the campfires of the older generations informing the younger of what once was and what they are to look forward to. Funny stories of recalling past memories, and some sad ones as we remember what made us who we are today. I met so many people this past weekend, all Justin's extended family on his mom's side. It could have been overwhelming, but I found it exciting. They were extremely welcoming and kind, and I saw why Becky turned out the way she is as I got to know her mother more. Becky is always serving other people, as did her mother. So many nice people I met this weekend, I felt honored to have met them and be apart of their little family get together. It made me miss my family even more than I already do. It also made me feel so incredibly blessed for the opportunities and the people that God has placed in my life. I loved the card games and new board games I learned how to play as I got familiar with this group of people.
"I could get used to this.." I thought to myself when the weekend was over.
