I'm in room 168 of the Red Lion Inn at Kelso, Washington. Thre's bags strewn all over the floor. Sister Tater (Linda) is laying on the bed, plucking chin hairs. Shelby is battling a headache after knocking herself blind in the shower. She's got a knot on her noggin. Konnie keeps calling every 3 minutes. She's driven in from Bend. Ashley is calling every hour to tell us why she isn't here yet. Tim is in Hermiston. He's got a scrimmage. Mama is on her way down but it's okay if she doesn't hurry because none of us want to be around the cigarette smoke. I drove Taylor up to Castle Rock to get her hair done this morning.
This is the gathering of our crazy, errant family.
Mannie, Linda's oldest, is getting married today. We are here to rejoice with him and his new bride Nicole.
Konnie has just walked in, wearing yet another pair of new jeans. I think she has 50.
"I'm hungry! Do you have anything to eat?"
"Yeah, there's a bag of Starbucks pastries."
She's sitting on the footstole, eating it now.
Pastor's wife has just dropped in and asked how I keep Linda together, "We just rely on the name of JESUS!" I said, raising my hands in the air.
For some reason, in our family. we've had 3 of the grandkids get married. Frank's oldest. My daughter Ash. And now Linda's oldest.
And not a one of us -- Frank, me or Linda -- were ready for it, or happy about it.
It's so odd because neither of us could've told you what our mama thought of the spouse we chose. Mama just never commented one way or another.
But Frank, Linda and I have all followed the same pattern of trying to talk our kids out of marrying the people they chose.
I'm sure we have our reasons. And some might even be good reasons. Though maybe we are all just a bit whacked.
I wrote a card to Mannie's bride this morning. "Welcome to our family," I said. "We are an imperfect bunch of broken people -- just like every other family. But what has held us together over the years is our love for God and for each other."
For many years, Frank, Linda and I were each other's caretaker. We are passionate in our love for one another and unreasonable when it comes to loving our kids. We're overprotective, strict beyond measure and our expectations are high. But this is what made our kids the people they are today. They don't know it yet, but despite our diligent love, they've turned out imperfect, too.
I can't wait till Amy, Ashley and Mannie start having kids of their own. Then, and only then, will they stop rolling their eyes at us, and exclaiming to each other, "Oh, Man!"
I'm not too worried about Nicole, though. I've met her family. I'm pretty sure she's had a lot of experience in dealing with families like ours ...
Tomorrow Tim and I will celebrate 29 years of marriage.
It hasn't always been easy but we've managed to make it fun. I wish the same for Mannie & Nicole.
(Okay, I have to end this. Mannie and his mama are talking about Mannie having his butt shaved. He claims he told his brother Gabe that he needed to man up as the best man and pick up the razor...I"m telling you you don't want to know the rest of this conversation...)
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com