Family Reunion Spawns More Haley-isms

First a note on my last post: For those who were offended by my horny tomato reference, let me just say: get your mind out of the gutter! I was referring to the fact it looked like it had grown a horn. I can't imagine what else you thought I might be referring to. Sheesh. ------------ New Playlist stuff: Psycho by Puddle of Mudd Du Hast and Ich Will by Rammstein (they're German Metal) The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson (he gives me the creeps, but this is a good song) Temperature by Sean Paul ------------ Here's stuff from the weekend: We had my Hensley Family Reunion this weekend. It's an extravaganza. Starts Friday afternoon, ends Sunday morning, with a Saturday sandwiched in between (information for those who are using something other than the Julian or Gregorian calendars). This event is an annual tradition of swimming, eating, talking, hiking and sweating. It's held at a 4-H camp complete with air-conditioningless cabins. It is fun in the oppressive summer sun. Haley's favorite part, next to the endless swimming, is seeing her cousins. All of them came on Friday night, except Alex, who came with my sister and her husband on Saturday. Haley asked me at one point on Friday night: "When is Alex going to join us?" Every year we have an auction to help offset the costs of the event, and every year we have our eyes set on one particular item. Last year it was a nice pair of binoculars. This year Kelsee and I had a conflict. I had my eyes set a dancing Santa. Kelsee had her eyes set on a soup tureen (fancy name for soup serving bowl with a big spoon). We are now proud owners of a ceramic bowl. Anyway, Haley has become somewhat enamored with the bowl. Yesterday evening, Kelsee made a killer creamy chicken corn chowder thing, and Haley asked if Kelsee was going to serve it in the new bowl. Kelsee told Haley that we would use that for special occasions. Haley nods her understanding, mentioning a few special occasions (first on the list was Daddy's birthday, much to my delight.) She then looks over to kitchen cupboard with the special China we inherited from Kelsee's grandmother and says: "And we can serve it with the Chinese plates." Speaking of yesterday evening, we had a short thunderstorm that rolled through, which prompted Haley to make a similar comment to one that I don't recall ever mentioning on here. So let me go back about a year and a half. It was a time when Haley was becoming afraid of thunderstorms. We were talking about safety, and we told Haley about tornadoes and how to be safe from them. For family home evening, we made a tornado plan, and took Haley to the basement to show her where we should go in the case of a tornado. A few days later, we were beset with a typical spring thunderstorm: lots of wind, thunder, lightening and rain. Haley was becoming more and more alarmed. At one point she says: "Shouldn't we go downstairs so we can be safe from the tomato." We start this post with tomatoes, we end with tomatoes. Fitting...