Family Reunion!!!!

Despite my melodramatic posts as of late, there has actually been a very exciting happening in my life recently. If you keep up with the blog, or know me at all, you know that my mom died 11 years ago. Not only that, but I lost all contact with her family (which is a HUGE family, might I add) at the same time. I have SEVEN cousins who are all the same age as me...just to give you an idea of how many of us there are. So a few months back my cousin Leighanne called me out of the blue (back story: I found an obituary for one of my mom's favorite cousins and sent a letter to the family). So Leighanne and I have been in contact for a few months now. I have gone to a few family things, but that's mainly with her immediate family. She has three brothers and a sister. A couple of weeks ago she sent me info on a family reunion on my Aunt Edie's farm. My Aunt Edie is my mom's aunt...but she is only a few years old than my mom so she was more like a sister. My grandparents (her sister and brother-in-law) raised her. As a child, I spent every Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and summers at her farm jumping from hay barrel to hay barrel, playing in the stacked toy room upstairs, eating INCREDIBLE homemade food, and breathing in the sweet, fresh farm air. My cousins are many but like I said, there are seven of us who are all 15 months apart...starting with Justin, then Leighanne, Matt, Bobbi Jean, Me, Sarah and Marc. We were all pretty close as wee-ones. Then with time, I didn't see them anymore. But they were pretty much all going to be in attendance at this reunion. Not to mention EVERYONE else....I had my second thoughts about making the journey.

But I went.

And it was unreal. My heart was pounding when we pulled into the driveway. The reunion took place at Dave and Amy's (Aunt Edie's son), whose house is on the same farm, just one driveway over. Just to give you an idea..I'll give you a short list of some cousins...

First the grown ups...Aunt Edie and Uncle Dave have three kids...Pam, Debbie, and Dave Jr. Pam has Sarah (my age), and Abby (and I think I'm forgetting someone...). Debbie has Matt, Marc, Elizabeth and Whitney. Dave has Brett, Ethan, Cody, and Eli. Then there's Aunt Charlie and Uncle Pete who have Jeff and Brian. Brian has no children to my knowledge but Jeff and Candy have Justin, Brandon, and Ashley. Uncle Brent and Aunt Vivian have Cliff, Penny, and Brandi. Penny has Rob and Lori. Cliff has Brent, Ryan, Leighanne, Amber, and Josh. Aunt Barb and Uncle Dale have Rick and Greg. Greg has one son (I don't know his name). Are you lost yet??? Yeah....that's just the start. These are only four of EIGHT siblings of my grandmother's.
Needless to say...I have a LOT of genealogy work to do in my life.

Everyone commented (of course) of how much I reminded them of my mom. I talked to a lot of the "grown ups" because that's who remember me the most. Unfortunately, since I didn't grow up with my cousins, I don't know them as well so we didn't really talk expect to throw jabs at one another during a rousing game of volleyball.

But it was so nice to have that void filled again. The farm was beautiful and it was a warm, sunny day. They live south of Martinsville on 60 acres of land. It was awkward for a while...but it was great. I can't wait to get to spend more time with my cousins...of course, several of them have facebook so we are linking up on there. Elizabeth and Ethan are seniors at Martinsville HS. Ethan plays football so I'm going to go watch his last game (although Elizabeth warned me that the team is terrible, yet reassured me that Ethan is really good). All of my cousins had their girlfriends and boyfriends there...it was too cute. My family is pretty tight-knit....so they have a lot of get togethers down there. It's bittersweet that I'm moving 1600 miles away soon. Just when I found my family, I'm leaving....

again, that's why there is facebook. :)

And blogging.

I wish I had some pictures of people for you...but it was kind of weird to re-meet someone after 11 years and say "HEY! Can I take your picture?" I'll make sure that I make up for that on Thanksgiving.