Summertime [And the Livin' is Easy]

[Uh, it's August? Already? Wasn't it June, like, yesterday? I'm pretty sure we were all just starting to enjoy our summers ... and then I turn around to find that the stores are threatening us with Back to School Sales. Say, wha ... ?!?!?]

Hi. My name's Stephanie. And you may think I've forgotten about this little corner of the interwebs.

On the contrary, I assure you.

You see, life here with Mr. Dude and Little Guy is just as nerdy as ever ... I just have seasons where I'm paying more attention to the "wife" part of my title than to the "almost nerdy" writer half.

Here's our rundown of summertime shenanigans:

Visiting CA: Um, this one makes me feel old. My high school class had its ten (10!) year reunion, so we took the opportunity to visit grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other random relatives. [Actually, I'm fairly certain that all of my relatives are random, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we visited various other relatives? I digress ... ] Highlight of the trip: Nana and Papa taught him to walk from Point A at one end of the house to Point B on the other end of the house. Prior to the trip, he had only been taking a few steps here or there. I'm still undecided as to whether I want to thank them for teaching him such a skill, or if I miss my baby who crawled everywhere ...

[Playing with a Mickey Mouse fire engine at his great-grandparents' house that my sisters and I played with when we were little. Vintage toys FTW.]

Family Reunion: Every year, Mr. Dude's family gets together for a family reunion. The location changes based on which one of the siblings is planning it. Constant themes: There is always way too much food [because everyone in that family can cook, bake or both]. There is always a hilarious game made up by the hosts that we all play together. The weekend always seems too short. And this year, we got to watch our son bask in the attention of a multitude of cousins - he was absolutely fascinated by watching them on the swings, the see-saw and running around on the grass. Running around after them made for one tuckered-out Little Guy.

Southern Oregon: We city slickers visited Mr. Dude's aunt and uncle on their ridiculous-number-of-acres ranch for a weekend full of hiking, tractors, learning to drywall, and waaaaaayyyyyy too much food. [You'll notice that's a theme of life in general, I suppose, since I keep on mentioning it ...] We also played an old-school game called Therapy and Jeff Foxworthy's You Might be a Redneck If ... Both ... were ... uh ... interesting ways to get to know your family better. And it's kind of scary how good Mr. Dude's family is at being rednecks when they want to ...

[Mr. Dude's uncle took Little Guy out for a ride on the tractor.
Cutest. Thing. Ever.]

Housing Projects: This one has kept us the most busy. Something about homeownership creating its own massive "to do" list? Anyone else have that issue? In Mr. Dude's world, though, the most exciting thing has been making our walls look like Swiss cheese. And by that, I mean we had an electrician come and replace all of our 1916 home's knob and tube wiring with modern-day electricity. Let's hear it for the 21st Century! And insulation!

No, really. Let's hear it for insulation! You can't have insulation in walls with knob and tube wiring because the wires are exposed [yup, it's that old] and would catch fire if they ran alongside insulation. So heating our home without turning it into giant bonfire is ... um ... fun. Oh, and it helps that all of Mr. Dude's electronics won't short out every outlet in the house when he tries to run them all at once. It's the little things in life, people.

[Swiss Cheese. Because we must needs feed the electronics.]

What shenanigans have you and yours been up to this summer? Anyone else bringing their house into the 21st Century? Or discovering you married into a family full of red necks?