Oh what a night...

I'm exhausted!

Last night my husband & I went to his cousin's birthday party out in Buddah. Well, I guess I could call him my cousin now. Ha, oh well. But it was refreshing to get out there in the middle of no where right on Devil's Backbone. (Oh my, there's enough in that sentence to tell you that I'm living in a hick state). But it was an adventure, I'm telling you.

So, when we got there his Uncle Mike, Buzz, & Mike Jr. were moving logs to make a bonfire for when it got later after all the fun festivities, while Tina was watching Tater Bug. His Aunt Mary, Jessica, and Amy were all in town buying the things needed to make chili and roast hot dogs and make hot chocolate. So, I decided to hang out with Tina and help her watch Tater Bug. (Christina is Buzz's girlfriend and we call her Tina, Amy is Mike Jr.'s wife). Shane decided to hang out with his cousins and uncle and help them move the trees out of their woods. So, it wasn't long before I walked over and his Uncle Mike asked me if I wanted to ride the four wheeler, well, scratch that, first he asked me if I knew how to drive one. Then I told him I did, so he hopped off and let me on. I haven't ridden a four wheeler in FOREVER. But it was refreshing to just speed along. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Mary, Amy, and Jessica showed up about ten minutes after I began riding the four wheeler. So I decided to go in and help them make the chili or whatever else needed to be made (doing the woman's job...). After a while though, there started to be people show up, with their guns and the shooting began. Mike and his son, Mike Jr. are BIG outdoorsmen. They hunt every year and we get deer jerky for Thanksgiving and Christmastime around the family. (IT'S AWESOME STUFF!). After a while it looked like a firing squad cause there were just about seven or eight people lined up with shotguns waiting to shoot the skeet that was being thrown in the air.

After they all finished shooting, we all sat down and enjoyed some chili. Clayton, Suenishia and their kids, Rocky, Charity & Adriane, Lacie, RD & Shalee, showed up when we were getting ready to eat. After we finished eating Mike decided to let off some fireworks and Shane, Jess, & I decided to sit inside the trailer and watch them instead of freezing our butts off. We were saving the freezing for the hayride.

Ha. The hayride. THAT was the adventure. We all piled on the hay wagon, (some of the people *cough* Jimmy *cough* were drunk), and hooked it up to Mike Jr.'s truck. Charity, who's 9 months pregnant and due anytime now, and her son Adriane, Mary, William (some little kid), Heather & Amy were all sitting in the back of the truck while all the rest of us were sitting on the wagon. It was eventful in the fact that we were also spotlighting deer (no guns or bows in the vehicle of course, so it wasn't illegal) and that there was a foreign family who had never been on a hayride before. Leave it to the Staggs' family to show the foreigners, the Dali Lamma's nephew, of all foreigners, what American traditions can be like (in an awkward, somewhat unethical manner, of course). But we went down in the bottoms off of Pinhook road and we were down in a field there (I can't pin-point exact locations, it was dark, and I was a little lost in the area that I grew up in) which had many twists and turns and low branches.

When we were going into the field, Jessica grabbed my leg and held on tight, I mean GRABBED my leg. She was squeezing really hard and digging her nails into it. I was like "That's my leg! OUCH! JESSICA!" And everyone thought it was funny. Lacie is a huge hick but she wouldn't let you know it unless you were with us last night-haha. She yelled out "I found Dirt!" After we went into the field, and we all looked at her "Dirt?! Lacie, it's all around." (This is a true story, sadly). And she was like "Deer! I found Deer." (Say Deer like Der). We all just laughed at her-it was just funny.


Then, Buzz & Rocky decided to jump off and get some corn. So, Mike Jr. hit the gas and left them in the dust. We made them run up a hill to catch up with us. So, I just laughed at the two boys and told them "You gotta stay in shape if you're gonna defend our country." (Buzz is in the National Guard and he's suppose to leave to go to Iraq in January or February and Rocky is in the Army and is suppose to go in December). They looked at me with a death-stare and shook their heads but I don't care-I went to PT two years ago. My Sgt. made us run up and down 16th street (which is nothing but hills) and sprint it. So, I just couldn't help but laugh at those two.


But on the way back the front left tire of the wagon started to shred it's cap. And then there was a huge bubble in the right tire and we were all like "It's gonna pop!" So Mike opens the door and stands out of the truck and looks back at all of us, who had taken our feet up and were getting them out of the way. And the guy sitting on the right side was like "It's gonna blow! Any time now!" And so we had just turned around on S Kenray Lake Road (we went WAYYYY out there) and then, BOOM! It busted. So we had to drive all the way back from there with a blown tire on the right side and a shredding tire on the left. I moved in the back with my husband at the end 'cause we sounded like a train coming through and it was hurting my back to sit up there...

But that's my night in a nutshell.

It's always an adventure with my in-laws. ALWAYS.