Over a hundred reasons to love Monday !

As I mentioned, my mom and her siblings got together yesterday for the first time since 2005. There are - by my count - over a hundred family members now in our extended family. Mama was one of seven kids... there are 24 grandkids... 41 great-grandkids.... and *I think* there are three great-great grandkids now. Add in spouses and you've got a whole bunch of people. I didn't count heads yesterday but looking over the family tree I compiled yesterday, I think about 52 of those people were there.

And I should point out that we're neither Catholic nor Mormon... just a big family. Of course, one time Grandma was talking about the fact that the middle child, Uncle John, was spaced furthest apart from his siblings... I asked, "Was that intentional?" and she laughed and said, "Back then you just got what you got"... oh yeah... that would have been before the Contraceptive Age. We had a good laugh together.

My mama and her siblingsThey are arranged in chronological order... front row is Uncle Al, Uncle Bill, Uncle David, Uncle John... back row is Aunt Ginger, Mama, Aunt Linda.

As usual... I uploaded photos in no logical order...
This is my Aunt Ginger with her older daughter, Christie, Christie's husband Nathan, their baby Cole and my cousin Amanda's son Rowan...

Christie is expecting a baby... don't know yet if it's a girl or a boy...
This is a mass of cousins... my Aunt Linda's three sons, my brother Jim and Cousin Christie..
and of course this is my Cody... and daughter in law Marquee...
We thought this was hilarious... looks like that cellphone commercial...
more cousin pics...
I spent some time with my cousin Rik figuring out who was who in his family. His sister Tammy (far right, in the pink) is the oldest grandchild... I'm gonna try to name these folks while my memory is fresh... Uncle Bill is the one wearing the hat... beside him is Aunt Connie, My cousin Rik's wife Vanessa... then Rik, his son Erik, Cousin Tammy and her husband Jim.. then the front row is Tammy's daughters Jennifer and Hannah, Rik's son Chase, and Rik's daughters Rachel and Mikalia
This is just a fraction of our family... I think you know most of us ... my three younger brothers and their families were not there.

My favorite photo and it's a bit out of focus... Driving down on Saturday was fine for me, pain wise but yesterday I started the day in pain and by the time I spent two hours sitting on the hard metal picnic benches, I was in agony... with the drive home still ahead. Somehow... I managed to forget my bag with all my clothes, makeup, meds, laptop... everything... at my parents house. I remembered when we were about 45 minutes from their house. I called Jim and he had left but was much closer so they went back and got my stuff.

Ironically... Austin wanted to hurry home to be home in time for bible study and Sarabeth was in a hurry to get home for children's choir. I know that my grandparents, who were strong people of faith, had to appreciate the fact that two of their greats wanted to split the reunion in order to be on time for church.

The last reunion we had was fun but a lot of my generation didn't come. I hope we can do this more often so that the cousins will get to know each other better. If we're going to keep our extended family together, we've got to know each other... and our kids need to know each other...

It's storming outside... I'm feeling really ick... muscle spasms on the right side, shooting pains on the left... long day ahead... but I'll make it.

For me... my reasons to love Monday this week... there are over a hundred of them... my extended Pennington kin...

Al, Edna, Melissa, Dixie, Greg, Sheila, Joey, Karson, Cameron, Mack, Bill, Connie, Tammy, Jim, Pam, Brandon, Hannah, Jennifer, Lisa, Tim, Tim Jr, Jazzy, Rik, Vanessa, Misty, Rachel, Erik, Ivan, Mikalia, Chase, David, Lennie, Vernon, Corinna, Donald, Paula, Steven, Shelby, Tim, Jill, Ansley, Denise, Cory, Evey, Ewon, John Wayne, John, Gerri, Matthew, Jeremy, Andreea, Jason, Krista, A.J., Arielle, Ginger, Carl, Christie, Nathan, Cole, Amanda, Derrick, Austin, Rowan, Mom, Dad, Jim, Angie, Sarabeth, Jamie, Ryan, Cody, Marquee, Austin, Michael, Mechelle, Tiffany, Shaun, Ethan James, Cory, Matthew, Bryan, Candice, David, Katherine, Elizabeth, Caleb, Madie, Joshua, Linda, Charles, Andrew, Lynn, Micah, Joshua, Dane, Kevin, Tobie, Devyn, Sydney, Russell, Dawn, Charlie...

And I'm sure I missed a few, misspelled a few, etc... but for the most part... these are the people who descended from C.B and Flossie Pennington.

Hope no matter what size your family is... no matter what the weather is... I hope you find your own reasons to love Monday this week!

love and hugs!