The Barclay's

This morning the weather was dreary, and I felt the need for an adventure. I tried to think of things we could do, in the rain, with no money and very little time...I didn't come up with much. So I decided to look inward, well inside my house and I realized that each day, in my life, is an adventure and has been ever since I signed on to be Jill Barclay; wife and mother extraordinaire. (I added the extraordinaire part. And I would also like to point out that I spelled it, without the aid of spellcheck.)
I'm starting with a "blast from the past". Here is a picture of Kevin and I on our wedding day. October 21st, 1989. We had known each other just a smidge over 2 years at this time...I'm pretty sure I currently have dust bunnies under my bed who have known each other longer. We truly had no idea what we were in for...

...then again, maybe there was some idea...you young ones, you need to listen when we tell you that you never know where a kiss might lead...for those of you whom are only just getting to know me...these are NOT our children.

Now we flash forward nearly 21 years to September 2, 2010 and all our dreams have come true. We just weren't all that aware what we were dreaming of.

We live in Michigan. One of the motto's of our lovely state is, "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you." That used to be the motto anyway, now the signs say "Pure Michigan"...I'm not even sure what the hell that means. What else could it be "Mostly Michigan with a touch of Ohio? We're not really sure because the surveyor who marked the boundary was intoxicated?" But, I digress (I'll do that, try to stay with me). So, "if you seek...blah, blah, blah...look about you." The point is, I decided to try to find an adventure right here at home. Let me begin by telling you the materials I have to work with.

Above is a picture of my dirty laundry. This is just two days worth of laundry for our family. This is also with only seven people living in our house instead of eight. The college kid no longer asks me to do her dirty laundry, but she will call occassionally and ask me to send her quarters for the washing machine in the dorm. "Seriously?" But, she is only a sophomore so she still has time to develop common sense before she is thrust into the world that will eat her alive for things so stupid.

Next to the picture of the laundry is a shot taken out our back door to show A: that the weather was abysmal and B: that sometimes we do laundry like rednecks by just leaving it hanging outside in the rain.

This is a shot of our front yard, just so you know we don't try to hide our "redneckedness" in back. We once had a broken toliet sitting in our front yard. I'm not even kidding.

Well, I sought my "pleasant peninsula" and decided that it was about me. So I started a load of laundry and then picked up my camera, (which I think I will name "Midge" for the purpose of this blog...even though this is the only time I will likely use said title.), and began to explore.

My first stop was my dining room table, which hasn't seen an actual meal since last Thanksgiving, I suspect. It is a beautiful table...one of the nicest pieces of furniture we own. But, we don't use it for eating. It is a place to put "stuff". So I took a picture of some of the "stuff" that is evidently so important it can't possibly be put away. It must always be within an arms reach. And don't get the crazy notion that it was placed, haphazardly, in that fashion. I arranged it for a photo shoot.

This is Cole. He recovered a fumble last night in his football game but didn't get credit for it. If you ask him to tell you the story I bet he will, and you will laugh because Cole is funny. He is also charming, handsome, polite, friendly and intelligent...but rarely all at the same time because, evidently, that would be too overwhelming for us to handle. We just take what we can get.

Here we have Travis. He is one of the most creative, intelligent, energetic young men I have ever met. But, he would do this all day if I allowed him to. And the little guy below is Bryan. He rarely wears underwear and when he does it's usually something unusual.

The first thing we had to do was wash the dog because she had rolled in something. Annie was not exactly "on board" for this activity. She kept running away and we kept sending Bryan to bring her back.

After this we were all pretty exhausted. So we came back inside. Cole went to football practice. Annie (the dog) went to the vet. I went to the butcher shop and the grocery store. We are mind-numbingly suburban.

Earlier today, when I was thinking of all the things I would write on my blog when I had the time, I was going to be soooo funny. But, at the end of the day, I'm just happy we all made it through alive (and trust me there were some touchy moments). At one point today, when it was just the three boys and I here, I said, "just imagine Cole, two years from now this will be our family." His response was "where are you imagining dad will be?"

I really do like adventure. Give me a big, red van and a tank full of gas and I will go just about anywhere. But, days like today are okay too. We decreased the dirty laundry pile just a bit (for now). We washed stink out of the dog (although not completely) and we didn't rip each other to shreds, verbally or physically. I'll take that...