The Hen Party

If you know anything about me, you know how attached I am to family. We are a large family and we are a close knit bunch as you have probably noticed in some of my other posts. One of my favorite things about my family is the relationship we have as women. Yeah, so we are all related but more than that we are all friends. Last night we had the usual "hen party" over at Aunt Randy's house. We all showed up around eight o'clock and she was still slinging honey with her crew. Most people would have come back or found something else to do, but we are not most people. We told her would see her inside and were happy to welcome her home when they finally called it quits for the day. Mehgan was cutting hair, Hattie and Jarah were our entertainment (poor Kristina was the supervisor and needless to say those two don't really take to the "no" word.) along with some new fascination Hali has found on the internet. Aunt Katrina, the ever sounding positive voice, mama with camera in hand, even if it wasn't her camera or her granddaughter, Miranda and her demon chocolate chip and icing cookie goodness, and a wonderfully splendid lack of the male species. Now that's what I call a party! Elijah and Kale were floating in and out but that was okay, they are usually pretty well behaved, or at least smart enough to know when they are out numbered! Aunt Katrina got some highlights done along with Miranda and Hali. All of us got the needed trim and talk! The TV was not the main attraction and neither were the day to day issues of laundry, cooking, cleaning and everything that goes into the home, kids, and family. We all sat around and talked about everything from politics to photography, cakes to "grease monkey's" (the baked hamburgers and french fries). We hashed out good colors for fall and bad people no matter what the season. Men, mainly for me since I am the only single one, and babies, because we seem to be over run with them. Now we don't know everything but you would never hear one of us admit it. We have strong, still, firm beliefs and we stick to them. When life gets tough we lace that deadly combination with hope, love, and peace that only the gospel and good family can bring. Uncle Jamie knows that if there is a wedding coming up or a bridal shower to be held that he won't be getting much sleep, now he goes to bed but he don't expect too much cause he has been around long enough to know! The dress code for these spectacular hen parties is a thing to behold. Hali showed up in mixed matched scrubs (the one girl who has never been a nurse!) Aunt Randy of course had the moo-moo on and Mama and Aunt Katrina were just pure jealous of that! I was wearing a pair of sweats from the mission and a t-shirt from Sonny's. Kale graced us with a streak through the house, towel only, because we were washing out hair color in the bathtub and he needed get a shower. The only one available was Aunt Randy's, he had to walk right down through the middle of the kitchen where we had all gathered up, so we had to do a few cat calls and throw a few dollar bills just to bring out that oh so cute blush that endears him to us all. Hattie and Jarah were the cutest ones there until they decided to help Aunt Miranda wash the color out of her hair and got soaking wet playing in the water. But hey, there are few things cuter than a baby running around crazy in just a diaper! I will have to say Miranda was rather stylish in her attire but she had just come from church with the young women! But what I love the most is that no one even cared! We didn't even notice. I guess when you have been through the stuff we have been through you don't take notice so much of the feathers of the bird, only the heart inside. Even though grandma wasn't there we would always refer to her and she was on the phone with us most of the time! When she wasn't we would add in a "well grandma would say...." and her love and guidance was still felt. We hate to see Mehgan go at the end of this week, we just love having her down and getting kisses from the Hattie baby but you can rest assured that there will be many more meetings of the hen's as we look after the crew, invited or not. The thing about my family is that whether you like it or not they will tell you how they feel about things, you can still do what you want but you will know where they stand. Most of time I count myself lucky to stand where they stand, walk where they have walked and love like they have taught me by example. Most days we run around like chickens with our heads cut off, especially during the honey flow, but ever now and again we get to gather our little chicks in under our wings and protect, encourage, and uplift them, teach them that they really can fly if they want to. If they don't listen, then a little pecking has been known to happen! But the best part is at the end of the day, we let our feathers down, roost in our favorite chairs in the kitchen and cluck about the things that are important to us, our favorite subject of all. FAMILY. Bitties, chicks and Roosters included!

~AzK~