S-W-I-N-G-E-R-S

~

So I previously mentioned my wonderful 39 and HOLDING birthday that my family had for me a few weeks ago. I'm still reminiscing about it.

Particularly the cake.

And everytime I wear those wonderfully soft and warm socks Dirty Diana gave me, I remember the butt jelly.

BUTT I digress.

I remembered another little tidbit I thought I'd share.

Captain Jake Sparrow gets way too much face time on this blog.

I can't help it.

He can't help it.

He's the Captain, what can I say?

But Reilly the Red is pretty amazing, too.

And even though she's the shy one, she still merits attention.

Both positive and negative.

Well, I'm kinda bringing her outta the closet on this one.

But she doesn't read the blog, so it's okay.

She doesn't read the blog, because she's scared to death what it might say about her!

Well, if I was one of my kids, and I had me for a mother, and she had a blog like this, I'd be scared too.

BUTT I digress.

Our precious little Reilly the Red recently qualified for the Gifted program in her school district.

Yay!

But I want to mention that she is not just Gifted.

She qualified as Genius.

Yep.

Two Mensans in the family.

Officially.

There may be more.

Two Swords is quite the smarty pants, but there's no way I could get him to sit for an IQ test.

That other member of our family.....well, he just might up and surprise me. We'll see.

Anyhoo...

Back to the party.

My Oldest BFF, Marguerita Reilly came and took all the pictures and enjoyed the heck out of herself, remember?

Well, Marguerita just hasn't quite figured out EXACTLY how smart Reilly the Red is, even though I've told her a million times, and she's spent enough time with her to know, but still, she wasn't getting it.

So every now and then, Marguerita would S-P-E-L-L words, that she thought maybe the children shouldn't hear.

I kept telling her, "yeah, um, you don't need to spell. It's okay."

But maybe it was habit.

I don't know.

Anyway, somehow, we started talking about these parties that my parents have.

They have this awesome property on the Gulf of Mexico, and they have great friends, and the friends come over and they have great food and great fun, and if some of the friends have too much fun, well, then they spend the night (DUH! What a smart thing to do! Spend the night rather than drive home drunk, hello!) and then they all have more fun and food at breakfast the next morning.

Sounds like fun, right?

Especially since my parents have worked very hard all of their lives and sacrificed a lot when me and my three brothers were in junior high and high school, and my parents' whole lives revolved around chauffeuring and baseball games and all of our extra-curricular activities, and...my parents never had any friends. Their whole lives were about us kids.

Which I totally understand and appreciate, now that I am a grown up.

So in the past couple of years, when Dirty Diana and Tide Water Ted started to 'get' friends, me and the bros were kinda shocked.

I remember Two-Fisted Chris saying, "Ummm. When did Mom and Dad 'get' FRIENDS?"

It's a family joke, but I think it's great that they have friends.

We have met most of them, and they are delightful people, even if one of them LITERALLY wears a towel on his head and is named JIHAD.

But that's another post for another day.

Back to the birthday party.

So we're talking about these parties my parents have.

And Marguerita's eyes start to bulge out of her head.

And she says to me, "Heather?!?!!! Are your parents S-W-I-N-G-E-R-S?"

And I am dying laughing.

Because, no, they are most definitely NOT S-W-I-N-G-E-R-S.

And as I am laughing, Reilly the Red says:

"Miss Marguerita, why are you spelling the word SWINGERS? I know how to spell, you know. And Jake isn't even listening and doesn't even care."

Thankfully, Reilly the Red didn't ask any more S-W-I-N-G-E-R related questions.

And neither did Marguerita.

~