My Cup Runneth Over

I had a perfect day. Saturday was just the most lovely, most perfect day. I drove from DC Friday afternoon to my sweet Papaw’s house and spent the night. My cousin, C, and her hilarious husband, R, were also there with my mom. Then Saturday morning, the rest of the family came up, and we had a long, fun day laughing and teasing and playing in the sun.

For years now, we’ve had a family get-together up at my grandfather’s house in August around my aunt’s birthday. After we ate lunch, my aunt was serving some homemade ice cream when C made her stop and sit down to open a present. It was a picture frame that said, “Life isn’t perfect - That’s why God made grandparents.”

She’s pregnant!

They’ve been married for five years so for the past two or three, everyone’s been hounding them. And they are really just the cutest couple. The way they dote on each other and cuddle and joke. They’re just as giddy in love as they were six years ago when they got engaged.

I remember when they got married. I was the maid of honor (shocking, I know) so I was first down the aisle. C’s friend told me I would cry and tried to give me Kleenex, but I’m not much of a crier and never cry in front of anyone so I just shrugged and said, “No…I don’t think so.” Oh, but when I looked down the church vestibule and saw my uncle whispering something into her ear, my eyes watered and I grabbed a Kleenex.

On the walk down the aisle, I just kept telling myself to look at R. I love him to bits and knew he’d be grinning a big wide grin that would make me smile too. But no! He was tearing up! So then I lost it. Not to mention his father, who was the best man, was just bawling. We all ended up sniffling our way through the ceremony, and it was one of my most favorite days.

I can’t even imagine how beautiful the day will be when I meet that little one for the first time. And see how happy and proud C and R are. I am so blessed to have such love in my family.

I really do love my family. All day long Saturday I had a big smile on my face and felt warm and gooey. I kept thinking to myself, “My cup runneth over.”

We laugh a lot and joke and tease each other constantly. We were joking about what the baby would call everyone. The conception happened while they were vacationing at the Biltmore, and R said he thinks they should put that in the brochure. "Make babies here!" My other cousin E, who’s in med school, told C all the gross things that are about to happen to her. He said something really icky about how the iron pills she had to take would make her stool turn black (yes, he said the word stool! ew!). R thought that was so funny, he started singing new words to that old country song Black Velvet. He renamed it Black Stool.

He is really one of the goofiest people I have ever met, and I just can’t get enough of his nonsense. Friday night, he told me that he wants to trap Bigfoot. He’s seen every special about Bigfoot and even looked into going on a excursion looking for Bigfoot, but doesn’t want to go because they won’t let you bring a gun! C and I were leaving to go to the grocery store, and he told me to watch out for Bigfoot.

“R, if I see him, you want me to tell him anything for you? Do you have a message for Bigfoot?”

“No. If you see him, here’s what I want you to do. You find a way to get him to follow you back here to the house so I can shoot him.”

“You’re gonna shoot Bigfoot? Then what are you gonna do with him?”

“I’ll keep him, of course.”

“Oh. Right. Ok. Well, so what? You’re gonna mount him or something the way they do deer?”

“No, I’m gonna make a statue out of him. And I’m gonna put him in the middle of the circle driveway in front of my new house so everybody can see him.”

“Sure, ok. Now will he be doing some kind of pose? Or will he have a prop?”

“He’ll be pointing like this, at his gonads.” Then he demonstrated by pointing both his thumbs at his crotch.

I am telling you, I couldn’t make this stuff up. He really is that goofy. And I just eat it up. My cousin E is just as silly, and they egg each other on. R told me last night he was saving up some “explosions” for E cuz he wanted to blow him away. He was talking about farts. These are grown men, but nothing makes them laugh harder than a fart. When E did get there on Saturday, the two of them had a cannonball contest in the swimming pool. They're big, tall boys so when they were done, there was more water outside the pool than inside it.

This morning while we were setting everything up for lunch, R kept trying to scare me with spiders or by telling me I had a bug on me. I would just shrug, look down and try to find the bug. He said, “Well, that’s just not bothering you, is it? You are one tough mama.” He loves to tease and get a reaction out of you. Finally, he settled on tickling me, which he knew would get me. He told me he's 39 going on 29.

I’ve said many times that I hope to one day find a man like R, and I mean it. He's a blast. I hope to find someone who fits in with this loud, goofy family of mine too. That’s important.

But today I started thinking that if I’m looking for someone who’s tall, goofy, tries to gross me out with bugs, who wants to hunt Bigfoot and has fart competitions, I may be setting my sights a little low. Aw but then he comes over and gives me a big hug and tells me he loves me. And I see him giving C a kiss, and I know he's the sweetest, and I'm looking for that in a man too. Sure he’s goofy and gross, but he’s a real tenderheart too. And I really can’t wait to see how tender and goofy he is with his little one.