What is Family?

I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching they are your family. Jim Butcher

This quote is my life motto. I do think that in older times, the saying that "Blood is thicker than water" was absolutely true; people were more isolated and more dependent upon their families to provide for basic needs (clothing, shelter, food). But as the world has evolved, I like to believe that most people's conceptions of family have gotten bigger.

Case-in-point: LB's mom, the fabulous momma Mary, asked me the other day if I wanted her to make invites for Peek and Adam's baby shower here in Denver. I was able to find invites that I didn't make (bad blogger), but she asked me: "Don't you have enough going on right now?"

My response: "We are their family here in Denver. Of course we are throwing them a shower."

Momma Mary has always noted how luck LB and I are with our group of friends here and all over the place. It's just the way I have always been with my people: fully invested, fully committed, and fully willing to show up with all of my ugly baggage.  This doesn't make me the perfect friend; in fact, quite the opposite is true. I acknowledge that I am tough to love because I can have an overwhelming (if not suffocating) personality at times. I tend to burst into friendships with abandon and end up disappointed when not reciprocated. I've gotten better at this due to the sheer act of being almost 30 29. :)

Here's my simple truth for this Saturday where I am admittedly STUFFING MY FACE IN AUSTIN TEXAS: my friends & LB are the people who stand by me without flinching. Without asking what is in it for them. Because of them, I know what family is. *Fun fact: as you are reading this, LB will have gotten the surprise of his life while we are in Texas this weekend picking up a truck. The person who surprised him is easily LB's favorite human on the planet (he even beats me out)... and is most definitely FAMILY (in all caps and everything).  

Last Friday Night

Y'all remember that "Last Friday Night" song by some terrible pop artist whose name I will never remember. The lyrics go something like "Last Friday night, we all got super drunk and danced on bars and generally dissapointed ourselves and our parents, but I think I had fun." While this is a rough translation/interpretation of the song, I have seen how much my "exciting" Friday nights have changed over the years. Give me a BBQ, friends, their babies, LB, husbands, dogs, dogs who will chase a ball thrown by a 2 year old, and I am a HAPPY LITTLE LADY. All of this went down last Friday night and I can't wait for us to do it again. This was our first gathering with "everyone" (a few of our favorites weren't there, mostly because this shiz wasn't planned ahead of time), and I love our backyard (dead wildflowers, weeds, and all) even more now. What originally was going to be a "take my mom who was in town to a movie" night, became a laugh riot kind of night. It's no secret on this blog that my friends are my family in Denver, and I've got a pretty solid crew y'all.

I post so much about Avery because she is 1. Adorable 2. I get to see her the most 3. The only baby of our weekly girl's night gatherings. 4. Hilarious. 5. I love her. 6. SO SASSY! 7. Every picture of her I have taken she has food on her face, but she hates to actually sit down and eat. She is my favorite Sam's daughter, not mine, but I love her so. How could you not with that face and those ridic eyes!????

Ashley loves her too, clearly. On Friday, Avery must have said, "TT throw the ball. TT do it. 1, 2, free GO! Oh Skip you got it! What a good job skip!" About 100 times. This was Ashley giving me a break while I snapped some pictures. Katie is thrilled that I am taking AND POSTING a picture of her eating and Ashley is just being her lovely goofy self... obv. This last one was right before all of the husband's left and us girls just hooted and hollered while sitting around chatting for an hour or so. I haven't laughed like that in ages. What AMAZING smiles this Kitchen family has! So that was my last Friday night! How did you spend your last Friday night? What are you up to tonight that you could write a song about?