Family and laughter

I just got home from spending 3 hours at my in laws house! Last night in the middle of the night I woke up, (nothing unusual there) and in the middle of trying NOT to think, I thought, "wow, its been a long time since I have seen Gary, Elsie and Borp"...so I determined to go up there today and visit.  It was really nice.  I have been in this family a long time and though we have had our ups and downs, I always knew they "had my back" and I am so incredibly grateful that I got plopped down into the middle of them and that, in spite of my very rough edges back then, they still loved me and accepted me.  Over the years we have all gained a great deal of respect for each other and it has been one of my great privileges to be a Bales and I have been very proud to bear that name and to raise three sons and a daughter with that name.  We raised them to be proud of who they are and of their legacy and it has been fun to watch them figure that out.  Last night, as I thought about our family, I realized that I don't want something to happen and to have regrets about not having spent enough time or not having told them how much I love them. Losing my dad has been an eye opener in a lot of ways.  BESIDES: I would never ever in a million years have eaten a delicious bologna on white bread sandwich for lunch!! Yum yum...reminded me of my childhood! ( I never ever buy bologna, have you ever read the label???) but sitting there next to my father in law and munching on that sandwich was just such a pleasure.  When I got ready to leave they all thanked me for coming, reminding me of how long it had been since I had been up there....way way way too long sadly enough.  I am going to change that though and go visit more often and spend more time with them....Heck, I might even drop in on my sister in law while I am at it!!!!!!

Funny little story I just have to share, has nothing to do with the above but it is too good to pass up.

Our son Aaron is really a smarty pants... I mean that in the nicest sense, really I do. He IS smart but he is also pretty sharp on the wit end of things, a real pleasure to spar with sometimes.  Anyway, I finally got around to emailing him he and Ryans flight schedule for the up coming trip to the wedding. He had been asking me about it and I thought it would avoid confusion if I sent it to him for him to study it himself.  The other night we are at worship team and I get this text.  "my flight times don't make sense"  uh oh, I think to myself...whats the matter with them."don't worry, I will explain it to you! its a weird graph" was my answer, thinking maybe he just couldn't figure out the graph (and, yes, it IS weird)  his answer? "the flight from portland to dallas is 5 rs. 40 mins and dallas to portland is 2 hrs. 10 minutes"  I literally burst out laughing...MR SMARTY PANTS???!!! um...my answer?  "time difference"   his reply?  and this made me laugh even harder since it was coming from him and I could just SEE the light dawning..."Ooooooooooh. Gotcha. Thats crazy lol"  hahahahahahahahaha! Oh man what a funny kid!!!!!  He makes me laugh so hard some times, usually not in front of him, but still..... can't you just see it? He sits back in his chair upon reading that text and thinks....oooooohhhh yeah...right...there is a time line we cross isn't there?????   just gotta love those little moments in life huh?