My Dorky Childhood

Today is my cousin’s 29th birthday. She’s only a year older than me, so we were very close growing up. My sister and I would spend half the summer at her house, and she and her sister would spend the other half at ours. Unfortunately, we’ve grown further apart as we’ve gotten older. 

While wishing her “Happy Birthday” using our childhood code name, I got to thinking about all the imaginative, nerdy things we used to get into. We used to have so much fun! 

Our favorite game was the “Nobody Can See You” game. We thought we were so smart, sneaking around the house and yard. Of course my aunt didn’t see us crawling under the table! This game usually warped into a spy game, with my cousin and I spying (and being counter-spied on) by my our little sisters. 

Hide-and-seek tag, along with sardines, were also favorites, especially when the sun started to go down. Out in the country where they lived, when it got dark, you could duck down in the grass and it would take about 10 minutes before anyone noticed you. Of course, this game always moved inside once the spiders started crawling down out of their tree…

Have you ever heard of the game Tales of the Crystals? Ultimate girl-fantasy-nerd roleplaying game. The best ever. Basically, 2-4 girls had crystals, that each had a magic power. They followed a cassette tape fairy’s instructions, avoiding ogres and thwarting the evil Lady Morphia. There was even magic powder (don’t worry, we taste-tested it… it was sugar…) Yeah, we played that all the time. 

I even found a game on Amazon that I bought for my future children. Now, I just need to find a cassette player to keep in storage. 

My future kids have no shot. They will be dorks, just like their mama!

Fireworks and Fishing

For the Fourth of July weekend, the Hubby and I took a long weekend trip to Grand Isle with some friends and family for some relaxation and fishing. It may not be the most upscale place, but it was fairly quiet, and sitting out on the deck in the morning with a cup of tea was very peaceful.

Now, to be fair, the water was a little smelly and the beach had more dirt than sand.  My mother-in-law insisted on bringing my dog, so I was overly anxious worrying about him for a while (I had a dream a few months ago where we were at a camp and the pup fell off the deck into the water and hit his punkin’ head). I’m also not the most useful person when it comes to fishing. I have a hard time dealing with live bait, so someone always has to bait my hooks. The hubby rolled his eyes at me a few times, but kept doing it, so it couldn’t have been that much trouble… Despite all that, we still had a great time!

Yeah, that’s brown, dirty sand…

We spent most of the days watching the World Cup matches or talking on the porch swing, and fishing out in the gulf in the afternoons. Watching the sun go down from out on a boat is absolutely amazing!

Taken by my talented mother!

We didn’t catch much, mostly Spanish Mackerel. None of us really care to eat those, so everything was thrown back. Did you know a Mackerel can bite a hook in half? Not just bite through the line, but actually snap the hook in two. Yeah, found that out. Their little teeth are scary!

On the first afternoon, we had a porpoise friend who would not leave our boat alone. He swam within 5-10 ft of our boat, scaring off all the fish. I wanted to watch him for a while, but every time I did, I would miss my cork being pulled under (I may be a little too ADD to fish regularly…) We also had a small shark or two hit the boat. I couldn’t get a good look at them because they were swirling up so much water, but my father-in-law, the experienced fisherman of the group, confirmed it was sharks. After my initial freak-out moment, I wanted them to come back to get a better look at them!

We tried to catch some crabs to boil, but didn’t catch any. Well, we caught one good size crab, but it was pregnant, so we had to let it go.  It was probably a good thing we didn’t catch any, because we had SO MUCH food left over anyway. We brought the pup out on the boat to check the crab traps in his little lifejacket… he was so cute!

Captain Louis, ready to set sail!

Maybe next time we’ll have better luck with the fish, but we definitely enjoyed our little holiday! 

God Bless America!