Cousins?

On Wednesday we got together with my sister-in-law Mary's in-laws. Her brother and sister-in-law are young and fun and Little Man and Boo had a great time with them. We went to the Water Mine at Lake Fairfax and if they had their way they would have never left. That night Mom M. planned a fun French dinner of Ratatouille (they all went to the movie a couple days before), French bread, grape juice with ginger ale (our wine) and cream puffs. My favorite part of watching the kids play? Boo saying, "Come on cousins..." So, what are these kids to her relationship-wise, aunt and uncle-in-law? Who knows, but they're family.

Mary's mother and father-in-law are doing this cool art project where they are asking people what their name means to them, taking a picture and recording their answer. Our names define so much of who we are, it's one of the first things we say when we meet someone, but how often do we really pay attention to someone's name? I can't wait to see the final project.

For my input I first talked about how I got my first name. My oldest sister who is 7 1/2 years older than me walked around telling everyone that my mom was pregnant with a girl who looked like her (my sister), but with green eyes (she had had a dream). My mother had to correct her and tell everyone that she was NOT pregnant. Well, to my mother's surprise, she soon found out that she was indeed expecting. My sister got to name me. And whom did she pick but the teacher's pet in her first grade class. Someone that she envied, and looked up to. I decided that I wanted to live my life so that my oldest sister could look up to me. Hopefully I have, and not just because I'm taller than her. My maiden name means a lot to me, and I love how a last name can change from generation to generation, but then there are qualities that are always the same throughout the generations. For instance, this generation of Atk girls? We're known for being loud and having big boobs (at least in our single days. I like to think I've matured just a little). All of the Atk clan are known for being hardworking and stubborn--two qualities that can be both good and bad. Hopefully we used them more for the good, but I don't think I've met someone with Atk blood who doesn't have these two qualities from age 1 (Little Man) to age 70 (Dad).