Family is Great!

Family is great even when they're not REALLY related! As an Air Force brat, I've often seen my parents become the parent or grandparent to many guys (and women) that were overseas and away from their own families during the holidays. I've seen them take in my friends and never minded when they were called mom or dad by them. So I guess it is only natural that I carry on the tradition.

People have asked many how many children do you have? I never know exactly how to answer them. Sometimes I just say alot. Other times I say, "well I gave birth to three and got two more when I remarried, so I have five." Other times I just say five and let them wonder how I got through life with five children. But there are other times, when I want to sit and really think about it, I come up with a LOT more than five. I always had girls and boys at the dance studio that I was always a backstage parent with that I called "my kids" (and still consider them my kids even though they're all grown up now. There were the kids on the swim team with my daughters that always came running up and called me Momma that I considered "my kids." And of course there are all those friends of my children that spent as much time at my house as their own and my kids were the same way at their houses. Those young adults I still consider as my kids. Then when you add in the folks that are so close to us that they ought to brothers or sisters to us---well that adds up to a large family for an only child!

Currently, there are three of my husbands Navy buddies that are considered family. I am Aunt Shelly to their children and they are known as Uncle Mike and Uncle Tony to mine. And the third??? Well, he's just a youngin' himself, so the girls call him their older brother Vince. Uncle Tony is currently in his last days stateside before going to the forbidden land in Iraq. Well, I call it forbidden as I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to go there. I'm sure there are plenty of people that consider the US as forbidden land; but I really am not fond of any of our friends and loved ones going over and spending the necessary time allotted there. Anyway, Tony is currently staying at the house with us--giving all of the kids that are still in the area a thrill as Mom (or someone) cooks dinner most every night allowing them a chance for a free meal.

One of Buggy's roommates has a cutie of a son, Forrest, that I have "adopted" as one of my grandchildren. I am known as Gramma Shelly to him and even his Dad has begun to figure out that Gramma Shelly and Grampa Dave really consider Forrest as much a grandchild as we consider Kahli and Austin and baby Roberts our grandchildren. Buggy and Teri (Forrest's Mom) decided that since Uncle Tony was home they just HAD to have this little army camo hoodie set for Forrest so Forrest and Tony could have pictures together. Well, Forrest didn't take long to wrap Uncle Tony around his little finger--and even though he didn't want to have his picture taken, tell me he isn't enjoying the time with Forrest! Yeah right! He loved every minute of it!

And do you think that they could have gotten much more of a better match for Forrest to wear? I swear there really is a baby inside all that camo somewhere! Oh, and can you see why Forrest likes Uncle Tony so much??? He's finally found someone that has as little hair as he does! No matter that this child's true relatives live away from him, he knows that he has family here that love him, too.