My Cousins' Visit in Days of My Destiny

My course runs out in a few weeks. The pressure is on. I've got one question to answer on my last assessment, and I need to reference all my other questions correctly, then I'll be done. Am currently waiting for my Student Handbook to load (because for some reason they haven't made it a pdf document that you can simply save......).

The weekend was lovely. We had that couple over for breakfast on Saturday - their kids went CR-AZY at the fact that we were having pancakes and it was difficult to hear our conversations because they were so crazy lol. Pancakes were enjoyed by all. At the end, John organized with L to come over sometime in August on a Tuesday night (for a few weeks) to go through what it really means to be a Christian. I'm not that interested but whatever, we're doing that. He talked to me a while ago about a study we can do that is specifically for people who are returning to church. I was interested at the time.

My cousins got here a couple of hours sooner than I had expected, so I had to hang up the phone with my sister and go and collect them in the town. One of my cousins rang and told me they were "checking out the city" hahahaha and said they'd seen the post office and were now walking along, on their way to the police station. Lol, so funny. When they got to our house, they got out of the car and spun out at our location (as everyone does, lol). My oldest cousin's wife told me that they thought my driveway was our road, hahahaha. We walked around the place altogether and when my oldest cousin saw my sheep he said he hates the black-headed sheep, they're angry animals (like totally as if!). I told him he's just racist and everyone laughed - and so began the usual carryings-on between cousins lol. Actually it began before they even arrived. My older cousin had told me he'd call me to discuss details and when he finally did, I answered, "Hello?" He says, "Hi." I replied, "Oh hey E, how's it going?" and he goes, "Awwwww damnit you knew who it was straight away!! I was going to put on an accent or something and try to fool you!" LMAO.

We took them for a drive through a thousand paddocks to get to an old lonely deserted car we discovered one time when we first moved here. I could see they were all happy, sitting on the back of the ute, taking in the fresh air and rejuvenating themselves. My oldest cousin kept trying to look calm and collected until he finally admitted that he was grasping like all hell to the back of the ute and could not believe how Little L was so calmly riding along, going "bla bla bla bla bla bla" the whole time, lolololol. He mentioned that he hadn't seen one single kangaroo, and then when we were standing around the old car frame, I walked off in search of some bones I saw nearby when we were still in the ute and spotted a kangaroo in the distance, slowly and peacefully skipping along full of grace. I yelled out to E so he could see it but he didn't hear me. I walked back with the bones. They were jaw bones with teeth. We did not know what animal it was, but it was big. Some of the teeth were sitting in there, loosely, and we all ewwwwed.

On the way back, L spotted a large piece of tree trunk that he thought would be great for a fire, so we stopped along the way and tied it to the back of the ute. After that, we heard a thump and my cousin's girlfriend yelled. I thought she fell off the ute but turned out it was our doggy lol. Poor thing. Turns out the girlfriend yelled because she saw him rolling along after landing :( When we got back, the boys got to it, fluffing about excitedly to get a fire going (BOYS!!!! Lol). The women got chatting in the kitchen and getting dinner ready. Well actually we had slow cooked a curry dish and I asked my cousin's wife to get some rice going while I bathed the girls. Then I finished baking the cheesecake I had started. It was a practice run for my MIL's birthday this weekend. We eventually ate dinner and sat around the fire for hours, as you do. I don't even know what on earth we talked about, but there was much paying out and daggy talk going on, lol.

The next day we woke up late and had breakfast by the fire, since it was still only just going. After that we packed into my car and L's ute and set off to Dripping Rock. I packed the cheesecake and some other snacks and juice. We all climbed up to the small cave and E took a group shot. I hope to see it one day. His wife is scared of heights so she got very nervous at one point and kept reminding herself out loud to not look down. Poor thing. My girls had climbed up with me - it was Little L's first time and she felt like such a big girl and therefore did not listen to many instructions and kept thinking she knew what she was doing. It made me pretty nervous and I had to tell her off a few times. My cousin L found an easier way down that only required walking. It felt like a bush walk, so we were all at ease. The boys then climbed higher up. I loved seeing my cousins - two brothers - run off and jump along from rock to rock, a little bit like parkour, climbing up and up with ease. Such agility! And freedom! They disappeared. L and I climbed up a bit further with our girls. I had a bit of a talk with L because he was telling the girls off originally, telling them that if they kept asking to climb up and being grumpy at his No answer, they could just go back and wait at the car. I thought this was ludicrous and downright stupid. We were there to RELAX, for starters, and secondly, what else would they want to do when everyone else was climbing??? But even more importantly than those two things: how dare he say No to our girls to something that would challenge them and make them feel empowered at the end of it?!? He said the idea of them climbing really freaks him out. I told him that's fine, but he didn't have to try to act all tough and simply say No and tell them off. I told him it wouldn't hurt to see the human side to him every now and then and suggested that instead of telling them off, he could simply tell them he didn't feel comfortable with it but that maybe mum could do it?? (I love climbing with them, I love the adventure enveloping us and the feelings of empowerment and strength at overcoming challenges. I love encouraging them when they feel insecure about their footing, or where to hold onto, or when they have doubts about going higher even if they want to. Of course safety is always paramount within all of this!!!) So anyway after all that, we did climb and had a lovely time. Then we climbed back down and started eating cheesecake. Suddenly we heard "Hello!!!" coming from way up high... it was my two cousins! They had found their way ALL the way to the very top!!! LOL. I have no idea how they got there. They soon came down and joined us for cheesecake, then asked L if he wanted to go up the top with them. I could see he wasn't too keen but he wasn't going to say no. So off he went! I took some photos of them when they got to the top, but the photos aren't that great. It got quite cold while they were up there, so as soon as they got back, we packed up and walked back to our cars and went home.

After we got back it was time for them to go. Time passed as we kept talking and hanging around, but eventually E decided that they really needed to go. Then his car wouldn't start, lol. He finally realised upon opening the bonnet that he had forgotten to re-attach some cable after cleaning out the engine the day before (I didn't even know he did that, lol.) So off he went with his wife and son - who by the way, we kept forgetting was even there because he's so damn quiet! LOL. My cousin L had been quite impressed at how adventurous my girls are, wanting to climb with us and go here and go there. He kept telling them how cool they are, lol, which was pretty cool. I know that he doesn't really like his own nephew because he doesn't try new things - but it's all because his mum has never let him. I remember my cousin complaining to me a few years ago about how she wouldn't even let him climb up a fence. I can see why it would frustrate him so much, because he grew up basically roaming the streets while his parents worked the days away. ANYWAY - while my cousins were here, I saw the way my cousin's wife is with her son. She won't let him do a lot of normal things, and she'll say with fear in her voice, "NO MY LOVE!" and then add some excuse as to why. It's a bit silly, and the poor boy is reduced to simply playing with the tablet and not much else. Which is lame, because his natural tendency (like all children) is to be curious about the world out there, and she's not allowing him to find out about it. Oh well. So after they set off, my other cousin wasn't quite ready to go yet, so he and his girlfriend stayed behind a little bit. He said he wouldn't have minded staying another night but then admitted that he had a doctor's appointment the next day to get some test results back regarding a possible melanoma :-/ ... we went inside and L and I showed my cousin and his girlfriend our short version of photos from our trip. There were some photos of his younger brother in there, and the girlfriend pointed out his "typical pose" - which L and I had not even noticed!! He has a habit apparently of standing in backgrounds of photos and doing funny poses - and sure enough, he was in the background of about 3 or 4 of our photos!!!! Lol!!!!!!! We laughed and laughed and laughed about this for ages, lololol!!!! About an hour later, our visitors left. I had noticed that throughout their short stay, he sat back and somewhat hid his face from me sometimes but watched me quietly from a distance, as though taking in the way life has changed for us, or the way we've all grown up or something. At the very end, just before leaving, he hugged me and said, "Ya, chao, linda," something he's never ever said to me. It was heart-warming. I suppose he must think I am a lovely person, or mother, or what, I don't know, but it was nice to hear this from him, because it's like we've both matured in some way :)