Famalamadingdong Time

   More more more family time. Always lovely. Saw Uncle Jim, Aunt Marilou and Tony on Sunday. Have to note that when I said Uncle Jim makes inappropriate jokes that they ARE FUNNY. It was great to see them. Lots of going out to eat, sat in Wendy's for like two hours shooting the shit and drinking too much iced tea, me playing on their smart phones.
   Other family of note--went to Shipshewana yesterday with Aunt Viv and Cameron. The day kicked off around 9:30 with simultaneous sunshine and rainshower. We went to Rykses for breakfast and all had HUGE, yummy cinnamon buns (couldn't finish mine). Couldn't finish breakfast scrambler for that matter either. Then headed down to Shipse, stopping for caffeine on the way. Stopped at the one metalworks house before hitting town, but Aunt Viv didn't find what she wanted so we parked near the gas station as the rain picked up again and it was pouring. We sat in the car for a few minutes and then it let up some so we headed to the flea market. It had stopped raining after a few and we got down there and put the pedal to the metal. I bought some nail polish and a sudoku book. I don't know if Cameron was too prepared for the level of shopping Aunt Viv is capable of. I was surprised that we were only in the market for two and a half hours. We got caught in a 15-minute rainstorm again, hopping from tent to tent as they all covered up in a matter of minutes to protect their wares. It was POURING. Then blue sky appeared again and all the people emerged. We finally relocated the tent with the cast iron cookware, bought what we wanted, and left.
   We dropped our stuff off in the car, had a breather in the gas station, then walked around town. The shops are cute and all, but you need some monayyyy. By the time we were walking around the furniture store (which had really beautiful pieces), I was dead tired and was so happy to walk back to the car and go to Bashley's. Ben wasn't home yet, but it was nice to just sit and talk and stuff. Violet was very quiet in the beginning, but then she opened up more and more and was soon running around talking, etc. Their new kitten Mars is adorable. He's soooo tiny! Ben got home from work after we had been there for about twenty minutes and we decided to get takeaway so Ashley and Vi stayed home as the rest of us drove to Middlebury for some Chinese. While they were preparing our order, we went into this bike shop, but I spent most of that time on Ben's iPhone playing Scrabble. We brought the food home and ate and Mars took a nap on Cam's lap (also, note that my cousin is only just 14, already like 6'2''/6'3'' wearing a size 14 shoe--went we ate breakfast, I swear I blinked and his food was gone--crazy). Then we kind of sat around talking and Ben made coffee. We finally headed home around 8. All in all, it was a simple, straight forward day and it was exhausting in a good way. My feet hurt a bit when I got home and I talked with Mum for like half an hour, took a shower, went online for like ten minutes and basically went to bed at 10:30 I was so tired.
   I have been feeling ill a lot of this week and I have one doctor's appointment tomorrow so basically today (and the other days) have been me sitting around most of the day watching telly online. It can be kind of boring, but I don't feel up to much else. I hope to see Uncle Jim and Aunt Marilou one more time before they leave and depending on what's wrong with me, I'll get up to more tomorrow. But overall, it's good to be surrounded by family who are crazy and wacky and fun.