Only In My Family...

My super fabulous and very brave sister-in-law, Lori teaches 5th grade. The other day, she sent me an IM that simply stated "Your uncle is pissing me off." I immediately BURST into laughter at this, what might seem strange to others, comment.

Now for a moment of clarification: This uncle of mine that she is referring to is a student in her class. No, he's not an old man who never made it out of the 5th grade. He's 10. And apparently, a little annoying.

And now for a moment where pen, paper and the drawing of dysfunctional family trees should be considered for understanding: My dad's dad (Papaw) used to live in GA, where common law is recognized as a legal form of marriage. He met Linda, who has 3 sons. They lived together for many years and were considered married by common law standards in the state of GA. Upon moving to NC, a state that doesn't recognize common law marriages, they continued to live together, but obviously according to the government, were just 2 people who wanted to shack up.

Move forward several years... Linda's youngest son met a girl. Girl already had one small baby. Youngest Son and Girl get pregnant. New Baby arrives. Youngest Son and Girl decide that they can't properly care for Baby and New Baby. Linda decides she will care for them...and adopt them as her own.

So, even though, according to the government, Linda is not, by law, married to my Papaw, and therefore, not my step-grandmother, making Baby (Callen) and New Baby (Junior, yes, Junior) not my legal "uncles" it's still pretty stinkin' funny to think that my 10 year old "uncle" is the one in the 5th grade classroom making Lori's day.

Montel, anyone?