Adventures with Uncle BJ: Fishing

Pre-script (is there such a thing?)

Adventures with Uncle B just got changed to Adventures with Uncle BJ because we all call him by his initials, BJ, already! Shortening the already shortened name is just messing with my mind and I can't get used to it. So I've sabotaged my vain attempt at giving some anonymity to my second youngest brother and he, like me, is just going to have to come to grips with the fact that if anyone really wanted to track him down and stalk him, they now have access to his middle initial as well. Unfortunately for him, everyone already calls him that so it's his name. Whereas, I can honestly say no one has ever called me JM.

Sorry, Beej. Oh darn! Now I just told you his nickname, too!
I better start this post before I get in any more trouble!

Two months ago I was at Target with my four children (honestly, I took ALL of them shopping). We were shopping for my two nieces birthday presents. (Another confession, I have yet to give either of those nieces their presents! Their birthdays were in March! I thought all my gifts were always late because we lived in Texas. But now, the truth is out that I'm just a flake sometimes. Sorry, girls. Aunt Jody really does love you!) And while we were casually browsing in the sporting goods section we came across fishing poles. Having spent many, many hours fishing with my family growing up I thought it'd be perfect to get fishing poles for each of them. So we came home with a Diego, a Cars, and a Barbie fishing pole. (The Barbie one even lights up when you cast).

Of course, the children thought we'd go fishing the next day. A few things were detrimental to that notion.

1. It was still 28 degrees outside.
2. Neither Mark or I are very schooled in how to fish
3. We didn't know where to fish
4. It was still 28 degrees outside

But, boy! those poles sure seemed like a fun idea! After many hours of pretend fishing with their new poles and showing them to each relative who walked in the door, finally Uncle BJ said he'd take them fishing sometime.

Sometime in the mind of a child translates to any minute now. And they have talked about going fishing with Uncle BJ daily for two months.

It finally warmed up and we all went fishing! Mark even took off work early so he could learn to, I mean, go fishing with us.

Here's Uncle BJ opening the gate to the great adventure that awaits -- Fishing!

This is what Redneck tailgating looks like. Forget the food, just make sure you've got some bait. Oh,wait. We don't have any bait yet. Uncle BJ said we'd look for it when we got there.

Looking for worms. You gotta turn over a bunch a logs and pick 'em up real fast before they slither back into the dirt.

This is the face my children make when they hold a worm.

Here's it again.
I don't know why they do that.

Uncle BJ showing Luke how to put the worm on the hook. I thought maybe the kids would get the hang of this and become self-sufficient fishers. But, no. We had to put all the worms on, help them with casting and take all the fish off the hooks for them. I use the term we very loosely. Should probably just change that to they - Uncle BJ and Mark. Oh, come on! I was holding the camera! Or holding my adorable niece.

So here we all are fishing on the bank (or is it off the bank?) on our great fishing adventure! We even caught fish. Well, the kids caught fish. Mark and Uncle BJ were too busy running back and forth from baiting, casting, and de-hooking the fish to actually throw a line in for themselves. But Mark did commemorate the first catch with a kiss. Not to me, to the fish. I'm not sure where he got that idea. I've been fishing many times, but never,ever thought to kiss the fish. But I guess that's what kind of guy Mark is. He gives all of himself to the task and relishes in the victory when it's done. Who could ask for more?


And with this super macho picture of my hunky husband making out with a fish, I gotta run. I've gotta go homeschool, fold laundry, feed the baby and read my Bible. I'll have to finish up this adventure post tomorrow!