As Told By Molly

Hey, hey. It's Flashback Friday.

OK, so if you didn't know me pre-Olen, I need to take a minute and update you on the maiden Molly.

My mom decided that our family should be semi-vegetarian when I was about sixteen, maybe seventeen, maybe fifteen. So we didn't eat any red meat and very little chicken. My dad's idea of hunting was probably scavenging the garage for a lost tool. We went "camping" at the family cabin (running water, flushing toilets, the works, thank you). This is very important stuff to keep in mind; you'll understand in a couple paragraphs.

Then comes along this dashing young man. I think he's the tops and I caught his eye (get it eye?! Oh man, I'm funny). So we get to know each other and turns out we're soul mates, so we decide we oughta get married.

My little country boy is from, well, the country, and boy do I love that. Except they do things a tad different than us city folk. It's still awesome, just country-awesome. For example. At the very first bar-b-q I went to with Olen's family they were grilling four different kinds of meat! Four!! Remember, semi-vegetarian? No meat. In my future mother and father-in-law's house hung heads of six different kinds of animals, a bobcat pelt and multiple antlers. I learned that one of those heads and the pelt belonged to my future spouse and would soon find a home in my house. Hooray for common law.

Well, I decided to embrace this new world of hunting and fishing and outdoorsey stuff. It's been a real ride. I can hook a worm, gut a fish, skin a deer, make killer elk stakes and if you've ever had my fried cat fish and hush puppies; then you know what I'm talking about. Now, our world doesn't revolve around the outdoor hobbies; unless it's hunting season or Alamo Lake is hopping. Otherwise my husband is very domesticated and well behaved.

So why the whole back story? Because of this, my flashback:

February 2002, Valentine's weekend.

Don't I look like I might actually know what I'm doing in my sexy camo overalls?

Turns out that Valentine's weekend falls right about javalina (hava-leena) season. So for the first three years of our marriage we would apply for tags and go on a little road trip to southern Arizona and hunt the javies. Just the two of us. I know you're thinking, "Why didn't my husband ever think of such a romantic getaway?" Well, don't feel bad. I don't think anyone but my husband would have thought it to be romantic hiking and following pig droppings in the wilderness with your Sugar. But it really was.

We never caught any (thank goodness, what stinky things) but we always had so much fun. The first year I had no clue what I was doing and so I let Olen plan the whole weekend. We had tin-foil dinners in the campfire and slept in the truck. The next year, we booked a hotel room with cable and ate out at the town's one restaurant. Gosh, it was a blast. Those are some of my favorite Valentine's Days.

We call them, The Javalentine's Days.

Maybe next year we'll start up again. Maybe.