10 Things About My Nieces and Nephews

 10 Things about 

My Nieces and Nephews

1. There are 16 of them and they range in age from 19 to 45. There are six girls and ten boys. I refer to them collectively as the N&Ns.
2. They never called me Aunt. They just call me by my first name.  But they refer to my siblings as aunt and uncle.
3. I still think of them as kids.
4. I became an aunt in 1980 when I was 25 years old. Kevin was born right after christmas.
5. Two of them joined the military and have gone off to war.
6. Six of them are parents and there are 11 of the next generation.  I refer to this generation as N&NG2.
7. I take them traveling with me. I took Kevin, John, Jimmy and Caitlin to Spain.  Teresa, Jill, Caitlin, Heather and Deirdre went to Italy with me. Quentin, Danny and Ryan joined me in Ireland. William and I traveled to Germany.  Jameson traveled with me on a cross country trip. Lauren and I took a cruise through the Caribbean. Clay travels the most with me.  We've been to Alaska, Arizona, the Dakotas, Georgia and Utah. Gus isn't as interested in traveling like the others but he did go to Georgia and Utah with me. We have a tentative river cruise down the Rhine River in the future.
8. I am leaving my money to them.  So I have told them not to resuscitate me if necessary.  I told them that I have enough $$$ to leave them a down payment on a house.  But if they resuscitate and let me linger, I will go through all of my money and I won't even have enough $$$ for a down payment on a car.  They have promised me that they will gladly impose a DNR order.
9. Heather is my god daughter. That means I made a commitment to foster her spiritual well being.  I don't know if I failed miserably or if I was successful. Today, neither of us are religious.
10. They are all good company.