Jess and Mom's Totally Excellent Adventure!!!!

Yesterday I got up when the roosters crowed to drive my mom to the farm, to see her mom on Mother's Day.

This is my cousin Steven. Steven is in grade 10, about twice my height and about three times as skinny. Steven likes to do what all good farm boys like to do: play hockey, eat everything in sight and frequent cattle auctions.

But we're not here to talk Steven. We're here to talk about Steven's belt buckle.

"What does that say?" I asked him in the kitchen after we'd finished lunch.

"Bodacious."

"Oh, really?" I teased, "So what are you trying to say about yourself? What does Bodacious even mean?"

Steven and my uncles stared at me like I'd been living under a rock all this time. Or, more accurately, they stared at me like I'd been living in a city all this time.

"Bodacious was a world famous rodeo bull," my uncles told me. One of my aunties chimed in, "Nobody was ever able to ride him. He gave several riders life-threatening injuries." Oh. Obviously. Why didn't I know that?

Despite my shameful lack of rodeo related knowledge, I didn't miss a beat. "So nobody was able to ride him, huh? So what are you trying to say about yourself again, Steven?"

On the drive home from Camrose, my mom broke the silent lull as we crossed the province for the second time that day.

"That's funny, you know, because I've heard your Dad use the word bodacious before," she said. "And I can assure you--he wasn't referring to a rodeo bull!"