Cate

 I have a double-niece by the name of Cate (meaning she is the daughter of my brother and my wife's sister). Because Cate lives next-door to us, and is several years younger than both my youngest and her older siblings, and maybe a little because she is the youngest grandchild on the Jefferies side, we have a pretty close relationship with Cate.

The closeness of our relationship is almost entirely due to Jeanell. Cate loves her Aunt Nellie and will frequently come knock on our backdoor, just to see if Aunt Nellie is there. They've been watching Harry Potter movies together and once in a while Cate will even sleep over.

I'd say my role is more as just someone who Cate tolerates, but I like to tease her about how I'm her favorite uncle. She'll quickly tell me that in fact Uncle Scott (not my brother Scott, who is also Cate's uncle, but Jeanell's uncle Scott, who is technically Cate's great-uncle, but who is really keeping track? I am, that's for sure). Usually she'll let me know that I am somewhere around her 9th or 10th favorite uncle (she only has 11 uncles, 12 if you count Great-Uncle Scott, so I'm definitely toward the bottom). It's an ongoing joke between us.

A few birthdays ago, (Cate's) Grandpa Jefferies asked me to say the blessing on the food at a dinner we were having to celebrate Cate's birthday. I decided to take that opportunity to have a little fun with Cate. In the middle of my prayer, I said something like "and I'm thankful Heavenly Father, that I was able to say the blessing today for Cate's birthday, since I am her favorite uncle." What could Cate do or say, at least immediately? She couldn't interrupt the prayer. But as soon as the prayer was finished, she made sure to let me know that I was still not, in fact, her favorite uncle.

Last week, I attended my niece Hallie's missionary farewell. Jeanell was out of town for work and my kids are not really church-goers, so I was the lone representative from my family. When I went over to Hallie's parents' house after the meeting, Cate was there (that's the thing about double-nieces, they're at every family function, regardless of which side). Cate asked me if I would go out into the backyard with her (you'll notice she didn't ask Great-Uncle Scott, but I digress). I agreed and we went into the backyard where she started playing on the swing set.

I asked Cate about her friend Claire who lives next-door to Grandma and Grandpa Jefferies, but who is moving at some point. When Claire moves into her new home, Claire's grandparents are going to move into Claire's current home. So I was asking about that, whether Claire had moved yet, and if her grandparents had moved into the home next to Grandma and Grandpa Jefferies.

Cate told me that Claire hadn't moved yet, but would be in mid-February. She then told me that probably only Claire's grandma would be moving into the house because her grandpa was in the hospital and "his body was shutting down."

I don't know Claire's grandpa well, but I know who he is. A couple of his kids are around my age and they lived not too far from the house on Eastmoor where I grew up. I hadn't heard anything about this man being in the hospital and so I wanted to have this confirmed.

Later that day, I asked my mom if she had heard anything about that. She hadn't. We asked Uncle Scott if he had heard that. I asked Grandpa Jefferies (my father-in-law) if he had heard anything. He hadn't heard anything either. I asked my own brother Carl if he knew what Cate was talking about. Nope.

All week, the question was out there and hadn't been definitively resolved one way or the other.

Finally, Jeanell took matters into her own hands and texted Claire's cousin, Lauren, who is the same age as our twins and used to do Jeanell's eye-lashes. As luck would have it, Lauren was coming out to Grantsville to visit. The next day, she texted Jeanell back "I just saw my grandpa and he is good. He was working cattle all day yesterday so he probably has at least a few years left."

We were glad to hear that Claire's grandpa was well. I'm still wondering where Cate got her information or if she was just messing with me.

I'm grateful for Cate and the fun she adds to my life.