May 12, 2008

• Peaceful Holiday and We’re Still Celebrating

  We took a long drive to Jesse’s brother’s house.  He and Sharon had invited us down for Mother’s Day.  If we hadn’t gone, they would have spent the day alone and Sharon IS a mother, besides being a super, sweet lady.  The drive was about 2 1/2 hours and Jesse was stopped by the Highway Patrol when we were a little bit past the halfway there mark.  I glanced at the speedometer and saw it halfway between 80 & 90.  The speed limit is 70 (gulp!).

  The office said he clocked him driving 88mph and asked Jesse if it was a brand new truck (it’s obviously is) and asked him what he had be driving previously before the new truck purchase.  Jesse told him a 6 cylinder Nissan truck.  Together they walked up to MY window to get Jesse’s license etc. and I truly believe taking a look at me in my modest dress, with full black apron and white headcovering and his seeing 3 little girls in the back (all wearing seat belts with HUGE scared eyes) MIGHT have swayed his mind from thinking we were normal week-end speed demons!  He gave Jesse a warning (only) and told him to be careful because, “these bigger engine trucks can get away from you before you realize how fast you’re going!”  Whew!  Thank you Lord!  He drove the rest of the way using the cruise control!

  Frank’s & Sharon’s place is tucked in a wooded area around Lake Eufala.  Very pretty & peaceful
  
  Uncle Frank has the neatest grill.  The side he was using was gas (propane) and the closed half was for using charcoal.  It even had a side (on the left) warmer plate. 

  
  My girls have all been  trained to help in the kitchen and I really think poor Aunt Sharon might have had more help than was necessary, or at least *wanted*!!!!

  
  While my girls did slave labor inside (!!!) I went to the backyard to try to capture a female cardinal with my camera.  She wasn’t interested in coming back to the feeder after she saw me, but Jesse was able to capture her with our limited zoom lens at the top of a tree.  Because of the distance, she could have just as easily been a martin or dark chicken!  The bird picture leaves a lot to the imagination, doesn’t it?

  I did get pretty photos of the miniature flowers that laced their grass everywhere (me being gardener-challenged, these were probably just weeds!).  These were the size of a dime and had a bit of lavender color to  quite a few of the petals, but my camera refused to capture the lavender

  Luci was a bit intimidated, but Annamarie and Rissy adored the dog, Apollo and I think adoration was returned!
  

  He’s a great guard dog and has a sweet disposition.  He’s a Rottweiler (sp?)  & Labrador mix. Isn’t he pretty?
  

  After we ate hotdogs, hamburgers, smoked chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese, and tossed salad, we were ready for more of the outdoors.  Frank called his neighbor (the one we gave our horse, Mr. Bobo, too) to tell him we wanted to come on his land and see the horse.  His daughter met us in the pasture closest to the road.  She’s a darling 14yo girl named Angel and I thanked her for taking such good care of him and allowing us to visit.

  Mr. Bobo saw me and immediately tried to get through the rungs in the gate to nuzzle my face.  He buried his face near my cheek and the hair above my ear and just sniffed and sniffed.  Not an attractive picture, but his urgency to get to me broke my heart!  Then he saw Jesse and the girls and he began to throw his head around and prance with his feet.  He was so excited to see us.
  

  Here is Angel, his new owner, who renamed him Buddy.  She’s a sweet girl and had lots of question to ask me about leading him, brushing him, saddle vs. bareback, etc.  He has a few horsey idiosyncrasies to put it mildly!  (That’s Jesse in the background on his cell phone – which is forever stuck to his ear, these days!)

  

  We visited quite a while and my three girls fed him carrot sticks and he was in horsey heaven!  It was VERY hard not to load him up and take him back with us.  But  I knew Angel loved him and was working with him daily and he was getting excellent care from her.  He has a huge pasture, in which to run, lots of grass to eat and they are talking about getting some cows.  He has been around cows before and would probably love the animal company! 

  
  The look in
  his eyes as Jesse began to load the girls into the truck and when I hugged him
  good bye and began to walk away, again, tugged at my heart.  He’s such
  a pretty horse.  As we drove back to Franks, he galloped along side the
  fence following the road our truck was on for as long as he could (tearing up, here) and nickered loudly when we were past the point of his pasture.

  We drove left shortly after 4pm and the ride home seemed to take double the time. I almost fell asleep!  When we got home I just felt exhausted.  Jesse said he’d go get tacos or fried chicken (I wasn’t really hungry but knew the girls would be) and so he ended up with a bucket of KFC and a free chocolate cake since they only had one chicken leg and had to give us the rest in the form of thighs.  We don’t care, but I guess they felt the need to comp us a free cake.  And, since it was chocolate, I didn’t protest.

  Suddenly I felt drained and sat in the dark on the sofa while the girls threw away the paper plates, etc. from dinner.  The next thing I knew Jesse was waking me up.  I was so deeply asleep, I must have jumped a mile from the sofa cushion and think I might have screamed.  I barely made it to bed and was immediately back to sleep.

  So, this morning, guess what is awaiting me????????
  
  The Mother’s Day gifts I was too tired to open when we got home.  Luci’s is in a Wal-Mart sack because she had another fit the day before and tore her gift to me up into a thousand pieces.  She wanted another gift sack but I explained part of the consequences of throwing a fit would be the fact she’d have to “wrap” my gift in a Wal-Mart sack.  She whispered to each sister and Jesse asking them to please go to the garage and get another sack, and they all told her “No, you shouldn’t have ripped the nice one you had.”

  Ahhhh!   Being a mother!

  P.S.  I just reread this and saw all of my typos, which I’ll leave alone.  I was typing and trying to help Rissy make her first recipe (Mystery Muffins) all by herself, but I was interrupted with 92 million questions, anyway!

  I forgot to include a picture of Frank & Sharon that I took as we were leaving their house.  These were the gracious host & hostess who invited our LARGE family to their quiet home!!!!!
  

  • 11:34 am
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