Transplanted City Girl

• Friday, June 9, 2006 - Alright! I'll update!

Hello to those of you whom I have been shamefully neglecting.  There ahs, of course, been a lot going on just recently, and I'll try to cover all of it. Our offer on the Oklahoma land was accepted, so we are now in the process of purchasing it!  Closing is scheduled for shortly after the baby is due.  I am so glad and thankful for this!  It looks like God will provide the money we need, in the time we need.  Of course, our grocery-store trips have been very sparse, and we haven't gone ANYWHERE except the grocery store, but I kind of enjoy it.  Our days have settled into the definite routine that the "obvious" seasons seem to bring.  Around spring and fall the days can be crazy and unpredictable, but through the winter and through the summer they always seem to settle into a pattern.  It's pretty much get up early, milk the goats while Chris feeds (unless he decides I look too tired, in which case I am forbidden to arise and he does all my chores), then I make him breakfast and talk to him until he has to leave.  Once he's gone to work then I feed the rabbits and straighten the house, run whatever laundry I have to do that day, and devote the rest of my hours to finding something slightly productive to do until around 4:00 when I run madly around trying to find all the work that I forgot to do.  Of course, if I am having a very bad day, I generally spend most of the day sleeping.  Sometimes I will ride to the library right when they open so that I can miss the heat of the day.  But then Chris gets home, and I am well-rested by that time and can make his dinner and attempt to spoil him rotten all evening.  Usually he's too hot and tired to eat when he gets home, so we go around Penrose and cut alfalfa out of the ditches for an hour or two, then come home and eat.  With the price of hay getting so bad, this free crop has proven quite useful, not to mention the fact that the goats just LOVE the fresh alfalfa. Today I made his birthday cake: tomorrow he'll be 20!  And tomorrow my dear brother is getting married.  How I wish I could be there!  But circumstances have prevented this, and so I wish him the first of many happy days and hereby request my entire family to send me LOTS of pictures.  I don't care if I get  double copies: just e-mail, snail mail, somehow-mail 'em out here!  Anyway, I got Chris the silicone bakeware he wanted, specifically for the traditional birthday cake, which is German Chocolate.  They work so wonderfully, the cakes always fall right out and look plum perfect!   And he finally gets a whole cake WITHOUT pecans in the icing.  I was so glad when I found out he doesn't like nuts in his German Chocolate cake, I always disliked them in the extreme. A rather funny story that I think most of you will enjoy: It has to do with our Alfalfa-Gathering expeditions.  Usually Chris cuts a bundle on his way to work, and then in the evenings we go in the opposite direction.  Well, I had noticed that the road leading to the Library had lots and lots of alfalfa on it, so we decided to make a special trip down there, as I needed to return some books.  Well, there was way more then we were counting on, and as we cut and bundled it all, we were both wondering how in the world we were going to get this stuff back home!  Not sure of exactly how many pounds there were, but Chris can still carry me at 140 lbs, and he could not lift all of that alfalfa at once.  So we had a LOT of it.  Well, we finally cut our way down to the corner, where someone had left some trash for the next day.  And inspiration struck!  There was a twisted and bent bed frame, with wheels on it!  Sitting on top was somthing that someone had probably called a boxspring.  It was more like a hollow thing with padded plywood for the top and sides and nothing in the bottom.  Simply perfect for hauling the hay in!  So yes, on a rather long and difficult trip back home, I followed my wonderful husband as he alternated between towing the hay-filled bed frame (we used baling twine for towing material) with his bike and trudging patiently along on foot.  And I have never felt prouder.  Yea, we got funny looks and he could have been embarrassed and ashamed or whatever.  There sure is a time I would have been simply mortified to be seen with a man who would do such a thing!  But the hay was there, the time was there, and it was practical if unusual.  In short, there was nothing but "being different" that made it in the least objectionable, and therefore there WAS no objection.  S owe rattled and banged our way home, and now have alfalfa spread on every available surface that the animals can not get to.   Wow, what a man. Yesterday evening was so wonderful.  During one of those weepy breakdowns that have absolutely no cause (unless you consider pregancy to be a cause), Chris simply took my hand and started walking me out towards the barnyard.  We sat up on the edge of the pond and watched the sunset together.  Chance (the horse) came and stood behind us, and in the wind and sunset and the way he snorted and pranced at everything, I was reminded all over again of why I love horses so much, and he walked back and forth for a little while, but always stopped to get his ears scratched.  And Chris muttered something about him being worse then a dog that wanted attention, but he scratched him some too.  Then a Blue Heron flew down to the pond, and we sat very still as he stalked the fish, and one of the cats tried to stalk him.  And the clouds were so lovely, and we sat there together and hardly talked, and didn't worry about anything, just thanked God that we had each other.  Sometimes during the day it's easy to feel lonely and forsaken, yet when I'm sitting with him, I tend to forget that other people even exist.   And Chris put it so perfectly when he said  "This is one of those evenings that we'll stil enjoy when we're 80 years old."  It was a very suitable evening for our 8-month annivarsary, which came exactly 4 days after the 1-year annivarsary of the day we saw each other in person for the first time. Well, i had best close now.  I should go ice Chris's cake.  I'm walking on air, and life just gets better and better.  In a way, I've gotten so used to being pregnant I can't imagine NOT being pregnant.  I think I'll miss it, I really enjoy it.  At least so far I have.  Ok, NOW I'll close.  Oh, one more thing.  To Mommy and Daddy: thank you so very much for letting me get married so much earlier then planned.  I love both of you and miss you terribly.  And to Jonathan, if you're half as happy as I am then you're doing good.

Post A Comment! :: Send to a Friend!