Monday, July 14, 2008

Exhausted...

Pat Goggins wants me to consider going back to work for him since both of his editors have given him their notice. I’ve been really ambivalent about doing that because I like punching no one else’s time clock…

But it is beginning to look a bit more appealing…

Dick’s niece Christy showed up on 7/3 with her 2 daughters -- Brandy (about 14) and Ashley (about 12) -- and their two horses… So immediately Vashti and Blake showed up and there was a big flurry of commotion and pretty soon two “pop-up” tents were uncovered in our storage granary and erected – one for the two big girls and one for the two little girls. However, the tents were too close together and according to the little girls, the big girls played tricks on them all the first night which prevented them from sleeping and therefore getting out of bed. So I made the big girls move their tents (and 40 tons of silly teenage clothing) to the other end of the old shelter belt, which probably didn't solve anything but it did keep them busy for a bit.

Then on the evening of the 4th dick’s daughter Shawn, her WONDERFUL boyfriend Mike, and her two boys Zane (who turns 12 shortly) and Zach (10) arrived from PA. Dick had aired up three nice air mattresses with the thought of installing the boys in the playhouse, which I had carefully cleaned for that express purpose. Sterling stayed overnight the first night, and all 3 boys retired to the playhouse with dire warnings from Gramma NOT to bother the girls (who, us?) and to GO TO SLEEP becuz we were getting up early the next morning to ride… I woke them up at 5 the next morning, but I did have a BIT of sympathy for them becuz during the night all the air had evaporated from the air mattresses and they hadn’t started out with enough blankets becuz it was hot when they went to sleep, so they looked like 3 little fetuses all curled up basically on the hard cement floor of the playhouse! Sigh. Gramps aired the mattresses up several more times to no avail – so boys have been crammed in here and there in the house instead -- have to do something different next year.

We all went riding – both the 5th & 6th. And that was a feat in itself – getting a horse for everyone. The 5th went better than the 6th however as big gentle Cow Gent sized up Zach as DUDE DUDE DUDE and furthermore EASILY BUFFALOED DUDE and first took him through a chokecherry bush and knocked off his hat and then took him through a low pine bough and knocked him flat off! By then we were many miles from home, and amazingly enough Zach was NOT having fun even though everyone (there were 16 of us horseback that morning) was yelling at him to do this, do that, don’t do that, etc. He finally just totally melted down, which was going to spoil everyone’s ride so ol’ granny stepped up and we (me n Zach) walked MILES leading our horses back to the horse trailer – thank the very good Lord it was all down hill but the Lord would have been thanked more if there hadn’t been miles of chest-high practically impenetrable yellow clover to wade through. We did have fun, though. Pretended we were pioneers and our damn mules had died and we had to leave the wagons and we were watching for the Indians and when we found ‘em we were going to trade HEAP SHIT HORSE for fat puppy. Etc. I still have blisters from walking MILES in my high-heeled smooth soled handmade $600 cowboy boots…

The next day we all went boating on Yellowtail Dam – with Aaron’s speed boat and tube and we rented a big pontoon. Fun fun fun but also work work work as food had to be bought, packed, unpacked, etc.

Christy, dick’s niece, went home about the 9th or 10th, I think and left the girls and horses – I was too tired to protest, although Shawn tried to, but Christy said adamantly, “If the girls were only going to stay for a couple of days, I sure wouldn’t have drug those horses down here.”

Shawn & her men went home the 12th, so it’s a quite a bit quieter.

Yesterday Grampa and I took 7 children riding yesterday – Vash, Blake, Sterling, & Chance plus Brandy & Ashley & a CUTE 15-year-old boy named Cash who Vashti is head over heels about. We had two major adventures when Brandy got herself bucked off her mare and Ashley got herself VERY wet when her big old gelding laid down and wallered around in a shallow dam – much to the children’s hilarity! And dick and I laughed heartily as well.

Yesterday was the “premiere” of the cowboy movie we “starred” in last year – the premiere was held at the Elks. 90 minutes on a BIG screen! The kids found all of it boring except their starring roles of course.

Now I’ve got sterling and Ashley, am going to pick up Blake & Carter, and go to my mother’s. she is watching Cade (Mike’s oldest grandson, almost 2) and entertaining a second cousin from Florida.

1 comment:

Jami said...

We love you Gramma Aunty, and I can't tell you how much I've appreciated you watching Carter this summer. She loves being over there which is saying a lot from my little girl!