the 'Laurel and Hardy' of ranch hands

A couple of mornings ago, both DH and Dsil (son in law) were out and the feeding of the horse was left for me and dd.  My fil took care of the cows.   The night before, dh showed us what to do.  IN the past, I simply had to walk across the pasture, and throw a flake into her pen.  BUT the fields were irrigated the day before, so the pasture is now a swamp.  It now requires driving the golf cart to the front gate, down the road a bit and going up the 2nd gate.  (fil gave us that golf cart a while back, and that thing has become a lifesaver).  Okay.  DD and I can do that.   Oooooo boy.

6:30, I get up a li'l late.  DD meets me in the kitchen and we decide to go feed the horse...while she is getting dressed I go to the garage to prep the bucket and get the golf cart.  Go to the garage door...and its locked.  FINE, just go get the key...minor irritation.   DD joins me and we are looking for the bucket.  where is it?  OH!  dh left it in the pen last night, and was supposed to go back and get it, guess he forgot, FINE, we find a shoe box to use.  Fill it up and get into the golf cart.  Tell dd she is driving...good thing, cuz dsil had parked his truck in the driveway behind it...okay...a few 'Austin Power's moves" and a lot of laughs and dd gets us going.

We get down to the front gate, and it's locked...'do you have the key?"  No key, so we back up to the house so I can grab the right key.

We finally get to the pen.  Now due to the flooding, cannot go around the corral but thru.  Now our horse is a bit of a snit...and she does not esp seem friendly to us girls.  (I call her the Diva)...so we are both not comfortable with her...but we give her a carrot and go in.  I head for the back fence, which I need to climb to get to the hay...and I hear dd quietly calling 'uh, mom'...the horse had zeroed in on the rest of the goodies in the box in dd's hand...I hollar, give her a carrot!  DD holds a carrot away from her, and then scoots to the bucket, where she dumps it into the feed bucket and skidaddles out of there.

The rest of this goes fairly smoothly, till we get in the house and I go to get into my room and Winston (the world's naughtiest cat) runs out and whoosh, there are dd's dogs.  Luckily she managed the dogs, while I chased Winston back into the room.  A few 'f-words' slipped during the process.

So, from now on, before I go out to feed the horse, I need 2 sets of keys.  Put Winston into the master bathroom so he cannot dart out...oh, and the original bucket left in the pen...in 4 pieces.

29 years!

Yesterday MJM and I celebrated 29 years of marriage, as MJM would say...209 looooooooong years.

This morning I was thinking, How DID WE make it to 29 years.  Those who know us, know that we got married, well, cuz we were pregnant...and had only known each other a few months when we did.  So, how did this work?

God - within a couple of years of our marriage, I experienced being 'born again'.  I had heard about God all my life, growing up next door to Southern Baptists who truly lived their faith, but never truly understood that it was about that personal relationship with Christ.   MJM's born again ah-hah moment came years later, but I've always said that it was Christ who built this family.    We were a couple of immature kids, who made what some would call a 'mistake', but God took that 'seed' and created a family.

Gossip - huh?  No, it was a deciding moment in my life that I would not gossip about my husband.  I used to be one of those clucking hen women who would sit around comparing and outdoing stories about whose husbands are the bigger a*hole.  When I made the decision to stop hanging out with these women, I may have lost a 'friendship" or 2...but it was a huge relief off my shoulders, like a freedom from a 'negativity' cloud.

D-word - MJM and I decided a long time ago, that the D-word (divorce) did not exist in our marriage.  Our feeling is that if we felt like that was an option, we would never truly try to work things out.

Never let the sun go down - When we had issues, we would stay up all night and into the wee morning hours to discuss it.  We truly believed the verse about "never let the sun go down on your anger, lest you give the devil a foothold'.   The couple of times we did go to bed angry and let it simmer was awful.  Things do not 'work out in the morning'...it just hangs over you...I attribute it to the 3 year period in which I was completely shut down to MJM.   (he says he had to buy me a Volkswagon New Beetle to bring me out of it) .  I say I finally had an ah-hah moment that that is what I did...Instead of working things out with him, I just thought, '3 more years, C graduates and I'm out of here" and went to bed with that thought.  Gave the ol' devil that foothold and lost 3 years.

Happiness comes from within - as long as we had the concept that MJM was supposed to MAKE me happy or that I was supposed to MAKE him happy, nobody was happy.   A few years ago, we came to the conclusion that that happiness comes from within ourselves...and that it is not the other person's job to MAKE the other happy.   I like how Pastor Dusty put it a li'l while ago, that "it is not his wife's job to make him happy, but to make him holy".   Maybe that is why God has a tendency to put us with our opposite, so we can complete each other and test each other.

Acceptance - another freeing moment was when I realized I couldn't change him...and I didn't really want to.  I'd say this was in the last 5 years or so... while still in San Jose, in the early years,  I had learned the concept of 'the holy gag'...instead of nagging and reacting to give it to God.  But within the past 5 years, I've also learned to see him as my bff.  Does he drive me crazy at times, sure!!  Do we fight about it?  sure!!   But I know deep down I can accept who he is.

So, is it perfect between us?  Heck no...is it worth it?   Heck yes!!

I am one lucky girl.

having trouble with my google acct.

It's funny, got a g-mail acct for a special blog with a couple of friends, and since then signing in has been difficult.

I don't really want to use the g-mail for everyday and kinda want to keep the old one.  aye yi yi

so I'm home today.  Hopefully, I can get my 'list' of things to do done and go INTO that scraproom!!

I've been buying like crazy, esp on Ebay, but, hmmmmm gotta use it.  I got 3 new slice cards...I still like my slice, though I gotta admit I don't fully trust it.   Also got a couple of new Cricut carts.  

Just getting ready for the Expo in a couple of weeks, right?

Dh has been under the weather...its been odd and we can't figure out what is going on.  It started with bloating, and lots of #2...then some vomiting...but it never seemed stomach flu like.   Then slight fever and lots of sweating it out.  Even yesterday, he felt better all day, but he soaked thru 3 sets of clothes.  (I'm washing clothes and sheets  as I type)...So, we have no idea what this is.  He is planning to see the dr. (hopefully this afternoon).

So, I've been sleeping in the guest room.   I'm okay with it, but I do love our temprapedic mattress in the master bedroom.  BUT the good thing, for me, is I can read!!  I get to stay up and read...without the grumbling from dh.  I finished "The Book Thief"..(one of the better books I've read in a long time,btw) and will start "The Blind Side" (a coworker loaned it to me).   So, that is the 'bright spot' in the sleeping arrangements.  Oh, and not listening to his snoring...though he'd say the same thing about me. ha!!


okay, hopefully, next time I'm able to log on, I'll have pics of projects!!