I offered my services to help out. Dad asked me to be in charge of booking a bouncy castle for the kids. I have found one for pretty cheap, and will deliver to Nanton. WOOT.
Dad looks around the property and notices that he needs some serious help cleaning up, and doing yardwork. Since most of dad's kids are grown up and busy doing their own lives, I volunteered to help. So I packed up the kids for an overnight stay to help. We started our drive to Nanton, and spent the night. In the morning dad quickly got me and Lance busy doing hard labor. I had the assignment of weeding the whole yard. I said sure. But I had no idea what I was getting myself into. His property around the house is like 3 acres!
Lliam was left in the house with Anthony. Anthony is pretty good at telling me when the baby is crying. So off I go to weed the gardens. About 1/2hr into it, Anthony yells out to me "Mom! The baby is crying!" I started walking back to the house, and I walked in the house, and noticed the baby SCREAMING hysterically! I couldn't see him on the couch in his car seat I stuck him in, it was tipped over. Lliam had wiggled out (bad mom award for not strapping him in) and fell from the couch to the floor! He was face down on the carpet and sporting a nice bump on his head! After a little panick grab and soothe, and a little yelling at Anthony (did I say I was panicked?) for not telling me the baby was hurt. I feel awful about yelling at Anthony about it, he DID come and tell me the baby was crying. I guess I thought he would have said something like "Mom! The baby fell, and is crying, come quick!" But I still have to remind myself that he is only 4 years old.
So after that fire was put out, and put Lliam on the floor this time, I went back to work. Thinking that I'd ACTUALLY get this weeding done in a day (since that's all I packed for and expected to be going home that night) I was so wrong! SOOO wrong! Taking care of 2 kids, nursing every 2 hours, naps, lunch and snack time, I was able to get about 1/3 of it done that day. Well, I guess I could stay just ONE more night. I don't want to leave a job unfinished. So we stay another night. This time, I have help. Step sister is home from school and was able to take care of the kids when I was outside, and when I was inside nursing, she was outside weeding too. So it worked out well for us. Later on that afternoon, we were able to take a break and go horseback riding. I haven't gone out on a horse since I passed out on a horse last. (July 30th, 2007). Things sorta feel different after you have a baby, so riding wasn't the most comfortable things I've done lately. LOL Dad has been trying to get step sister to barrel race. That has always been one of my dreams in life. To barrel race! I just watched her do the course and I knew that it was something that I wanted to try. But I'd have to get my confidence back on a horse again.
It was a long day, and lots of stuff got done! But still, we didn't have it finished. So I stayed ANOTHER night. Thank goodness I brought enough diapers. So now we are into staying on until Saturday. We finished the weeding, and then decided to help out with the pruning of the trees with the men.
We were busy climbing trees, cutting down dead branches, and slicing those branches into smaller pieces for the firepit. THAT was hard work too! I don't think I've had such a great workout! Here's hoping that I've lost weight. The girls job was to collect all the branches that have fallen, and put them in a pile.
Dad loves to reward hard work with fun time. So he got me and step sister to go out and catch the horses, who were right by the barn. As soon as we got near them they high-tailed it out passed our lake in the back 40! That is about a kilometer walk just to get back there. Well, since we were prepared to catch the horses, we thought we'd just trot on after them. BOY, in the hot sun, and in cowboy boots it seemed that it was a harder feat than I figured. In the absolute furthest part of the property, we finally caught the lead mare, Shawkay. Once we caught her, then all the other horses will follow. Step sister was getting a little tired from the walk, so I asked if she wanted to hop up on Shawkay and ride her while I lead her back into the barn. Of course, who wouldn't pass up a free ride back to the barn? To get her up on the horse, she stepped on my kneeling thigh to hoist herself up. That was a bad mistake on my part. She dug her heel of her boots right into my thigh...good thing she's onlyh 90 lbs! But seriously, I'm sporting a boot sized bruise on my thigh because of it! We started our trek back to the barn. I jogged for a little bit, and as I was jogging, I lost myself in a hole! Yep, a huge bader hole. My whole leg went straight down the hole. I wasn't hurt, I just disappeared into the prairie for a second. Step sister couldn't see me through the brush. I just had to laugh! Of course falling into a hole was something only I could pull off! I brushed myself off and started back on course back to the barn.
We got the horses saddle and we were ready for one more ride. We just took them for a lap around the front section. I was gaining my confidence back in the saddle. When we were done our ride, we decided to take the horses around the barrels. I had never tried it before, and it looked like fun. So off I go!
It was so much fun! I didn't go very fast or anything, and the horse didn't really know what the big deal was to run around 3 barrels. I think that I'm definately going to do it again next time I'm at dads.
After dinner and a nice jacuzzi soak, I was finally ready to head home. Jos was very happy to see us home.
Its nice to have a great family to serve, have fun with and count on.
1 comment:
A salute from Rome. Ciao
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