Labor Day Weekend

Chad wanted to get the Alabama game on pay-per-view so we lined everything up to have family and friends over on Saturday evening to watch the game. Before that could happen, we had to straighten up and Chad had to go get hay. We did not know until Friday night that we were going to be getting it from the hay field. So, he had his first experience with loading it from the field and he was ALONE. I would have never had him do that by himself under different circumstances but I had to go to the store to get our food for the evening. When I got home he was home with the hay and he said he would not be unloading it until family was there and could help. He said it was tough and that he continues to show how green we are to all of this....when he was loading it into the trailer he borrowed, Mr Fuqua told him that stacking pattern would never work...so he helped him reconfigure it and Chad resumed loading. One day we will have all of this down to a science! Family began arriving shortly and the house began to fill with the buzz of the girls running in and out to see Granny and Nanny and the men going out back to talk about the things men talk about outside! We had Nanny, Paw Paw, Granny, Pops, Ryan, Sandi, NeNe and Big Ron all gathered round the tv's eating burgers, dogs, dips and sweets to cheer Bama on to a victory over the wooly booly hairy Hawaiians. (Did you see those guys? They were scary?) The men got the hay unloaded and heard a few complaints about how itchy the hay was. Itchy hay in my shirts, shorts and even my unmentionables just seems normal these days to me. Although I can use every minute I have in the mornings to get me and the girls dressed.....I am truly cherishing the moments we have out there in the mornings feeding the horses and putting out hay. I can see the pictures in my mind throughout the day of Jessie in her PJ's or a Barbie gown and her tennis shoes, shoving hay into the wagon or her walking up to turn on the water. Then there's Shelby who inevitably comes out after us and runs off the back porch hollering "I wanna help"....and "I'll feed Blackie". I see her with her wavy hair falling into her face as she picks up the biggest handful of hay she can. She will walk a little handful of hay over to Blackie and puts it down next to him - talking to him in that cute little voice...say "Hey Baby - that's my boy". Jessie will go out and put some hay in the round pen for Sonny and open the round pen gate back up and then she sees to it that Sparkle and Goldie get their share of hay. The next sight I see is Jessie trying to interven between Sparkle and Goldie and it is always a sight as she stomps her foot and get so mad but she can't do anything about it. I laugh and think how things have changed from one year ago! Ok - so back to the game night....Jessie had a meltdown when Nanny and Paw Paw were leaving because she has really been missing them. She had decided she wanted to try Fall Ball with Emily but realizing that practice on Friday evenings would keep her from spending the night with Nanny made her fall apart. It was awful seeing her cry like that and be so torn. I know she misses them more than she can express and I can't seem to get that thru to anyone. On Sunday, we played hookie from church and went to the river for a boat ride and caught a few fish. We had a good time and stayed 'till dark. Then for Labor Day, we rode to Sipsey which is near Northport to watch a barrel race. It was a great time...got to see Cathy ride and it was action packed. I know Chad probably can't imagine why I would enjoy watching perfect strangers run a horse around three cans!