tamara b

It was the 14^th of December when I shared with everyone that I went deer hunting. Man, those things are thick out here. So, we dealt with what little damage it caused by turning it in to insurance and getting a bid to get the dumb door fixed. That was the start of a real whirlwind few weeks.

Monday, December 20th

Mom and Ralph agreed to take my car to get an estimate on the damage. When I talked to the guy at the body shop, he insisted (not in a bad way) that I bring it right then. Small town business ya know – he’ll take the time right then and there to deal with it. Kinda nice usually but I had a laundry list of things to do before leaving for Arizona. That was the beginning of my crazy day. I was trying to get things packed for our trip, clean the house and do all the last minute odds and ends like watering plants and taking our sweet William to be “goat”sat. Of course when I was on my way home from the body shop, I realized that I had agreed to stop by the health clinic first thing in the morning for blood work. It was almost noon. So, I went home and ate (again), then showered and got ready to head to town. I also had a 5pm Christmas party with the ladies at work and needed to spend about 2 hours in the office tying up loose ends before leaving.

So, I head out of the house on time, all dressed up in khakis and sweater with eyeliner and mascara on (not an everyday occurance in my line of work). But before stepping outside I put on my coveralls knowing that my sweet little goat isn’t so little and would be difficult to get into the large kennel for the truck ride to Elkader. After about 20 minutes of fighting him in the windy and freezing temperatures, I gave up and tied him to either side in the bed of the truck (like you would a dog) and told him to freeze. I could care less at that point, I was cold and my hair was messed up and … (on and on).

I hop in Ryan’s lovely 85 Ford truck to head down the road. But let me preface this truck a little. First of all, its wonderful because it was free from Ryan’s folks. But, we don’t drive it much and have had several less than convenient experiences in the last year. Needless to say, the last time it was brought back from a friend who borrowed it, the brake light now stays on and the driver door doesn’t hang on the hinge right. That means that I have to roll down the window (remember its freezing outside), grab the outside handle and lift up on the door as I pull it closed from the outside. Did I mention that the smell of diesel exhaust has always made me sick but especially so now that I’m pregnant.

Okay, so on the road, finally. But, wait I have to make a quick stop to drop off some stuff at mom’s and can’t forget the blood tests at the health clinic. I get to the clinic, totally in high-class-white-trash mode and go inside to have them suck my blood. Everything goes peachy, my OB nurse is wonderful. I go back out to the truck to head to Elkader (now just a few minutes behind) and the truck won’t start. So, here I am, totally white trash, in this old beat up truck with construction supplies scattered in the bed and my goat tied in there and the hood up in the parking lot on the main road in Elgin. Plus, now its snowing pretty good and I’m ticked because I’m cold and feeling stupid and helpless. I try to call Ryan for help but he doesn’t answer his cell phone so I walk to the vet clinic (its actually next door by way of a grass lot). There I begin calling for help. Some short time later (felt like forever), my parents got back to town from Elkader to help me. So now, there’s 3 of us in front of the health clinic working on the Ford with the goat in the back. Thank goodness I live in rural Iowa where this isn’t all that big of an attraction to those driving by. Ralph tried to “jump” the truck but that wouldn’t work. So, then he went home, got some tools, cleaned the battery posts and banged on the alternator and it finally started working. Problem solved: the alternator wasn’t charging the battery and Ralph said the bristles inside might not have been connecting right until he banged on it. Ah, I remember this happening once before when DJ was out visiting. Silly me, it was the same thing and it results from us not driving the Ford often enough. So, here I am in Elgin, way late to work and still needing to drop off my tethered friend. Problem is that I need to take the truck to drop him off but I also have to stay in town and am afraid of this same problem occurring as I get down the road and shut off the truck. So, wonderful parents that I have, mom and Ralph take the Ford to Elkader and let me take the Tahoe. Nice exchange for me but poor Ralph had to sit with all kinds of crap piled in the floorboard where his feet should go. So, I meet them at the Marmann’s to take care of the goat so they don’t have to worry about it (all the while they could’ve driven their own vehicle and then only experienced the truck on the way back home). I got to work at 445pm, mind you I had 2 hours of work to do and 15 minutes to get it done. So, I pulled off my coveralls again (I had put them back on when I was standing outside in the snowy weather) and hurried into the office. Had just enough time to rush through my timesheet and leave a few notes before heading to the party.

By now, I’m exhausted and ready to go to bed! But, I went to the party, had a fun time, ate some good food and shared with the ladies that I was pregnant. Prior to that, only my boss knew that I was pregnant. So that was fun. While I was inside enjoying some food and fun, it was snowing pretty good outside. I go to leave and see the snowfall and become a bit nervous that I’m driving someone elses new Tahoe in not so nice of weather conditions. Got to mom’s safely, traded vehicles (they turned the truck off at my house, left it there and took my car to their place for me) and went home. Got to bed about 11pm, which is several hours passed my bedtime and went to sleep.

Tuesday, December 21^st

Flying always makes me nervous even though I love flying. I think it’s the fear of traveling and missing flights, forgetting identification or something random like that. Mom and Ralph offered to take us to the airport so we wouldn’t have to leave our car there. While waiting for them to come, I had the nervous-upset-stomach feeling. But, it was early and I hadn’t had my first thing in the morning meal yet. We head down the road (remember we had our first good snow the night before). Not quite 45 minutes down the road, and after a lot of questions about feeling okay, we made a quick stop along side the road for me to puke into the wind. Yup, first time I puked since I’ve been pregnant. I think it was nerves more than my all day morning sickness though. The rest of the day went fine with flights and all that stuff. I didn’t each much though so by time we got to Prescott 14 hours later, I was beyond hungry and not feeling well. Instead of taking us to dinner as planned, Ryan’s parents took us home and I ate some crackers and buttered spaghetti noodles.

Okay, that’s all I can update today. Expect more from me early next week. I’ve got lots more excitement to share. I think it gets more exciting as the days pass!