tamara b

Amen, Amen, Amen to a refreshing and quiet weekend. It wasn’t as crazy as usual but still slightly eventful:

Friday night I got home from work and Ryan met me in the yard. He never greets me outside so I thought it a bit weird. Well, he wasn’t greeting me, he’d been called back to work for an emergency on his weekend off. There was a cow, actually a heifer, in need of some help. It was just 5 minutes down the road from our house and OB calls usually only take 15-30 minutes – enough time to pull the calf out, clean up and get back in the truck. I decided to jump in the truck with Ryan. Got there and the heifer was in a chute (good sign) but psycho as all get out – they usually are their first time around. The heifer had a really small pelvic area and the calf wasn’t coming out and wouldn’t keep his feet out straight. Some time later, Ryan informed the guy that he would have to do a C-section. Yup, those are fun and take more than 15 minutes. By now there was an audience and no one really wanted to be there. The owners were supposed to be out for their anniversary and Ryan wasn’t supposed to be on call and poor me just wanted to run a “quick” call. Needless to say, it was total NE Iowa style to get the job done. If you can envision, this psycho heifer being tied up with a halter, let out of the chute and turned around to put her head in the headgate was quite the ordeal. It took two ropes and 3 people to get the dumb thing where they wanted her. Then, they swung around a gate and tied it to the chute with Ryan’s log chain to keep it as a steady side panel. Then, they tied the heifer around her body, just before her hind hips, to the gate to keep her from moving all over and kicking the snot out of Ryan. Then Ryan got to start the procedure. Its an amazing thing to watch the incision of the skin and then the uterus. And then to pull the calf out from the side. All I could think was that I might be in a similar predicament in a few months – first time mom, stubborn baby that won’t come out, psycho mom and a doctor that has to do a C-section. Hmm… I’m not so sure I like that idea. But I did tell Ryan to remember this heifer when he thinks I’m whining a lot or have a bad attitude about the situation. Needless to say it was 2 hours later when we left the farm. The sun had gone down and I was freezing. Yeah, I had on scrub pants and a sweater, topped by Ryan’s coat but it was 40 degrees and I was just standing there. Burr, it was chilly after a beautiful afternoon.

Saturday, not so eventful which was good. We piddled around the house in the morning. That means that I was cleaning and Ryan was hiding out. I worked in the kitchen while Ryan worked outside. He’s good about helping me clean but also good about staying out of the way. The roofing guy family came to fix the leak from last year. You know you live in a small town when the roofing guy calls and tells you that he’ll pick up the supplies at the lumber yard and charge it to our account so that he doesn’t have to figure that into his bill later. We’ll see how well that works when we get the next rain. That afternoon we ran to Prairie Du Chien for a quick trip to Cabelas and Walmart. Of course, we planned our trip around lunch so that we could stop for Chinese. I was so impressed with lunch. The place changed hands and had some good food for less money. It was awesome. I usually don’t care to pay so much money for the buffet and then not eat it. But this had some more variety with a better presentation as well as a fruit and dessert bar. Nice stuff. We left there and spent too much money as usual but we needed a few larger items and both had birthday money to spend. That night we had the Ellis family (minus Sona who was at Women’s retreat) over for supper and a movie. Ryan had just purchased the Incredibles and everyone wanted to see that. I, of course, slept through it.

Sunday was such a beautiful day. It was potluck Sunday at church. Since we’re heathens and don’t attend Sunday school, we have to do something in that time before potluck. I wanted to go for a walk but Ryan wanted to grab a drink and sit in the park. I didn’t put up a fight (this time) and we ended up at the park with Tom and Alan (2 other slackers who don’t go to SS). For a mid-morning snack, I had a Milky Way ice-cream, twinkies and half a diet 7-up (yup, I'm prego). Good and healthy for the baby I’m sure. After potluck, Gayle came over. We took William (my goat) out for a walk. It was perfect weather and the first time I wore shorts without freezing. Then Gayle and I laid in the hammock and chatted for a while. The whole day was so kick back and wonderful. Mom came over and got some old wood that was taken out of the house when it was remodeled. I watered plants, laid on the couch for a short bit and cleaned up the kitchen again. I wasn’t hungry for supper really and wanted some popcorn but after my earlier eating habits, I thought it’d be good to have a decent meal. So, I made Ryan and me a light supper of Orange roughy and steamed vegetables. He was impressed. I don’t do much of the cooking and I definitely have a hard time choosing what to fix and how to get it accomplished but I was a pro in the kitchen this time. After supper I cleaned up the dishes one last time and then the folks came over for cards. We ended up playing Mexican train and us ladies beat the boys once again! Woo hoo for us!!!

Now, its Monday and I’ve felt good for 2 days now. Kinda rare for me. I did have the regular belly ache this morning but otherwise its not been bad. I’m excited to get home today and piddle around outside in the warm weather again. I love that my crocuses have flowers on them and that my tulips (I added 150 more last year) are coming up wonderfully. Spring is here, the grass is greener every day and I love this weather. I think I feel better just because I can go outside. Yay!